MD-PRO 1.0 INSTALLATION GUIDE

by MaxDev Documentation Project
Doc manager: Angelo Gagliani
Contributions: Karsten Poppe, M Asrul Sani Arifin, Jim Hadfield, Shawn McKenzie and especially Ray Lyles

Table of contents:

  • License
  • What is MD-Pro
  • Chapter 1: CMS & history of MD-Pro
  • Chapter 2: Portal systems and structure of MD-Pro
  • Chapter 3: Intro to dynamic systems
  • Chapter 4: Main features of MD-Pro
  • Chapter 5: Open Source software: definitions and rules
  • Chapter 6: Technical requirements of MD-Pro
  • Chapter 7: Local installation with EasyPhp
  • Chapter 8: Installing Apache/PHP on Linux
  • Chapter 9: Local installation on Linux: the install script
  • Chapter 10: Local installation step by step for beginners on Windows
  • Chapter 11: The install script
    - Step 1: Language
    - Step 2: GNU/GPL license
    - Step 3: Chmod check
    - Step 4: Database information
    - Step 5: Information check
    - Step 6: New install
    - Step 7: Table creation
    - Step 8: Database preferences
    - Step 9: Table update
    - Step 10: Credits
  • Chapter 12: Remote installation: what you need
  • Chapter 13: Upload of MD-Pro with LeechFTP
  • Chapter 14: CHMOD settings
  • Chapter 15: Step by step online installation
  • Chapter 16: From local to remote host: system transfer
  • Chapter 17: Upgrade from other CMS
    - Upgrade from eNvolution
    - Upgrade from PostNuke
  • Chapter 18. Basic setup: Admin Panel & the Preferences

License

MD-Pro: Installation Guide1.0 is (c) 2003 Gagliani Angelo and maxdev.com for the MaxDev Documentation Project. You have the right to publish and to distribute in the terms of the Open Publication License, a particular type of licence that allows you all the freedom to copy and redistribute all the material, without modifications, with no-profit scope and permits the authors and the editors of being recognized for their work, and preserving modifications subsequently brought to the document. In short, it means that you cannot make modifications to this document, but you can publish it, download it or always distribute it with the same licence and retaining the credits of the authors. The insertion of the document in commercial distributions is subordinated to the permission of the author, otherwise commercial distribution is prohibited.
The text of the Open Publication License having legal value can be found on http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/. In any case contact the authors if you want to publish the document: e-mail to capra@maxdev.com or webmaster@maxdev.com ..
The philosophy of the GNU and Linux community is mutual collaboration. Therefore, if you want to contribute to this document adding sections or correcting existing text, contact the author and your changes may be inserted into the next publication along with your name giving credit.

Who is MaxDev?

MaxDev is an international community of professionals devoted to the development of high-quality Open Source software. MaxDev is comprised of developers, graphic designers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, translators, teachers, writers, artists and many other professional figures.
The vision of the MaxDev community is to create a collaborative environment where we can produce and promote human, scientific and professional resources for use by the Internet community. MaxDev strives to provide flexible, manageable and secure solutions in the areas of e-commerce, e-learning, virtual community management and beyond.
The MD-Pro Content Management System (CMS) is the first historical project of this collaboration.
What is MD-Pro?
MaxDev is proud to introduce MD-Pro, the most complete, flexible and reliable CMS available on the market.
A CMS is an application that provides for the display and management of the contents of a web site. MD-Pro carries this many steps farther by making this management simple, yet powerful. Your MD-Pro powered web site can be updated in seconds without any knowledge of programming or HTML. MD-Pro can be configured to allow your site users to send news, comment on existing news, vote in polls, administer their own account via a simple graphical interface and much more.
Normally you must pay for technology this powerful with simplicity. CMS software available today costs from several thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. Thanks to the work of many Open Source development communities however, today there are a variety of no-cost CMS programs published under GNU/GPL.
Open Source systems have gained popularity and matured to the point where they are used by many large companies and organizations around the world. Some of the entities taking advantage of Open Source systems are:

  • IBM
  • Oracle
  • Google
  • Amazon.com
  • Dreamworks
  • Kenwood
  • Incyte Geonomica
  • Ameritrade
  • Pixar Animation
  • Credit Suisse
  • New York Stock Exchange
  • PWL Euro-Subsidies (The Hague)
  • United States Army
  • NASA
  • European Commission
  • Mexico City
  • China
  • And many more...
  • MD-Pro provides an Open Source CMS that is "certified" and guaranteed by a highly qualified team of developers. MD-Pro was developed to be more versatile and modular than competing CMS programs. MD-Pro is comprised of a highly optimized core platform, to which you can add additional modules according to the needs of your site and users. Not only are there a variety of third-party modules available, you are free to develop, or contract the development of, customized modules and features to fit your requirements.
    The MaxDev team:

MD-Pro is targeted to single users, institutions and businesses who require a "certified" Content Management System, with the warranty of a qualified developers' team, the MaxDev team, leaving the user's free to personally manage their web site, but providing steady support for installation, customization, setting, and development of parts and specific modules of the site.

The content of your website, managed with MD-Pro, can be updated by internal staff writers (as a company's function, and also business people who only want to add content), and it can be configured using the permission system to allow web site visitors to submit articles, comment on previously submitted articles, participate in surveys or polls, and manage their own accounts with simple registration and account management tools. MD-Pro is planned to be extremely versatile and modular.

MD-Pro is provided with base code (the core), and enhanced modules, to meet every users' requirements, following the Linux model ("distributions" adapted to users' needs), that allows you to manage your contents in an easy and non technical way.

MaxDev represents a large and qualified international Open Source developers' community made up of software developers, designers, programmers, business people, lawyers, translators, teachers, writers, artists and many more professionals.

The basic idea of this community is to create a center for research, processing, production, and promotion of scientific and professional human resources.

This provides to the internet community the possibility to realize the most flexible projects, easy to implement and manage, that range from e-commerce to e-learning, from virtual communities to library management.

Chapter 1: CMS & history of MD-Pro

We just saw what services a Content Management System provides, let's talk about the very recent history of CMS:

At the very beginning there was in 1998 Thatware, from which the Italian-Venezuelan 30 year old Francisco Burzi developed the Nuke Web Portal System, an OpenSource CMS (free and open source), and during the Summer of 2000 the first version of PHPNuke 1.0 was released. This product promptly captured a large amount of developers, and several forks (a fork means a variant) appeared within a couple of years from this system, such as PostNuke, DarkPortal, Iscouter, PlanetNuke, Xoops, Xaraya to name a few.

In the Spring of 2001 Postnuke was released, developed by a community composed by over a hundred programmers, with new features like multilingual use, new built-in blocks, new layout, and some safety features (safe-mode).

One year later, in 2002, from Postnuke forked eNvolution, the fork of a fork, with many developers leaving the Postnuke community. The idea was to make the system more customizable/editable/hackable for developers and webmasters without coding the core: the importance was modularity. The system has to allow an easier customized installation of single components, an easier upgrade from other versions, and the possibility for third party developers to work independently on creation of new modules. The site layout was structured in models or visual templates, that allowed a simple and flexible building of the themes and look of the site using few clicks of every part of the system: blocks, modules, and pages. New features were built within the system, mostly by new developers from the Italian community, as integration with Oracle database, some new modules as Envo-News and Envo-Radio, etc.

During the Summer of 2003, Massimiliano Tiraboschi (aka TiMax, one of the founders of eNvolution), started the MaxDev Project, this immediately included a large part of the most active members of eNvolution and PostNuke communities, plus more professionals and skills coming from various branches like universities, educational establishments, graphic artists, journalists, writers, technicians, businessmen, etc. The target was to supply professional and customized services for the needs of all type of customers, by integrating content management with e-learning systems, with e-commerce, with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and much more.

