I am trying to install XOOPS localy on a test server because the production server of a project I am working on will be upgrading to cpanel in the near future and XOOPS will be available to me there.

I have looked through the documentaion and all the READ THIS FIRST type posts on this forum. My error handling is turned on.

I encountered a number of problems from a fresh install and have been able to repeat them. I will list them in order and document them as best as I can.

1) Everything is fine for the first few screens folders and files it wants check out as writeable etc. but when i get to saving configuration data i get red lights.

File ../mainfile.php overwritten by ../mainfile.dist.php.
Failed writing constant C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs.
Failed writing constanthttp://localhost.
Failed writing constant mysql.
Failed writing constant xoops.
Failed writing constant localhost.
Failed writing constant root.
Failed writing constant __________.[displays db pw correctly]
Failed writing constant zoodat.
Failed writing constant 0.
Failed writing constant 1.
Failed writing constant 2.
Failed writing constant 3.
Failed writing constant 1.

If I click next at this point I get this error

Parse error: parse error, unexpected $end in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\mainfile.php on line 32

At this point I checked out mainfile.dist.php looks like this:

<?php
// $Id: mainfile.dist.php,v 1.7 2004/12/26 19:11:47 Onokazu Exp $
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// XOOPS - PHP Content Management System //
// Copyright (c) 2000 XOOPS.org //
// <https://xoops.org/> //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify //
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by //
// the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or //
// (at your option) any later version. //
// //
// You may not change or alter any portion of this comment or credits //
// of supporting developers from this source code or any supporting //
// source code which is considered copyrighted (c) material of the //
// original comment or credit authors. //
// //
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, //
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of //
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the //
// GNU General Public License for more details. //
// //
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License //
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software //
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //

if ( !defined("XOOPS_MAINFILE_INCLUDED") ) {
define("XOOPS_MAINFILE_INCLUDED",1);

// XOOPS Physical Path
// Physical path to your main XOOPS directory WITHOUT trailing slash
// Example: define('XOOPS_ROOT_PATH', '/path/to/xoops/directory');
define('XOOPS_ROOT_PATH', '');

// XOOPS Virtual Path (URL)
// Virtual path to your main XOOPS directory WITHOUT trailing slash
// Example: define('XOOPS_URL', 'http://url_to_xoops_directory');
define('XOOPS_URL', 'http://');

define('XOOPS_CHECK_PATH', 0);
// Protect against external scripts execution if safe mode is not enabled
if ( XOOPS_CHECK_PATH && !@ini_get('safe_mode') ) {
if ( function_exists('debug_backtrace') ) {
$xoopsScriptPath = debug_backtrace();
if ( !count($xoopsScriptPath) ) {
die("XOOPS path check: this file cannot be requested directly");
}
$xoopsScriptPath = $xoopsScriptPath[0]['file'];
} else {
$xoopsScriptPath = isset($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']) ? $_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED'] : $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'];
}
if ( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR != '/' ) {
// IIS6 may double the \ chars
$xoopsScriptPath = str_replace( strpos( $xoopsScriptPath, '\\\\', 2 ) ? '\\\\' : DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, '/', $xoopsScriptPath);
}
if ( strcasecmp( substr($xoopsScriptPath, 0, strlen(XOOPS_ROOT_PATH)), str_replace( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, '/', XOOPS_ROOT_PATH)) ) {
exit("XOOPS path check: Script is not inside XOOPS_ROOT_PATH and cannot run.");
}
}

// Database
// Choose the database to be used
define('XOOPS_DB_TYPE', 'mysql');

// Table Prefix
// This prefix will be added to all new tables created to avoid name conflict in the database. If you are unsure, just use the default 'xoops'.
define('XOOPS_DB_PREFIX', 'xoops');

// Database Hostname
// Hostname of the database server. If you are unsure, 'localhost' works in most cases.
define('XOOPS_DB_HOST', 'localhost');

