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We need your assistance to make the documentation accurate, user friendly and understandable. Therefore we welcome any tips or suggestions regarding documentation. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

However, we will not respond to technical support questions submitted using this form. If you are having difficulty with CMSMS and cannot find the solution on this website, please submit your question appropriately on our support forum at: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org. Please remember to follow the forum rules when posting.


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Open anchor to this point in the page Via Shell

Step 1

Login to your shell account via ssh (or telnet if you must)

  1. cd 'your-www-root-directory'

Step 2

You can install CMS Made Simple in your www-root or create a subdirectory called whatever you choose. For the purposes of this tutorial, if you are not installing in the www-root folder, create a new sub-directory (example cmsmadesimple) and cd into it:

  1. mkdir cmsmadesimple; cd cmsmadesimple

Note: If you get an error message similar to the following:

  1. mkdir: cannot create directory `cmsmadesimple': Permission denied

it means that you may need to run as a different user. If don't understand the previous sentence you need to do a little reading on Unix file permissions and users. Most likely you will only run into this problem if you are hosting CMS Made Simple on your own server. The solution is check the ownership of the directory you are working in, and run as that user (su). This might be apache, or www-data, depending on the web server setup. Do not run as root - apart from the security risks it will require chown-ing the changed files afterwards.

Step 3

Check the latest release tar.gz link from latest stable release if you want to use CMSMS in a production environment.

There are two versions:

  • english version (contains english language only) and
  • full version (contains all language translations)

The link above takes you to a download page displaying many alternative links. Make sure your browser is displaying the url of any links that you hover over - in Safari, you need to display the Status Bar. Hover over the link for the latest filename ending in tar.gz, see what url is displayed, and note the ID number in the middle of the url. This ID is the key to uploading to your server the correct tar.gz file. At the time of writing (November 2012) the ID number is 10224.

In your ssh window issue a command like the following, with the current ID number and CMSMS version number replacing the numbers you see here:

  1. wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/cmsms/downloads/10333/cmsmadesimple-1.11.3-english.tar.gz

Copy the link address from the download page

Check the file is there in the current directory:

  1. ls

Extract the files using the following command (but obviously replacing "1.11.3-type" with the current CMSMS version number:

  1. tar -zxf cmsmadesimple-1.11.3-english.tar.gz

Step 4

Issue

  1. touch config.php; chmod 666 config.php

Note: The only time you wouldn't need to create a config.php file is if the web server has access to write to that directory (in which case that file will be automatically created during the installation). More often than not, they don't.

Step 5

Create an empty database. Depending on your host you may use a program like PHPMyAdmin, or your hosts control panel.

You can select any name, username and password for the database (just make sure to remember it!). But to make it even easier when you install CMSMS (step 7-10), you can use the following:

  • Database name: cms
  • Username: cms_user
  • Password: cms_pass

Note: Some hosts only allow you to use one database. Then you will have to use that database (and the username and password that you use to login to your database). If that is the case, you can skip step 6. Only make sure to use a prefix for the tables (step 10 below) that separates the CMSMS tables from other tables that you also may be using in the same database.

Open anchor to this point in the page Via FTP

Step 1

Download the latest stable release if you want to use CMSMS in a production environment.

Step 2

Unzip/untar that file with a Unzip_software to a directory somewhere on your computer and remember where you saved it. All files will be saved in a folder with the name 'cmsmadesimple'.

Note: Since all the files come in a tar type of compressed file these instructions still hold true, you just have to get a program to untar it as they say, it's just a 2 step "unzip" process, 7Zip is one type for Windows users.

Note: When you transfer the files, check to make sure that if you have a preexisting .htaccess file in the root, it isn't going to interfere with your install. Rename it to htaccess.txt until after your site is up and running, then go to the Optional Settings page to see how to use it.

Step 3

With your FTP program, upload all files in the exact same structure to the root (preferred) or to a subdirectory on the server where you want to install CMSMS. If you are using a hosting provider the root directory will usually be public_html. Locating the files in public_html will make your site available to users as www.domain.com. If you create a sub-directory below public_html (eg. public_html/somename) your web site will only be available the sub-directory as www.domain.com/somename.

Note: Be sure to upload all files in "binary" mode. Do not chose "auto" or ASCII.

Tip: If you have control panel access (e.g. cPanel, DirectAdmin, etc.) to your website you can FTP the relevant install or diff ".tar.gz" file to the root directory (e.g. public_html) or sub-directory on your web server. Then using your control panel's file manager you can extract the contents of the installation file. This will definitely be quicker than using FTP to upload all the individual files and probably more reliable too. Don't forget to delete the ".tar.gz" file from the server when you're done.

Open anchor to this point in the page Via cPanel

cPanel is a popular control panel used by many web hosting companies. If your web host uses cPanel, you can have the best of both of the previous methods of installation, not having to FTP dozens of files, but also with no need to learn shell commands.

Step 1

Uploading the files

  • Download the current version of CMSMS to your PC. Also download the checksum file. Do NOT expand (unzip) either file.
  • Log into your cPanel with the user name and password given to you by your hosting company.
  • Click the "File Manager" icon which is in the middle of the "Files" section of cPanel.
  • In File Manager, go to your public_html folder. Then click the "Upload" icon and upload the CMSMS file (but not the checksum file) to the public_html folder on your server.
  • When that is uploaded, click on the ...tar.gz file to highlight it, and then click on the "Extract" icon. In the extract window, it will already say extract to public_html, and you should leave that as is. Do the extract and all the files will be created.
  • Still in File Manager in the public_html folder, click on the "New File" icon, and create a file called config.php

Step 2

File Permissions

Check with your web host and see if they are using PHP suExec. If so, you will not have to change any file permissions. If not, follow the instructions in Step 4 of the FTP instructions, except that instead of FTP, use the File Manager's "Change Permissions" icon.

Step 3

Database Creation

Exit File Manager, but stay logged into cPanel. In the Databases section, click on the MySQL Database Wizard icon. Follow the prompts to create a database and user name. Note that cPanel prefixes your database name and user name with the name you use to login to cPanel. For example if you create a database named "cms" the full name that will be created is "YourcPanelUserName_cms". This full name is the name that you will need to enter into the CMS MS installation below.

Step 4

Complete the Install

Now you are ready to complete the installation process. Log out of cPanel and go to your website (type your domain name into your web browser). You should see the CMS Install/Upgrade page.

  • In the checksum window click the browse button and browse in your PC to the place where you downloaded the checksum file, and then click the "test" button. The checksums should match. If not you will have to re-do steps 1-7 in Part A, above.
  • In the requirements screen, you must pass all the tests with at least the minimum requirements. If you get any red "X", contact your web host with the problem.
  • You should also get a green checkmark on the umask test.
  • Set up your CMSMS admin login. For best security, this should be a different user name and password from your cPanel login. The CMSMS admin account is what you use to set up your website.
  • Enter the database name, database user name, and the password you created in Part C above. Remember, this is the full database and user name, prefixed with your cPanel account name.
  • Success! Continue through the rest of the screens until you can log into the Admin panel and proceed to set up your website.
  • When the install is complete, remember to go back to the cPanel File Manager and delete the install directory and the original CMSMS ...tar.gz file you uploaded.