Install Help
Help with the lovely settings.
Basic Installation Instructions:
If you know basic web stuff like CHMODing, look below at step #1. If you have no clue what you're doing, just go to http://www.yoursite.com/install.php after uploading all the files to your server.
1) CHMOD the stories folder to 777 if you intend to write the story texts to the server or allow image uploads.
2) CHMOD config.php to 666
3) Modify data/dbconfig.php with the appropriate MySQL database info, and put outside the web directory.
4) Run install.php
5) Login with the admin login and password set in step #4, and set your settings.
The stuff below is explanations for certain steps done during the install.php procedure.
The php.ini file is not something that most people have access to if they're using shared webhosting (which most people are). It is the config file for PHP, and modifying it would affect everyone who is on the server -- so your webhost must be the ones to modify it. Sometimes they can be sticky about changing certain settings, especially safe_mode. So, if they won't turn it on for you, you must either live with safe_mode being on and lose some of the functionality of the script, OR find a host that runs PHP with safe_mode off (of which there are many).
Note: one of the requirements of the script is that register_globals be set to on. The recent versions of PHP, when installed, have register_globals set to off as the default. If the install script is telling you that register_globals is off, contact your web host, and ask them to set it to on.
CHMODing means that you are changing the permissions of a file. Basically, a file has read, write, or execute permissions for Owner, Group, and Other. You have to set the read, write, and execute permissions correctly for these three groups so that they add up to 666 (for config.php -- this would be read and write for all 3 groups) or 777 (for the stories folder -- read, write, and execute for all three groups).
In most FTP programs, you select the file or folder in question, and right click on it. You should see a choice there that says "CHMOD" or "Permissions". Choose that, and you should see some sort of interface to change the permissions (usually little checkboxes that you turn on or off). If you're still stuck on how to do this, come ask in the Orodruin forums for more info.
This is going to be the hard part for people who are not used to working with MySQL databases. If you're using shared webhosting, then you probably have some sort of control panel interface that comes with your hosting. Do some poking around in there, and see if you can't find a place that mentions either "MySQL" or "databases." You need to create a database, that has both a database login, and password associated with it. Once you've done that, you can modify the dbconfig.php file with that information. If you're still not able to figure out how to do this, it's best to talk to your webhost and ask for help.
The database must have several tables installed where all the script information is stored (i.e. the users, the stories, and everything else). The script can install these tables for you, and there's really no reason not to have it do that. If you're concerned about it doing that, you can use the tables.sql file (found in the docs folder) and run them yourself -- you should only do this if you know what you're doing.