Core Installation Guide

From Communit.as

This is a quick guide on how to install Communit.as. These instructions assume some form of *nix. Having said that, this should probably translate to something like XAMPP pretty easily.

Before you Begin

• Check out the Prerequisites.
• Check out the roadmap of features to see if Communit.as is right for you.
• Download the package (available soon)

Installation Steps

1. You'll generally want to use an apache virtualhost. For now, the application must live at the root of the domain. At least for the moment, it must live at http://localhost or http://somesite.com to work. It can't live at http://localhost/communitas/. For dev machines with lots of sites on them, you could always use multiple ports or your host file. But that's another show.
2. Get the code...
   • Downloadable Package
     (if you just want to use Communitas)
     • Download the latest stable version here.
     • Unpack the code into the document root of your web server or virtualhost using this command:

       tar -xvfz communitas.1.6.1009.tar /home/myusername/whatever/webroot/directory/www

   • Subversion Repository
     (if you want to develop Communitas)
     • Check out the project from svn to the document root of your web server or virtualhost. Using command line svn, this will look something like:

       svn checkout http://communitas.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ communitas

       ...where "communitas" is the name of the directory to be checked out to.

     • SVN doesn't contain a couple of key supporting libraries, namely the Zend Framework, Smarty, and Asido. Luckily for you, we make these available as their own download here.
3. In the application root, you'll find a file called template.htaccess. Copy this to .htaccess in the same directory. (Note: You will need to have Apache configured to allow overrides from .htaccess files.) You shouldn't need to edit the file.
4. The /etc /logs /tmp and /uploads directories must be writable by the web server. You can do this either by making the user the web server is running as the owner of the files (preferred) or by doing the old chmod -R 0777 on the directories. (It's a blunt instrument, I know, but it works.)
5. Create the an empty MySQL 5 database. By default, the app looks for one called, shockingly, "communitas", but you can call it whatever you want.
6. Browse to URL of your virtual host or web server. You should be looking at the installer. If you're just getting an error or a blank white page, check the Apache error logs.
7. You'll need to fill in your DB information and an admin email address. Most things should be set to reasonable defaults. Adjust as needed.
8. When you hit the save and install button, the installer will attempt to do its thing. If it can't, it should tell you why.
9. The app is now installed. You should see a screen with your admin username and randomly generated password, which you should either remember or change.
10. Do a little dance. You're done.

After You're Done

• Go into the admin and go to Settings > Modules. Install and enable the Homepage, Mail, and Friends modules.
• In the admin, go to Settings > Roles. Edit the permissions for each role to grant them access to the desired controller actions.
• You might also want to install the test data. Once you have the file, you can go to Admin > Settings > Load Test Data and easily install it from there.