ASP-Nuke Installation

Introduction :

1. Requirement

If you want to use the mySql database, it must be installed on your webserver and your provider has to activate it for your domain.

2. Installation

• a directory called "aspnuke" with all needed files,
• a directory called "docs" with, among other files:
  • the "readme_en.htm" file that you're currently reading
  • the "changes_en.txt" file that contains all the modifications made in this version
  • the "patches_en.txt" file that contains all the changes/corrections made after the first official release
  • The GNU GPL license (GPL.txt)

• Website name: it will be shown in window titles, etc.
• Website URL: website address
• Administrator's Login: this nick will be used for site administration
• Administrator's Password: can be modified in the user profile
• Administrator's Email: must be a valid email, because it will identify the webmail system available
• Database type: if you choose mySql, it must be alredy configured
• Website's main path: (it must be empty if you install your site in the "root"), or supply subdirectory/ies name where you have installed your site: this field must always begin with a "slash" (/), or contain ONLY the "/" character if you installed your site in the "root" directory

• Main DB: name of the "main" Access database
• Forum DB: name of Access "forum" database
• Events DB: name of Access "Calendar Events" database
  
• Guestbook DB: name of Access "Guestbook" database
  

• Database directory or URL: this field is an exception to above rule because it will contain different information depending on database type:
  • Access: in this case follow above rule and fill-in the path where Access dabases will be loaded
  • mySql: in this case, provide URL (or IP address) of database's server. Ask information to your provider: in most cases you will only need to specify localhost
• Themes directory: fill-in path where css configuration file are loaded
• DB Login: only used for mySql database, provide username as given by your provider
• DB Password: provide password to access database. When using mySql, your provider will tell you this password; when using Access, you can select your own and it will be automatically set for all Access databases
• Following fields are self-explanatory: it's always a path where a specific code has been installed.

The xml files and the databases must be located in folders that must have the reading and writing permission, you have to specify their name during the setup, on every server usually there is folder used for databases, you can put the files there. If you changed the path of this kind of files, at the end of the setup, you can delete the folders db and lang (they only contain the original uncofigured files).
Also the upload folders must be created and they must have the reading and writing permission (you can use the public folder).
Don't forget to delete any setup_xx.asp file from your website to prevent people to use it! Setup procedure creates an admin account which have administrator's rights on the website. There can only be one main admin, but you can add administrators and moderators for each section. You can also change the rights to let some users enter in the administrator's section (with limited privileges).

After this your site will be ready to start!

3. Site map

• In the main "root" you can find all users and administrator pages.
• avatars folder: contains all the pubblic "avatars" for the forum users (you can change it in the configuration file)
• database folder (only if you choosed the Access database): contains your databases (you can change it in the configuration file). IMPORTANT: protect it against access from the web !!! (by configuring IIS, or ask your host manager for this feature). If you do not protect this folder, people can steal yours databases and access to your administration's website. This folder must as well have read/write permissions. The databases are developed with Access 2000.
• imgs folder: contains all the graphic resources (you can change it in the configuration file). Contains a subfolder called "news" where you can put the images of the news section.
• includes folder: contain all include files to make your site working.
• public folder: contains a subfolder called "dynblock" that manages the dynamic blocks and the other folders for the uploads of the users files and of the "rss" files (all these folders can be modified in the configuration file) This kind of folder must have the reading and writing permission.
• smileys folder: contains all the "smileys" that can be used in the messages, comments and forum,... (you can change it in the configuration file).
• themes folder: contains the themes for the site (you can change it in the configuration file). The "default" theme is provided with the site, you can create/modify other themes, taking the default as a model.
• xml folder: contains the XML files for the translation and the dynamic configuration (you can change it in the configuration file). In this folder you can add the other language files, but do not forget to add these versions also in the Versions page in the administrator's section.

