PHP-Nuke Tutorial and Installation How To

Thiis tutorial describes how to install PHP-Nuke with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. All NEXCESS.NET shared and reseller hosting accounts can support PHP-NUKE, and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup and configure PHP-Nuke 8.x with our web hosting service.

PHP-Nuke is a popular web based automated news publishing and content management system based on PHP and MySQL. PHP-Nuke is distributed under the GPL ("General Public License") meaning it is free to download and use as long as you do not remove the copyright notice on the bottom of the pages. What distinguishes PHP-Nuke from other rival CMS is that it's designed to be very customizable and flexible. Little to no HTML experience is needed, so you don't have to worry about modifying any code.

Make sure your host supports PHP-Nuke! This step only applies only if you don't have a NEXCESS.NET hosting plan, all of our shared and reseller plans support PHP-Nuke. If you're not a NEXCESS.NET client, then you can check the minimum requirements for PHP-Nuke on their website.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up PHP-Nuke at http://johnsmith.com/phpnk/

1. Set up a database for PHP-NUKE to use
   The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a MySQL username and database for PHP-Nuke to use to store the information it needs. For the purpose of making this tutorial simple, we are going to use nuk_usr as the PHP-Nuke database user and nuke_db as the PHP-Nuke database.
2. Download the PHP-NUKE software, then upload it to your account
   Go to the PHP-Nuke download pageand download the ".zip" archive of the software. Upload the PHP-Nuke zip file to the home directory of your site. If you need help with FTPing files, you can check out the FTP tutorials on our tutorials page.
3. Extract the files into the appropriate directory
   Once the archive is done uploading, open an SSH connection to your website.
   If you do not have SSH access or are not familiar with SSH please visit our SSH tutorial.
   Upon opening a new SSH session you should automatically directed to your home directory were the PHP-Nuke tar file is located. Verify the file exists by typing "ls" without the quotation marks then hit enter to see the contents of your home directory. Decide what directory you want to install PHP-Nuke in. If you want to install it in your home directory, continue on to the next step, otherwise simply move the zip file to the directory you wish to use for PHP-Nuke. For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to assume you are installing PHP-Nuke in a folder named phpnk. To unzip the file, run the following command: unzip PHP-Nuke-8.0.zip This command will extract the PHP-Nuke files and folders from the zip file. Now you need to change some permissions on a couple of PHP-Nuke files. Either copy and paste these commands, or simply type them out: chmod 777 config.php
   chmod 777 ultramode.txt Alternatively you could unzip the files on your computer and then upload them to your account, then change the file permissions via FTP.
4. Run the PHP-NUKE install script
   Open a new browser window, navigate to http://johnsmith.com/phpnuk/html/install/index.php, replacing johnsmith.com with your domain name of course.
   
   You may see this error after accessing the online install script
   Click the link in the line "You can proceed with the web installation now" and you will be forwarded to the "pre-installation check" page. There shouldn't be any problems that prevent you from installing PHP-Nuke. If there are major permissions issues, contact NEXCESS support and we will help you. When you are ready click the "Next" button. Then read and accept the License, then click the "Next" button.
5. Enter your database settings
   The next page titled "MySQL database configuration" will prompt you to enter the MySQL database name, username, and password you created earlier. For the Host Name, enter "localhost" without the quotes. Enter your MySQL information. Your configuration should look similar to this:
   
   Enter the settings for the database you created earlier
   Click the "Next" button, the PHP-Nuke will attempt to connect to your database. If successful you will be forwarded to the next step. If your MySQL settings are not correct, adjust them accordingly.
6. Finishing installation
   Next you will enter a name for your PHP-Nuke site, do so then click the "Next" button. The next step will prompt you for your email. The Site URL and Admin password fields should be already populated. Either keep the admin password default, or change it to whatever you please. Then click the "Next" button. The next page will congratulate you for successfully installing PHP-Nuke. Note the warning to remove the install directory! Do not proceed further, go to either your SSH session, or your FTP session, and remove the PHP-Nuke directory titled "install" it should be located under the "html" directory of the directory were you are installing PHP-Nuke. When you have successfully removed the "install" directory, go back to the PHP-Nuke installer. From here you can either go to your site, or to the Administration Page.

Congratulations you have successfully installed PHP-Nuke!

If you are a NEXCESS hosting customer and any-part of this tutorial is unclear or you need further help, don't hesitate to contact our support team by submitting a ticket through my.nexcess.net.

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