setting up vanilla

mwanafunzi

Hey all, My friends and myself want to start a web forum. After doing some research and getting advice from people, I have decided that I would like to implement vanilla. The problem is that I am new too all this (web development). I realise that there are a couple of things that I need to learn.....anyway, to cut a long story short. I am hoping to get some advice on setting up vanilla on my computer at home. I manually installed apache, php and mysql. I extracted the files from the vanilla zip file. This is where I am stuck. I went through the readme and I did not understand what was going on. I created a folder -forum (as suggested) - in my apache folder under the htdocs folder (so i woud have a path like this apache groups\apache\htdocs\forum). As I said this is where I am stuck as i dont know what to set the dbHOST and the other dbHOST ike variables too. help, please.......I hope that I have given clear breakdown of my problem..... cheers

nathan

well. I wil try and assist you, in the best way I can. A few questions... 1. Have you created the database? If not, you must do this first. The documentation has a few ways of actually creating the database. Once the database has been created, the values SHOULD (there are exceptions, and we will cover these if it does not work) be as follows: dbHOST = localhost dbNAME = name of the database you just made dbUSER = mySQL user that is associated with the database you just created dbPASSWORD = password for this user That should be it for the database side of things. If you could give that a try, and let us know how you went. BTW: What operating system are you using. If we knew this we could tell you if there are any GUI tools for the work you are doing, so you don't get bogged down in the terminal.

mwanafunzi

Hi nathan, thanks for the reply. My operating system is winxp (with sp1). I have not created a database yet. It seems that I have a long way to go then before i even start installing vanilla. I will get back to you once I have created a database (i have to read up on sql first). cheers :)

nathan

if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask. Do you have a webserver/ hosting plan? It MAY be easier to set it up there, as you DON'T need to configuire any software to get it up and running.

Minisweeper

if you setup phpmyadmin on your apache install it'l probably make life a lot easier for you. As an alternative and much lasier way, you could scrap the load and install xampp which is a bundler (but since you've got this far you may aswell stick with what you've got because you'll end up learning a lot more)

mwanafunzi

thanks guys for the replies, No, I do not have a web server. I am actually looking into that at the moment. Though, I do not know how long that will take to setup. I want to go with mediatemple....but I am still looking at what other (and possibly better choices there might be). I have not setup the phpmyadmin yet. I honestly have not heard of it till now.. I will have to look into that. Thanks again for the help and advice.

Minisweeper

i think you'll find a lot of anti media temple propaganza on this site. (search for media temple or mt (though the latter is likely to bring up a lot of stuff since its a common letter coupling) i'd suggest phpmyadmin would be best for you as it provides a GUI for mysql and stops you relying on messing around with the command line. If you're interested in hosting i could offer you some...

Mark

anti media temple propaganza

hahahaha. I wouldn't call it propaganda so much as opinion based on experience

lech

/me goes out hunting for the spin doctors

Minisweeper

propaganda thats the one, i dunno where z came from. i was doing 10 things at once at work. eitherway its a cool word.

nathan

I thought you did it on purpose, just to put a crazt spin on the word. I was wrong. I will use it anyway. @mini: eitherway its a cool word Exactly

Minisweeper

i believe i must have been thinking about extravaganza...and they got mixed together.

nathan

:P

mwanafunzi

I am curious as to what experience this is, that you have had with mediatemple...and yes could you please suggest some webservers that I may use...

lament

Dreamhost..

nathan

Digitalis. If you are in Australia. MOST of the standard plans are pretty crappy, but their service is great, and I have a very nice custom hosting plan with them.

But, overall, I would have to say Dreamhost

markwilkin

I know Wordpress have a useful 'Recommended Hosting' section on their website, could we do the same on the Vanilla Wiki? I found some very good deals when I was checking it out for a friend.

mwanafunzi

Thanks all, this is muchly appreciated :). It looks like i have a fair amount of decision making to do. Although there is not substance in this post. I just wanted to thank you all (again) for your help. I will not be posting in a while, until I have things setup or run into to many problems.. cheers

nathan

good-bye and good luck!