4 . Addendum

• The menu items in the admin section "Edit translations" and "Edit configuration", permit you to easily adapt Asp-Nuke at your needs.
• By default, your mail manager use CDOSYS or CDONTS, choosing automatically the right one during the setup. Mods that use different components (like ASPMail o JMail) will be released in the download section of the official ASP-Nuke site.
• The database connection is DSN-Less and it does not permit more than 10 simultaneous connection to each database. To modify the connection to the database (to use DSN), you must edit the connection string in the file "/includes/database-inc.asp". Be careful in the use of the parameter "sDBName" to make the right connection to the database (there are 3 by default).
• /includes/toppage-inc.asp and /includes/bottompage-inc.asp : these two files build your top and bottom portion of the page, like a template. Feel free to adapt them at your conveniance.
  
• /includes/display-inc.asp: there are some important design functions : "CreateTable", "CreateTopTable" and "CreateBottomTable". You can edit them if you want another design for the site blocks (A minimal knowledge of ASP and HTML is needed to make these modifications).
  

1. Delete the link from the admin menu: click on "Graphical Blocks" and disable the flag "Events" from "Visible blocks"
2. Delete any reference to the routines "DisplayCalendar" and "DisplayTopHomeEvents" from all the pages (generally present in the default.asp page)
3. Delete from the "root" all the files called "calendar_xxx.asp"
4. Delete the Access database "calendar.mdb" or the tables "calendar_xxx" from the mySql database
5. Delete the files "calendar_xxx-inc.asp" from the "includes" directory
6. Delete the line"<!-- #include file="calendar-inc.asp"-->" from the files "admin_includes-inc.asp", "includes-inc.asp" and"noblocks_includes-inc.asp" in the "includes" directory

If you do not use the Forum you can delete it totally making these steps:

1. Set the configuration variabile GLOBAL_FORUM_TOP to 0 to hide the forum links from the menu
2. Delete from the "root" all the files called"forum_xxx.asp"
3. Delete the Access database "forum.mdb" or the tables "forum_xxx" from the mySql database
4. Delete the files "forum_xxx-inc.asp" from the "includes" directory

5 . Migration from a previous version

migration from 1.2 version to 2.0 with Access database:

1. Install ASP-NUKE 2.0 in a new subfolder (NOT in the same folder where is your Aspnuke 1.2)
    
   
2. Replace the ASP-NUKE 2.0 databases with the databases of your Aspnuke 1.2
    
   
3. Replace the ASP-NUKE 2.0 theme with the theme of your Aspnuke 1.2
    
   
4. Login as administrator
    
   
5. Run the "admin_updatemain.asp" file, it will modify the main DB without modifying your data
    
   
6. Run the "admin_updateforum.asp" file, it will modify the forum DB dei forum without modifying your data
    
   
7. If you previously used the "Calendar Events", install the new Access database "calendar.mdb" and copy also the old "eventi.mdb" database. Eventually, modify line 23 of "calendar_migratedb-inc.asp" file in "includes" directory (the one with the insgtruction Const OLD_DB_EVENTI = "eventi.mdb"), specifying the name of the Access database if you've modified it (if the name is still the original "eventi.mdb", you can bypass this step). Run the "calendar_migratedb.asp" page that will copy all the data from the old to the new database, adding the new fields. When the migration has successfully finished (control it!!!), you can delete the old calendar database.
    
   
8. Now you will have an ASP-NUKE 2.0 website totally working with all the data of you old website, except for the cutomized blocks that you will need to manually adapt. The most diffused ones will be published on the official site.
   

migration from 1.2 version to 2.0 with mySql database:

1. Login with the user and the password of the mySql database that your provider has assigned to your site
2. Run (from the panel indicated in the help documentation of your provider) the "crea_tabelle_mySql.sql" file that resides in the "docs\mySql" folder: this script will create all the tables in your mySql db, filling it with default values (you can translate captions, descriptions, names, categories modifing this file before running it)
3. For each Access table (on each Access database), whose data must be migrated into the mySql tables, do the following steps:
   • Run the "importdb.asp" page (after beeing logged-in as admin)
   • Specificy the table name that you want to migrate (ex. users) and select the Access database (ex. main.mdb)
   • Press the Confirm button
   • This procedures creates a file, in the same directory as the one of the database, with the same name as the one of the table and a ".SQL" extension. This file contains all SQL statements to load the table (after an initial delete of all existing rows)
   • Repeat this procedure for all the tables that must be migrated
   alternatively, if the previous procedure does not work, you can follow these steps:
   
