Installation of Modx is humbling... Total novice, please kindly help :)

Hi there

I’m from a primarily design background... Total novice!! Tried installing Modx today... Cannot seem to get past the initial installation, a lot of errors, it seems...

Here’s how I’ve done things...

I’ve set it up on my sub domain (hope this doesn’t cause problems), so I’ve uploaded all the necessary files (hopefully)

I created a MySQL database on my server already...



-------------------- The errors I’m getting --------------------------



Checking PHP version: OK!

Checking if sessions are properly configured: OK!

Checking if assets/cache directory exists: OK!

Checking if assets/cache directory is writable: Failed!

Checking if assets/cache/siteCache.idx.php file is writable: Failed!

Checking if assets/cache/sitePublishing.idx.php file is writable: Failed!

Checking if assets/images directory exists: OK!

Checking if assets/images directory is writable: Failed!

Checking if assets/export directory exists: OK!

Checking if assets/export directory is writable: Failed!

Checking if manager/includes/config.inc.php exists and is writable: Failed!

For new Linux/Unix installs, please create a blank file named config.inc.php in the manager/includes/ directory with file permissions set to 0666.

Creating connection to the database: OK!

Checking table prefix `modx_`: OK!



----------------------------------------------

Any help with this would be great.... For the record, apart from basic modifications to contact forms, I have no clue about PHP / MySQL...

Thank you very much!

BD
xx

Those error are referring to file permissions. Some file and folders need to be "writeable’ in order to get the install to install the needed files and setting.

There was recently a very descriptive post on this exact issue, worth checking it out since there is some good info that may help: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,23157.0.html

Oh, and I just ran into this very good article with a great discussion on FTP and file permissions, definitely worth checking this out since this is a required skill for the web professional

http://www.interspire.com/content/articles/12/1/FTP-and-Understanding-File-Permissions

Hi there dev_cw...

Thank you so much for your help and links... I saw that post earlier, but I couldn’t quite follow, so I posted my own.. Oh dear!

You’ve certainly helped me to put things into perspective a little more, I now understand the importance (thanks to your FTP tutorial link) of setting file permissions...

The files contained in the folders it suggests to change the permissions to, /assets/cache (and its files), /assets/export and /assets/images folders ... Are these the only ones I need to change permissions to? There are (for example) 3 files in the /assets/cache, 2 php and 1 html file, do I change permissions for all, or just the php’s ?

I noticed the thread you provided the link to ’Please help me install ModX’ also mentioned something about changing the config.inc.php.blank file in the manager/includes/ destination, does this apply to me too?

If so, I renamed it to config.inc.php, however this seems to be a blank file without content? Do I need to modify it further?


I’m terribly sorry if I’ve complicated things, but this is so out of my comfort zone -- but it’s been a great learning curve so far!!

Thank you so much again!!!

BD
xx

If so, I renamed it to config.inc.php, however this seems to be a blank file without content? Do I need to modify it further?

You are doing well. The installer will let you know if everything is ready for installation. You can just keep your FTP application open on screen and click the "Retry" button on the bottom of the install summary page and make the changes one by one until it works. That is what I used to do

Most FTP apps will let you do recursive settings, meaning that you do not need to do every file within a folder, just apply to the folder and it will pass these settings to the sibling documents.

I’m terribly sorry if I’ve complicated things, but this is so out of my comfort zone -- but it’s been a great learning curve so far!!

There are no dumb questions here, feel free to ask away and I am sure someone who has been in your shoes will be more than happy to lend a hand. And once you master this you can share your understanding ...this is a great community. None the less, there is hard work being done to improve the documentation for the next big MODx release to help make the learning curve a bit less of a curve for new comers.

One thing to get used to with MODx is that there is never (or at least rarely) only one way to do things. You may ask a question and get three totally different answers and they could all be correct.

Have fun.

Hi again..

Thanks so much for the info

All seems to be working fine now...

There’s one more problem... You’ve probably already guessed... I’m getting a warning / error message now once I’ve logged in...

One or more configuration details didn’t check out OK:

Configuration warning: ’register_globals is set to ON in your php.ini configuration file’

What does this mean?
This configuration makes your site much more susceptible to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. You should speak to your host about what you can do to disable this setting.

(The guy on the referred thread also seemed to have this issue, but rectified it...) As for me....

Firstly, I could not find this php.ini file... I read on in the thread you suggested, and it seems they ended up doing something in the ht.access file... Little confused whether I should disregard the php.ini file suggestions -- I have found the ht.access file....

If I am to indeed make changes to the ht.access file, I’m not sure I quite understand the suggestions made by the supporter in the other thread... By the sounds of things, I am to remove the # from the #php_flag register_globals Off ... It also says change the file name to .htaccess --

Might need a bit of a helping hand here too!! You have been so patient with me!! THANKS A MILLION!!

BD

x

You understood correctly, you need to do exactly what it says.

Hello

Thank you for your reply....

Just to confirm...

I opened the ht.access file in a text editor, I did a ’Find’ for the text #php_flag register_globals Off The editor found it on the 73rd line, I deleted the # at the start of it, so now it just reads php_flag register_globals Off ... Is this correct?

Then, I saved it as .htaccess, so now it shows up (in the file icon info) as a HTACCESS file, instead of an ACCESS file... Is this correct?

Went and uploaded it to the same directory I found it in via FTP, then deleted the old ht.access file... Is this correct?

I hope so.. The problem is, I’m still getting that same message (once logged in)

Configuration warning: ’register_globals is set to ON in your php.ini configuration file’

Is there something I’ve missed or done incorrectly?

Thank you again.

BD
x

Quote from: bd at Feb 26, 2008, 08:34 AM

I opened the ht.access file in a text editor, I did a ’Find’ for the text #php_flag register_globals Off The editor found it on the 73rd line, I deleted the # at the start of it, so now it just reads php_flag register_globals Off ... Is this correct?

Then, I saved it as .htaccess, so now it shows up (in the file icon info) as a HTACCESS file, instead of an ACCESS file... Is this correct?

Went and uploaded it to the same directory I found it in via FTP, then deleted the old ht.access file... Is this correct?

Yes, all correct.

You might not have the rights to do that, and hence the php_flag has no effect. I suggest you contact your host and ask if they’ll set register_globals to off for you.

/Kleist

Let us know how it went. Some server configs won’t let you issue php directives from the .htaccess file and you may need to check to see if your system is running PHPsuExec in which case you will need to do something differently to turn off register_globals.