XZeroscript Classifieds Detailed Installation Guide

873 days ago

Yup guys, it is yet another one of those installation guides. I am hoping to create even more such guides to help beginners install scripts without the major headaches associated with script installation. But in all seriousness, nowadays scripts are more user friendly and installation is a breeze for most.  We no longer need to spend hours and hours figuring out how to install complicated scripts anymore. Thank goodness for that. I really hate spending so much time installing stuff. And with a detailed installation guide, beginners will no longer worry about being stuck halfway during installation.

Anyway, I just purchased this XZeroscript to use as the base for my latest web venture. No, I won’t tell you guys what it is yet. But come back in a few weeks time and I will be more than willing to share it with you. XZeroscript is a classifieds script, a script to build something along the lines of Craigslist. Yes, the place where you post and read ads.  This script helps you manage all the ads you have in your classifieds site. From what I read, XZeroscript is supposed to be a very low resource script, making it suitable for high volume classifieds sites and for those (like me) who don’t have a dedicated server. Furthermore, it is value for money. As compared to other classifieds scripts, this is at the lower range of the spectrum and comes with a impressive array of features. In addition, their support is supposed to be top-notch, unlike most other script developers where you need to pay another huge amount just for support.

Okay, enough of the nonsense. It is now time to start the installation guide. First of all, I would assume that the user has some knowledge of Windows commands and usage. In addition, a little knowledge of webhosting is needed. Since XZeroscript requires PHP and MySQL, users should ensure that their webhost supports these. However, most webhost should support these features. If not, time to change your webhosting company.

After purchasing the script, you will receive an email attachment. You should save the zipped file somewhere you can remember as you will need to access it. As you can see, I save mine on my desktop.  The latest version at the time of writing is v5.1. After saving the file, it is time to extract the contents out. For this tutorial, I am using IZArc as my unzipping utility. You can use any other software to do the unpacking. You can even use Window’s own extracting software. The steps should be about the same. As usual refer to your software documentation for help.

It is now time to extract the files. Click on Extract to extract out the archived files.

Remember where you extract out the files to. You will need to access them. Make sure you extract out ALL the files.

There I have extracted them out into a folder on my desktop. Since we will need to do some modifications to the files, let’s get into the folder and find out which files do we need to make changes to.

In this folder, you will need to make some changes to some of the files.

Let’s locate the “config.inc.php” file. It shouldn’t be too tough. We need to make some changes to this file. Open the file with your text editor. I am using PSPad to edit my files. However, you can use any text editor you want. Don’t worry, the following steps are very easy to follow. All you have to do is to change some wordings in some files. No biggie.

Once you have opened the “config.inc.php” file, at the top of the you will need to make some changes. First you will need to edit the MySQL connection settings as indicated above. You will need your database hostname (which is usually “localhost”), database username, database password and the database name. You can ask your webhost to create one for you. Or if your webhost supports it, you can create the database yourself. I have done some tutorials on creating MySQL databases, so if your webhost uses cpanel as their webhost console, please take a look at creating MySQL databases on Cpanel. Or if your webhost uses DirectAdmin as their webhost console, please take a look at creating MySQL databases on DirectAdmin. Again, don’t worry the steps are easy to follow. So once you have created the databases, you should have all the necessary information.

After you have keyed in the MySQL connection settings, you will need to make a few more changes. Just below is the Name of the site, the site owner’s email address and the URL of the site. Note that if you are planning to setup your classifieds site in a subdirectory, you should reflect it here in the URL setting ($script_url=). Oh, remember friends, you should keep the quotes.

Now let’s scroll all the way down to the “Admin password” section. You will need to change the password to access the XZeroscript Admin Panel. It is important to have a strong password for security reasons. You don’t want others to hack into your site! And keep the password in a safe place.  After you have done, remember to save the file.