Chapter 2. Portals and structure of MD-Pro

Portal: is an internet site that provides various services to visitors and, in particular, to registered users. You can find the latest news, chats, forums, have downloads, an internal search engine and online help, etc. Many people are aware of CMS sites, for example Maxdev.it, www.envolution.it, www.postnuke.it, but also journal sites as Corriere della sera . MD-Pro is the right system to create vortals (vertical portal), special sites that offer updates, mastering and resources for all people who are interested, for hobby or by profession, in some subjects or some matters, building virtual communities of users. MD-Pro is a RAD (Rapid Application Development) product: it means that MD-Pro offers the admin side various simple, but powerful, tools to create high level portals and operate sites without needing particular skills in programming and design.
Structure of MD-Pro
A portal has a defined structure and its components have well defined names and can be configured and drawn separately. There are three main elements that build a site: themes, blocks and modules. You can find modules usually in the center of the page.
Each operation on the system is managed by the module's core. When a news is shown, or a search is made, in the central part of the site appears something else - created by a module. Examples of features processed by modules are: News page, Download page, FAQ, Polls, Statistics, Web Links, User's page, and also the Admin pages, and many other modules not built-in as Forums, Chats, Meteo, Calendars, etc.
Modules can be built-in (included in the downloadable version) or as freely downloadable modules, developed by third parties. You find these usually on the support sites like Maxdev.com, Postnuke.com and eNvolution.com, e.g. the forums Arena or PhpBB, CalZone or PostCalender, Meteo, etc. Tested MD-Pro modules can be found at MDaddons.com.
You can also easily build your own module, starting from the included pnHome module. Modules must have an index.php and are usually compatible with certain types of CMS, e.g. for MD-Pro, Postnuke, eNvolution. You just copy the downloaded module into the /modules directory, than enter the Admin Panel > Modules and regenerate the list of active modules, than simply activate it and your personal module is ready to execute.
Blocks are boxes located in different parts of the web site: normally used are the left blocks (containing the Main Menu, Admin Menu, etc) and the right blocks, often showing services of the website such as Polls, Calendars, etc. With MD-Pro you can configure the blocks in every area of the page, and show them on all or selected pages... you're free to design your blocks layout as you wish. You can setup a block to be shown if some conditions are true, for example: show Login box only to unregistered users, show Admin Menu block only to Admins, and soforth. The output of some modules can also be viewed in a block: examples are the Daily Archive, Calendars. Then there are scroller blocks that show only the latest 3 news articles of the site, the last posts of the forum, etc. Blocks are surely an important tool to present and customize the layout of one's site content.

The theme is finally the glue that holds together the different elements and builds the structure of the pages and the whole site. The theme gives the graphical look and the layout structure of the site. Site Architecture is building together the different parts using your favorite web editor. Themes in MD-Pro have a complex structure, because they are not concentrated in a particular part of the page, unlike blocks. Developers talk about the theme engine , a motor with its own functions, not only in graphics, but also in execution of modules and blocks. MD-Pro uses AutoTheme, a completely configurable and customizable theme engine, based on HTML models called templates, with an Admin Panel and an easy-to-use graphical interface. Flexibility and simplicity of this layout system developed by Shawn McKenzie convinced the MaxDev team to adopt it instead of the excellent Encompass engine used in eNvolution or the derivative Xanthia engine used in Postnuke.

"AutoTheme is an HTML Theme System for eNvolution, MD-Pro, PHP-Nuke and PostNuke Content Management Systems (CMS). The current theme system usually requires you to be somewhat familiar with PHP and the CMS architecture. If you are not very familiar with PHP and/or CMS, AutoTheme removes this complexity." stated Shawn McKenzie.

He announced "AutoTheme's primary benefit is providing users the ability to create CMS themes in HTML using their favorite editor, with no use of PHP. In addition, AutoTheme provides easy customization of every part of your CMS site; including block display, custom templates for the Home Page, User Pages and Admin Pages and individual modules. The addition of AutoBlocks provides 9 additional locations for your blocks. All AutoTheme settings are easily configured from a graphical administration interface that is integrated into the CMS.

Regardless of how themes are built, a base understanding of CMS is needed. Standard CMS installations make use of four main elements in the layout. Left Blocks, Center Blocks, Right Blocks and Modules. You can create and modify the blocks via CMS's administration menus, but the theme controls when, where and how these four elements are displayed. Two additional elements are used for the news, the Summary Article (displayed on the Main Page) and the Full Article (displayed when the user reads the Full Article usually by clicking Read more...).

In addition, AutoTheme provides AutoBlocks. Unlimited block positions in addition to Left, Center and Right. You also have full control over when to display Left, Center, Right and AutoBlocks." (Shawn McKenzie).

Chapter 3: Intro to dynamic systems

Other definitions
Web: the Net: commonly web pages and Internet sites, made up with texts, images, videos, sounds, animations.... multimedia. Each of these pages is written in a language, HTML, created in Ginevre in 1991 by the staff of Tim Berners Lee. These pages are not in succession, as in a book, but they are connected by links, and are called hypertexts. That's where http (HyperText Transfer Protocol) we find in web addresses originates from. When we use the web, the most common internet service together with e-mail, the web is often confused with all of the internet.

Server and client: web server is every computer or program of the net, where web sites and other Internet services are hosted, connected 24 hours a day, and places these resources at client's disposal; client is every computer or program on the net that uses the services provided by the servers: it's us, when we connect to the Internet provider or to a web site hosted on a web server. The pages of a web site are written in HTML and are memorized on a server: to view these pages, we have to write the page address, called URL, ( = name of the site, e.g. http://www.maxdev.com) in the browser, a client software like Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla or Opera, that communicates with web servers and translates HTML instructions arriving from a server into the web page we view. The browser on our computer translates HTML instructions sent by the web server.

Static & dynamic sites: Static sites: To build a web page, you need to know HTML or you have to use a web editor, visual programs that help to build these pages: web editors can be shareware, that means commercial, e.g. FrontPage or Dreamweaver, or freeware, gratis as Netscape Composer or the Australian Evrsoft 1stPage 2000. These programs allow a user to compose in a simple and intuitive way very complex layouts. After you created the site on your local machine, (meaning "off line"), and you have checked it using your browser for any errors, you have to put it on the Internet, we say upload on the web server: for this transfer you usually need another Internet service called FTP, File Transfer Protocol, and specific FTP programs (i.e. CuteFTP, WS_FTP), some are free, like the German LeechFTP. This software transfers the web pages you created on your local machine to the web server, where prior to uploading you have acquired some web space, in order to host your site. The web hosters can be commercial, with a cost from $50 a year to hundreds of dollars, while some hosts provide free space, but these hosts are rarely suitable for all MD-Pro features.

If you have to add some content to your web site or want to modify something, you need to make it first with your web editor on your local machine, then again use an FTP program to upload and overwrite the relevant page for every change you made to your site. This is the procedure to manage a static site in HTML.
A dynamic site is simpler to manage once created and uploaded on a server: you can edit, add or cancel content directly online via your browser, without using FTP programs to upload or download pages - you don't need anything else but your browser, isn't this simple? However, to create a dynamic site you need to be a programmer with many weeks of hard coding to create such a site.
An example would be newspaper web sites, these need to be updated with the latest news, often several times each day, so using dynamic pages the company doesn't need to create a new page, edit all the links to that page on the other pages, and so on.... One of the systems that creates with just a few clicks is a dynamic site, better, a dynamic portal, that is MD-Pro.
Scripting: is a programming language code that realizes some particular features or functions within your web site, e.g. to show animated text, to change the color of a roll over image, or used to check usernames and passwords to people logging on to a site. All of these events are produced by little programs, called scripts, that can be embedded, incorporated in the HTML code of the page and interpreted from your browser together with the HTML code that arrives from the web server (i.e. Javascript), or it can be server side, the script is compiled (= executed) directly on the web server, before the page arrives at your browser.
In this case, if you look to the HTML code sent by the web server, simply by clicking the View HTML command in your browser's menu, you won't see the script code, because it has just been executed by the web server, you will only see the output of the script: it's the script itself that generated dynamically the HTML code of the page you see on your browser...
In short, there are some technologies that create ad-hoc customized and updated pages independent of the service requested by a user or the type of requested service. Of course, all the events are perfectly foreseen, coded in about ten or a hundred scripts... One of these scripting languages (mostly used on the web because of its speed and power) is PHP, Personal Home Page, which originates from the need of a fast and simple web scripting language, as a variant of C, a programming language for operative systems like UNIX and Linux. Other server side technologies are the versatile Perl and Python languages, also C-like, and ASP ( Active Server Page ) by Microsoft, that uses code in VbScript, JScript or PerlScript, copyrighted copies of other languages... and JSP ( Java Server Page ), called servlets in Java, and the CGI scripts in other languages, like C++ and Java.
Database: it's the set of archives, tables with rows and columns, where data is stored. "What data?" you ask, well it's all the content of your dynamic site: usernames and passwords, news, forums posts, downloads, in fact everything you insert on your site will be stored in one of the tables of the site's database. MD-Pro creates 86 tables in the database during installation.
To manage all these tables (add, edit and cancel data) you need a managing program called DBMS (DataBase Management System). A well known DBMS on Microsoft systems is Access in the MS-Office suite and MS SQL server, on UNIX and Linux. Systems most commonly using DBMS are MySQL and Oracle. Of course, MS systems have the cost of the license, MySQL is GPL free and open source. MD-Pro uses, naturally, MySQL, but also contains database drivers for a connection to Oracle.
Web server: as you know, a web server is the computer on the net that hosts web sites, this means it memorized your web pages and they're on its hard disk drive. Servers need a set of specific software to manage web space: they need an operating system, like every computer, with other software to manage access from other servers or from web clients. These have to handle security risks, and so on. Nearly 80% of web servers uses UNIX - Linux OS with Apache server ( 67%), iPlanet of Netscape ( 6% ), Zeus or WebSphere; the remaining 20% use Microsoft IIS. Apache, developed by Open Source coders, is distributed widely because it's free and stable, meanwhile IIS is integrated within Windows 2000 and XP Professional where you need to buy a license.
Since Microsoft is a proprietary system, integrated with its own applications, IIS is optimized for MS database server and scripts in ASP or VisualBasic. Linux systems is the most common web server on the Net running mostly Apache with database MySQL and PHP or Perl scripting.
MD-Pro runs scripting in PHP, uses data recorded on MySQL or Oracle databases and runs on Apache servers. These compositions are not compulsory: web space is usually more expensive the more scripts and extensions they permit: so we find IIS with PHP support, Apache that runs on Windows server, and so on.
The optimal configuration is
* PHP 4.0 pl2 /MySQL 3.2.3
* Apache on Linux server.
* Oracle 8.1.7 or higher
Cookies: are small text files, downloaded from sites to your home computer and record some user data: viewed links and pages, inserted data, etc. Mostly used for commercial reasons, cookies are necessary on dynamic sites: they permit to recognize users and so customize the page for them. It's recommended to accept only cookies arriving from well known and trusted sites. Many web sites allow you to use the services of the site only if you accept cookies, like many providers impose to access their user's online e-mail service.
You don't need to accept cookies on MD-Pro system, because you can log in simply inserting your user name and password.
Free software and Open Source: Why can one find costly commercial software and free or open software? Free software was originally developed mainly by Universities and research centers, often funded by public institutions or financed with public money. As the years passed, the increased complexity of the applications, and the need to automate information, brought many of these researchers and ex-students to work as developers and programmers for important and large companies.
During the 80s, with the spread of personal computers, one of those ex-students, Bill Gates, developed and made a commercial operating system for Personal Computers. With the diffusion of the Internet and the web, and since ever free accessible services, an MIT professor, Richard Stallman, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) with the GNU project, to spread information use and knowledge. Since hardware has to be paid for, because it is made of materials, FSF software has to be free to use and free to modify.
In the 90s Linus Thorwalds started the Linux project, a free and open source operating system for personal computers: source code has to be available to everyone, and editable, with the consequence that all modifications and derived works have to follow the same open licence of the open software.
Thousands of programmers and companies started to improve open source software and develop new ones: Netscape released StarOffice for free, the Sun Microsystems released Java tools, Dbase from Borland, and so on. Many of the most used technologies were created under this General Public Licence: PHP, Perl, Javascript, Python, MySQL; Gimp, Napster ...Today, a majority of the largest companies like IBM, Compaq, Cisco, etc. collaborate to improve the Linux system, and many public institutions uses Linux, IBM, USA post, Universities. The European Community and all its member Governments recommend the use of open software ... this article continues in Chapter 5.

