HowTo: install Siteframe 5.x

The README.txt file that is distributed with Siteframe should have the latest information on the product as well as a set of simplified installation instructions. These instructions are intended to be very comprehensive, and probably contain more information than any reasonable person needs.

Assumptions

You have an account with an ISP or web hosting provider
You know the final URL of your website, and the physical directory in which the website files are stored (the web root directory)
You have ftp access to the hosting provider, but not shell access
You have access to a MySQL server instance and you know the host name, database name, user name, and password to access that instance
You are installing Siteframe 5.x for the first time (i.e., you are not attempting to upgrade an existing system)

Step By Step

Please note that steps preceded by "If ..." are optional and may not be appropriate for your particular installation. Steps with "must," however, are mandatory.

Extract the files from the distribution archive to a directory or folder on your client system (this will be referred to as the "client folder" hereafter).
Review the README.txt file for any late notifications or changes
Verify that the web server on your hosting provider is supported; if not, it's still likely that the installation will work, but be aware that there may be issues involved.
Verify that your MySQL server is at least the minimum version supported (4.1 as of this writing). If not, decide whether or not to continue; some features of Siteframe will not function under older versions (most features will work with older versions, however, but this cannoe be guaranteed).
Verify that the version of PHP on your hosting provider is at least the minimum version supported (5.0 as of this writing). If not, discontinue installation; Siteframe 5.x will not function under older versions of PHP.
If possible, verify that your hosting provider's installation of PHP has the ext/mysqli extension installed and available. This may not be possible; however, once you attempt to connect to the database, it will either work or everything will blow up.
In the client folder, copy the file siteframe.ini-dist to siteframe.ini.
Open siteframe.ini in a text editor; read through the file and change settings as appropriate. At the very minimum, set site_url, site_path, db_host, db_user, db_password, and db_database to match the settings for your website. If your provider's version of MySQL has the ARCHIVE storage engine available (and most of them do), then set db_archive=On. These are the most critical configuration variables to set before the installation begins; everything else can be modified later as needed.
Using your favorite ftp client, copy the entire contents of the client folder to the web root directory on your hosting provider's server.
Start your web browser, enter the address of your website in the address bar, and go to the site. It should automatically redirect you to your-site/setup.php. If everything is set properly, you will see a welcome message indicating that the software was configured properly and an edit form where you can enter information about the site administrator. If there are error messages displayed, however, you will need to take corrective action and return to step 8 (at least). If everything seems ok, enter the information for your administrator account and presss "Continue with setup."
The following page may take 10-30 seconds to load; when complete, check it very carefully for any errors; they will be displayed in red. If there are errors, it is most likely a problem with your MySQL configuration, and you will need to take corrective action.
If everything is Ok (in green), then the software has been successfully installed and configured.

What happens if something goes wrong?

It's impossible to anticipate every potential problem. Check this website for information; if you get really stuck, join the Siteframe mailing list at http://siteframe.org/mailman/listinfo/siteframe; members there are always happy to help.

Smarty

by cglusky / at 11:36 on July 10, 2005

Some Web Hosts have Smarty installed on their servers, but many do not (Nexcess.net does not). If you are not sure you will have to ask your service provider. If it is not installed simply upload the contents of the Smarty lib directory to a directory you create on your server. You will then need to tell Siteframe where to find the Smarty files. Assuming you installed your Smarty files to /home/www.yourdomain.com/smarty you can change the following line in siteframe.inc:

Find Line 10
define('SMARTY_CLASS', 'Smarty.class.php');

Change To
define('SMARTY_CLASS', '/home/www.yourdomain.com/smarty/Smarty.class.php');

This defines the absolute path to Smarty so Siteframe knows where to look. If you have problems determining the exact path, looking at your error log for the server helps a bunch. It is possible that future versions will move this setting to siteframe.ini but that's up to Glen.

Re: Smarty

by cglusky / at 17:48 on August 21, 2005

Setting the Smarty path has now been incorporated into siteframe.ini. That means you can disregard the above comment if you are running the latest alpha version.

Re: Install error

by reishi / at 16:05 on May 10, 2007

Fatal Internal Error
→ Internal error: file includes/mysqli.class.inc does not exist
i cant find mysqli.class.inc at includes

PHP Version 5.2.0
GD Version bundled (2.0.28 compatible)
Mysql Client API version 4.1.22

Installing siteframe in folder under domain

by slgearin / at 05:34 on August 21, 2006

I am trying to install Siteframe 5.x on a server it is running php5.0. I am trying to install it in a folder called (familyinfo) exp.celticgenealogy.org/familyinfo. I tried moving the folder to home/slgearin/public_html then back to home/slgearin/public_html/celticgenealogy/familyinfo without any luck. Can you tell me what the error is trying to tell me- thanks. My site is celticgenealogy.org

I am getting this message:Warning:

main(Smarty.class.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/slgearin/public_html/familyinfo/siteframe.inc on line 468

Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'Smarty.class.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/slgearin/public_html/familyinfo/siteframe.inc on line 468

Same with me

by kirilius / at 19:02 on June 15, 2007

Warning: main(Smarty.class.php) function.main: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/newnomad/public_html/siteframe.inc on line 469

Fatal error: main() function.require: Failed opening required 'Smarty.class.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/newnomad/public_html/siteframe.inc on line 469

Smarty.class.php

by glen / at 22:26 on June 15, 2007

You need to make sure that Smarty.class.php is either installed in your include_path or modify the path to the file as specified in the comments above.

smarty

by ChazWalker / at 09:24 on February 2, 2008

Smarty.class.php where can you get it I dont have class.php

Re: smarty

by glen / at 13:04 on February 2, 2008

You can download the latest version of Smarty from http://smarty.php.net