Welcome to www.brauck[punt]nl

Thanks for downloading one of my sNews templates. They are all valid XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.0. This template is especially made for the sNews community for private (non-commercial) use and is released under Creative Commons License.I would appreciate it if you leave the ´Design by´ thing where it is.

You have downloaded a full package, which means that the template is basically ready to go. There are however some steps to take before you can write your posts and fill your database.

Installation

Before installing please check minimum system requirements:

Apache Server with mod_rewrite module enabled
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor version 4.x or above
MySQL database

These applications are freely available, and can be installed both on Windows and Linux OS (detailed info can be obtained at their websites). Note that sNews 1.5 won't work on Windows server because it uses different methods of URL rewriting.

1. Exploring the zip-file

When you have unpacked the zip file, you will have a folder with the name of the template. Within this folder you will find one or two subfolders (depending on the package) and this readme file.

In the subfolder ´documentation´ you will find some document with supplementary info.

If available, the subfolder psd will contain the psd files of the in the template used images; you can modify them as you like.

In the folder ´template ´ you will find a couple of sub-folders.

The folder ´css´ speaks for itself; you will find the stylesheet here.

In the folder ´images´ you will find the images used in the template

The folder ´img´ is empty and will be used to upload your images to you will use in your posted articles.

In the sub-folder ´php´ resides the core sNews engine snews.php developers version: 1.5.30 stable; check if this is the most recent version. If not download the newest version and replace the snews.php.
You will also find a script here to setup the database table (setup.php).

2. Setup the Database

Create your sNews database on your server with CPanel or Plesk or whatever other maintenance tool.

3. Set the website url and database variables in snews.php

Open your copy of snews.php which you will find in the folder ´php´. Use a plain text editor like ´notepad´ (this is important). At the top of the file you will find the variables as mentioned:

// DATABASE VARIABLES

function db($variable) {
$db = array();
$db['website'] = ''; // your domain name
$db['dbhost'] = 'localhost'; //MySQL Host
$db['dbname'] = ''; //Database Name
$db['dbuname'] = ''; //Database Username
$db['dbpass'] = ''; //Database password
$db['prefix'] = ''; //Database prefix
...

Edit these settings

full web site address with trailing slash - http://www.your-domain-name.com/
$db['website'] = 'http://www.your-domain.com/';

MySQL Host - provided by hosting company, usually is "localhost":
$db['dbhost'] = 'localhost';

Database Name - insert the name of the database you created, e.g.:
$db['dbname'] = 'snews15';

Database Username - insert the username you used when you created your database, e.g.:
$db['dbuname'] = 'root';

Database password - insert the password you used when you created your database, e.g.:
$db['dbpass'] = 'mypassword';

Database prefix - usually used when a hosting company provides only one database:
$db['prefix'] = 'myprefix_';

Save the file

4. Upload the package

Upload all the files and folders within the template folder as shown above to your webserver. Preferably leave the folder structure intact. If you want to change the folder structure read this.

Then you have to change the permissions of the folder ´img´ to world-wide-writable (CHMOD 777); this is the folder where you will upload your images. It should look like this:

Just upload these files and folders to your webserver leaving the directory structure as it is (this is important!).

5. Building the tables

In the ´php´ folder resides a script called ´setup.php´ that creates the database tables. So start your browser and point to: http://www.your-domain/php/setup.php, assuming that your installation is in the root of your webserver.

The script checks if the database variables in ´snews.php´ are properly set and if so, it creates the tables and fills the table ´settings´ with the necessary data.

If you want to create the tables by using phpmyadmin or similar database editor, you probably know what you are doing; in the folder ´documentation´ you will find a sql-file to create and populate the tables.

6. Site settings

You are almost done now. Point your browser to your website and click the login-link at the bottom of the template. The default username is test and the password is test. Hit the login button and you are in the admin pannel.

The first thing you do is to change your username and password. Click ´settings´ in the Admin Panel and then click ´Change Username and Password´, fill in the form and hit the ´save´button.

After you have done this, you are ready to go. Explore the Admin Panel and modify the settings to your needs. In the folder ´documentation´ you will find a manual with a description of all the settings.

7. Changing the directory structure

Note that if you want to put your files in other folders then I suggested here, you have to modify the links in the index-file. If you upload to a subfolder of the website root, note that you might have to modify your .htaccess-file (RewriteBase)

8. Usefull links

Here are some useful links