Content Manager Tutorial and Installation How To

This tutorial describes how to use the Content Manager software with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting Content Manager websites and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup your dB Masters' Content Manager with our web hosting service.

Content Manager is an open source script, meaning that you can distribute and change it freely.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up Content Manager at http://johnsmith.com/cm/.

Follow these steps to complete the tutorial:

1. The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a database for Content Manager to use to store the information it needs.

   Create a database called 'cm' with a user named 'cm'. When you do this SiteWorx will prefix the database and user names with some text resembling your domain name.

   With our example domain of 'johnsmith.com' the database name is 'johnsmit_cm' and the username is the same 'johnsmit_cm'.
2. Download the latest version of Content Manager from the Content Manager website and unzip the contents of the zip file to your desktop using http://winzip.com.

   You should now have all the files and folders necessary to install and run your Content Manager on your desktop. Create a folder named 'cm' and place all the files and folders into it. Open the 'cm' folder. You should see a file named 'config.php'. You need to open this file in your text editing program and change some values in order for the script to work with your server and database. For this example, we'll change the following information:

   • $database_login="johnsmit_cm";
   • $database_pass="mypassword";
   • $database_name="johnsmit_cm";
   • $site_title="John Smith's Site";
   • $Site_URL="http://www.johnsmith.com/cm";
   • $Site_Path="/home/johnsmith.com/html/cm";
   • $admin_mail="johnsmith@johnsmith.com";
   • $Alert_Email="johnsmith@johnsmith.com";
   • $super_username="admin";
   • $super_password="mypassword";

   Your screen should look like this:

   

   You can change the other values according to your preferences if you'd like. For this example, we'll leave them set as the default values. Save and close the Content Manager 'config.php' file.

3. Upload the 'cm' folder to your web hosting account. You can do this using an FTP program. If you don't know how to do this, check out the FTP tutorials on our tutorials page.
4. You can now access the Content Manager install page. For this example, we'll point to 'http://www.johnsmith.com/cm/content/install.php'. You should now be on the admin login page. If you receive any errors, make sure you entered the correct information for your database in the 'config.php' file. Enter the username and password you created for your admin account. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Login' button to continue. You should now be on the Content Manager site admin page. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'You still need to go through the install process' link. You should now be on the first page of the installation. Your screen should look like this:?

   

   Check to make sure your paths are correct. They should be. Click on the 'Install base version' link to continue with installation. Your tables should be created. If you receive any errors, make sure you entered the correct information for your database in the 'config.php' file. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Upgrade from version 1.x to version 2' link to continue. You should see one error message but the upgrade should be complete. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Upgrade from version 2.x to version 3' link to continue. You should see one error message but the upgrade should be complete. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Upgrade from version 3.x to version 4' link to continue. You should see one error message but the upgrade should be complete. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Return to Install page' link. Your tables should be altered, created and updated. Your screen should look like this:

   

   The Content Manager tutorial is now complete. You are logged into the admin control panel. From here you can manage your Content Manager how you see fit.

   For more information on how to use Content Manager once it's installed, check out the Content Manager Page.

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