Hello everyone - Happy New Year!!

I'm no Linux guru and I've only just installed XOOPS on a server at home, to evaluate it for my company's web site. The machine in question is running a pretty plain vanilla SuSE 9.2.

I did run into quite a few problems with file permissions and ownership, which by trial and error I managed to overcome. Perhaps some more obvious guidance here is called for. I'm still having problems with making Apache2 understand that the URI http://linux.nicole/xoops/ should be understood as http://linux.nicole/xoops/html/index.php.

I found it pretty difficult, too, to discover exactly what privileges my XOOPS account needed with MySQL. Some more explicit guidance here would also be useful.

Finally, when I had completed the XOOPS setup, I got a message stating that function "set_save_session_handler" was undefined. Bearing in mind that I know nothing of PHP, and by grepping through the XOOPS php pages, I eventually found that this was a function built-in to PHP .... provided you have the correct PHP module installed. I went back to YaST and installed php4_session and it worked. It would be very useful if we could have some guidance on what PHP modules are required.

I know that RPMs are a real pain in the whatsit to maintain, but they wouldn't 'arf 'elp a newbie like me.

Warm regards

Nicole

PS. Now things seem to be going well, I'm grapplng with the documentation. Where do I start with creating a web page?

First off, welcome to the world of XOOPS.

I am sorry to hear that you have experienced problems during the installation of XOOPS. I am no expert in setting up a webserver, but I'll try to comment on your difficulties.

Re. File permissions and ownership, XOOPS requires write access by the webserver to the cache, templates_c and uploads folders and during the installation also to the mainfile.php - we have tried to make that apparent during the installation screens with the green/red lights etc.

The XOOPS account for MySQL needs to be able to create and drop tables - and if you do not set up a database prior to installation, it will need to be privileged to create that, too - preferably the MySQL user should also be allowed to create and drop temporary tables, but not many modules use that.

Re. PHP modules, again I'm afraid I know very little - I just usually run XAMPP and it works... But you are right, it should be listed somewhere, what you need from the webserver in order to setup XOOPS.

Now, on to the good stuff. You have your website and you want content on it. The first thing is to figure out what kind of content you will have. XOOPS is somewhat more than "just" content management, so it is not centered around creating a web page and filling that with information. Instead, you upload "modules" to the webserver and install them through the XOOPS administration menu. Each module brings a number of pages that contains different things, such as articles, forums, blog entries, calendar items etc. Many modules for XOOPS are aimed at giving the visitors interaction possibilities - such as posting in the forum, submitting articles to the News section or adding entries in the calendar.

For more background information, I suggest you look/search in our XOOPS FAQ

Dearest 'Cucumber Division Error'

Thanks for the info on the minimum privileges for the XOOPS MySQL user.

I guess that now I've encountered one rather odd error about an undefined function, I'll know where to start rummaging.

I've found some wonderful documents in the "Community Documents" area that seem very promising for me.

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Nicole