Step-by-step instructions for installing 0.9.6.3 with Fatcow.com as the host

I always create step-by-step instructions for installs as I frequently reinstall stuff and I can’t remember what I did before. I use fatcow.com and have been happy with them. There are apparently some steps unique to their site to get MODx installed. Please point any places where I screwed up or could have done better.

* Sign into fatcow.com
* Go to the Control Panel
* Click on "CGI and Scripted Language Support"
* Click on "PHP Scripting"
* Set the default PHP version to "PHP 5"
* Edit the php.ini file
* On the fatcow page, find the path to your Web document root
* Add to the php.ini file a line session.save_path = "xxxx/cgi-bin/tmp" where "xxxx" is the path to your Web document root
* Save the php.ini file
* Download the latest version of MODx to your PC
* Using filezilla or some other ftp program, ftp the zip file to your home directory
* Go to the fatcow control panel
* Click on "Archive Gateway"
* Select the modx zip file and click "Extract/Uncompress"
* Go back to Filezilla
* Drag the files and directory created in the "modx-x.x.x.x" directory to your root directory
* Set the permissions as covered in the MODx install page
* Go to the fatcow control panel
* Click on "Manage MySQL"
* Add a new database. Example values in the "Add New Database" box are "mydb" for Database Name, "mememe" for "Database Login", "mypass" for Password
* Go to http://yourwebsite.com/install/index.php
* Click "Next" to select English as the language
* Click "Begin"
* Check the "I agree to the terms set out in this license" box and click "Next"
* Check "New Installation" and click "Next"
* Go back to the fatcow control panel and click on "Manage MySQL"
* You will see on the page "Database is on xxxxxx.fatcowmysql.com "
* For the database host, put the "xxxxxx.fatcowmysql.com" from above
* For the database login name, put your equivalent of "mememe"
* For the database password, put your equivalent of "mypass"
* Click on the "Click here to test your server connection and get the available collations" link’
* You should get a message saying "passed"
* For the database name, put your equivalent of "mydb"
* You can use as the Connection Method "SET NAMES" or use "SET CHARACTER SET" and select "latin1_swedish_ci"
* Click on the "Click here to create your database or to test the selection of your database"
* You should get a message saying "passed"
* For Administrator username, enter your user name. Then enter your email, your password and your password again
* Click "Next"
* I checked the Sample Web Site box, left all the other boxes checked and clicked "Install"
* The Pre-install validation screen should come up with all OK’s. Click "Install"
* The Install results web page should come up all green. Click "Close"
* You will be taken to the manager web page. Enter your user name and password, then click "Login"
* You now have a MODx website

That looks very good. The only thing I noticed is that not all users will be using latin1_swedish_ci (though many are).

Thanks for the contribution.

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 06, 2009, 05:13 AM

That looks very good. The only thing I noticed is that not all users will be using latin1_swedish_ci (though many are).

That is the only choice on fatcow.com

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 06, 2009, 05:13 AM

Thanks for the contribution.

You are welcome

Quote from: Diz at Jan 06, 2009, 05:07 PM

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 06, 2009, 05:13 AM

That looks very good. The only thing I noticed is that not all users will be using latin1_swedish_ci (though many are).

That is the only choice on fatcow.com

That’s surprising. I’ve never seen a host that restricts the character set of the MySQL dB. Do you have Import capability in PhpMyAdmin? If so, I wonder what happens when you import an SQL dump with UTF-8 specified internally. And can’t you specify the character set when you create the database in PhpMyAdmin -- or does fatcow create it for you?

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 06, 2009, 07:22 PM

Quote from: Diz at Jan 06, 2009, 05:07 PM

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 06, 2009, 05:13 AM

That looks very good. The only thing I noticed is that not all users will be using latin1_swedish_ci (though many are).

That is the only choice on fatcow.com

That’s surprising. I’ve never seen a host that restricts the character set of the MySQL dB. Do you have Import capability in PhpMyAdmin? If so, I wonder what happens when you import an SQL dump with UTF-8 specified internally. And can’t you specify the character set when you create the database in PhpMyAdmin -- or does fatcow create it for you?

The first time you create a MySQL database, all you can specify are the Database Name, the Database Login and the Password. No character set. After that, I can go to the MySQLAdmin page. When I do so, the MySQL Charset value is UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) and the MySQL connection collation value is utf8_unicode_ci. When I look at my tables, the collation of all the VARCHAR columns is latin1_swedish_ci.

Sometimes when I go to my website, I get "Unknown MySQL server host" errors. I am go to reinstall using "SET NAMES" to see if that solves the problem.

Since you’re sort of locked into UTF8, did you make sure that’s what is set in manager/includes/config.inc.php before installing?

Quote from: BobRay at Jan 07, 2009, 09:28 PM

Since you’re sort of locked into UTF8, did you make sure that’s what is set in manager/includes/config.inc.php before installing?

Let’s just say that modifying the config.inc.php file didn’t leap to mind. Wasn’t it suppose to be blank before installing?

I was having a problem where the web site would every so often throw a series of errors:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
« MODx Parse Error »
MODx encountered the following error while attempting to parse the requested resource:
« PHP Parse Error »

PHP error debug
Error: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Unknown MySQL server host ’ddisney.fatcowmysql.com’ (1)
Error type/ Nr.: Warning - 2
File: /hermes/web09d/b458/moo.ddisney/manager/includes/extenders/dbapi.mysql.class.inc.php
Line: 89
Line 89 source: if (!$this->conn = ($persist ? mysql_pconnect($host, $uid, $pwd) : mysql_connect($host, $uid, $pwd, true))) {
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The fatcow tech support came back with:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A space was there in the database name in the config.inc.php and has been corrected. Please check your site functioning again.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I haven’t had the problem since. Here is some of the current config.inc.php file:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
$database_connection_charset = ’latin1’;
$database_connection_method = ’SET CHARACTER SET’;
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Hi,

I just installed modx 1.0.2 on my fatcow hosting account using these settings with the exception that I choose "SET NAMES" and left it on "utf-8_general" (what ever it is when the page loads) without a problem all seems to be working correctly. Hope this helps someone.

Has anyone been able to install revolution on fatcow?

Please note that FatCow now has MODX Revolution listed as part of the SimpleScripts auto-install programs through the user control panel. I have not tried it yet but it’s promising that it is listed.