1 Elgg version 0.8 installation instructions
3 Ben Werdmuller <ben@curverider.co.uk>
11 Please read LICENSE and README. If you're upgrading rather than making
12 a fresh install, also read the UPGRADE file.
14 Elgg currently requires the Apache web server with mod_rewrite
15 installed and the ability to send emails, plus PHP 4.3+ and MySQL
16 4.1+ (Postgres can also be used). It has currently been tested on
17 Apache installations running Red Hat Linux and Microsoft Windows XP.
19 It is now possible to install Elgg on Microsoft IIS web server
20 environments. See the separate IIS-INSTALL file for more details, but
21 you need to follow the instructions below as normal.
23 In your Apache configuration, you must have AllowOverride set to
24 All for the directory where Elgg is installed.
26 You must have a database on the database server ready for use by Elgg.
28 You must have the GD library installed.
30 For internationalisation, you must have gettext support installed
31 on your server and compiled into PHP. If this is not found, Elgg
32 will revert to English.
34 If you have any problems installing, please consider joining
35 http://elgg.org/ and viewing the installation support community there.
37 Note that if URLs like /username/weblog/ are not working for you, this
38 is an issue with mod_rewrite, and is an error in your Apache installation
39 rather than Elgg. A mod_rewrite primer (written by a third party) is
42 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/7/31/2335/08552#setup
47 For this release, it is recommended that MySQL has cacheing enabled.
48 Please see the MySQL documentation for instructions, or ask your
54 Assuming you have satisfied the requirements in 1.1, the installation
55 should not take longer than 20 minutes. This may vary depending on
56 the connection speed to your web server.
63 2.1 Deploy Elgg framework
65 Move all files from the distribution package to your web server root directory.
66 This is normally called 'public_html', 'httpdocs' or 'www'. If you like, you
67 can place Elgg in a subdirectory of this; commonly, people will place it in
70 Rename htaccess-dist to .htaccess, and config-dist.php to config.php.
72 PLEASE NOTE: Elgg 0.8 contains integration with the Explode service at
73 http://ex.plode.us/. From time to time, Elgg will ping Explode to let it know
74 it exists. If you don't want this to happen, you must delete the folder at
78 2.2 Create data directory
80 The data directory needs to be written to during Elgg's normal
81 operation to store uploaded files and so on. This does not come with
82 Elgg out of the box, and needs to be manually created. You can
83 create it anywhere reachable by the Elgg installation scripts,
84 although we recommend you place it outside of your web server root.
86 You must assign the correct privileges. To do this you may be able to
87 right click on the folder and set the "CHMOD" value, or you may have
88 to use your command line terminal, navigate to the data folder, and
93 Where 'data' is the name of your data directory.
96 2.3 Allow admin access to the templates
98 If you want to use the Elgg administration panel to change templates etc,
99 you will also need to run the following command from the root of your Elgg
102 chmod 777 mod/template/templates/Default_Template
107 NB: you can ignore everything from here on in if you want to use the
108 visual installer. To do this, just call up the web directory you used
109 to install Elgg, and follow the instructions on-screen. The direct
110 URL for the installer is http://[your elgg install location]/_elggadmin.
114 config.php does not exist out of the box. You will need to copy
115 config-dist.php to config.php and edit the configuration values there.
117 There are several variables that must be set at the top of the file -
118 all of them are important, and they are clearly described within the
119 file. Each of them is of the form:
121 $CFG->data = 'value';
123 You must enter your values within the second set of quotation marks.
124 To include a quotation mark within a value (e.g. if you wanted
125 My University's "Elgg" Trial to be your site title), prefix it with
129 3.2 Customise your default homepage and other settings
131 Once you've filled in config.php, you can visit http://yoursite/_elggadmin/,
132 and log in using the main email address and news initial password. This will
133 allow you to change various aspects of your site, including the default
134 template and the site homepage.
139 Misja Hoebe has written an XML-RPC unit that requires the PEAR library.
140 Please see units/rpc/README for more details. If you are sure you have
141 all the prerequisites for this unit, uncomment the include XMLRPC line
142 in the plugins section of includes.php.
144 We have also included an implementation of the TinyMCE editor. This
145 is enabled by default. To disable it, comment out the TinyMCE line in
146 the plugins section of includes.php.
151 We have included a default user, "news". This user owns all the
152 public custom templates. Its login name is "news" and its default
153 password is "password"; you should log in and change this as soon
154 as possible. All new users will automatically list the news account
155 as a friend, so you should not delete it.
157 The news account comes with full administrator access, whether you've
158 upgraded or installed fresh. To change this (we recommend that you do
159 as a matter of urgency for security reasons), create a second account,
160 and give that account administrator privileges using the administrator
164 3.5 Elgg in a subdirectory and 404 errors
166 If you are running Elgg in a subdirectory of your web site, and when browsing
167 around it pages seem to be missing, you may also need to edit the .htaccess file.
168 Below the "RewriteEngine on" line, add a line:
170 RewriteBase /subdirectory/
172 changing subdirectory to the location of Elgg relative to your overall web root.
174 For example, if your site is http://example.com/
175 and Elgg is in http://example.com/sites/elgg/
178 RewriteBase /sites/elgg/
180 If you're not running Elgg in a subdirectory on your site, but still getting lots
181 of 404 errors beyond the front page, you could instead try:
186 3.6 Tell us about it!
188 Because Elgg is free and open source, we often don't hear about new
189 installations. You don't have to, but we'd love it if you'd tell us
190 what you're doing with it. You can reach us at info@curverider.co.uk,
191 or give us a phone using the details in README.
194 4. FURTHER CUSTOMISATION AND DEVELOPMENTS
196 Please keep an eye on http://elgg.org/ for forthcoming developments
197 within Elgg, including documentation on how to alter your default
198 templates and writing new functionality into the system.