  $Id: INSTALL.txt,v 1.5 2002/05/08 23:12:03 mdruilhe Exp $
 
  ======================================================================
                      
	Installation instructions for w-agora 4.1

  ======================================================================


                             PRE-INSTALLATION
                             ================


You should verify the above pre-requisites in order to install w-agora :

I. PHP properly configured
--------------------------

  1. Make sure you have PHP installed and properly running at your site.
     In order to verify that PHP is properly running, you can just copy & paste 
     the following lines into a file named "info.php" or "info.php3" :

<html>
<?echo "It works !!<br>"; phpinfo(); exit ?>
<STRONG>PHP is not running or is not configured for this extension </STRONG>
</html>

     Then load this page into your browser. If everything is OK, it should display a
     page with all the PHP configuration, and you should not see the message : 
     "PHP is not running or is not configured for this extension"

  2. If you are running PHP in SAFE MODE then read the SAFE MODE section at the end 
     of this file.


II. A database access
---------------------

  1. Make sure you have one of the supported database engines installed :
     - mysql
     - postgres (6 and 7)
     - Oracle 8
     - Microsoft SQL server 7

  2. If you do not have a database already, create a database. 
     Eg: with MySQL you can use a command like this:

    mysqladmin -uuser -ppaswword create agora
    (you can use the database you want, 'agora' is just an example)
  
  3. Be sure that you have a user for that database which has the rights to
    select, insert, update, delete, create, alter and drop.  A grant
    statement for this user would look like this:

    GRANT
      select, insert, update, create, alter, delete, drop
    ON
      database.*
    TO
      user@localhost
    IDENTIFIED BY
      'password';


                             INSTALLATION
                             ============


I. EXTRACT
----------
  untar the package in some useful place such as your document_root 
  directory, e.g. :

          cd /home/user/html
	  mkdir w-agora
	  cd w-agora
          gunzip -c ../w-agora-xxx.tar.gz|tar xvf -

  This will install the package under the directory "w-agora"

  On windows, simply extract the package using winzip or such.


II. CHECK FILES PERMISSIONS
--------------------------
   
  Ensure that the following directories are writeable by the user-id 
  that the WEB server runs as :
	      w-agora/conf/
	      w-agora/forums/
	      w-agora/forums/agora

  To do this :
  o  on a linux/unix system) issue a command like :
     (assuming nobody is the user that the WEB server runs as)
             "chown -R nobody ./w-agora"
              or 
             "chgrp -R nobody w-agora; chmod -R g+w w-agora"
     
     or (if you don't have root access)
              chmod -R a+w conf forums forums/agora
   
  o If you don't have a telnet access to your server, you can use a FTP client :

     $ ftp your.ftp.site.name
     ftp> cd w-agora
     ftp> mkdir conf
     ftp> quote site chmod 707 conf
     ftp> mkdir forums
     ftp> quote site chmod 707 forums
     ftp> cd forums
     ftp> mkdir agora
     ftp> quote site chmod 707 agora

  o On a Windows/IIS platform, set the READ/write permissions

  o !!! If you are running PHP in SAFE MODE then read the SAFE MODE section at the end 
    of this file !!!


III. SETUP
----------

  From your browser run setup.php3 to install and configure the program
  for example:
      http://localhost/w-agora/setup.php3

  Configure the following parameters in the Installation form :

  1. The database informations (backend, username, password, hostname and port).
     currently mySQL, Oracle8, PosgreSQL and MSSQL are supported 
     This database must first be created, you can give whatever name you want
     Ask your ISP if you don't know how to access your database

  2. optionally, you can specify some database access parameters :
        username
        password
        hostname and port

  3. The directory where w-agora will create all the forums. w-agora will 
     then create a directory for each forum you'll later create: 
        o If the directory doesn't exist, w-agora will try to create it
        o If the directory already exists, you must give it write access to the
          user-id that the WEB server runs as.
        o NB: You CAN put this directory outside the web tree (document_root)
          so that users cannot access these files outside the w-agora scripts.

  4. The default search engine used by w-agora to search in the notes.
     If you set it to NONE, then the search will be done into the database.

  5. The name and email of the main (system) administrator: His user-id is 'admin'

  6. The password of the main administrator.

     Once the setup is done, w-agora lets you create your first site


IV. CREATE SITE :
-----------------

  A site is a set of forums that can be accessed by a set of users.
  Each set of forum has his own database access (currently mysql) and his own set of users

  The creation is done by the script : http://localhost/w-agora/create_site.php3

  Configure the following parameters  :

  1. The name, title and description that you want to give to this site.

  2. The database informations (username, password, hostname and port).
     This database must first be created.

  3. The directory where w-agora will create all the forums. w-agora will 
     then create a directory for each forum you'll later create: 
        o If the directory doesn't exist, w-agora will try to create it
        o If the directory already exists, you must give it write access to the
          user-id that the WEB server runs as.
        o NB: You CAN put this directory outside the web tree (document_root)
          so that users cannot access these files outside the w-agora scripts.

  4. The default search engine used by w-agora to search in the notes.
     If you set it to NONE, then the search will be done into the database.
 
  5. The default template that will be used for the forums that you'll later create

     
  Once the site is created, w-agora brings you to the site administration area

  login in as 'admin', the password is the one you give for the administrator in the
  setup process.

  You can then :
      create/edit forums
      create/edit moderators and users.


V. CREATE FORUM :
-----------------

  The creation of a forum is done by the script : 
     http://localhost/w-agora/create_forum.php3?site=sitename

  Follows the instructions in the page.

  You will have to choose :

     1. The name, title and description of your forum.
     2. The template/theme : You can choose the default theme that you choosen at the site
     creation (step IV) or a new specific theme.



                           !!! SAFE MODE INSTALLATION !!!
                           ==============================

    If your WEB server is running PHP in SAFE MODE, then you will have to create manually the 
    directories and give write permissions to WEB server prior to running steps III to V :

    The directories needed are :
    
    - forums/agora
    
    for each site '<sitename>' :
    - forums/<sitename>
    - forums/<sitename>/default

    for each forum '<forumname>' in '<sitename>'
    - forums/<sitename>/<forumname>
    - forums/<sitename>/<forumname>/notes