Chapter 4. Main features of MD-Pro

Some reasons to use MD-Pro
MD-Pro is reliable, since it derives from the most popular Open Source CMS: Postnuke and eNvolution.
* MD-Pro, allows one to publish static and dynamic information in an easy and rapid way, running on Internet and/or intranet sites.
* The design of the look in MD-Pro is handled by AutoTheme, a powerful theme engine, which allows easy and advanced customization using templates and to create new skin models that can be quickly changed and controlled in the administration panel. AutoTheme, who's developer is a member of the MaxDev team, is at present one of the most rated theme engines, and is perfectly integrated within MD-Pro.
* MD-Pro comes packaged with a large number of enhanced modules that improve the portal's resources to meet customer's needs in order to provide webmasters and users advanced and evolved services as e-learning tools, e-commerce karts, catalog creation, project management, event calendar handling, library management and much more. We offer in particular:
? E-commerce
o osCommerce (electronic shopping system)
o pnSubscriptions (donate, paypal, etc.)
o Stock_Quotes
? E-learning
? E-working
o projects
o planning
o calendars
o virtual galleries
? virtual communities
o forums
o chats
o shoutboxes
? eWebmaster
o advanced menu systems
o advanced statistics
o server tools
? Varie
o Polls
o FormExpress (form management)
o Newsletters
* MD-Pro is an Open Source product and the cost is infinitely cheaper than most other proprietary systems.
* The use of Open Source systems in the Public institutions is encouraged by governmental guidelines in many countries for developing information technology in the society. It usually provides to:
? Set up national research plan for open source
? Coordinate and stimulate open source research projects
? Supports and promotes research, development and marketing of open source software
? Support cooperation between private and public businesses
? Forward PMI's operating in this branch
* MD-Pro relies on its development by the MaxDev community, this assures professional support to programmers and end users.

Chapter 5: Open Source: definition and rules

The Software Open Source allows for collaboration with other people who share our interests, to exchange ideas and work together. The motivations in order to work with the Software Open Source derives from several requirements: for enjoyment or hobby, in order to develop specific software and in order to attract an interest in their software area. The combination of these motivations has enabled people to meet and develop software like osCommerce as we see it today, and as it will be in future, by one increasingly active community and, everyone with their specific ideas, skills necessities, and with the same spirit: to use this software and to render it as the best solution.
The software Open Source remains always open. Just why this software is open comes down to the choice to use it, to learn the program, to join, to share and to participate with an enthusiastic and full community of supporters in order to make Open Source software grow and update/create software. This is the true reason for which the Open Source exists. The Open Software Source is defined from the attached licence in the program that guarantees to all the right to use liberations, to modify and to redistribute the code.

Open Source is a certified brand of property of the Open Source Initiative. The developers of software who share liberations and aim to improve and possibly redistribute their software, can use the brand following the terms of DARE Open Source Definition. In brief, the model of Definition of the distribution demands guidelines as follows: Free Redistribution: No restriction of the parts in order to sell to third parties the program. Code source: The software must also include the code sources and must allow the distribution of the railroads. Jobs Derive To You: the modifications and the jobs derive to you must be allowed and must secondly be distributed under the same terms of the licence as the original software was. Integrity of the Code Source of the Author: The distribution of modified code source must be allowed even if helpful restrictions allow to distinguish the original code from the one modified. As an example, the possibility to use various names for the software. No discrimination against persons or groups: The licence does not have to discriminate a person, or a group of persons. No discrimination against application fields: The licence does not place restrictions on using the programs in sure specific fields of application, as an example, the business use or trade use of the product, or its use in the field of genetic research. Distribution of the Licence: The rights included in the program are applied to anyone who distributes the program, without the necessity of ulterior licenses between the parts. The licence does not have to be specific for a product: The rights included in the licence cannot be varied from those the distribution originated from if the draft changes is in various contexts. The licence does not have to contaminate other Software: The licence does not have to place restrictions on other software that is distributed with the licensed software. As an example, the licence cannot impose that all the other software distributed on the same medium is software open source.

Chapter 6: Technical requirements of MD-Pro

As said before, MD-Pro is based on the technology PHP/MySQL or PHP/Oracle: this means that the application is written with the scripting language PHP and it manages data recorded in a MySQL or Oracle database. The web server that compiles the application can indifferently be Apache or IIS on systems Windows, Linux, Unix, BSD, Solaris or others.
The minimum technical requirements in order to install MD-Pro are:
a web server (as Apache) that supports the following:
- a MySQL 3.23 version or higher or Oracle 8.1.7 or higher;
- PHP version 3 or higher compiled with the support for MySQL or Oracle;
minimum 25 Mbyte of hard disk space;
a browser in order to manage MD-Pro.
We suggest configuration with Linux (having therefore the possibility to set permissions on directories) + Apache (Linux native server) + PHP4 + MySQL with access to the PhpMyAdmin interface.
This is the minimal configuration either on a local machine, then on a hosted server..

Chapter 7: Local installation with EasyPhp

What is required and how to use it
The required programs are freely downloadable off the Internet. Your Windows 9x/2000 or XP is sufficient, but it's better you have Linux or BSD as an operating system. Windows customers first need Apache, PHP and MySQL, which you can find configured in one tool called Easyphp for Win32 machines on www.easyphp.org or in the Downloads section at http://www.envolution.it/ under the category Utilities. There are other tools with the same configuration, like Appserv, Foxserv, that you can use as an alternative. Easyphp is an integrated French product that in the last version (1.6) no longer gives errors under Windows 2000 and XP.
Click on Telechargements, select "Current Version Easyphp1.6", the file is quite large - approximately 10Mb - and saves it to your hard disk where you want. Linux customers already have these three programs within Linux.
Then we need MD-Pro, available in Win32 and Linux versions on www.maxdev.com in the downloads section: save it on your hard disk where you want. The program that can be used, in order to put the site online via ftp is the German LeechFTP, downloadable from http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~jdebis/leechftp/ clicking download then selecting the file lftp13.zip (download, unzip and execute selecting "setup"). Or http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10064-100-915590.phtml click on download now (also download, unzip and execute clicking on setup). Or http://www.5star-shareware.com/software/freeware/ftp-clients.html clicking on one of the several download buttons on the page (all are free).

Chapter 8: Local installation on Linux

We suggest, for first time installations, to try the system offline on a local machine. This not only helps build your confidence with the features, but mainly for you to build your design and graphical layout of the pages and customize particular modules and blocks. It will then be easier to transfer the site with your theme, or to organize the site online.
Installing Apache/PHP
Here is a brief guide to installing PHP as a dynamic module of Apache.

