Setting Up A phpBB Forum On Your Website

An online forum is a place where Internet users can post and discuss topics. Forums are also referred to as discussion boards, message boards, and bulletin boards. As an example, click to our forum and take a look around to see how it works.

The following tutorial will show you how to set up a phpBB forum. phpBB is an open source (free) online forum that installs easily on your eVentureBiz web hosting account and is included in your Elefante Scripts.

Although your hosting plan includes the phpBB script, it is recommended you check phpBB.com for the latest version. We strive to keep all our scripts up-to-date with their latest versions, however, new versions of software are released virtually every day. Therefore, although your account includes phpBB this tutorial will show you how to download and install the most recent version of phpBB from phpBB's website.

Our help is available. If you own an eVentureBiz web hosting account and need help with the installation of any scripts we provide, such as phpBB, simply go to your control panel and open a new support ticket. We are here to assist with the installation process.


Step 1 - Database Setup

Your forum will need a database to store all its data in. So first, let's set up a database. Log into your eVentureBiz Control Panel and locate the icon labeled MySQL Databases and click on it.


Step 2

Give your new database a name. In this example, we entered in "forum" to make our database name "eventureb_forum." Then create a password and click Add SQL Database.

Step 3

You should now see your new database added. In our example, our Database Name & Username is eventure_forum.


Step 4

Make note of your Database Server. Ours is supremecenter54.com



Congratulations, you have set up your database. Now let's download and install your forum.

First, you will need the following information (it might be easier to write it down now).

  1. The database type
  2. The database server host name or DSN
  3. Database Port
  4. Database Name
  5. The database Username and Password

For eVentureBiz web hosting customers, the answers to the questions above are:

  1. MySQL
  2. Refer to Step 4 above. That is your database server host name
  3. Your database Port is 3306
  4. The database name you entered in Step 2 above
  5. Your Username is the database name and keep note of your password

NOTE: You will need a FTP Client to upload and change permissions on your files. In this example, we use the free FTP program Core FTP Lite. If you are installing the script from within your hosting account (i.e. instead of downloading it from phpBB.com you install the included phpBB Script from within your eVentureBiz control panel's PHP Scripts), simply open your FTP program and go to the folder where you installed phpBB and skip to step 4 below.

Installing Your Forum


Step 1

Go to phpBB.com and download the latest version.

Step 2

Unzip the phpBB file (in this example, we downloaded version 3.0)

Step 3

Using your FTP program, log into your web hosting account and create a new folder where you want your forum to reside. We called ours "forum" so that the web address would be http://www.eventurebiz.com/forum

Now upload all the files you unzipped into this directory (including sub folders).


Step 4

You now need to change some permissions to some files you have uploaded. Let's start with the config.php file. Using FTP Core Lite, right click on the config.php file in your newly created forum directory and choose Properties. Change the permission of this file to the Value of 666 (rw-rw-rw)

Now change the permissions on the following directories to be writable by all (777 or -rwxrwxrwx within your FTP Client):

store/, cache/, files/ and images/avatars/upload/

Step 5

Using your web browser visit the location you placed phpBB with the addition of install/index.php
(e.g. http://www.mydomain.com/forum/install/index.php)


Step 6

Click the Install Tab


Step 7

Follow the directions now shown to you.


Step 8

Click Proceed to next step.


Step 9

phpBB will then do a compatibility check to make sure it can run on the server with no issues. This program runs on our servers, however, if for any reason there is a problem, open a new support ticket within your control panel.


Step 10

Click Start install.


Step 11

Fill in the fields with the information we noted you should write down. Remember, for eVentureBiz web hosting accounts you will need to enter 3306 for server port.


Step 12

Fill in the fields. This will be your username and password to login to your message board.


Step 13

Check your settings.


Step 14

As a final note, delete , move, or rename the install directory.

Step 15

Change the permissions on config.php to be writable only by yourself (644 or -rw-r--r-- within your FTP Client).

Congratulations, you've now installed a forum on your website. Now you will need to add categories with forums listed inside them. For example, looking at the eVentureBiz forum, you will see Community Center is the category and Website Review is one of its forums.

Visit phpBB.com and click on their Support tab to view configuration settings and how to set up your forums. Their video flash tutorials are very useful.

We hope you found this tutorial useful,
eVentureBiz Team

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