Help

Installation

Introduction

Installing In-link has never been any easier! It comes with a web-based fully automated installation program that will do most of the installation and configuration work for you. Unfortunately, due to platform differences and incompatibilities there is no way to guarantee a flawless installation so we strongly recommend that you monitor the installation very carefully as you might have to complete some of steps manually. The installation program will guide you through the entire process and will give you concise and detailed instructions throughout the installation. Installation program contains five easy steps and if at any point it safely determines that some of the steps do not apply to your server, it may even skip them!

Installation Process

Overview

Below is the quick installation procedure to follow. We described all the steps in detail; however, please only follow the instructions applicable to your server in order to simplify the installation process:

Download

Before you can run the install script, you need to know the following: In-link comes in a zip file called in-link” and followed by the version number. Example: “in-link2_3_3.zip” is a compressed file containing In-link version 2.3.3. In order to retrieve the files from the zip file, you need to uncompress it by using a utility such as WinZip (www.winzip.com).

Download In-Link and unpack all the individual files. Make sure that all the files are present. (A list of all files that come with In-Link is in the Appendix.)

Upload

After you uncompress (unzip) the distribution you should see a number of files and directories that make up In-link. Upload all the files to your web server using your FTP software (such as WS_FTP, CuteFTP or FTP Voyager). Please, upload the files to a location on your web server where you would like In-link to be installed. For example, we recommend creating a separate directory called “inlink” or “directory”, but it can be anywhere on your web server, including the home directory (root) where you can place web files. Please, make sure that you upload all the PHP files (such as index.php) in ASCII mode and all the images in templates in the BINARY mode. Generally, your FTP software such as CuteFTP (www.cuteftp.com) can correctly determine if the files should be uploaded in ASCII or BINARY mode; but please do check to make sure that the transfer mode is set correct. You can check the settings in the configuration screen of your software or some software may prompt you for certain file types.

! Make sure all the PHP files are transferred in ASCII mode!

Database Setup

Set up a database for use with In-link. For security purposes, we recommend that the user of the database is other than “root” or “sa” and that there is a password set for that user. Make note of the database name, database server (normally “localhost”), database user and the user password. You will need to submit this information during the DB installation process. Also, make sure to give permission to the database user to DELETE, INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE and CREATE/ALTER/DROP TABLE. Generally we recommend full permissions to the In-link database.

Installation Program

Running

You can now run the installation script. The installation script is called “install.php” and it is located in the “admin/” directory of your In-link copy. It should be run in your web browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator). After you made sure that the database is setup and that all of the files are uploaded, proceed to open the installation script “/admin/install.php” in your web browser by specifying its location on the web server. For example, if you installed In-link on www.yourserver.com in the directory “inlink/”, then in your browser address/URL field just type in
http://www.yourserver.com/inlink/admin/install.php. This should load the installation program that will guide you through the installation process.

Step 1 – License

Please enter your first name, last name and your In-link registration number. This is the information that was e-mailed to you when you purchased In-link and it is included on your purchase receipt. If you lost you registration receipt you can have it e-mailed to you at the same e-mail address that you used when you purchased In-link. Note: you cannot proceed installing without this information. If you don’t have the registration number, please, contact Intechnic Corporation sales or customer service department in order to obtain the registration number. After you enter the information, press “Next Step”.

Step 2 – Program Location

In this step the installation program will attempt to determine the location of In-link on your server. In-link needs to know its exact location in order to function properly. In most cases, In-link successfully determines the information it needs. However, it is a good idea to always check to make sure that the determined path matches the correct location of the script on your server.

There are two paths that you need to specify: The Server path is the actual path to the files on your server. This is the path you would see when navigating to the In-link files on your server ( Ex.: “/home/user/public_html/inlink/” ). On Unix/Linux you can see what this path is by typing in the command "pwd" in your shell session window (Telnet) while located in the same directory where In-link is. The URL path is the path that you would see in your browser address field; it is usually the URL path following your domain. (Ex.: for http://www.yourserver.com/inlink the URL path would be “/inlink/”). After you entered and verified the information, press “Next Step”.


! Please, include the trailing slashes ("/") after both paths.

! On some Windows NT4/2000 servers the path cannot be determined accurately, please pay extra attention to the system paths if you are using a Microsoft server.

Step 3 – File Permissions

In order for In-link to function properly, you need to have certain file permissions to set correctly. In some cases, In-link will attempt to set file permissions automatically. Unfortunately, most configurations will not allow that, in which case you either set the file permissions manually or use the batch script that is included with the installation. The install script will check the following files/directories:

The install program will tell you if all of the permissions are set correctly and you will be able to safely proceed to the next step. If this is the case, you can skip reading the remaining portion of this section.

In most cases In-link installation program will show you the following message:
In-link could not set file permissions automatically due to the server configuration. Please set the above permissions manually or use the batch script to do that”. This means that the script failed to set permissions automatically and you will have to do it manually.


In order to set the file permissions on Linux/Unix systems, you can use a shell script “permissions.sh” that was included in the installation package. In order to run this script you need to have shell access to the server, establish a connection and proceed to the admin directory and run the script in your shell session window (“admin/permissions.sh”). If the script runs successfully you can skip the remaining part of this section.


If the script does not run correctly, you can either telnet to a shell on the server and enter the command "chmod 777 <filename>" or use a ftp client to set the permission to world readable and writeable. The configuration file (includes/config.php) must be writable to the web server, so the installation script can modify it.

On a Windows server, please make sure that the files are writeable. (On some Windows servers you might have to modify config.php manually, if the installation script fails to access config.php).


! On some systems the files cannot be written by PHP and you will have to modify config.php manually with the database information. Open config.php and insert the database information.


Step 4 – Database Configuration

In order for In-link to operate at all, it needs a SQL database and user already setup and running on the server. Unfortunately, installation program cannot setup the database itself for you and it is often a manual process.


Prior to proceeding to the next step make sure that you have a database and a user set up on your server. The database user should have full access to the database. The minimum requirements are DELETE, INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, CREATE/ALTER/DROP TABLE permissions. For more information on how to install and configure the database go to your database vendor’s site (http://www.mysql.com, http://www.microsoft.com or http://www.postgresql.org/).


Please enter all of your database information into the Database Setup screen. For “Database Type” select your database engine. “Port” can often be left blank (however it is required for PostgreSQL). If the installation script is not able to contact the database, you will receive an error in the next step. In that case, please double check the information and contact your web hosting provider or database administrator.

Step 5 – Security

In order to access In-link administration utility you need to set up a root administrative user. This user can never be deleted and overrides all the other users. The root user overrides all of the Administrators in the system and cannot be deleted. Please, exercise caution when setting the root password. In many cases your data cannot be recovered if the password is lost. After you entered a new root password, press “Next Step”.

Administration Utility

After completing the installation script you will be asked to proceed to the administration utility in order to customize the rest of In-Link. In order to access the administration utility you will be asked to log in with your root username and password. That’s it: In-link is ready to run!


! After the installation it is a good idea to remove install.php from your live server. For increased security we recommend password-protecting the entire /admin directory. Anybody who has your registration number and access to the database and /admin/install.php can modify or delete your system.