   • Run the "admin_updatedata.asp" page (after beeing logged-in as admin)
   • Specificy the table name that you want to migrate (ex. users) and select the Access database (ex. main.mdb)
   • Press the Confirm button
   • Select the lines that have been generated, copy them in Notepad and then save the file with a meaningful name (ex. users.csv)
   • Repeat this procedure for all the tables that must be migrated
4. Login in to mySql console and import all data files into their corresponding mySql tables. Depending on what procedure you have used, follow one of these steps:
   • First method (*.SQL files):
     • run the SQL files from within an SQL execution window on mySql db manager, then have a look at error log and check that data have been successfully loaded
   • Second method (*.csv files):
     in this case, use mySql utilities as explained in the help files of your provider to import CSV files (ask your mySql administrator for help). You need to specify:
     • field separator: ;
     • fields delimited by: '
     • escape character: \
     • lines terminated by: \r\n
   • After the migration has ended delete (or rename) the "configuration-inc.asp" file created in the previous step for the Access database
   • Reload the setup procedure, changing the database type to mySql... and that's all!

6 . Tips (by Eduardo Besembel - besembel@cantv.net)

1. To send emails or newsletters you have to change the configuration.xml file in xml folder, modifing the following values
   <translation name="GLOBAL_SITE_EMAIL">junk@junk.com</translation>
   <translation name="GLOBAL_ACCOUNTS_EMAIL">junk@junk.com</translation>
   changing junk with the email address you want to use.
   In the original file you will find aspnuke italia email address...
2. If you want to activate or deactivate something, like the web editor htmlarea, the control panel, etc. you can do this in configuration.xml file in xml folder
   For example to use htmlarea editor
   <translation name="GLOBAL_SITE_WYSIWYG_PATH">/htmlarea/</translation>
   <translation name="bWYSIWYGeditor">3</translation>>
   you have to insert the path where you have installed htmlarea, in this case it is in a root's subfolder /htmlarea/; if you have installed it in another subfolder, for example "editor", you should write the path /editor/htmlarea/, and then activate it inserting a "3" without double quotes.
3. The images may only have the following extensions: <translation name="imgExtensions">*.gif, *.bmp, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png</translation>
   If you want to add other types of images, you have to add the new extensions among the generic types:
   <translation name="allowedExtensions">*.txt, *.ace, *.pdf</translation>
   and upload them through the Upload page.
4. The descriptions of the categories types cannot be changed using aspnuke, the only way to do this is modifing directly the database in typescategories table.
5. If you are installing Aspnuke in a server that you can manage, you have to verifiy through windows mmc console (from which you control IIS) that the folders (DB,XML,PUBLIC,PUBLIC/DYNABLOCK,/PUBLIC/UPLOAD,/PUBLIC/UPLOAD/USERS) have read and write permissions, and with Windos Explorer you can enter in the folders xml,db,public/dynablock, and select all the files in the folder, click with mouse right button, select the security tab in the properties and verify that the user used by IIS ("Internet guest user" or similar) has read ad write permissions on them.
6. Calendar categories cannot be easily changed too, and in this case you must change calendar_eventscat table in calendar.mdb database.

Any question, idea or information? Go to the ASP-Nuke forum or visit the F.A.Q.
 
Project starter: Gaëtan Bouveret alias Gat, Webmaster of ASP-Nuke (webmaster@asp-nuke.com).
Translation made by Aspnuke.it staff (webmaster@aspnuke.it), for further information visit www.aspnuke.it
 
LICENCE : This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.