Okay, after you have edited the “config.inc.php” file and saved it, you will need to make changes to the “.htaccess” file. However, if you are planning to setup your site on the root domain, you don’t have to do anything. But if you are planning to place your site at a subdirectory, then you will have to edit the “.htaccess” file. For example, if your site is be located at “www.example.com/classifieds/”, then you will have to make changes to the all the instances of “index.php”. Add the subdirectory “classifieds”. Looking at the above picture, you will need to change “/index.pgp?view=showad@adid=$7&cityid=$1 [QSA]” to “/classifieds/index.pgp?view=showad@adid=$7&cityid=$1 [QSA]“. Do the same for ALL instances. Yes, it is a bit tedious but good things will come from it! Remember to save the file.

For some users, you might find that you cannot save the file back to “.htaccess”. It would require you to save it in another name. But don’t worry, save it as “htaccess” or in any other name. You can rename it later after you have uploaded the files.

The next step is to upload the files to your webhost. For this, you will need a FTP client or a FTP software. This software allows you to transfer files from your computer to the webserver. I am using Filezilla. The main reason why I use this software is that it is stable, seems bug free enough and open source. You can of course use any other FTP client and the following steps should be about the same. Please refer to your software documentation if you face any problems. I really don’t expect there to be more problems. You will need information from your webhost in order to access to FTP files to your webserver. All these information should be provided by your webhost.

After you have connected to your webserver, your next step would be to transfer all the files from the extracted folder to your webserver. Please note that you should transfer the contents of the folder and not the folder itself. If you were to transfer the folder, your URL to your classifieds site will be wrong (ie in another directory).

It might take a while to complete, so go and have a beer and come back after a few minutes.

There, all uploaded to your webserver. You should be proud of yourself.

Now, we will need to change the file permissions of some folders and files. With your FTP Client, you will need to CHMOD some of the folders and files. To do that, locate the folder “adpics” in the server and choose File permissions.  If you are using some other FTP Client, please refer to your software documentation on how to change file permissions.

Yes, here we CHMOD 777 the folder. In other words, we give all read, write and execute permissions.

Now locate the folder “userimgs” in the server. You will need to do the same thing to this folder.

Same thing. CHMOD 777 this folder.

Now let’s enter into the “userimgs” folder in the server. You will be greeted with 2 files. We will need to change the file permission of the “index.htm” file.

CHMOD 644 this file instead. If it is already CHMOD 644, don’t worry. Just leave it be.

You will have to do the same thing (CHMOD 644) for the “index.htm” file in the “adpics” folder. I will not be showing this in this example. The steps are the same.

Now, let’s locate the “data” folder in the server. You will need to change the file permissions for ALL the files in that folder. So enter into the folder and you will be greeted with 2 files – “badwords.dat” and “spamfilter.dat“. Now’s let change the file permission for both of them.

For these files, you will need to CHMOD 777.

Okay, after you have done that, you will need to do the same thing (CHMOD 777) to the files in the “lang“, “log” and”mailtemplates” folders in the server. Yes, ALL the files in those folders. Since the steps are the same as above, there won’t be any screenshots. Don’t worry, you can do it!

For those who have edited their “.htaccess” file earlier, you might have to rename your “.htaccess” file back. So locate the file which is the original “.htaccess” file. In this example, my file is “htaccess” and I will need to rename it to “.htaccess”.

There you go, it is now “.htaccess”. This file is important because the file helps you do all those URL rewriting to get those pretty SEO friendly URLs.

There, start your web browser and check whether your settings is correct or not. If you website is at “www.example.com”, then you should browse to “www.example.com/setup”. Then hit the Setup button to continue. You are about done!

If everything is correct, you will be greeted with this screen. All green means good! Your database has been setup successfully.

However, before we conclude our tutorial, you will need to do some security maintenance. Go back to your FTP and delete off the “setup” folder in the server. It is a very big security risk if you don’t do that.

Okay, the installation is finally complete. Now it is time for you to login to your XZeroscript Classifieds admin console and do the hard part – adding the cities and categories.  The admin console is located at the admin directory of your site. So for example, if your site is “www.example.com” then browse to “www.example.com/admin”. Good luck! And remember to change your Paypal account in the “config.inc.php” file if you are charging for ads.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this guide as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please leave some comments.

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