Please read the documentation included with each package for further information.
You can download the single packages here:
Apache........: http://www.apache.org
PHP...........: http://www.php.net
Zend Optimizer: http://www.zend.com

1. Extract all files from the packages:
tar -xzf apache_1.3.19.tar.gz
tar -xzf php-4.0.4pl1.tar.gz
tar -xzf ZendOptimizer-1.0.0-PHP_4.0.4-FreeBSD4.0-i386.tar.gz

2. After the installation of Apache, you can add PHP as a dynamic module (DS0):
cd php-4.0.4pl1
./configure --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --disable-debug \
--with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
make
make install
cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini
cd ..

Most Linux distributions could not install the PHP libraries to connect to MySQL, so you could have an error in the database connection: it's the php-mysql file: install it with the following command:
urpmi php-mysql
then restart Apache with something like
service httpd restart

3. open the configuration files of Apache (httpd.conf) and PHP (php.ini).
Be sure, you have following instructions in httpd.conf file:
LoadModule php4_module libexec/libphp4.so
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
if you find ClearModuleList somewhere in your httpd.conf file, add this line:
ddModule mod_php4.c

4. To install ZendOptimizer v1.0, you need PHP version 4.0.4 or higher with debugging disabilities:
cd ZendOptimizer-1.0.0-PHP_4.0.4-FreeBSD4.0-i386
mkdir /usr/local/Zend
mkdir /usr/local/Zend/lib
cp ZendOptimizer.so /usr/local/Zend/lib

Add following lines to your php.ini file:
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
zend_extension="/usr/local/Zend/lib/ZendOptimizer.so"

5. To start Apache
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start
After installation, create a file containing the following content <?php phpinfo(); ?> inside your server root to see all configuration variables.

Chapter 9: Local installation on Linux: the install script

1. Extract all files from the downloaded package:

unzip md-pro1b.zip
-- or--
tar -xzf md-pro1b.tar.gz

2. Copy the content in the root directory of your webserver or in a specific directory of the web server:
cd md-pro
cp -R catalog /usr/local/apache/htdocs/
'/usr/local/apache/htdocs/' will be the root directory of the web server or in '/usr/local/apache/htdocs/directory'.

3. So that MD-Pro works perfectly, for safety's sake again, the system environment should be examined.
For this we support the tool "mdcheck.php" in the install folder.
The following settings in httpd.conf and/or php.ini are momentarily COMPELLING:
** SAFE_MODE -> OFF
** REGISTER_GLOBALS -> ON
** OPEN_BASEDIR -> keep empty, or link to the MD-Pro root folder
(here it is possible to fit several entries separated with ';')
Then set the right permission on the following files:
* chmod 666 all the files that are in the /config dir.
* chmod 666 config.php in your root dir.
* chmod 777 to the directory config
* chmod 777 to the directory upload and all subdirectories.
* chmod 777 to the directory images/avatar/personal.
* chmod 777 to theme.cfg of each theme in /themes directory

Remember:
MD-Pro makes all necessary changes automatically, but where you may need to work manually all configuration information are stored in:
/config folder
md-config.php for MD-Pro configuration
dl-config.php for download configuration
wl-config.php for web links configuration
rte-config.php for editor configuration

4. Open your browser and link to this address:
http://localhost/[directory]/install.php
Follow the install script instructions. For details on the parameters to insert, please read the following chapter containing screenshots.
Remember to delete the install script after installation on a remote server, this prevents anyone gaining unauthorized access to your database information. Then redo installation using this critical data:
cd /usr/local/apache/htdocs/md-pro
rm install.php
rm -rf install


Chapter 10: Installation step by step for beginners and Windows users

Are you ready for installation ?
Launch easyphp1-6_setup.exe and install it as a normal program for Windows. Installation is in French, but intuitive: say OK to everything. Now you have completed the installation, open Easyphp from " Start | Programs | Easyphp " and a new icon will appear on the status bar on the bottom right of your screen near the clock, looking like an "e". Click this icon with your right mouse button and choose "Configuration | Easyphp". In the configuration window select "Automatic server start up" and the last item. Then, in the textbox "MySQL Arguments" "-skip-name-resolve -skip-grant-tables -language=french " , delete "french" and write "english". This is so the database will display English. Then click on " Apply " and "Close". MySQL, PhpMyAdmin and Apache have been successfully installed. Wasn't it simple? Let's check it: open your browser, Internet Explorer or Netscape or Mozilla, connection will start, click on " Off line" and the hateful Windows error page will appear: ignore this. Now link to your local web address, http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 (you didn't know you needed a web address?!), the beautiful Php welcome page will appear. Check all the links to view all included features.
Remember the web directory will contain all of your web pages and will be "c:/programs/easyphp/www". If you check these directories with your Windows Explorer, you'll notice only an index.htm file, the Php welcome page. It will be the location of all MD-Pro files of your local CMS. Also remember the URL of PhpMyAdmin, the Database user interface for database creation and table management, http://localhost/mysql/ .
Now, let's start to install MD-Pro on your home PC/server.

Chapter 11: The install script

Take the downloaded package ' mdpro_1.zip' and unzip it, that means click on the zip file and WinZip your program will be opened (available from www.winzip.com).
Click on Extract, click twice on C: on the left you will see the icon called Extract to containing C:/ where we add MD-Pro, with selected All the files and Use folder names, click on the Extract button and when Winzip reappears, close it as you normally close windows. Now open your Explorer, which you can find in the Start/Programs menu, open on the left frame C:/Programs/EasyPHP/www and create there a subfolder for MD-Pro, rename it MD-Pro. Copy to this subfolder only the contents of the unzipped C:/MD-Pro folder. Now you can launch the MD-Pro installer:
Step 1: Language selection
Open the browser and type in the installer URL (= address of the install script), that is http://localhost/MD-Pro/install.php, the first page will appear asking you to choose the interface language: English is right: click the Set language button. See the graphic below:

Step 2: GNU/GPL license agreement
Next window: the GNU licence: MD-Pro is developed as free software, but there are certain requirements for distributing and editing: read the license and then click on the Next button:

Step 3: Chmod check
The third window checks for chmod settings on some directories or files that need read and write permissions:
- 666 to allow the install script to write and read the configuration lines in the config.php file: these settings allows to encrypt and write the configuration parameters to make them surer and to change them directly from the preferences of the Admin Panel.
- 777 read write and execute permissions for some directories and subdirectories to allow a direct management from the Admin Panel or the direct upload of images via browser in some modules, as Avatars, News, etc. Click on the Continue button if you have no errors, Windows does not need these permissions.
If you have a chmod error on local Windows installation on the config.php file, open your Explorer, right click the C:/Programs/Easyphp/www/MD-Pro/config.php file, then Properties, and check if Attributes is set on Archive and not on Only Read. Do the same check for the C:/Programs/Easyphp/www/MD-Pro/config/config.php file and check again on the install script.

Step 4: Database Information
In this window insert the database connection data:
Database host: localhost (your db server name on local machine...)
* Database Username: root (as from your C:/Windows/php.ini PHP configuration file)
* No password: on your EasyPhp configuration you don't have one...
* Database name: you can choose it freely, we will leave mdpro in this guide.
* Table Prefix: delete mdpro and leave this field empty: the prefix is needed if you install the MD-Pro tables in addition to an existing database to separate md-pro tables from other existing MySQL tables or on multisites configuration that uses the same database for multiple installations.
* Database Type is, of course, MySQL, but MD-Pro also runs on other database types such as Oracle.
* Set the Site is for intranet button: this prevents problems if you don't use fully qualified host names for database access: examples of fully qualified hostnames are www.maxdev.com and foo.bar.com. Examples of hostnames that are not fully qualified are foo.com, localhost, and mysite.org. If you do not set this parameter properly you may be unable to log onto your site. A website who's DNS does not reverse resolve to it's IP address may also have to check this setting in order to log onto the site once installation is complete. In order to avoid problems associated with DNS you should check your domain name resolves to an IP address and confirm the IP address resolves to the domain name as well.
* Once you have done this click the Submit button below.
This information is very important for remote installation on Internet hosts: read the next chapter for these settings.

Step 5: Database Information check
This window repeats the Database Information set in the previous step: check for any errors: Then click New install button, since we are not upgrading a previous database from eNvolution or Postnuke. MD_pro is upgradeable from these other major CMS titles. Read their chapters for upgrading procedures for other systems.

Step 6: New install
If you have root access, as on this local installation, check the create the database box. Then click the Start button and your empty mdpro database will be populated with more than 80 tables needed from the MD-Pro system.
Otherwise, as on hosted Internet servers, you just need to click on start. If you do not have root access you need to create the db manually using, for example, PhpMyAdmin tool, and this script will then add the tables for you.

Step 7: MD-Pro tables creation
This window states that all the needed tables have been successfully created. Click on Continue button on the bottom of the page.
If you don't have any success and the No database created message appears click on the Back button, and on the previous step 6 do not check the create the database box, but click the Start button. The below window will appear. Click on Continue button on the bottom of the page.


