Installation of ExponentCMS
Note about Upgrading:
If you are upgrading, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you export your data and back up your files.
If you are upgrading from any version prior to 0.96.3, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you do a clean install. The installer has changed substantially, and may act very strange if you try to extract 0.96.x over the top of anything other than a 0.96.x installation.
1. Download the latest package
The Exponent package is available in the following formats:
* .tar.gz - A gzipped tarball containing the application files, for UNIX/Linux environments
* .zip - A zip archive containing the application files, for Windows environments.
The latest *stable* version of ExponentCMS is 0.96.6 GA, available from the SourceForge project page.
2. Unpack the archive
At this point, you have two options. You can unpack the archive locally and upload all of the files to the server, or you can upload the archive, and unpack it on the server.
If you are running on a UNIX box, you can unpack the .tar.gz archive like this:
tar -xzvpf exponent-VERSION.tar.gz
The -p option will preserve file permissions, and is very important. Exponent requires certain files and directories to be writable by the web server, and the standard tar-based distributions have this permission information preset.
If you have root access to your webserver, you should also change ownership of the Exponent files to whatever user your webserver is running as. For example:
chown -R apache:apache exponent-VERSION
If you are unable to do this, you will have to adjust your file permissions in order to allow your webserver to write to certain directories (identified in the Installer Sanity checks).
If your are using Windows and the .zip archive, the Exponent Development team recommends any of the following utilities:
- the WinZip utility.
- the Power Archiver utility.
- the 7-up OpenSource utility.
The .zip archives have not yet been tested with Windows XP's built in zip support.
Each archive will create a directory named exponent-VERSION. This directory contains all of the files used by Exponent.
3. Database Setup
For security reasons, the Exponent Install Wizard is not able to create a database for you. This must be done outside of the system, before the wizard is run. However you do this is up to you (through command-line database client, phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin, etc.). The installer will ask you for name of the database to use, as well as a username and password for accessing the database. The user account you specify must have enough rights to perform normal database operations (like running SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE queries, etc.). The installation wizard will ensure that the provided account has these privileges.
4. Running the Install Wizard
Once the directory is on the server, in the website's directory, the web-based installer takes over the process of configuring and setting up the CMS. To access the installer and finish setting up, visit your website, and go to the directory that was unpacked. For instance, if your website (www.example.com) stores its files in /www/www.example.com/, and you unpacked the archive there, go to http://www.example.com/exponent-VERSION/)
From there, just follow the instructions and the Exponent Install Wizard will configure and set up your new Exponent site.
Note about Upgrading:
If you are upgrading, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you export your data and back up your files.
If you are upgrading from any version prior to 0.96.3, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you do a clean install. The installer has changed substantially, and may act very strange if you try to extract 0.96.x over the top of anything other than a 0.96.x installation.
1. Download the latest package
The Exponent package is available in the following formats:
* .tar.gz - A gzipped tarball containing the application files, for UNIX/Linux environments
* .zip - A zip archive containing the application files, for Windows environments.
The latest *stable* version of ExponentCMS is 0.96.6 GA, available from the SourceForge project page.
2. Unpack the archive
At this point, you have two options. You can unpack the archive locally and upload all of the files to the server, or you can upload the archive, and unpack it on the server.
If you are running on a UNIX box, you can unpack the .tar.gz archive like this:
tar -xzvpf exponent-VERSION.tar.gz
The -p option will preserve file permissions, and is very important. Exponent requires certain files and directories to be writable by the web server, and the standard tar-based distributions have this permission information preset.
If you have root access to your webserver, you should also change ownership of the Exponent files to whatever user your webserver is running as. For example:
chown -R apache:apache exponent-VERSION
If you are unable to do this, you will have to adjust your file permissions in order to allow your webserver to write to certain directories (identified in the Installer Sanity checks).
If your are using Windows and the .zip archive, the Exponent Development team recommends any of the following utilities:
- the WinZip utility.
- the Power Archiver utility.
- the 7-up OpenSource utility.
The .zip archives have not yet been tested with Windows XP's built in zip support.
Each archive will create a directory named exponent-VERSION. This directory contains all of the files used by Exponent.
3. Database Setup
For security reasons, the Exponent Install Wizard is not able to create a database for you. This must be done outside of the system, before the wizard is run. However you do this is up to you (through command-line database client, phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin, etc.). The installer will ask you for name of the database to use, as well as a username and password for accessing the database. The user account you specify must have enough rights to perform normal database operations (like running SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE queries, etc.). The installation wizard will ensure that the provided account has these privileges.
4. Running the Install Wizard
Once the directory is on the server, in the website's directory, the web-based installer takes over the process of configuring and setting up the CMS. To access the installer and finish setting up, visit your website, and go to the directory that was unpacked. For instance, if your website (www.example.com) stores its files in /www/www.example.com/, and you unpacked the archive there, go to http://www.example.com/exponent-VERSION/)
From there, just follow the instructions and the Exponent Install Wizard will configure and set up your new Exponent site.
