Installation Procedure

Installing zoglair is not any different than installing most web applications. If you have done it before, the following procedure will be familiar to you:

  1. Unpack archive to your document root
  2. Make var/domain folder writable
  3. Edit core/zoglair.cfg.php
  4. Create a database
  5. Run the setup script

Please notice that if you are installing on a local Windows PC, you might be able to jump from 1 to 5, depending on your configuration. Details will be given in the following sections.

Unpack archive to your document root

zoglair's file tree It is recommended that you first try out and evaluate zoglair at the comfort of your local computer. As soon as you are happy with it, you can either upload your working directory to your public server or upload the compressed archive and unpack it via a telnet session.

Zoglair can be unpacked to either your document root or any directory underneath. When you open the archive you will find three files in its root (.htaccess, index.php and license.txt) and a folder (zoglair) containing the rest of its code base.

If you are installing on your local PC and especially if you are a web developer, then it is more than likely that you have other applications installed too, each one on its own directory. It makes sense to do the same with zoglair and access it via a URL like the following:

http://localhost/zoglair/
(assuming that you have install it under zoglair - you may use another name if you prefer)

If, however, your are installing on your live server and zoglair is your only or main CMS, then you should unpack it directly under your document root.

It is worth mentioning that zoglair generates and stores relative URLs, stripping it's installation directory (no matter how deep) whenever applicable. This makes it location agnostic, which means that you can relocate it or move it between servers, and all links will still be valid.

Make var/domain folder writable

Making domain folder writable If you are installing on a local Windows PC, you may skip this step as everything is writable by default.
As the program uses the file-system for uploaded content, caching and scratch-padding, it makes sense that it has to be given write privileges. This is a very common requirement in the CMS world. Depending on your server's configuration (and your hosting plan, in particular), zoglair may or may not be able to write, when it needs to, unless you allow it. We can't really say much about this topic except that you can try skipping this step and see if setup fails.

Generally, you should use the chmod command to change permissions of the var/domain folder to either 755 or 777, depending on how PHP is configured to run on your server. If it runs under your account (the same one you are using for FTP or shell access), then 755 is just fine. If it runs under another, non-privileged account (such as nobody, apache, web, www), then 777 is needed.

Edit core/zoglair.cfg.php

zoglair.cfg.php If you are installing on a local Windows PC, you might not need to change anything.
This configuration file contains the program's startup settings, divided in two arrays:

  1. $Z_INI
    Global settings, affecting zoglair operation in its whole. These are loaded before any domain specific processing occurs.
  2. $Z_DOM
    Domain specific settings (one array per domain).

You may refer to zoglair.cfg.php for a full explanation of the available options but for now all that is needed is to make sure that the database, username and password values are the correct ones.

Create a database

Creating a database in phpMyAdmin If you are installing on a local Windows PC, you may let zoglair create it for you.
If the database you have specified in the previous step does not exist, now it's the time to create it. It must use the utf8_general_ci character set and collation! This is the collation that the program has been developed on, tested and supported out of the box.

You may either use an existing database, shared with other applications, or create a new one. If the database is shared, zoglair will be able to identify its own tables by prefixing them (see option in the previous step).

Zoglair will attempt to create a database for you, if none is found. You should know, however, that database creation is a privilege needed only once and normally it comes with other - more serious - privileges, such as database deletion! It is not a good idea to give zoglair such power, unless you are installing on your local PC.

Run the setup script

Domain Setup You are now ready to proceed with setting up your domain. Point your browser to the installation folder:

http://<host>/[<zoglair>/]  [?]

If everything is done correctly, you will prompted with the Domain Setup screen from which you can create your first domain by answering a few simple questions.

If, however, there is a configuration error, you will see a BSoD, telling you what went wrong. If this happens, please don't panic! Just read about the BSoD to find out how to solve your problem.

(C) Nick B. Cassos - All Rights Reserved
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