Today´s task: Create a tutorial on how to install a SMF Forum in your afreewebhost.com account. Now, if you feel like you need a message board for your website so people can discuss, then one of the best free forum scripts is the Simple Machine Forum.
If you have no idea what it looks like, or never heard of it before you can see a brilliant live demo at right here. This is the SMF Forum as you might have figured already. And what´s best about it is, it´s absolutely free as opposed to forums like vBulletin or IPB.

What do we need for that ? Simple question with a simple answer:

• SMF - Forum Script
• mySQL Database
• FTP Client to upload the script

Ok, let´s go download the script. Where ? Well, at their website, whereelse. Just go to
Register or Login and download the latest version, which at the moment of writing this is SMF 1.1.5. Do NOT use the public beta version they offer on the same page. Actually, never install beta software on a live site…

So download it, and if your connection isn´t that fast go and have a fag while downloading. Will bring you down and make you relax. When finished with the fag, go back to your computer and check whether the download has finished or not. If not finished…..go get some booze. Enjoyed the booze ? Good for you and download should be finished by now. All that you need to do for now is unpacking the archive, which when done will leave you with a folder labeled smf_1-1-5_install. If you look into the folder by opening it you will see all the files and directories necessary to install the forum on your website.


Ok, done with the download and unpacking of the archive, now how do we get it installed ? Let´s see what the documentation says on doing that:


Right, makes sense, doesn´t it ? So we need to upload all the files and folders and that is where the FTP client enters the game. Now, as i have written many times, there are like a bazillion of them out there and i impossibly can´t make a tutorial for each and every single one, so i stick with the one i use, which is FlashFXP. You might use different ones, but they all aren´t that different.

Ok, to upload all files we need to connect to your afreewebhost.com account via FTP, so let´s fire the client up and happily connect to the server. Upon connection the FTP client will show you a list of files and folders on your webspace, similar to this:


Ok, there are a lot of files now, might be different in your case, but hey…i love my chaos. I strongly suggest that you install the SMF Forum in a subdirectory, preferrably give it some name like /forum or /board, you know…just to keep the overview of whats creeping around on your webspace. So let´s upload the script to the /forum subdirectory. While uploading…have another fag and/or some more booze.

All files uploaded ? Good, then all that is left to do is to point your browser to the installscript of the forum, which usually can be found at

   
And yes, you have to replace
Register or Login with the path to where you uploaded it, but that´s not too hard or is it ? So i won´t bother going into more details here, and proceed to the actual installation that is triggered when opening the /install.php file. You will then see the first screen of the installation which looks like this:


Ok, SMF is asking for your FTP details here to allow the script to CHMOD some files and directories as otherwise the installation cannot continue and will fail. Do not even think to fill out the FTP information as the connection cannot be established due to some serverside restrictions. Now, how do we get the files and folders CHMODed then ? Look at the bottom of the screen where you will see a list of files and directories that need their permissions changed. On a clean install it should come up like this:


Cool, that is the list of files and directories we need to take care of. So now it´s FTP time again, start your FTP client and connect to your afreewebhost.com account, then open the /forum directory and happily CHMOD all the files mentioned in the list…oh…and the directories as well. Most of the clients let you right-click a file or directory and then select CHMOD from the context menu. You can, in most clients also select several files to simultaneously change the permissions rather than doing it one file at a time. So CHMOD them to 0777 and then click the Click here link to see if everything went alright. If you correctly chmodded all files and directories in question the installer then will take you to Step 2 of the installation. Step 2 actually is two steps in one.


Here you can set a title for your Forum, and enter the Forum URL (well, it should be already there actually). Rest of the options in the upper half of the configuration….leave them alone, they are fine. Move on to the bottom half of that screen which asks you for your MySQL details, so the forum can access the datbase correctly.


If you have created a database in your account already then enter the details for it here. If not, then have a look at this tutorial that shows you how to create a database, user and password. When you are done creating, let´s continue…
Ok, now we got all the info we need to fill in the SMF installer form. Let´s head back to it and fill in the details, then click Proceed. If you have done everything alright, then the database will be populated and SMF will let you create an admin account in the next screen:


So come up with something cool or take a boring name like “admin” or something. Whatever you see fit
Note that at the very bottom you have to enter the password for your MySQL database again. Don´t forget to do that. So after filling in everything and confirming it by clicking Proceed again, the installation is now done and we can log in to the forum with our admin account:


Let´s have a go at it, and see if it worked out ok and we are able to login. Just click the Link on the screen or point your browser to

   
Sweet, logged in automatically. So it seems to have worked out very well, but there is one step left to do, as you can see either on your screen or on this screenshot:


Yepp, that´s right. We need to fire up the FTP client again and delete the install.php from the server. But that´s easy enough for you to do it on your own now i think. So here we are, with a freshly installed SMF Forum and ready for visitors to register and start blathering.

If you found any typos in this tutorial…..keep them. They are yours. And as english isn´t my native language i am sorry if i screw up grammar and stuff sometimes, but i hope it was easy enough to understand. If you have any questions or comments, suggestions or just wanna mock at me then feel free to reply to this topic