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A lot of people have been asking me to help them install phpLD after something I wrote about phpLD started appearing in the search engines (which contained "how to install phpld"). I am going to do a quick write-up which will hopefully help people who can't figure out how to install php link directory. This write up is being written for phpLD 2.1 but the same install procedures go for any version of phpLD and most other scripts. Note that there seems to be a problem with installing phpLD 2 and 2.1 on a subdomain powered by a VPS running plesk.

To download phpLD 2.1, click here

Step 1

Create a mySQL database and username.
In this example I am going to set up the database using cpanel, but you can do this however you like and from any control panel your server is using.

Go to your cpanel (youdomain.com/cpanel) and click on "MySQL Databases".

First thing we will do is create a database (in this example it is called testing)

After creating the database, we will need to create a new username and password for our database to use.

Now, we need to give this new username permission to access the database. Select the username you just created (in this example we used testuser) and add it to the new database (in this example "testing"). If "All" is not selected, please select it. Do not worry about the other check boxes.

After adding the username to the database, you should see something like this at the top of your screen

As you can see, your cpanel user name prefix appears in the connection strings. A lot of the time when someone is having trouble installing phpLD they forget to add the cpanel username prefix before their database name or username.

Step 2

Upload your files and edit the permissions
I'm not going to go into uploading your files as you should know how to do this

After uploading your files you need to edit the permissions on the file and folders below to 777

• include/config.php
  
• temp/
• temp/adodb
• temp/cache
• temp/templates

The best way to do this is through Dreamweaver or an FTP client. Simply right click on the files and select all the checkboxes, or type "777"

Step 3

The web based installer
Luckily all versions of phpLD include a web based installer which makes configuration a painless point and click procedure.

To access the web based installer, go to the directory where you installed phpLD. For example, if you installed into your root folder, you would go to http://www.yoursite.com.. if you installed in the sub-folder "directory" you would go to http://www.yoursite.com/directory/...

After selecting your language, you should see a screen like the one below. On your server, you should not get the "CGI Mode is likely to have problems" message. If you do get this message, most likely you WILL NOT experience any problems with phpLD and you can continue the install. If you get a blank install page, try not installing on a sub-directory.

Recall earlier that we created the database "testing" and the user "testuser" (with the password apassword). Your login name for cpanel showed up as a prefix in the "connection string" that you saw in cpanel. YOU MUST include this prefix if it showed up in cpanel (in cpanel it shows the connection strings you can use to connect to your database after you have added a user).. Not adding this prefix is the reason most people who created a database in cpanel cannot get phpLD to install. Go ahead and fill out this information with your own database name, username, and password. USE LOCALHOST for the database server unless your host tells you to use something else (for example, go daddy requires you to use an ip address for database server, you can find this when you go to manage databases)

After the database screen you will be asked to create a login and password. You will use this when editing your directory at http://www.yoursite.com/yourdirectory/admin/

After this your taken to a screen congradulating you on a successful installation and configuration.

"YOU MUST DELETE THE FOLLOWING FILE(S) BEFORE CONTINUING: /install/index.php

YOU MUST DROP WRITING PERMISSIONS TO FOLLOWING FILE(S) BEFORE CONTINUING: /include/config.php"

Now we will delete /install/index.php and drop the writing permissions of /include/config.php (proper settings shown below).

There you go. phpLD is now properly installed and ready to go...

All you need now is a custom template, some categories, and some links!