Step 8: DB Preference settings
Next window allows to configure your database preferences: this means that you have to set up your administrative account to log into your site as a super-user and manage all your admin preferences. Remember the information you enter here: all the data entered are case sensitive: so Admin is different from admin or ADMIN.
- Admin login: is your admin username for log in
- Admin name: is the admin name that will appear on the site, when you post news, comments, etc.
- Admin password: choose a password that isn't obvious like a date of birth or simple names: this is also case sensitive. Enter the same password in the two fields (also in verify).
- Admin e-mail: it's your e-mail for system communications, as error logs or user unsubscriptions, etc. Not necessary for a local installation.
- Complete server path: it's the location on the hard disk of your Easyphp servers. Do not change.
- MD-Pro URL: it's the location of the site on the Apache server for browsers. Do not change.
- Upload URL: it's the location of your upload folder for files or images used with the RTE editor: in this folder users or admin will upload directly from the browser the needed files or images for the News, and for all the other Modules that use RTE editor. Do not change.
- Subjects upload URL: upload folder for files and images in the Subjects module. Do not change.
- Admin URL: the admin's personal web site URL, could be the same as the MD-Pro site's URL. Do not change for a local installation.
Then click on the Set login button.


Step 9: DB preferences update
The information entered in the previous step has successfully updated the following tables. This information was stored in the database. Click on the Finish button and et voilà...

Step 10: The MD-Pro Credits page
The page with the sponsors of MD-Pro and the people that make MD-Pro work for you. Take some time and let these people know how much you appreciate their work. If you would like to be listed here, contact MD-Pro about being a part of the development team. They are always looking for some help.
Click on the Go to your MD-Pro site link:

Congratulation! Here's your new MD-Pro site.....


Chapter 12: Remote installation: what you need

First of all, you need someone who gives you web space with the following minimum requirements:
1. MySQL version 3.23 or higher database or Oracle 8.1.7 or higher
2. PHP version 4.0.6 or higher compiled with support for MySQL or Oracle
3. minimum of 25 Mbyte of disk space on a web server
4. a browser to manage your site
The web server could be on a Windows machine or on Linux/UNIX, it is important you have the possibility to set up permissions for some files or directories. Therefore, we advise you to use Linux servers, these automatically have this feature. The permissions on some directories are needed, for example, to execute the install script, for directly uploading images via a browser from your PC to the web server, without always using a FTP connection, for the backup (the copies) of your database via browser, etc. Usually Windows servers put to disposition a folder (/public) that enables you to set up these chmod (permissions), and therefore the problem can be solved this way, but consider you mainly require 777 and 666 chmods only.
Once you have the requested web space, you can launch install script (easiest way) or install the system manually.
Let's start with...

Chapter 13: Upload of MD-Pro with LeechFTP

Now you need to transfer all the folders and files of the MD-pro system to the web server via FTP: it's called upload. There are many FTP clients (program that transfer files using this protocol). We will use LeechFTP you downloaded some chapters ago and also already installed. Start it (with Start|Programs|LeechFtp), and a simple interface appears: the central frame is the local directory (the content of your hard disk), the right frame is the remote directory, empty because you are not connected; on the left you'll see all the FTP commands and controls.
Select from Local menu | Change directory command and click twice on your local MD-Pro folder to transfer C:\MD-Pro and your local directory appears. Then select menu File | Bookmarks in order to set up the ftp configuration: in the window that appears, select menu Edit | Add bookmark. On the next window insert your host connection information:
* Host or URL : write ftp.sitename.com (the ftp address to which you connect),
* port leave 21,
* username : delete anonymous and insert your usual username for that host, and your password
* Remote directory insert a slash (the symbol /) if you want to upload in the root directory of your web space
* Attention: choose personal login instead of anonymous!
* Click on the next window Advance Settings, under the local directory item click the right button with the 3 points ... and select C:\md-pro and leave the number of logins as unlimited.
* Click next window: Connection settings and leave retries on 50, idle on 30 (second of attempt for file upload), timeout on 120 (seconds to try logons) and login delay on 5 (sec. for login). Attention, do not check use proxy server for connection. Then click on OK and FTP is set up.
* Now you're ready for upload: reopen Files | Bookmarks: the window with the two frames appears: right click in the right frame on ftp.sitename.com and select Connect. The well known Internet connection window appears: connect to the Internet in the usual way, and you will see the upper frame of LeechFTP going with the FTP login commands. After a few seconds the right LeechFTP frame (remote directory) will show the actual contents of your web space. In the central frame you'll see the local folder of our local MD-pro installation. Select all MD-Pro files and folders, right click selected items and choose Upload files command. In the left frame, Queue, will be inserted showing all the files to be uploaded, the single threads (=files upload) will start, and if you upload in the night, you will be able to upload three or more files at once. If you do not have an ADSL connection, but a 56K modem, it may take you up to 15-30 minutes to do.
* Once upload has been completed the remote directory frame should be inactive: select again File | Bookmarks right click ftp.sitename.com, then Connect, and the content of your web space will be displayed. Upload also all the php files of the main folder, then click on the Refresh icon (the two green arrows in a circle in the main bar of LeechFTP).
* Click on Failures in the left frame to be sure all the files has been uploaded correctly.

Chapter 14: CHMOD settings

Setting chmods is a child's game: right click on the required files or folders in the remote directory frame and choose Set attributes and check all read and write buttons, and the number 666 appears, check also all the next row and chmod 777 is set up.
File and folders
Chmod to set up
/config
Chmod 777
/config/config.php
Chmod 666
/config/config-old.php
Chmod 666
/config/install-log.txt
Chmod 666
/config/md-config.php
Chmod 666
/config/dl-config.php
Chmod 666
/config/wl-config.php
Chmod 666
/config/rte-config.php
Chmod 666
/upload
Chmod 777
/upload/dl
Chmod 777
/upload/dl/big_img
chmod 777
/upload/rte
chmod 777
/upload/sub
chmod 777
/upload/wl
chmod 777
/images/avatar/personal
Chmod 777
config.php
Chmod 666
/themes/Theme_Name/theme.cfg for each AutoTheme installed.
Chmod 777

* Now close all, click on the Disconnect icon, close LeechFTP and you are ready for your MD-Pro.
* Open Internet Explorer or your favorite browser, connect to the Internet, write the address (the URL) of your site, this will be http://www.mydomain.com/[directory]install.php and follow the previous chapter's instructions.
* Remember: after the installation has finished you need to delete the /install folder and the install.php script to prevent others overwriting your installation or capturing your database information that will appear when reinstalling MD-Pro. You only need to open LeechFTP again if you connect to the remote directory, right click /install folder, choose Delete. Same for install.php.
* Attention: normally folders will not be deleted if they contain subfolders so you have to enter each subfolder, delete all the files together, then delete the empty folder.

