w-Agora Tutorial and Installation How To

This tutorial describes how to use the w-Agora forum software with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting w-Agora software and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup your site with our web hosting service.

w-Agora is open source, meaning that you can use and distribute it as you'd like as long as you don't change it.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up w-Agora at http://johnsmith.com/agora/.

Follow these steps to complete the tutorial:

1. The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a database for w-Agora to use to store the information it needs.

   Create a database called 'agora' with a user named 'agora'. When you do this SiteWorx will prefix the database and user names with some text resembling your domain name.

   With our example domain of 'johnsmith.com' the database name is 'johnsmit_agora' and the username is the same 'johnsmit_agora'.
2. Download the latest version of w-Agora from the w-Agora website and unzip the contents of the zip file to your desktop using http://winzip.com. You should now have a folder which contains all the files and folders you need to install and run w-Agora. Rename the 'w-agora' folder to 'agora'.
3. Upload the 'agora' folder to your web hosting account. You can do this using an FTP program. If you don't know how to do this, check out the FTP tutorial on our tutorials page.

   Once the w-Agora files and folders are finished uploading, you need to change the permissions on some of the folders so that script can write to them. You can do this using the CHMOD command in your FTP program. If you don't know how to do this, check out the FTP tutorial on our tutorials page. You should CHMOD the folders as follows:

   • CHMOD the 'conf' folder to 707
   • CHMOD the 'forums' folder to 707
   • CHMOD the 'forums/agora' folder to 707
4. Once you've set the correct permissions, you can access the setup wizard. For this example, we'll point to 'http://www.johnsmith.com/agora/setup.php'. You should now be on the main w-Agora setup page. You need to enter the information for the database you created in step #1. You also need to enter the information for your admin account. For this example, we'll enter the information as follows:
   • Database type: MySQL - Stays the same
   • Server name: localhost
   • Database name: johnsmit_agora
   • Database user: johnsmit_agora
   • Database password: mypassword

   You can enter the information for the w-Agora admin account as you see fit. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Install' button to continue. You should now get a message saying that the installation was successful. If you receive any error messages, go back and make sure you entered the correct information for your database and that you set the correct permissions on the folders. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'OK' button to continue. You will now be asked to create a new site. Enter the information in the fields according to your preference. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click the 'Create this site' button to continue. Your site should have been created successfully. Your screen should look like this:

   

   You will now create a forum. Click on the 'Create a forum' link to continue. Enter the information on this page according to your preference. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Create this forum' button to continue. Your new forum should have been created successfully. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Click on the 'Return to site administration' link to continue. You will now be taken to the w-Agora admin control panel page. From here you can manage your sites and forums as you see fit. Your screen should look like this:

   

   Your w-Agora tutorial is now complete!

   For more information on how to use w-Agora once it's installed, check out the w-Agora Documentation.

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