DaPortal/#4: Installation procedure

Bug report from khorben on 13/06/2005 03:06:07
Write instructions (and possibly a script) to ease the installation of a DaPortal system.
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The installation procedure is now adapted to the current version of the code. Moreover, it is now enabled by default upon install.
The SQL installation file for MySQL is currently broken, in particular the daportal_config table has to be updated.
Before an actual documentation is done, a few notes about the current installation process:
  • PHP magic quotes must be enabled for GET and POST (they should be checked at run-time and "work-arounded" and necessary but this is not implemented)
  • "short_open_tags" is not necessary anymore
  • keep the source code in a separate directory
  • move the "css", "icons", "images", "js" and "themes" directory in the desired web server directory
  • create symbolic links to the folders moved above
  • initialize your database with either "install/postgresql.sql", "install/mysql.sql" or "install/sqlite.sql" as necessary
  • at this point you may wish to change the default login and password (table "daportal_user" username and MD5 hash of the password)
  • edit "config.php" accordingly
  • create an "index.php" file there with the following content:

<?php if(chdir('/path/to/daportal')) require('./engine.php'); ?>

At this point if everything went well you should be able to login as specified on the page "index.php?module=user", or otherwise with the default "admin" account with password "password".

To assist you in the debugging process don't forget to check your Apache error logs. You may also force debugging output in DaPortal itself in "config.php" by uncommenting the line:
//$debug = 1;
The initial database creation SQL commands for MySQL and SQLite are available.
An SQL database creation file is already available for PostgreSQL.
Now that essential SQL query functions are available for both MySQL and PostgreSQL:
  • a creation file for MySQL would be welcome;
  • portability tests could be done, and new SQL functions added accordingly.