

PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE INSTALLING OR USING POSTNUKE



PostNuke: The Rogue Release (0.72)
==================================

   PostNuke is an open source, open developement content management system
(CMS).  PostNuke started as a fork from PHPNuke (http://www.phpnuke.org) and
provides many enhancements and improvements over the PHP-Nuke system.  PostNuke
is still undergoing development but a large number of core functions are now
stabilising and a complete API for third-party developers is now in place.

   If you would like to help develop this software, please visit our homepage
at http://www.postnuke.com, or contact J. Cox at john.cox@postnuke.com .

   You can also visit us on our IRC Server irc.postnuke.com channel
#postnuke-chat

New Installation
================

   PostNuke has a fully graphical install process to provide a simple set of
steps to get your site up and running.

   To install your PostNuke system run install.php from your browser to start
the installation process.  The exact url depends on your site, but for example
if your site is www.foo.com and PostNuke is installed in the 'bar' directory
then the URL will be

   http://www.foo.com/bar/install.php

   Follow the instructions in the installation script and when prompted for
either a new install or an upgrade select 'new install'.  The installer will
create the rquired database tables and obtain information about the super-user
login.  Once complete you should be able to start using your PostNuke site
immediately.

Upgrade
=======

   PostNuke supports upgrading from all earlier official versions of PostNuke,
together with a large number of other Nuke variants.

   Before doing anything else, BACK UP YOUR DATABASE.  This cannot be stressed
enough.  If there is a problem with the upgrade procedure then a backup helps
you in two ways.  First, you can go back to a pre-upgrade state and your site
can keep working on the old code.  Second, the development team might want to
get a copy of your database to trace the exact problem and fix the upgrade
procedures that caused you problems in the first place.

   Second, take a copy of your config.php file and store it somewhere safe;
you'll need it in a minute.

   Third, remove all of the files in your PostNuke distribution.  All of them.
Again a backup of the files would be a good idea, or just move the old
directory out of the way and install the new one in place of this one.

   Fourth, take your config.php that you saved a couple of steps ago and copy
it to the postnuke base directory (the one with config.php and config-old.php)
with the name pn7config.php  This will be used in the upgrade process

   Fifth, run install.php from your browser to start the installation process.
The exact url depends on your site, but for example if your site is www.foo.com
and PostNuke is installed in the 'bar' directory then the URL will be

   http://www.foo.com/bar/install.php

   Follow the instructions in the installation script and when prompted for
either a new install or an upgrade select 'upgrade', then pick the version of
PostNuke (or another Nuke variant) which you wish to upgrade from.  The rest of
the procedure should be automatic.

Once installation is complete you will need to re-add your custom modules and 
regenerate from the modules admin.


Caution
=======

   Previous versions of PostNuke and other derivatives often include plugins
that alter the database core tables through adding fields, changing names, etc.
It should be noted that PostNuke does not support any modification of the core
tables (those that come with this PostNuke distribution) or direct access to
the core database tables.  APIs are provided for developers to use for these
purposes, so that future planned changes will have a minimal impact on
third-party added functionality, and should be used at all times.

Common Installation Errors
==========================

   config.php and config-old.php not world-writable - these files need to be
writable by the webserver process during the install/upgrade to ensure that
certain configuration parameters are stored.  The install procedure should
check for this and inform you if the files are not writable.  Note that once
the install/upgrade has been completed these files can be re-set to read-only.

   Problems creating or populating the datbase  - this is often due to
incorrect MySQL privileges on the database.  If you are unsure if this might be
the case then try to access your MySQL database manually with the username and
password that you have and attempt to create a database and table to ensure
that the user exists, has a correct password, and is able to carry out the
operations that PostNuke needs for installation.

   Problems logging in - this is normally due to access the postnuke site with
an unqualified host name e.g. http://localhost/index.php or a domain name e.g.
http://foo.com/index.php  PostNuke requires that the site name is
fully-qualified e.g. http://www.foo.com/index.php  Instructions on setting up a
fully-qualified hostname for your local server can be found on the PostNuke
documentation site at http://docs.postnuke.com  Alternatively you can set the
'intranet' option when installing or upgrading PostNuke, which will allow you
to run PostNuke without a fully-qualified domain name but without the ability
to filter cookies from similar domains.  In most cases where PostNuke is run
like this it should not be an issue, however setting your site to run as an
intranet site when it is directly connected to the internet is not recommended.
