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Welcome to PHPForms Installation Guide!
- Thank you for choosing our form mail script and welcome to PHPForms Installation!
- These quick installation notes will guide you through the setup process of PHPForms, advanced PHP email form and form validation solution.
- This guide covers all the steps of installation procedure: from initial preparation stage (uploading files to your web server) to the final stage (logging to administrator account of web form builder). Altogether this will take no more than 10 minutes.
- NOTE: please read the entire document before proceeding to the actual installation
- Normally, PHPForms installation does not require knowledge of PHP and MySQL, but if you are familiar with file uploading using FTP client, database settings, Zip tool, this is a great advantage.
- If you are not sure how to set PHPForms up, or got lost on some stage, please, do not hesitate to contact our support team and request absolutely FREE installation of this PHP form. Learn how to contact us online at Php Forms - Installation, or email us at support@phpforms.net
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Before installing PHPForms make sure your server meets the following requirements:
- PHP 4.x or higher
- mySQL 3.23.x or higher
- Zend Optimizer 3.0 or higher
If you are not sure if your server meets these requirements, please check with your web hosting. - So... let's start the installation!
- PHPForms Installation Procedure
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Step 1.Download and extract to your computer the script distributive
(zip file). Use your favourite zip program to unzip the archive. The structure of
PHPForms files should be similar to this (the folders/files list may differ depending
on the PHPForms version you have):
- backups
- checks
- cnk-admin
- cnk-conf
- cnk-i18n
- cnk-inc
- cnk-install
- cnk-ipn
- cnk-mods
- img-code
- layouts
- types
- admin.php
- cnk-sys_errors.php
- index.php
- install.php
- install.txt
- ipn_notify.php
- phpforms.php
- Step 2. Using an FTP program (e.g. CuteFTP, WinSCP, FAR manager, etc.), log into your web server and create a new directory in the 'public_html' or 'httpdocs' folder*. Give a name to the folder you've just created (e.g. 'phpforms')
- * The location may be different on your server.
- Step 3. PHPForms requires permissions to create and modify new files in its directory. You can change directory and file permissions using most of FTP programs.
- Please make sure the permissions for the PHPForms directory (created on the 2nd step) are CHMODed* to 0755 (or 0777). (Owner: Read, Write, Execute; Group: Read, Write, Execute; Others: Read, Write and/or Execute).
- * CHMOD is a command for changing file permissions.
- Below is some necessary information on permissions change on Unix and Windows machines:
- Unix File Permissions
- To set file permissions with your FTP program, right click on a file or directory, and look for a command like 'Change File Permissions', File Attributes, or 'chmod'.
- Windows File Permissions
- Normally, PHP scripts can run on Windows environment without having to set any file permissions. However, sometimes servers are set up in such a way that PHP scripts do not have access to write to their directory and data files. In this case, you will have to ask your server administrators for further assistance.
- Here's the short explanation on the numbers used for folder and files permissions:
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777 anyone can do anything (read, write, or execute).
775 the group and the owner have read, write and execute permissions, others can only read and write.
0755 you can do anything; others can only read and execute.
666- Step 4. Using an FTP program, login to your web server and upload the unpacked files from your local computer into the remote website directory. Upload the contents of the unzipped archive to the directory you've created on the server (except install.txt).
- Step 5. CHMOD the folders 'cnk-conf' and 'cnk-conf/databases' to 0755 (or 0777). Change permissions for 'phpforms.php' file to 0666.
- Step 6. Run the installation program: paste the following URL to your browser address bar (http://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/PHPForms/install.php)
- NOTE: replace 'YOUR-DOMAIN.COM' with your site web address; replace 'PHPForms' with your directory name created in step 2.
- This URL (http://YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/PHPForms/install.php) is only an EXAMPLE, do not paste it exactly in the same way as it is shown in this example.
- Step 7. Read and accept Terms and Conditions (press the Accept button below)
- Step 8. In the next step an inbuilt script for system check is run. This script will check if your server settings meet the PHPForms requirements (see the screenshot below).
- The required PHP modules are:
mysql session mbstring- gd or gd2 (this module isn't required, but if missing, CAPTCHA won't work in your forms). Normally gd (graphic library) comes by default in PHP 4 and PHP 5 and you should advise your system administrator if it is possible to install this library.
- If any of the required modules are missing, PHPForms won't be installed properly and you should advise your system administrators about the missing modules.
- Directories
- If in the Current column you see 'Not writable', you will need to change permissions to an appropriate value (see steps 3 and 5)
- ./ – this value means the main directory with all the script files (the directory created on the 2nd step)
./phpforms.php – if not writable, change permissions to 666
./cnk-conf/ – if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings)
./cnk-conf/databases – if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings)
./img-code – (for Pro and Members versions only) – if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings)
./img-code/I – (for Pro and Members versions only) – if not writable, set permissions 777 (757 or 755 depending on your server settings)
- Files Integrity
- If the files/folders were uploaded not in a binary mode or are corrupted, in the Current column you will see "Broken". In this case, you will need to re-upload in a binary mode and re-run the installation.
