Utopia News Pro is designed to work on virtually any server running both PHP and MySQL database backend. The installer was designed to be as simple as possible to work with. Just follow the instructions and you should not run into any problems. If you do, send an email to utopiasupport@gmail.com.
The first step is to unzip the .ZIP archive, ensuring to retain the directory/file structure.
Locate the file config.inc.php in the /upload/ directory. Open this file in a text editor such as Notepad and you will see a file like this:
You will need to make basic changes in this file. Fill in the appropriate values on the right side of the => between the single quotes. If the MySQL database is not located on the same server as the Utopia News Pro script, you must change the 'hostname' setting. Enter the hostname or IP address of the server that you are using. Enter the username and password of a MySQL account that has access to this database. Finally, fill in the name of the database that Utopia News Pro will be installed in.
Once all appropriate changes have been made to the config file, you are ready to upload the files to the server. Upload the files in the /upload/ directory, ensuring to keep proper directory structure. Upload the main directory files in ASCII mode, and the images directory in BINARY. If you plan on using the avatar feature, ensure that your /images/avatars/ directory is writable (CHMOD 777).
Once all files have been uploaded to the server, open your web browser and navigate to http://www.yourdomain.com/unpdirectory/install.php
, replacing www.yourdomain.com and unpdirectory with the correct values for your site.
The installation spans 8 steps. During each step, you will be told exactly what is happening.
Step 1 of the install checks your server's configuration and your config.inc.php file to ensure that everything is set up correctly for the UNP installation. It checks whether or not MySQL is installed and whether or not it can connect to the server and database provided the details in config.inc.php. Once connected, it checks that the MySQL database is empty and, if not, gives you the option of emptying it. (Only empty the database if you are absolutely positive that you are not losing important information. UtopiaSoftware disclaims all responsibility in regards to the loss of data.)
Step 2 of the installation creates the database tables that will be used by Utopia News Pro. If you do not encounter any errors, proceed to the next step.
Step 3 of the installation fills the previously created tables with default information. It populates the settings table with all default settings and it creates a `root' user with no password. Later steps in the installation will update these default settings and will allow you to make changes to the default `root' user.
Step 4 of the installation is your chance to update the settings. You can usually leave all of the settings at default except for the Main Site Title, which will need to be updated. All other settings can be left at the default.
Step 5 of the installation inserts the newly updated settings into the database. If you do not encounter any errors, proceed to the next step.
Step 6 of the installation is where you modify the originally created `root' account. You may change the username if you wish, and you must enter a new password (twice - for verification), as well as an email address.
Step 7 of the installation inserts the newly updated administrative user into the database, overwriting the originally created `root' account. If you do not encounter any errors, proceed to the next step.
Congratulations, once you've reached this step, Utopia News Pro has been installed. Delete the install.php file immediately after completing the install. All documentation provided on the page of Step 8 is also available in this document.
There are two methods of including news: SSI and PHP includes. If the page in which you want to include your news is a standard HTML page, you will use SSI. If the page is PHP, you can use the more efficient PHP includes. If your page is HTML, rename the page with a *.shtml extension (unless your host allows SSI on *.html or *.htm pages). To include the news, place the following code wherever you want in the page:
<!--#include virtual="/unp/news.php"--> - If you are NOT using the news cache
OR
<!--#include virtual="/unp/news.txt"--> - If you ARE using the news cache.
If your page is PHP, there is no need to rename any files. Just place the following code wherever you want the news in the page:
include('/unp/news.php'); - If you are NOT using the news cache
OR
include('/unp/news.txt'); - If you ARE using the news cache.
Please note that in all of the preceding examples, /unp/ must be replaced with the directory in which UNP is installed. To include headlines, replace news.php and news.txt with headlines.php and headlines.txt respectively. You may need to surround the PHP statement with <?php and ?> if PHP is not being parsed in the region you want the news inclusion. Please note that all 4 examples assume that the page the news is to be included in is one directory higher than UNP in directory structure. (ie. news page is in /, UNP is /unp)
The cache is a group of static files that are generated to represent the dynamic php files for news, headlines, and RSS. Their use is to greatly increase the speed of displaying news (especially on high-traffic sites). As it does not have to be generated from the database and dynamically altered, it can be generated very quickly.
In order to use the cache, you must CHMOD the UNP directory to 777.
What are UNP codes? - UNP codes are replacements for certain basic HTML codes. They are as follows:
[b]This text is bold.[/b] | This text is bold. |
[i]This text is italicized.[/i] | This text is italicized. |
[u]This text is underlined.[/u] | This text is underlined. |
[url]http://www.utopiasoftware.net[/url] | http://www.utopiasoftware.net |
[url=http://www.utopiasoftware.net]UtopiaSoftware[/url] | UtopiaSoftware |
[email]support@utopiasoftware.net[/email] | support@utopiasoftware.net |
[email=support@utopiasoftware.net]Email Us[/email] | Email Us |
[color=red]This text is red.[/color] | This text is red. |
[size=3]This text is size 3.[/size] | This text is size 3. |
[font=Courier]This text is in Courier.[/font] | This text is in Courier. |
[blockquote]This text is blockquoted.[/blockquote] | This text is blockquoted. |
[img]http://www.utopiasoftware.net/images/icon_ok.gif[/img] | ![]() |
[hr] - Horizontal Ruler: |
Headers already sent (output started at /config.inc.php:xx) in /index.php on line xx) - If you are receiving this problem, it is likely that you have added an extra space at the end of the config.inc.php file. Ensure that there are no spaces before <php and no spaces after ?>.