Chapter 15: Step by step online installation

To install MD-Pro online: open your favorite browser and type the URL of the install script, this will be something like http://www.mydomain.com/[directory]/install.php and the install script starts; for screenshots, please refer to Chapter 11.
- The install script
Step 1: the first page will appear asking you to choose the interface language: English is right: click the Set language button.
Step 2: Next window: the GNU licence: MD-Pro is developed as free software, but there are certain requirements for distributing and editing this software: read the license and then click on the Next button:
Step 3: The third window checks for chmod settings on some directories or files that need read and write permissions:
- 666 allows the install script to write and read the configuration lines in the config.php file: these settings allows you to encrypt and write the configuration parameters to make them securer and to change them directly from the preferences of the Admin Panel.
- 777 read write and execute permissions for some directories and subdirectories allow direct management from the Admin Panel or the direct upload of images via a browser in some modules, as Avatars, News, etc. Click on the Continue button if you have no errors.
If you have a chmod error on the config.php file, leave the browser open, open again your favorite FTP program and set chmod permission on the files shown by the script. Check again in your install script using your browser.
Step 4: In this window insert the database connection data: there can be different cases depending on your hosting service:
- hostings with MySQL database name and user assigned by the host: you received a defined database user name and password and you know the name of the database server (usually localhost or an IP address) and a given database name (e.g. Sql12345_1)
- hostings that give the possibility to create a certain number of databases; in this case open your PhpMyAdmin, create a new database user with a password, then create a new database and call it whatever you want: remember to write down all this information: you will need them in this step.
- hostings with root access for the database (e.g.: your own server) you can create your database directly running the install script.
In all cases, you need to have the database information ready.
* Database host: usually given by the host: localhost, or something like mysql.server.com or it could be an IP address, e.g. 62.149.150.22;
* Database Username: your login to access the database, assigned by the host or root if you have root access to the server.
* Database password: as above.
* Database name: the name of the database assigned by the host or that you created with PhpMyAdmin.
* Table Prefix: delete mdpro and leave this field empty: the prefix is only needed if you install MD-Pro tables in addition to an existing database to separate MD-Pro tables from other existing MySQL tables or on multisites configurations that use the same database for multiple installations.
* Database Type is of course MySQL, but MD-Pro runs on other database types too, such as Oracle.
* Set the Site is for intranet button: this prevents problems if you're not using fully qualified host names for database access: examples of fully qualified hostnames are www.maxdev.com and foo.bar.com. Examples of hostnames that are not fully qualified are foo.com, localhost, and mysite.org. If you do not set this parameter properly you may not be able to log onto your site. A website who's DNS does not reverse resolve to it's IP address may also have to check this setting in order to log in to the site once installation has completed. In order to avoid problems associated with DNS you should check that your domain name resolves to an IP address and confirm that the IP address resolves to the domain name as well.
Attention: in most cases don't check this box for online installation.
* Once you have done this click the Submit button below.
Step 5: This window repeats the Database Information set in the previous step: check for any errors: Then click on New install button, since you are not upgrading a previous database from eNvolution or Postnuke. MD-Pro is upgradeable from these other common CMS titles. Read chapter 17 in this guide for how to upgrade from other systems. If the database information is not right, click Change info and you will be taken back to the previous page.
Step 6: If you have root access, check the create the database box. Then click the Start button and your empty mdpro database will be populated with more than 80 tables required for MD-Pro. On hostings with assigned databases, don't check the Create database box: click on the Start button and the install script will add the tables within the existing database.
Step 7: Next window states that all the needed tables were successfully created. Click the Continue button on the bottom of the page.
If you don't have any success and the No database created message appears, click the Back button, and on the previous step 6 do not check the create the database box, but click the Start button. The window below will appear. Click the Continue button on the bottom of the page. It can happen that the No database created message appears, but followed by a dozen tables updated: in this case continue: it's a known case on some shared servers, where the script did the update.
Step 8: The next window allows you to configure your database preferences: this means that you have to set up your administrative account to log into your site as a super-user and manage all your admin preferences. Remember the information you enter here: all data entered is case sensitive: so Admin is different from admin or ADMIN.
- Admin login: is your admin username for log in: it is not visible in any part of the system.
- Admin name: it is the admin name that will appear on the site, when you post news, comments, etc. It can be different from the login name.
- Admin password: choose a password that isn't obvious like a date of birth or simple names: this is also case sensitive. Enter the same password in the two fields (also in verify).
- Admin e-mail: it's your e-mail for system communications, as error logs or user unsubscriptions, etc. Use an extra e-mail account for the system administration.
- Complete server path: it's the location on the server hard disk: it's usually recognized by the system. Do not change.
- MD-Pro URL: it's the location of the site on the Apache server (site's URL) for browsers. Do not change.
- Upload URL: it's the location of the upload folder for files or images used with the RTE editor and other Modules: in this folder users or admin can upload directly from their browser the needed files or images for the News, and for all the other Modules. Do not change.
- Subjects upload URL: upload folder for files and images in the Subjects module. Do not change.
- Admin URL: the admin's personal web site URL, could be the same as the MD-Pro site's URL.
Then click the Set login button.

Step 9: The information entered in the previous step has successfully updated the following tables. These information where stored in the database. Click on the Finish button and et voilà, .......your MD-Pro site is online.
Step 10: The page with the sponsors of MD-Pro and the people that make MD-Pro work for you. Take some time and let these people know how much you appreciate their work. If you would like to be listed here, contact MD-Pro about being a part of the development team. We are always looking for some help.
Click on the Go to your MD-Pro site link: Here's your MD-Pro site. Wasn't it easy? Your site URL will be http://www.mydomain.com/[Directory]/index.php: but usually you don't need to type index.php if you don't have another index.htm or index.html page in the same directory.

- Note: to do after online installation:
Attention: delete the /install directory and the install.php script from your web space with your favorite FTP client: someone, typing the http://www.mydomain.com/install.php URL could overwrite your site settings or see your database username and password which are stored in the script and will be, by default, visible. Someone could change your Admin information, login to the site and crack it. So delete install file and directory.

Chapter 16: From local to remote host: system transfer

You have your local site and you want to copy it to an Internet web server? Or, you are changing host? Follow these simple steps:
- Open your local PhpMyAdmin ( http://localhost/mysql/ ) or the same tool on the server.
- click in the left frame on the name of your MD-Pro database
- all the tables are shown: at the bottom of this page you find the Show dump command with a text box containing all the names of the tables.
- click on the Select all link
- check Structure and Data
- check Save as
- click on Confirm button
- save as mdpro.sql where you want on your hard disk
Connect via FTP to your web server (e.g. with LeechFTP)
- copy your local MD-Pro site to the remote directory
* Open your online PhpMyAdmin, choose the database.
* run the query mdpro.sql you created from local database
* edit the /config/md-config.php file with your new data:
Remember to set
$pnconfig['encoded'] = '0';
or you will not be able to connect to your database.
..... et voilà: open your browser and link to your new site.....

Chapter 17: Upgrade from other CMS

Author: Naphta, naphta@arcor.de, http://www.maxdev.de
Translation and Modifications: A. Gagliani, capra@maxdev.com

- Upgrade from eNvolution 1.2.5 FLS
A. Preparing upgrade
Download the latest version of MD-Pro from the official Download section on http://www.maxdev.com .
Make a backup of your eNvolution database. You can use phpMyAdmin or with the eNvolution integrated backup tool you find here: [admin.php?module=NS-MySQL_Tools&op=main&type=admin].
Keep your database information ready for the installation (db username, password, db name, etc.)
Unzip and copy all the MD-Pro files and folders in a new subdirectory of your web root.
Attention: Don't overwrite an existing system directly with the new files. Many of the file and folder names have been changed or deleted: unused files could cause problems to the system.
Set following attributes (Chmod) on UNIX/LINUX servers:
chmod 666 all files in /config folder
chmod 666 config.php file in MD-Pro root directory
chmod 777 /config folder
chmod 777 /upload folder and all subfolders
chmod 777 /images/avatar/personal folder
chmod 777 /themes/Theme_Name/theme.cfg file for each AutoTheme installed.
If you want to continue to use your eNvolution theme layout, copy module Encompass and Nomoreblocks from the eNvolution installation to the MD-Pro/modules folder.
Copy Encompass-Themes, if you want to reuse the MD-Pro/themes folder.
Create a new /xcache folder for the Encompass Themes you want to reuse directly in the MD-Pro root directory. Create a subfolder in it with the same name of the eNvolution theme you want to use for each theme.
On UNIX/LINUX server set chmod 777 for /xcache folder and for each subfolder.
B. Upgrade script
Now run the install script like in new installations, paying attention to step 4 Database information. Here follows the step-by-step upgrade procedure:
Open your favorite web browser and type the URL of the MD-Pro install script: http://www.mydomain.com/[MD-Pro_subdirectory]/install.php
Step 1: Language choice

Choose the language for your web site. [English] is the language for your website: then click Set Language button.

Step 2: GNU/GPL License

Read MD-Pro License and click on Continue

Step 3: Chmod checks
On UNIX/LINUX servers you need to set up the right attributes on some files and folders, as in previous chapters. This script will check all these attributes (chmods) and eventually give the error for incorrect chmod settings. Change these wrong attributes: if a green light appears on every item of the page, you can go on by clicking the Continue button.
* 666 to allow the install script to write and read the configuration lines in the config.php file: these settings allows encryption and writes the configuration parameters to make them securer and for changes to be made directly from the Admin Panel preferences.
* 777 read write and execute permissions for some directories and subdirectories to allow a direct management from the Admin Panel or the direct upload of images via a browser in some modules, as Avatars, News, etc. Click on the Continue button if you have no errors.
If you have a chmod error on the config.php file, leave the browser open, open again you favorite FTP program and set chmod permission on the files shown by the script. Check again the install script using your browser.

Step 4: Database Information
In this window insert the database user name and password and the name of the database copied in the previous step from the env-config.php file of eNvolution (use the same data...), and, IMPORTANT: change the table prefix from md to the one used in the env-config.php file of eNvolution, usually envo. If you have doubts, open the env-config.php file of eNvolution or open your PhpMyAdmin tool and verify the prefix before the eNvolution table's name. Do not check the box Site is for Intranet. Then click the Submit button.

Step 5: Database information check
Check if the inserted information is right. If you made any mistakes, click the Change info button, otherwise click the Upgrade button. (NOT THE NEW INSTALL ONE).

Step 6: Choose version
Choose the eNvolution version you wish to upgrade and click the Upgrade button. Wait a few minutes, the upgrade procedure can take some time... Anyway, the next window has to appear.


Step 7: Upgrade information
Insert the requested information.
If you've installed MD-Pro in a new directory on the web server, some paths will be different from those in eNvolution:
o MD-Pro Theme: Check this option if you want to use default themes of MD-Pro and the AutoTheme theme engine. Do not check this box if you want to continue to use your default theme and the eNcompass theme engine of eNvolution.
o NoMoreBlocks: Check this option if you want to continue to use the settings of eNvolution's NoMoreBlocks.
o Encompass: Check this box if you want to continue to use eNcompass as your theme engine.
o EW-Filemanager: The file manager is default (is the same) of eNvolution version 1.2.5 FLS. Check this box.
o EW-Subjects: Subjects Module is default (is the same) as the one in eNvolution version 1.2.5 FLS. Check this box.
Click the Confirm button.