- Step 9. Configurations Settings. Here you will need to enter the following information:
- General Settings:
This section contains general settings for the installation. Do not make any changes here unless you are sure of the correct values you specify- Site name = PHPForms, this is the window title, changeable field
- Path to script directory = some value, entered automatically, leave this field unchanged
- Path to user uploaded files = this folder will contain all the files uploaded via your forms, leave this field unchanged
- Script URL = some value, entered automatically
- Charset = here you can specify the charset that will be used in PHPForms by default. This charset will be valid for all your forms.
- Database Settings:
This information is required in order to connect to your database and create administrator account. You can create a new database using your web hosting control panel or use an existing database (see the instructions on database creation below).- MySQL server (hostname) = localhost (usually, change if applicable)
- MySQL server port (leave blank if hostname is localhost, default value is 3306)
- MySQL database name (enter the appropriate value, this can be a new* or an existing database)
- MySQL database user name (enter the appropriate value. The user must have full privileges to use the database you specify above)
- MySQL database password (enter the appropriate value. This is the password for your database user)
- If after this stage you see any errors, please refer to the section "Most Frequent Installation Errors and their Solutions" below.
- *NOTE: To create a database in your Hosting Control Panel, go to the section MySQL Databases.
- 1) Create Database
Below you'll see the field New Database. Enter the name for this database and click the button "Create Database". Once the database is created, you'll need to create/assign the user for this database. You can also use an existing database for PHPForms. The script will create its own tables with the pf_ prefix, thus ensuring that no existing tables are affected.
2) Create User
To create a new user, enter the username/password and click "Create User".
3) Add Users To Your Databases
Select the user and the database from drop down menus, tick the checkbox All under "Privileges" and click "Add User to Database"- Step 10. Create the administrator account. Enter the following details:
- Login is the username to access the admin interface
- Password is the password to access the admin interface
- Confirm password to make sure the data is entered correctly
- E-mail is the administrator email address. The admin details will be sent to this address once the installation is complete.
- Step 11. If the installation is successful, you will see a notifying message. Check your email account (email address entered in step 10) for instructions to login to your admin account.
- NOTE: If you have any troubles installing the script, please contact our support team at support@phpforms.net with details.
- Step 12. Congratulations! We appreciate your choice of PHPForms! You can now log into the admin interface by pressing the 'Log in' button.
- Most Frequent Installation Errors and their Solutions
- Error Message:
- Error returned
110: Sorry, you cannot use the script now. Installation is not complete.- Solution:
- See if you have a file called 'install.lock' within the script directory. If there is no such file, you need to create it in the folder 'PHPForms'. You can create the file 'install.lock' in a text editor, like NOTEPAD or any other and indicate the necessary extension. In case nothing changes you will need to reinstall the script.
- Error Message:
- 724: Sorry, ./ folder is not writeable.
- Solution:
- The error "./ folder is not writeable." means that you should CHMOD the PHPForms' folder either to 755 or 775, if 777 isn't allowed on your server.
- Error Message:
- 2002:Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'(2)
- Solution:
- The error (2002) Can't connect to ... normally means that there is no MySQL server running on the system or that you are using an incorrect Unix socket filename or TCP/IP port number when trying to connect to the server.
- Most frequently, the problem is solved by the change of MySQL host name. Please check in your hosting control panel what is your MySQL host name. You can also advise with your system administrator or give us the access to your Cpanel.
- Error Message:
- 2003:Can't connect to MySQL server on 'sjscottw.ipowermysql.com' (13)
- Solution:
- The error (2003) Can't connect to MySQL server on 'server' (10061) indicates that the network connection has been refused. You should check that there is a MySQL server running, that it has network connections enabled, the network port you specified is the one configured on the server, and that the TCP/IP port you are using has not been blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
- Error Message:
- 1050: Sorry, can't execute SQL queryTable 'pf_admins' already exists
- Solution:
- This means that the script table has already been created in the specified database. To start the process from scratch, you will need to drop tables from the database and start over.
- Error Message:
- 1045:Access denied for user 'sjscott'@'boscgi1001.eigbox.net' (using password: YES)
- Solution:
- An Access denied error can have many causes. Often the problem is related to the MySQL accounts that the server allows client programs to use when connecting. Please check that you are using a correct username and password combination for the specified MySQL host.
- NOTE: If you see any other error messages not listed in this section, please feel free to contact us for assistance using any of the methods described on Php Forms - Installation
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Other information
PHPForms is one of the most popular scripts for building and processing web form. Over 8000 websites already successfully use PHPForms. This advanced application lets you create both simple and complex questionnaires with unlimited number of configurations, required fields, contributing to your web site interactivity. PHPForms is a simple program, which, however, can work wonders: why spend a lot of your business time corresponding with your customers to know their opinion?