// Database Username
// Your database user account on the host
define('XOOPS_DB_USER', '');

// Database Password
// Password for your database user account
define('XOOPS_DB_PASS', '');

// Database Name
// The name of database on the host. The installer will attempt to create the database if not exist
define('XOOPS_DB_NAME', '');

// Use persistent connection? (Yes=1 No=0)
// Default is 'Yes'. Choose 'Yes' if you are unsure.
define('XOOPS_DB_PCONNECT', 0);

define("XOOPS_GROUP_ADMIN", "1");
define("XOOPS_GROUP_USERS", "2");
define("XOOPS_GROUP_ANONYMOUS", "3");

if (!isset($xoopsOption['nocommon']) && XOOPS_ROOT_PATH != '') {
include XOOPS_ROOT_PATH."/include/common.php";
}
}
?>

and my mainfile.php looks like this:

<?php
// $Id: mainfile.dist.php,v 1.7 2004/12/26 19:11:47 Onokazu Exp $
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// XOOPS - PHP Content Management System //
// Copyright (c) 2000 XOOPS.org //
// <https://xoops.org/> //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify //
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by //
// the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or //
// (at your option) any later version. //
// //
// You may not change or alter any portion of this comment or credits //
// of supporting developers from this source code or any supporting //
// source code which is considered copyrighted (c) material of the //
// original comment or credit authors. //
// //
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, //
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of //
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the //
// GNU General Public License for more details. //
// //
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License //
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software //
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //

if ( !defined("XOOPS_MAINFILE_INCLUDED") ) {
define("XOOPS_MAINFILE_INCLUDED",1);

// XOOPS Physical Path
// Physical path to your main XOOPS directory WITHOUT traili



mainfile.php seems to cut off right there in the middle of its sentence. So at this point I tried manually inputing the correct information into the empty set on the repsective define statments of mainfile.dist.php and copying the contents to mainfile.php. Believe it or not this actually worked and returns all green lights.

File ../mainfile.php overwritten by ../mainfile.dist.php.
Constant XOOPS_ROOT_PATH written to C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs.
Constant XOOPS_URL written tohttp://localhost.
Constant XOOPS_DB_TYPE written to mysql.
Constant XOOPS_DB_PREFIX written to xoops.
Constant XOOPS_DB_HOST written to localhost.
Constant XOOPS_DB_USER written to root.
Constant XOOPS_DB_PASS written to _______.
Constant XOOPS_DB_NAME written to zoodat.
Constant XOOPS_DB_PCONNECT written to 0.
Constant XOOPS_GROUP_ADMIN written to 1.
Constant XOOPS_GROUP_USERS written to 2.
Constant XOOPS_GROUP_ANONYMOUS written to 3.
Constant XOOPS_CHECK_PATH written to 1.

So now the next snag...

Everything checks out up untill confirm databse settings. My settings appear correct however when I click next on this screen I am whisked away to a blankhttp://localhost/install/index.php screen. There is no progress for accessing the database screen and I cecked at the MySQL command promt and nothing is written into the database I created there. This is where I am stuck. Can anyone please help!

You didn't say which version of PHP, MySQL or XOOPS you are using... but you could try this.

Sorry forgot to include that info:
OS: XP
PHP: 5.1.1
MySQL: 5.0.18-nt
xoops: [RECOMMENDED] XOOPS 2.0.13.2 full version

That fix in the link corrected my first problem but it still snags when it attempts to build the database. Any ideas?

i think the problem might be that XOOPS is not compatible with
SQL or PHP version 5 so you could try rolling them back to earlier versions and see if that helps

XOOPS is compatible with PHP 5, but as far as I know there's only been limited testing done with MySQL 5. Full MySQL 5 compatibility is listed in the roadmap for 2.3, as I remember.

I haven't tested MySQL 5 myself so I can't help you further...

I had the same problem with "failed writing constant..". I tried overwriting mainfile.php manually as voite had described in his post, and it works now! Thanks, voite!