Installation Guide

How to Install ImpressCMS

ImpressCMS prides itself on its simple and fast installation procedure. In most cases, installing ImpressCMS is really easy to do and should take you no more than 5 minutes before having your site up and running. Many web hosts offer tools like Softaculous to automatically install ImpressCMS. However, if you wish to install ImpressCMS yourself, the following guide will help you.

Before we begin

Before you begin the installation, there are some things you will need to have or to do. Have a look at the article Before you Install for help with those.

The quick version

Here is a quick version of the steps you will need to take to install ImpressCMS on your hosting server. If you need more detail, you can skip directly to the Detailed instructions.

1. Download and unzip the ImpressCMS package if you haven't already
2. upload the ImpressCMS files from the 'htdocs' folder in the download package to the desired location on your web server:
   1. If your site should live in the top domain, put the contents of the htdocs folder in your root folder of your web server
   2. If you need your ImpressCMS installation to be available in a subfolder of your domain, simply put all the files from the htdocs folder in that subfolder.
3. you can start the install by typing http://yoursite.com. (http://yoursite.com/subfolder/ if you run it from a subfolder). You are automatically redirected to installation script, which will begin the install process..

That's it, your ImpressCMS site is now ready for us!

The Installation in detail

Once the files are copied there, you can start the install by typing http://yoursite.com. (http://localhost if you run it on local server). We are automatically redirected to installation script, which will begin the install process.

Step 1: Language

In the first step of this installation please choose your language. The default is English.

Please Click Next.

• **Notes*** If you do not see your own language please translate a language file for this project.

Link to basic translation information. 

Step 2: Welcome Screen, Databases & chmod/Writable

Welcome to the ImpressCMS installer. This page gives a description of ImpressCMS, and some requirements (WWW Server, PHP and MySQL versions, and file permissions).

Click next.

Step 3: Checking server configuration

In the third step the script will check the server configuration. This will show the details of your server, and if they are suitable for your installation.

If the text is green, then everything is good.

Click Next.

Step 4: Paths and permissions

The next part of the install Wizard is designed to check your file and directory permissions. If your running in a Windows environment, this should be a pretty painless step.

I use Linux here and as the above screenshot shows, there are problems with permissions. In order to meet required permission you have to change them as Wizard is telling you in a tip box.

Give CHMOD 777 to mainfile.php, /templates_c, /cache, /uploads And hit Refresh button.

Physical path and Web locations address will be defined by script itself. If you want to learn a bit more about them, click the Show/hide help button.

If you did last action properly, you should get a message like on the screen above. Now, the only thing you have to set up is Trust path. To get more info about this click the Show/hide help button.

Click help button for more information. This folder should be writable (CHMOD 777). After we set up the Trust path and the script says "Trust path found", we can move forward to the next step.

Step 5: Database connection

The default PHP interface selected is "PDO" (PHP Data Objects). You may also select the older MySQL interface.

Enter the Server hostname - if your hosting provider hasn't told you different - is localhost. Simply type it there.

Enter in the user name that has access to the impress database and the user's password. You may use an existing one (such as 'root') if you know the password.

Step 6: Database Configuration

If you didn't already create a database, enter the new name here; otherwise enter the name of the database you already created.

Table prefix is generated randomly to ensure good protection against hackers. Leave the remaining settings as is, unless you have specific requirements. Then click Next. You'll get a "database created" message if the database didn't exist - then click next again.

Step 7: Saving your system configuration

In this step the information you provided in the steps before is saved and your basic system configuration is stored. This is a combination of both the file mainfile.php in the root of your ImpressCMS site, as well as a random file in the trust path with the really sensitive information. Click next to continue.

Step 8: Database tables creation

First part of this step is telling us that it hasn't found any ImpressCMS tables and it is ready to create clean tables which will be the structure for the whole database.

In the second part we can see which tables were created. These tables are empty now but we will fill them soon.

Click Next. Messages appear showing creation of tables, the click next again.

Step 9: Admin account

Please be careful here and write down or remember your administrative password. You will need this after the install to continue setting up your site.

Once you have completed inputting the correct information, click Next to continue.

Step 10: Saving settings to database

As we can see script is ready to insert first data into our database. There is nothing to do here. Next.

A messages is shown indicating all entries inserted into the database. Click next to continue.

Step 11: Installation of modules

If there are any modules to select to install with ImpressCMS, select them below (by default 'Protector' is installed) and click next. A message will be displayed with the results of installing the modules. Click next to continue or resolve and module installation issue.

Step 12: Final

This is last step of installation. You can go directly to your brand new website by pressing Show my site button on the bottom.

If all went well, then your new site should be up and running. If not, please visit the forums for further assistance.

Anyway, I suggest you looking at links given. It is worth checking them every time you have any problem, need support, or want to help others. See you there :)