Support»Tutorials»eFiction Tutorial and Installation How To
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This tutorial describes how to use the eFiction archiving software with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting eFiction software and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup your site with our web hosting service.
eFiction is open source, meaning that you can use, distribute and change it as long as you don't remove the original author's copyright information.
For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up eFiction at http://johnsmith.com/efiction/.
Follow these steps to complete the tutorial:
- The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a database for efiction to use to store
the information it needs.
Create a database called 'efiction' with a user named 'efiction'. 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_efiction' and the username is the same 'johnsmit_efiction'. - Download the latest version of eFiction from the eFiction website and 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 eFiction. Rename the 'eFiction1.1' folder to 'efiction'.
- Upload the 'efiction' folder to your web
hosting account. You should do this using an FTP Program. If you
need help with FTPing files, you can check out the FTP tutorials
on our tutorials page.
Once the files and folders are finished uploading, we need to change the permissions on some of the files and folders in order for the script to access them correctly. 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 tutorials on our tutorials page. CHMOD the folders and files as follows:
- CHMOD the 'stories' folder to 777
- CHMOD the 'config.php' file to 666
- Now we can access the eFiction installer.
In this example, we'll point to 'http://www.johnsmith.com/efiction/install.php'.
Your screen should look like this:
This page checks to make sure you've given the right permissions to the right files. If you receive any errors, go back and set the correct permissions on the files. If the installer tells you that register_globals is off, you need to create a support ticket or email us at support@nexcess.net asking us to turn it on for you. This is the first time installing this program so click the 'New Install' button to continue. The script will now check to make sure you have the correct permissions on the 'config.php' file. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to continue. The script is now asking you to open the 'data' folder in the 'efiction' folder on your desktop. Open this folder and find the 'dbconfig.php' file. Open this file in your text editing program. In this file, we're going to enter the information for the database we created in step #1. For this example, we'll use the following information:
- $dbuser = 'johnsmit_efiction';
- $dbpass = 'mypassword';
- $dbname = 'johnsmit_efiction';
Your screen should look like this:
Save and close the 'dbconfig.php' file and upload it to the 'data' folder in the 'efiction' folder on your web hosting account.
Go back to the install screen. Now you need to enter the path to where you placed the 'dbconfig.php' file. If you placed it in the directory mentioned above, your path will be 'data'. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to continue. The script will now ask if you'd like your tables to have a prefix. This is recommended if you're installing more than one copy of eFiction. For this example, we'll leave this field blank. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to continue. The script should tell you that you've entered the path correctly. If you receive an error, go back and make sure the path you entered is the correct path where you uploaded the 'dbconfig.php' file. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to continue. The script will now ask you if you'd like to have it install the tables in your database or if you'd like to do it manually. Your screen should look like this:
For this example, we'll let the script install the tables for us. Click the 'Script Install Tables' button to continue. The script will tell you that the tables have been installed correctly. If you received any errors, make sure you entered the correct database information in the 'dbconfig.php' file. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to continue. The script will now have you create your admin account. You'll use this account to manage your eFiction system. Choose a username and password, enter your email and choose whether or not you'd like to be notified if a new fanfic is submitted. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Continue' button to create your admin account. Your installation is now complete. Read the little blurb to find out any other information pertaining to eFiction. Using your FTP program, delete the 'install.php' file from your web hosting account for security purposes. Your screen should look like this:
Click on the 'log in page' link to continue to the login page. Enter the username and password you created for your admin account. Your screen should look like this:
Click the 'Submit' button to login to the admin control panel. You should now be on the eFiction main admin control panel page. From here you can manage your eFiction system how you see fit. Your screen should look like this:
Your eFiction web hosting tutorial is now complete!
For more information on how to use eFiction once it's installed, check out the eFiction FAQ.
