Welcome to PHPForms Installation Guide! Thank you for choosing our form mail script and welcome to PHPForms Installation! These quick installation notes will guide you through the setup process of PHPForms, advanced PHP email form and form validation solution. This guide covers all the steps of installation procedure: from initial preparation stage (uploading files to your web server) to the final stage (logging to administrator account of web form builder). Altogether this will take no more than 10 minutes. NOTE: please read the entire document before proceeding to the actual installation Normally, PHPForms installation does not require knowledge of PHP and MySQL, but if you are familiar with file uploading using FTP client, database settings, Zip tool, this is a great advantage. If you are not sure how to set PHPForms up, or got lost on some stage, please, do not hesitate to contact our support team and request absolutely FREE installation of this PHP form. Learn how to contact us online at http://phpforms.net/support.html, or email us at support@phpforms.net Before installing PHPForms make sure your server meets the following requirements: - PHP 4.x or higher - mySQL 4.30.x or higher - Zend Optimizer 3.0 or higher If you are not sure if your server meets these requirements, please check with your web hosting. So... let's start the installation! PHPForms Installation Procedure Step 1. Download and extract to your computer the script distributive (zip file). Use your favourite zip program to unzip the archive. Step 2. Using an FTP program (e.g. CuteFTP, WinSCP, FAR manager, etc.), log into your web server and create a new directory in the 'public_html" or "httpdocs' folder*. Give a name to the folder you've just created (e.g. 'phpforms') * The location may be different on your server. Step 3. PHPForms requires permissions to create and modify new files in its directory. You can change directory and file permissions using most of FTP programs. Please make sure the permissions for the PHPForms directory (created on the 2nd step) are CHMODed* to 0755 (or 0777). (Owner: Read, Write, Execute; Group: Read, Write, Execute; Others: Read, Write and/or Execute). * CHMOD is a command for changing file permissions. Below is some necessary information on permissions change on Unix and Windows machines: Unix File Permissions To set file permissions with your FTP program, right click on a file or directory, and look for a command like 'Change File Permissions', File Attributes, or 'chmod'. Windows File Permissions Normally, PHP scripts can run on Windows environment without having to set any file permissions. However, sometimes servers are set up in such a way that PHP scripts do not have access to write to their directory and data files. In this case, you will have to ask your server administrators for further assistance. Here's the short explanation on the numbers used for folder and files permissions: 777 anyone can do anything (read, write, or execute). 775 the group and the owner have read, write and execute permissions, others can only read and write. 755 you can do anything; others can only read and execute. 666 sets read and write access for the owner, the group, and all others. Step 4. Using an FTP program, login to your web server and upload the unpacked files from your local computer into the remote website directory. Upload the contents of the unzipped archive to the directory you've created on the server (except install.txt). Step 5. CHMOD the folders 'cnk-conf' and 'cnk-conf/databases' to 0755 (or 0777). Change permissions for 'phpforms.php' file to 0666. Step 6. Run the installation program: paste the following URL to your browser address bar http://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/PHPForms/install.php NOTE: replace 'YOUR-DOMAIN.COM' with your site web address; replace 'PHPForms' with your directory name created in step 2. This URL (http://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/PHPForms/install.php) is only an EXAMPLE, do not paste it exactly in the same way as it is shown in this example. Step 7. Read and accept Terms and Conditions (press the Accept button) Step 8. In the next step an inbuilt script for system check is run. This script will check if your server settings meet the PHPForms requirements. The required PHP modules are: mysql session mbstring gd or gd2 (this module isn’t required, but if missing, CAPTCHA won’t work in your forms). Normally gd (graphic library) comes by default in PHP 4 and PHP 5 and you should advise your system administrator if it is possible to install this library. If any of the required modules are missing, PHPForms won’t be installed properly and you should advise your system administrators about the missing modules. Directories If in the Current column you see ‘Not writable’, you will need to change permissions to an appropriate value (see steps 3 and 5) ./ - this value means the main directory with all the script files (the directory created on the 2nd step) ./phpforms.php – if not writable, change permissions to 666 ./cnk-conf/ - if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings) ./cnk-conf/databases - if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings) ./img-code – (for Pro and Members versions only) - if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings) ./img-code/I - (for Pro and Members versions only) - if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings) Files Integrity If the files/folders were uploaded not in a binary mode or are corrupted, in the Current column you will see “Broken”. In this case, you will need to re-upload in a binary mode and re-run the installation. Step 9. Configurations Settings. Here you will need to enter the following information: General Settings: This section contains general settings for the installation. Do not make any changes here unless you are sure of the correct values you specify - Number = Your license key (Obligatory). After press “Proceed” button if the key wasn’t entered correctly, you will be redirected to a page for creating administrator. If the key was not entered correctly, you will see the notification message that explains the reason of license key rejection (In this case you need to press “Return” button in your browser’s panel). - Site name = PHPForms, this is the window title, changeable field - Path to script directory = some value, entered automatically, leave this field unchanged - Path to user uploaded files = this folder will contain all the files uploaded via your forms, leave this field unchanged - Script URL = some value, entered automatically - Charset = here you can specify the charset that will be used in PHPForms by default. This charset will be valid for all your forms. Database Settings: This information is required in order to connect to your database and create administrator account. You can create a new database using your web hosting control panel or use an existing database (see the instructions on database creation below). - MySQL server (hostname) = localhost (usually, change if applicable) - MySQL server port (leave blank if hostname is localhost, default value is 3306) - MySQL database name (enter the appropriate value, this can be a new* or an existing database) - MySQL database user name (enter the appropriate value. The user must have full privileges to use the database you specify above) - MySQL database password (enter the appropriate value. This is the password for your database user) *NOTE: To create a database in your Hosting Control Panel, go to the section MySQL Databases. 1) Create Database Below you'll see the field New Database. Enter the name for this database and click the button "Create Database". Once the database is created, you'll need to create/assign the user for this database. You can also use an existing database for PHPForms. The script will create its own tables with the pf_ prefix, thus ensuring that no existing tables are affected. 2) Create User To create a new user, enter the username/password and click "Create User". 3) Add Users To Your Databases Select the user and the database from drop down menus, tick the checkbox All under "Privileges" and click "Add User to Database" Step 10. Create the administrator account. Enter the following details: - Login is the username to access the admin interface - Password is the password to access the admin interface - Confirm password to make sure the data is entered correctly - E-mail is the administrator email address. The admin details will be sent to this address once the installation is complete. Step 11. If the installation is successful, you will see a notifying message. Check your email account (email address entered in step 10) for instructions to login to your admin account. NOTE: If you have any troubles installing the script, please contact our support team at support@phpforms.net with details. Step 12. Congratulations! We appreciate your choice of PHPForms! You can now log into the admin interface by pressing the ‘Log in’ button.