To install CMSMS Made Simple™ 2.0 you will need to upload the installer file to your web server. We recommend
cPanel
or
Shell
but instructions for
FTP
are also provided below.

   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 the uncompressed file, but also no need to learn shell commands.

Step 1

Download the latest stable release from the CMS Made Simple downloads page if you want to use CMSMS in a production environment.

Step 2

Go the file manager in cPanel, and upload the zipped installer 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.

Step 3

Still in the file manager, right click on zipped file, and choose 'extract'. Confirm the path is correct, then choose 'Extract File(s)".

Proceed with Installation

Once the installer is extracted, proceed with the Installation Assistant.

   Via Shell

Step 1

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

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:

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

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

Obtain the latest installer link from latest stable release on the CMS Made Simple downloads page if you want to use CMSMS in a production environment.

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, 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 file. At the time of writing (Sept 2015) the ID number is 12843.

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:

Check the file is there in the current directory:

Extract the files using the following command (but replacing "2.0" with the current CMSMS version number:

Proceed with Installation

Once the installer is uploaded, proceed with the Installation Assistant.

   Via FTP

Step 1

Download the latest stable release from the CMS Made Simple downloads page if you want to use CMSMS in a production environment.

Step 2

Unzip that file to a directory somewhere on your computer and remember where you saved it.

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 the unzipped installer file (cmsms-2.x-install.php) 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.

Tip: If you have control panel access (e.g. cPanel, DirectAdmin, etc.) to your website you can FTP the zipped installer 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 is safer and faster than using FTP to upload the uncompressed installer. Don't forget to delete the zip file from the server when you're done.

Proceed with Installation

Once the installer is uploaded, proceed with the Installation Assistant.