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DotClear

DotClear 1.2 Install

Before you begin:

Note: Every reference to www.my_site/dotclear show the default directory where you installed DotClear on your site.

To make DotClear work correctly you will need a hosting solution that support at least PHP 4.1 and at least MySQL 3.23 (you'll find a list of tested providers in the DotClear FAQ.)

  • The PHP XML module must be available.
  • The sessions must be supported.
  • The browser you will use for installation must support at least session cookies.

At the beginning of the install script, DotClear will check that all these conditions are met.

Concerning the PHP sessions

  • With certain providers (Free.fr or Online), you must create a directory named sessions at the root of your web space
  • For a local hosting, you must be sure that your PHP configuration has the sessions support activated. Please see the Official documentation.

Network Installation

DotClear comes with an Express setup script that will get all required files for install through the network.

  • Connect to your server using FTP (see the How-To below).
  • Create an empty directory, for example dotclear or blog.
  • Download the file http://www.dotclear.net/download/loader/dc_loader.php to the directory you just created.
  • Open this file with your browser (for example http://www.my_site/dotclear/dc_loader.php).
  • Keep the Location field to its default value (/) and click on continue.

If everything goes right, after a few seconds of waiting, you will be send to the DotClear Install screen.

If that Express setup procedure fails, follow the next instructions for copying the files directly to your server.

Transferring the files to your server

Note: Skip this section if you already used the Express setup and have it worked.

Download and uncompress the application

Download DotClear (choose zip or tar.gz archive depending your platform and OS, zip for Windows XP, tar.gz for Mac OSX and Unix). You must expand the archive locally (for example in a directory named dotclear) before uploading its content on your server.

Upload DotClear on your server

DotClear can be installed in any directory. Choose the root directory of your website if you want your weblog to be located at the URL www.my_site/.

If you are a real beginner, we advice that you install DotClear in a directory named dotclear, this way you will have a minimum things to do to configure your weblog. After that you will access it using the URL www.my_site/dotclear.

For transferring the expanded content of the archive, you can use any FTP client, for example FileZilla for Windows or RBrowser Lite for Mac. Please check the documentation of your provider to find:

  • The name of your FTP server (also call host name) ;
  • Your user name (also call id or login) ;
  • Your password.

Launch the install wizard

Once the DotClear files are transfered on the server, go to the URL www.my_site/dotclear/install/ or www.my_site/install/ depending on the directory where you put the application.

Language and encoding

The Install Wizard will launch and will ask you to choose a language and an encoding for the characters.

Note : The ISO-8859-1 encoding is the default one for occidental characters sets (Western Europe, US). UTF-8 is more universal and is more recommended if you plan to publish in languages like Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Chinese.

Checks

Some checks are run to verify that DotClear can be installed on your server. If one point of the PHP configuration fails, please contact your server administrator or your provider.

If the conf directory is not writable, you must change its rights with your FTP client to change this. See below (change rights on files and directories) to see how to do it.

Database settings

You must provide the following informations:

  • The name of the server hosting the MySQL database (ask your provider).
  • Your user name to connect to the database (usually your login).
  • Your password to connect to the database.
  • The name of the database that DotClear will use.
  • Leave the prefix to its default value if you don't know what it is.

Keep those informations somewhere, you will need them again when you'll want to upgrade DotClear.

Warning: the MySQL database must exist. If you can (or if you are working locally), create a separated database for DotClear. Check your provider documentation to see how to do it.

Click on Create tables, a screen will appear displaying the different steps and the result of this operation.

Creation of the first user

The first user you'll create will be the administrator. You must provide a name, a login (to connect to DotClear) and a password. Don't forget them !

Configuring your weblog

Leave the DotClear directory to its default value, unless you really know what you're doing. Give a name to your weblog.

Then you must choose between two different URL types. The Query string format give URLs like www.my_site/dotclear/index.php?2002/04, while the Path Info format give URL's like www.my_site/index.php/2002/04.

Warning: The Path Info URL format do not works with all providers, Free.fr for example.

You will be able to change the URL format of your weblog later with the administration tool of DotClear if you did make a mistake.

Finishing installation

After the configuration of your weblog, the install is ending with the creation of the first post.

You now only need to click on weblog Administration to begin real things.

You will be automatically connected to your weblog administration interface. Remember the address (www.my_site/dotclear/ecrire/ for example) because it will be the one you will use to connect to it, for administration tasks or write a post on your weblog.

If you go to the public address of your weblog (www.my_site/dotclear/ or www.my_site/), you'll see that a first category General has been created containing also a first post.

Your weblog is now open, congratulations ! If you have questions, need support, or just want to share your experience, go to the forum to get in touch with the DotClear community members.

APPENDIX: Change rights on files or directories

Using the "About DotClear" tool (under the "tools" menu in your administration interface) you will know if some files or some directories are writable by your Web server. If it's not the case, you can change these rights using your FTP client.

With FileZilla for example, right click on a directory or a file for which you want to edit rights, and check all the “write” options.