Step 8: Database updates.
In this screen you will see all the modifications made by the upgrade procedure on the old eNvolution database tables. At the end click the Finish button.


Step 9: Upgrade procedure
Please pay attention to the results of the upgrade process shown by this screen.

Step 10: Credits
Thanks to everyone who helped create this wonderful MD-Pro system and the upgrade procedure... click the Go to your MD-Pro site button.

Step 11: Blocks & Modules
Copy all blocks and third party (not default) Modules you use with eNvolution to the relative directories in MD-Pro: activate and regenerate all Modules.

Step 12: System Testing and delete eNvolution
Test all blocks and modules for errors or warnings. If the upgrade procedure worked fine, delete all eNvolution files and directories and remember to also delete the install.php file and the whole/install directory on the web root installation path.
Then edit all paths in
o Filemanager [index.php?module=ew_filemanager&type=admin&func=modifyconfig], in
o Editor [index.php?module=RteMulti&type=admin&func=modifyconfig] e in
o Themes [index.php?module=subjects&type=admin&func=modifyconfig].
If there are any errors or problems with this upgrade procedure, please visit its relevant forum on http://www.maxdev.com and post your errors.

* Upgrade from Postnuke
A. Preparing upgrade procedure
Download the latest version of MD-Pro from the official Download section on http://www.maxdev.com .
Make a backup of your Postnuke database. You can use phpMyAdmin for that.
Keep your database information ready for the installation (db username, password, db name, etc.) from your configure.php file of the Postnuke system.
Unzip and copy all the MD-Pro files and folders in a new subdirectory of your web root.
Attention: Do not overwrite an existing system directly with the new files. Many of the file and folder names have been changed or deleted: unused files could cause problems to the system.
Set following attributes (Chmod) on UNIX/LINUX servers:
chmod 666 all files in /config folder
chmod 666 config.php file in MD-Pro root directory
chmod 777 /config folder
chmod 777 /upload folder and all subfolders
chmod 777 /images/avatar/personal folder
chmod 777 /themes/Theme_Name/theme.cfg file for each AutoTheme installed.
Copy all the Themes you want to reuse to the MD-Pro /themes folder.
B. Upgrade script
Now run the install script like in new installations, paying attention to step 4 Database information. Here follows the step-by-step upgrade procedure:
Open your favorite web browser and type the URL of the MD-Pro install script: http://www.mydomain.com/[MD-Pro_subdirectory]/install.php
Step 1: Language

Choose the language for your web site. [English] is the language for your website: then click Set Language button.
Step 2: GNU/GPL License

Read MD-Pro License and click on Continue


Step 3: Chmod checks
On UNIX/LINUX servers you need to set up the right attributes on some files and folders, as in previous chapters. This script will check all these attributes (chmods) and eventually show the error for incorrect chmod settings. Change these wrong attributes: if a green light appears on every item of the page, you can go on by clicking the Continue button.
* 666 allows the install script to write and read the configuration lines in the config.php file: these settings allows encryption and writes the configuration parameters to make them securer and for changes to be made directly from Admin Panel preferences.
* 777 read write and execute permissions for some directories and subdirectories to allow direct management from the Admin Panel or the direct upload of images via a browser in some modules, as Avatars, News, etc. Click the Continue button if you have no errors.
If you have a chmod error on the config.php file, leave the browser open, open again you favorite FTP program and set chmod permission on the files shown by the script. Check again the install script using your browser.


Step 4: Database Information
In this window insert your database user name and password and the name of the database copied in the previous step from the config.php file of PostNuke (use the same data...), and, IMPORTANT: change the table prefix from md to the one used in the config.php file of PostNuke. If you have doubts, open the config.php file of PostNuke or open your PhpMyAdmin tool and verify the prefix before the PostNuke table's name. Do not check the box Site is for Intranet. Then click the Submit button.
.


Step 5: Database information check
Check if the inserted information is right. If you made any mistakes, click the Change info button, otherwise click the Upgrade button. (NOT THE NEW INSTALL ONE).


Step 6: Choose version
Choose the PostNuke version you want to upgrade and click on the Upgrade button. Wait a few minutes, the upgrade procedure can take some time... Anyway, the next window has to appear.


Step 7: Upgrade information
Insert the requested information.
If you've installed MD-Pro in a new directory on the web server, some paths will be different than those in PostNuke:
o MD-Pro Theme: Check this option if you want to use default themes of MD-Pro and the AutoTheme theme engine. Do not check this box if you want to continue to use your default PostNuke theme.
o EW-Filemanager: Check this box if you want to use the default MD-Pro file manager.
o EW-Subjects: Check this box if you want to use the default MD-Pro Subjects module.
o MD-Pro AdminPanel: Check this box if you want to use the new MD-Pro Admin Panel.
Click the Confirm button.


Step 8: Database updates.
On this screen you will see all the modifications made by the upgrade procedure on the old PostNuke database tables. At the end click the Finish button.


Step 9: Upgrade procedure
Please pay attention to the results of the upgrade process shown by this screen.

Step 10: Credits
Thanks to everyone who helped create this wonderful MD-Pro system and the upgrade procedure... click the Go to your MD-Pro site button.

Step 11: Blocks & Modules
Copy all blocks and third party (not default) Modules you use with PostNuke to the relevant directories in MD-Pro: activate and regenerate all Modules.

Step 12: System Testing and delete PostNuke

Test all blocks and modules for errors or warnings. If the upgrade procedure worked fine, delete all PostNuke files and directories and remember to also delete the install.php file and the whole /install directory on the web root installation path.
Then edit all paths in
o Filemanager [index.php?module=ew_filemanager&type=admin&func=modifyconfig], in
o Editor [index.php?module=RteMulti&type=admin&func=modifyconfig] e in
o Themes [index.php?module=subjects&type=admin&func=modifyconfig].
If there are any errors or problems with this upgrade procedure, please visit its relevant forum on http://www.maxdev.com and post your errors.

Chapter 18: Basic Setup: the Admin Panel

Okay, you have your new MD-Pro site running on a remote host, now here are some security steps to avoid others from running the install script again by running the script URL http://www.mydomain.com/install.php and caption the database access information registered in the /config/md-config.php file or to avoid others from running the installation script again and changing your admin access account. If someone else could run the install script, they would be able to see clearly in the Database Information page your data. So you have to delete the install.php file and the whole /install directory in your MD-Pro web root to disable further installations. So open again your favorite FTP client, as LeechFTP, connect to your bookmarked web space, right click the install files, select Delete. Remember that some FTP clients as LeechFTP do not delete directories directly which contain subdirectories: so you have to enter every subdirectory and delete all files inside, only then proceed with the directory deletion.
Now you're ready to explore the MD-Pro Admin Panel to manage all parts of your system.
You have to connect to the system as Admin: so login with the Members Login box using the username and password you entered during installation (you do remember?). Also remember that PHP is case sensitive: pay attention to capital letters.


The System Admin logs in as any normal user, but the system recognizes him as an Admin, part of the Admin Group, that has the permissions to manage every part of the site.
Insert username and password and click on the Login button: select the Remember me box only if you want to be automatically recognized as Admin on the computer you are using at that moment. But it's a good rule for Admins to disconnect each time from the system after a working session and to reconnect, especially if you connect from computers used by other people.
A new link appears in the left Main Menu block of MD-Pro: Administration: click this link and a new page appears:


You can also access the Admin Panel by typing the following URL http://www.mydomain.com/admin.php.
MD-Pro also provides an Admin Menu as a left block in default installation, right below the Main Menu block: this admin block is visible only to Admin Group members.


To access the Admin Panel you can type the site's URL with the admin.php page, or you can log in and click the Administration link in the Main Menu or use the special Administration Block.
The Admin Panel consists of Sections: each section contains a category of homogeneous administrative items: Quick Links, Contents, Members, Settings and Misc. Here comes a brief description of single items: see The Advanced Administration Guide for specific use and management of single functions. Its Guide will be released soon.
Basic setup: The Preferences
The basic setup and configuration of the MD-Pro site.
Now log in as Admin, as shown before. Insert your Admin username and password in the login box:


You can also access the Admin Panel by typing the site's URL with the admin.php page, or you can log in and click the Administration link in the Main Menu or use the special Administration Block.


