This Guide is written for all the User, who want to install BIGACE on their Webhosts.

You should have a copy of the latest version, otherwise download BIGACE first.

For the rest of this Guide, we assume you install BIGACE at http://www.example.com/ in the root directory. Wherever a URL is given in this Guide, replace the Domain with yours!

NOTE: There is a screencast existing, about installing BIGACE at your webserver.

After downloading the latest Package bigace_2.x.zip from Sourceforge, you have to extract the archive to a new folder:

Don't worry if the version you have is different to the one in the guide, this guide was simply written using the version 2.4.

Upload the extracted files bigace_install_2.x.zip and install_bigace.php with FTP to your Webhost:

Now open the page in your Browser: http://www.example.com/install_bigace.php.

If you see this picture, your Webserver has no built-in GZlib support, read Troubleshooting: Manual extraction and File upload.

If you see this screen, you can start extraction:

The path is different at your Host, this is no problem!

Hit the “Install” Button and wait until all files are extracted (this might take some time, be patient). The following screen tells you, that extraction was successful:

After successful extracting, read the next chapter Check your Files BEFORE you follow the “Start Installation” link in the result window.

To make sure everything is fine, have a look at your Website with FTP, the extracted structure should look like this:

Clean-Up:

Delete the previous uploaded files:

• bigace_install_2.x.zip
• install_bigace.php

Don't skip this, those files could cause trouble if you keep them!

Now, after checkup, click the link in the result page or enter http://www.example.com/install.php in your Browser, you see:

Choose your language from the Drop-Down box and hit “Start Installation”.

Agree with license by hitting the “Agree with License and continue” button.

A checkup will be performed, to see if your environment matches the requirements to run BIGACE. As more red dots are shown, the higher is the risk, that something will be broken (see Troubleshooting: Checkup shows problems).

Hit the “Next” Button, to start Core installation.

1. This screenshot was taken on a experimental development system, on your host the lower red dots should be green!
2. Whatever comes up here, try to install before you give up. Post your problem in the Forum, we will help you, thats for sure!

In the next Screen, you have to submit your database connection values. BIGACE then tries to connect and install all its tables.

You can additionally choose some basic configurations, which can still be changed during runtime.

IMPORTANT: If you do not understand the meaning of the Apache MOD-Rewrite and Apache .htaccess Feature leave as is! You might not be able to access your Website if you change the setting without being supported from your Webserver. Read 500 Internal Server error for further information!

add infos about the input fields

This screen is only for information purpose, skip by hitting “Next”.

Now you create the first Community (Website).

For every input field and select box, you get additional infos - as seen on the screenshot.

The following values have to be submitted:

• Community Domain - the Domain where your website will be running. The pre-calculated value should work in most cases. If you are goinf to change your domain later (for example when installing on a test domain), you can simply add an alias via Administration. Do NOT add a path here, this is ONLY the qualified domain name!
• Username - the username for your Administrator account
• Email Address - the email address of your administrator
• Password - password for your administrato account
• Password [re-enter] - verify the above entered password
• Mail Server - if left empty, the PHP default settings will be used (works on most shared-hosting environments)
• Default language - the default language for your Community, can be changed later.
• Statistics - whether BIGACE should log internal statistics.

If everything was OK, you should see this last informational screen. Hit the “Next” Button to see your new Website live.

If you have problems with the installation, post in the Installation Help Forum.

If you have more information, hints or any advice that might help other User with the installation, edit this Wiki page or give us the info in our Forum, we will add it here!

Uhoh, this is not good… BIGACE has workarounds for this problem, but Safe Mode is not the best solution to solve permission questions on shared-hosting environments! Talk to a qualified Administrator and read Safe Mode in between.

If you encounter red dots during the installation checkup, don't stop it! You might have a problem with one or the other feature, but most often it is just a configuration that doesn't match the BIGACE understanding of good configured PHP environment.

These are some well known problems:

• Missing “Image Support (including GIF and JPEG)” is no real problem, but the build in “Thumbnail” function will not work.
• Same with the “b2evo” addon, which is used as built-in captcha solution. It does not work without Image functions.

You should really contact your Webhoster, PHP without Image support is not up-to-date.

If your PHP version has no Zlib Support support, you have to extract and upload the content from the file bigace_install_2.x.zip manually.

- Extract the archive bigace_install_2.x.zip

1. Upload all extracted files to your Webhost
2. Go on with Check your Files and following

And by the way, you should contact your Webhosting company and ask for GZlib support!

If errors occur during extraction, try to fix them (most often wrong file/folder permissions) and reload the page, the script will try to extract again and give you qualified feedback. You can repeat this, until no more error messages are shown.

Make sure, the script can write to the root folder (easiest is to set 777 permissions).

If you installed with activated URL Rewrinting (mod_rewrite) you might get a 500 error, saying:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
...

This is often caused by Webserver settings:

1. AllowOverride for .htaccess is turned off
2. the mod_rewrite module is not loaded in Apache

Please read URL Rewriting carefully.