Preparing to install
Requirements
Etomite is an 'open source' project, so it seems appropriate that its dependencies are also open source.
Etomite requires that you have the MySQL database server avaliable. Etomite works with MySQL versions 4.1 or newer.
Etomite uses the PHP scripting language. PHP versions 4 and 5 are both supported.
With one exception, Etomite does not care what Web server or operating system are used by your host. The exception is a feature called 'Friendly URLs', also known as FURL's, which is beneficial for search engines. Friendly URLs allows the use of meaningful names in urls, rather than having all pages being referenced as index.php?id=nn. Friendly URLs are supported on Apache (provided mod_rewrite is installed and appropriately configured), and there are user provided instructions in the forum for setting up IIS to also provide these. Friendly URLs are described here.
Snippets
Snippets are provided by individual users, and are likely to have been tested on a much smaller range of platforms. Thus some snippets may not work on all of the platforms that Etomite itself will run on.
Download
Download the latest Etomite files from Here.
Once you have downloaded the file(s) you need, unpack the Etomite files, being sure to retain any empty directories. If you need to add any additional files, follow the instructions that come with those files.
Upload
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Etomite, please read the section on upgrading before you start. This contains suggestions on how to upgrade with minimum disruption, and details some files you need to save before you upgrade.
Copy the directory structure you created by unpacking the Etomite download file (above) to a directory on your webserver (This can either be your website's root directory, or a subdirectory in the root.
Make sure that whatever tool you use to copy the files is configure to maintain the directory tree, and to create empty directories.
The Etomite package contains a large number of directories, and some combinations of server and FTP client seem to have difficulty with this. It is advisable to use an FTP client which will keep track of which files it fails to send and allows you to resend them - I use another open-source program for this - FileZilla
Directory and file permissions
Before you start to install Etomite, there are a few file and directory permissions that need to be set.
Use your FTP client or a control panel to ensure the following are all writable by PHP (chmod 777):
- path_to_etomite/manager/includes/config.inc.php
- path_to_etomite/assets/cache (and all files within this directory)
- path_to_etomite/assets/images
- path_to_etomite/assets/export
The majority of installation problems are caused by not setting these permissions correctly, and particularly by forgetting the files in the assets/cache directory.
Changing Permissions
NOTE: Changing permissions can be done via your FTP program with the CHMOD feature. Usually right clicking on a directory or filename will open a menu with this option.
The chmod value 777, means that the read, write and execute permissions are all granted for the owner, group and other.
Resolving Unexpected CHMOD Problems
Due to security concerns some hosts no longer allow the chmod value 777 to be used and attempts to use this setting may result in unexpected results such as no content being returned or various server errors. If unexpected problems are encountered then a maximum chmod value of 666 in place of 777 may be required.
Next: Installing