Select the Settings link and the following page appears:


Select the Preferences icon, from where you can setup all the basic site configurations.
The first part of the page is related to the General info for the site:
* Site name: this text box accepts only 13 characters: the site's name is displayed by some themes and appears automatically in the browser's page title, so it's visible to your visitors. It's also a meta tag registered by search engine robots. It is referenced by some modules and by AutoTheme themes as the variable [site-name].
* Site logo: is the logo image by default the /images/logo.gif image and /images/upload/logo.gif, is preferred by various modules and themes as [logo-image].
* Site slogan: appears in various default themes, and in any case, after the site's name in the browser's page title so it's visible to all visitors of your site. It also represents a meta tag for the search engine robots and appears in the HTML code of every page of the site as a Meta tag. Modules and themes refers to it as the variable [site-slogan].
* Meta keywords: Meta keywords are normally used by search engine robots: they are automatically added to the headers of every site's page. Some search engines accept only a certain number of keywords: enter these in order of importance.
* Dynamic Meta keywords: enabling this function, also the words composing your News will be added to the HTML header, and when you click on the title of a news article or if you show it on a page.
* Enable short URL's?: Search engines and spiders index primarily "normal" web pages (made in simple HTML), and only then dynamic pages (HTML created by script languages as PHP, ASP, etc.). Short URLs module modifies the extensions of the MD-Pro pages, without any damage to the scripts and links, into normally indexed extensions, as .htm, .html, .phtml or what you require. In this way the pages of your site will be better indexed by the search engines. Short URLs require particular settings on an Apache web server: mod_rewrite parameter has to be active. Some tests also show that Short URLs are not totally compatible with Apache 2.x." (Valentino Monaco). "On some servers, the line "Options FollowSymLinks" of the .htaccess file can also cause some problems: delete the line" (chtekk). Before activating this feature, please read online documentation at http://www.maxdev.com.
* Use new Admin?: New Admin is the new admin interface: graphic or in block with the items grouped in Sections: Quick Links, Contents, Members, Settings and Misc.
* Site start date: the date can be entered in a desired format: it will be stored as a string. It's used by statistical modules.
* Admin E-mail: it's the e-mail address used by the system for system notifications, as error logs, unsubscription of users, etc. You need therefore a mail system installed on the server. Otherwise, leave blank (as for local systems).
* Default theme: selecting from a drop down list you will find all themes included as a subdirectory of the /themes directory. It's the default theme visible to all visitors of your site and also for all members, if you haven't checked next item "Allow users to override theme". Remember: if you want to edit the default theme and it's an AutoTheme, you must change to another theme before modifying it.
* Allow users to override theme?: Check it only if you have all the themes of the /theme directory ready to use: themes must be configured with single block areas, modules view, etc. If you want to allow users to change a theme, remember that they can select each theme in your /themes folder! Another tip: If you have already configured the settings in the folder /themes, remember that registered members will be able to choose different settings that are in the folder /themes. (If it can be changed.) We suggest you keep more than one setting in the folder and to always have a configured settings back-up in addition to the settings used. ExtraLite is a program that sorts out problems of visualizing settings and permits the user to enter the system and solving the problems that have been caused by a errors . The address for help with ExtraLite is http://www.mydomain.com/index.php?theme=ExtraLite
* Display right blocks in articles?: Not the classic right blocks of the home page, but the block "Related links" when you open an article (e.g. the page appearing when you click on the title of a news article or when you click on the Read more link of a news item shown on the news page).
* Local time format: insert en_EN or en_US for English sites: other formats are for 12 or 24 hours: it's the hour and date format of the site.
* Timezone offset: Attention: it's the timezone of the server: it depends on where the server is physically located: users can configure their own timezone in their profile.
* Start page: it's the page of the module where index.php file points to: select it from the drop down list. This page will be the home page of your site: default is the News Module. Remember to configure the module you want to use as the home page with AutoTheme to show the block areas you wish.
* Numbers of articles on Admin menu: when you open the Admin Panel or the Quick Links section a table on the middle of the page appears with the last published articles: how many past articles has to be shown in this Admin page?
* Stories # in home page: it's the number of articles or news shown in home page when the News Module is selected as the home page: less articles will slightly speed up the loading start page, naturally considering other components as images, number and types of blocks, etc.
* Order of News in home page: you can select to show the news order by an ID number or by a publishing date: remember news can be configured for future publishing.
* Graphics in Admin Menu: if you want to show the icons for every admin item on the Admin Panel or not; no graphics will speed up the loading of the Admin Panel.
* Send error reports by mail: this function allows the system to send an e-mail to the admin when a visitor clicks on a broken link or on a non-existing page: the famous Apache error 404 page not found. You will be advised on broken links from other sites that link to you (for all referrers). It's very useful after an upgrade from other systems (e.g. eNvolution or PostNuke) to check for broken links.
* Enable error messages in errors.php: select it if you want the system to show up a standard error page with instructions on what to do for the user (it's the content of the error.php file in the root directory: you can customize this page).
* Enable anti-cracker? A new security function that fixes some previous bugs in the system: select it.
* Initial group for users: attention: do not modify it if you haven't set up a new group for the users in Admin Panel >> Members >> Groups and Permissions. Leave the group Users as the default group for registered members, who will have certain specific permissions. See Advanced Administration Guide for further information.
* Select the language for your site: it's the default language of the site: the selected language must be a subfolder in the /languages folder of MD-Pro. Attention: only some defines will appear in the selected language: some items, the news, the blocks, and anything else you entered on the site won't be translated....). Note: some Modules have the translation only in some languages: check in the /lang folder of your preinstalled modules if there is your language subfolder.
* Enable compression? Ask your server administrator if your hosting web space has some programs as Pphcompressor activated: do not enable this function. If you don't have other active compressors, this function compresses data in the background speeding up pages loading.
* Footer messages: it's the footer on the bottom of each page of the site: usually this is used for copyright messages, credits, etc. Fill in what you want in HTML, you can also link images.
Example of footer: <br>All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owners.<br>Comment are property of their posters, the rest is (c) 2003 mine. <br>This site was made with <a href="http://www.maxdev.com/" target="_blank">MD-Pro</a>, a Content Management System written in PHP. <br>MD-Pro is Free Software released under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/" target="_blank">GNU/GPL license</a> Show our news on your site using <a href="backend.php"> backend.php file</a>
It would be respectable to leave in the footer a link to maxdev.com for crediting those who created this wonderful system you're using.
* Backend configuration: backend file allows other sites to list your News headlines in a RSS block in XML format. The backend function is enabled by default: if you want to disable it, rename or delete the backend.php file in the root directory. The backend title is the title of the requested page for the other sites: select the language for the headline shown. Do not insert the name of your site here because it's automatically shown in the XML: use something like the slogan of your site. To see the RSS page of your site, open it with your favorite browser http://www.mydomain.com/backend.php.
* Security options: you have three items:
* high security: user has to log-in each time to the site;
* medium security: user stays logged to the site for a certain number of days as specified below;
* low security: user stays always logged on to the site.
Medium security is recommended.
* Users become inactive after not using the system for: it's the expiration time of a user's session, e.g. 20 minutes of idleness on the site.
* Referrers check and print a page: referrers are the visitors to your web site: so you can control access in different sessions. A page with these results will be printed. Pay attention if you enable this for high traffic sites.
* Site is for Intranet: Intranet has to be set if you can't access MD-Pro with a full qualified host name (e.g. http://www.mydomain.com/). Enabling this will remove some security levels of the system. Enable it only if you are running a local system or if you use a firewall and the users outside the firewall cannot access your MD-Pro site. Basically, select Yes if you run a local site, No if it's a remote site.
* HTML options: enables or disables the use of HTML tags in MD-Pro: it's about the use of certain tags in the text boxes and text areas in editing the contents of the site. If you allow certain tags, specify if you wish to allow their parameters. If you do not allow some tags as <IMG> then you cannot put images in the modules content as in News or Subjects module, as stated in the message below the tag's table.
* Translate embedded HTML entities into real characters: mostly used in multibyte support of some Asian languages that use particular characters beginning with &# . Select No for European languages.
Click the Save button to register these settings. That's all.
***********************************************************
For further and advanced information on the site's administration, please visit the http://www.maxdev.com online documentation: the Advanced Administration Guide is "work in progress" :-)
For requests or problems with installation, please search in the rich support forum on http://www.maxdev.com.
....good webmastering with this great system....

P.S. We'd like to thank all the numerous users of the international MaxDev community who have collaborated to this Guide with their postings and suggestions on the various support forums from the maxdev.com site, also reporting bugs and system errors, showing once again the real meaning of a Collaborative Open Source Community.


Angelo Gagliani
Staff of maxdev.com


License
MD-Pro: Installation Guide 1.0 is (c) 2003 Gagliani Angelo and maxdev.com for the MaxDev Documentation Project. You have the right to publish and to distribute in the terms of the Open Publication License; this is a particular type of licence that allows you all the freedom to copy and redistribute all the material, without modifications, with no-profit scope and permits to the authors and the editors of being recognized for their work also preserving the theme from the responsibility of modifications subsequently brought to the document. In short, it means that you cannot make modifications to this document, but you can publish it, download it or always distribute it with the same licence and conserving the credits of the authors. The insertion of the document in commercial distributions is subordinated to the permission of the author, otherwise this is prohibited.
The text of the licence having legal value can be found at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/. In all cases, contact the authors if you want to publish this document: e-mail capra@maxdev.com or webmaster@maxdev.com
The philosophy of the GNU and Linux community is a mutual collaboration. Therefore, if you want to contribute to this document, adding sections or correcting existing text, contact the author and your changes will be inserted into the document with your credits.