Installing MDPro

Duster

Part 1 - Terminology and Preparation

PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE INSTALLING, UPGRADING OR USING MDPro

About These Instructions

These instructions are not MDPro Installation for Dummies. If you are a dummy, you have no business getting involved with databases. You can think of them as MDPro Installation for the Uninformed if you like.

They were written, however, for those new to databases who are merely ignorant of a few things, will read, can reason, and can follow instructions. They were written by someone who too was ignorant of some of these things. I've written these instructions so as to spare others any aggravation and frustration in installing MDPro and to enable them to get it installed on the first attempt. Consequently, the easiest way of doing things will be covered here. I had problems with the CMS I used before MDP because of inadequate instructions and would like to spare people any similar problems with MDP. You may not even need these instructions as the semi-automated installer in MDP has many details you will need to know, possibly everything you'll need to know.

If you are an advanced user, you may find these instructions too simple for you or may wish to use alternate methods in some areas, such as command line administration of the MySQL server. Do as you wish. These instructions were not written for people at your level of knowledge.

TERMINOLOGY

Before we proceed, you may find it helpful to become familiar with a few basic terms you will see mentioned over and over.

Database - A collection of information stored in a program for easy accessibility. (See field and table.)

One example is the Internet Movie DataBase at http://imdb.com It has a huge database of information about movies and television shows that can be accessed and provide answers in a matter of seconds.

Field - A place for specific information in a database or form, usually designated by type. For instance, this site has a contact form. There is a text field for the sender's name, another for their e-mail address and a text area field for the message. Other field types include date and money (currency), which tells the program how the information should be formatted.

Table - A table is a collection of fields in a database or on a page, usually grouped in the same table because they are all needed for a function or group of functions or because they are related by topic.

MySQL - An open source database program. The SQL stands for structured query language.

PHP, PHP3, PHP4, PHP5 - Hypertext Preprocessor - PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. Some languages do things, others get things done. PHP is commonly known as the latter of these two. Many PHP programs use a database as a back end (the PHP program does the work up front and MySQL or some other database program collects and keeps the information in the back end.)

phpMyAdmin - A program that acts as an interface (control panel if you will) using PHP to administer MySQL databases. Databases can be complex things to administer and phpMyAdmin makes the job easier.

MDP - An abbreviation for MDPro

PREPARATION

You need to be certain that you have PHP and MySQL available to you. Unless both are installed on the server you use, you will be wasting your time if you proceed any further. If you are on shared server hosting (you rent space on a server and do not have your own server), you may need to check with your host. Do so if necessary.

If your host does not have PHP and MySQL, you will need to either have them add it if they will or find a new host that offers it. If you have your own server, you can download and install them or have someone install them for you.

The easiest way to administer MySQL databases is with phpMyAdmin. If you do not have it installed already, download it and install it. Be sure to check your PHP version number first as later versions of phpMyAdmin require later versions of PHP. Run http://yourdomain.com/info.php to determine the version of PHP you have installed. Alternately, if you have phpMyAdmin installed already, there is a link entitled Show PHP information under the phpMyAdmin heading on the opening page that will reveal the PHP version installed.

Some web hosts offer a control panel that allows creation and administration of databases. If you have and use such a control panel, you can adjust these instructions accordingly.

Download MD SOS. You will find it in the maxdev.com download section. It can help you out of some difficult situations if you make a critical mistake.

You need to be certain that you have GD libraries installed if you wish to use the graphical security code features in MDPro. If you enable this feature and don't have the libraries installed, you can lock yourself out of your site. This is one of the things that MD SOS can fix.

Download Programs

If you need to download any of the three programs, click on their names here and find the version you want on their websites.

MySQL

PHP

phpMyAdmin

When you have confirmed the presence of all three programs or installed them, you are ready to proceed.

After downloading the current MDPro (MDP) distribution, unzip the file on your server or local personal computer. If you have a robots.txt file, download it and add it to the MDP robots.txt file if it contains any instructions beyond those of the default file from MDP.

If you can create your own databases, click here

If you are on shared server hosting and cannot create your own databases, click here