Typo3 Tutorial and Installation How To

This tutorial describes how to use the Typo3 content management software with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting Typo3 software and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup your site with our web hosting service.

Typo3 is licensed under the GPL, meaning that it's free to use and distribute and you can make changes to the software as you see fit.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up Typo3 at http://johnsmith.com/typo3/.

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 Typo3 to use to store the information it needs.

   Create a database called 'typo3' with a user named 'typo3'. 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_typo3' and the username is the same 'johnsmit_typo3'.
2. Download the latest version of Typo3 from the Typo3 website. For this example, we'll download the Dummy Package, version 3.6.0rc2. Unzip the contents of the zip file to your desktop using http://winzip.com. You should now have a folder which contains all the files and folders you need to install and run Typo3. Rename the 'dummy-3.6.0RC2' folder to 'typo3'. You also need to change a line in the 'typo3/install/index.php' file in order for the install script to run. Open this file in your text editing program. Scroll down to the line '// This checks for my own IP at home. You can just remove the if-statement.'. You need to delete the 'if' statement right here for the install script to run. This is for security purposes, not an error in their script. Delete from the word 'if' to the '}' below it. Your screen should now look like this:

   

   Save and close the 'index.php' file.
3. Upload the 'typo3' 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 tutorial on our tutorials page.

   Once the Typo3 files and folders are finished uploading, you need to change the permissions on some of the files and folders so the script can write to them. You can do this using the CHMOD command in your FTP program. If you don't know how to do this, check out the FTP tutorial on our tutorials page. For this example, you need to change the permissions as follows:

   • CHMOD the 'typo3conf/localconf.php' file to 666
   • CHMOD the 'typo3conf' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'typo3temp' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'typo3conf/ext' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'typo3/ext' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'uploads' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'uploads/pics' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'uploads/media' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'uploads/tf' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'fileadmin' folder to 777
   • CHMOD the 'fileadmin/_temp_' folder to 777
4. Once you've changed the permissions on the files and folders, you can access the 'install.php' page to begin the installation. For this example, we'll point to 'http://www.johnsmith.com/typo3/typo3/install/index.php'. You should now see a popup window giving you some tips on installation. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Make sure your browser accepts cookies, which is the default for your browser, and click 'Ok'. You should now see a password field. This installation is password protected for security purposes. Enter 'joh316' as the password. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Log in' button to begin the installation. You should now be on the Typo3 first page of the installer. It will give you an overview of what the installer will be doing to install the script and a legend for the different icons you'll see through the installation. For security reasons, you should change the install password right away. Enter a new password twice in the fields. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Set new password' button to continue. The password should be saved successfully. If you receive any errors, make sure you set the correct permissions on the files and folders. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Basic Configuration' link at the top to continue. You should now be on the install login screen again. You changed your password so the script can no longer be accessed using the old password. Enter your new password in the field. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Log in' button to log back into the installer. You should now be on the 'Basic Configuration' screen. Your screen should look like this:

   

   The script will run some tests to make sure your server can run Typo3 properly. The following gives you some idea of what you'll see:

   • In the directories section, all of the directories should pass the test. If you receive any errors, make sure you set the correct permissions for the files and folders.
   • In the php.ini section, you should see an error saying that the memory limit is too low. In order to fix this, you need to open ticket on our support page asking to increase the limit for your domain. Once the memory limit has been set above 16 MB, refresh this page and the error should go away.
   • The GDLib section should pass the tests with no problems
   • The ImageMagik section should pass the tests with no problems
   • In the database section, you should receive several errors because we haven't set these values yet.

   Scroll down to the form where you need to enter your database information. In these fields, you need to enter the information for the database you created in step #1. For this example, we'll enter the following information:

   • Username: johnsmit_typo3
   • Password: johnsmit_typo3
   • Host: localhost

   You can change the site name if you'd like. For this example, we'll leave it set as the default. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Update localconf.php' button to continue. The values will be written to the config file. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Click to continue...' link to go back to the Basic Configuration screen. You should now be back on the Basic page. Scroll down to the database section and choose your Typo3 database from the dropdown box. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Update localconf.php' button to save it to the config file. The database name will be saved to the config file. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Click to continue...' link to return. You should now be back on the Basic Configuration screen. Click on the 'Database Analyzer' link at the top to continue. The script will attempt to connect to your database. If you receive any errors, go back to the Basic page and make sure you entered the correct information for your database. Scroll down to the Menu section. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'IMPORT' link to import the tables into your database. You should now see an overview of which tables to import into your database. Check the box next to the 'Import the whole file' option. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Write to Database' button to import the tables into your database. The tables will be imported into the database. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the 'Backend admin in new window' link to open up the admin control panel login page. Enter the login and password for the admin account you created. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the login button to access the admin control panel. Your Typo3 installation is finished. From here you can manage and customize your Typo3 system how you see fit. The Typo3 tutorial is now complete.

   For more information on how to use Typo3 once it's installed, check out the Typo3 Documentation.

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