Extracting the files

From phpCMS

[edit] Extracting the files

After finishing all preparatory work, now it is the time for unpacking the archive. The current version of phpCMS is always available at the download page. At the moment, the download package is offered as a .zip or .tar.gz file. To extract .zip archives, you need a special program. Windows XP users can use the built-in unzip facility, user of other Windows versions can obtain a suitable program from the internet, like WinRAR or WinZip.

Once you have installed the unpacking program, you can extract the phpCMS archive. Depending on where phpCMS is to be installed (either locally or on a remote server), a different procedure has to be applied.

On a local system you can extract the archive directly to the document root of your web server. All following path names refer to the document root.

To install phpCMS on a remote server, you first have to extract the archive on your local system. Then you need to upload the files, e.g. via FTP, to you server. To upload via FTP or another method you have to choose the correct transmission mode. In this case ASCII mode is needed due to the different end-of-line encoding of Windows and Linux. By using ASCII mode, these encodings will automatically be set correctly. It is recommended to use a pure FTP-client, otherwise unexpected errors may occur. Among other things, some of the all-in-one programs try to manage the whole web space within projects, which is not always working correctly. Uploading is almost as easy as copying from one directory to another.

In our installation instructions we assume, that the phpCMS parser will be installed to /parser/ and the demo to /demo/. This is the simplest way to install phpCMS correctly, in particular it is the easiest way to quickly achieve a first view inside the phpCMS system, as you do not have to spend more time with further configuration.

If it is not possible to install phpCMS directly under the document root of the web server, you have to modify some paths in different files, mainly the HOME and PLUGINDIR entry in the project files (*.ini), normally located in the directory /parser/template/ and the /demo/template/. In these files the default entry is HOME := /parser, which has to be modified according to your installation. You also have to modify the file .htaccess if you are using Stealth Mode.

After the archive is now unpacked and the files uploaded to the server, you now have to set the file permissions. This issue is treated in the next chapter about file permissions.