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New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/see-mysql-users-how-to-list-mysql-users-and-manage-access/

See Mysql Users: How to list mysql users and manage access

ABOUT MySQL

MySQL is an open source relational database management system. MySQL is a component of the LAMP web application software stack, which is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. A web application using MySQL database have to authenticate via a mysql user and password who has sufficient privileges on that particular database. So MySQL users play a key role in web application hosting.

In this article, we will show you how you can list all your existing MySQL users and how you can add new users via both cPanel and Command line interfaces.

How to list MySQL users via cPanel GUI?

Log in to your cPanel account and then on Databases section select MySQL Databases.

Scroll down to bottom, here you will see Current Users. All MySQL users currently existing on our system will be listed here. One example of user listing is shown below:

In our system, we added only one user at present.

How to list MySQL users via Command Line Interface?

Login to mysql using the following command:

mysql -u user -p

Use appropriate username in place of ‘user’

It will be prompted to enter the password for the user.

Now you entered MySQL CLI.

All details about existing MySQL users are stored in a table named ‘mysql.user’. The ‘mysql.user’ table contains information about users that have permission to access the MySQL server and their global privileges.

To list all existing MySQL users on the server use the query given below:

SELECT User FROM mysql.user;

The above command trims off “User” column and lists only usernames.

If you want to list of MySQL user information, including user permission information and all users data. You could try below query.

SELECT * FROM mysql.user;

Now we have seen how to list MySQL users from both cPanel and Command Line.

How to add MySQL users via cPanel?

Log in to your cPanel account and then on Databases section select MySQL Databases.

Scroll down, you will see Add New User.

Enter the name of the user you want to add and create a password for this user.

Click on ‘Create User’ button.

You will get a confirmation dialogue on the next screen.

You can see the newly created user on ‘Current Users’ section:

  How to add MySQL users via Command Line Interface?

Login to MySQL interface using the following command:

mysql -u user -p

To add a new MySQL user use the following query:

CREATE USER 'user_name'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Replace ‘user_name’ and ‘password’ entries with actual username and password.

An example is shown below:

mysql> CREATE USER 'test'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'test123'; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

Now to list the created user use the following command:

SELECT User FROM mysql.user;

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/create-addon-parked-domains-cpanel/

Addon and Parked Domains through cPanel : How To

When you sign up for a website with any host, you might have noticed that their plan allows you to create multiple domains. You will own a single account, and the domains, no matter how many, will all reside under the same account and utilize the resources associated to that single account. In cPanel, such domains are called addon domains and parked domains. This post describes in detail what exactly do these domains stand for, and how they can be created through cPanel.

cPanel, undoubtedly, is the favourite hosting control panel for most people. cPanel allows the creation of extra domains in two ways.

Addon Domains

This option lets you create a second domain name, which is independent from the original domain you signed up for. The content of this website will be fetched from a sub folder of the main domain. Suppose your main domain is abc.com and your website files resides in /home/abc/public_html. You want to create another domain xyz.com, and want to display it as a different website with different contents. You can do this by creating an addon domain xyz.com, whose data will reside in /home/abc/public_html/xyz/

Thus you are able create two independent domains, but all content will reside under the same account /home/abc , but in different folders. In short, an addon domain is a domain which is built on top of a sub domain.

Now let us see how to create an addon domain through cPanel interface.

First, login to your cPanel interface using the login details provided by your host. Once, in the dashboard, go to Domains -> Addon Domains.

Click on Addon Domains, which will take you to the domain creation page. You will be asked to enter the following details.

New Domain Name - This is the domain name that you want to add Subdomain - This field will be automatically populated. As mentioned earlier, an addon domain sits on top of a sub domain. So when you create an addon domain, a subdomain is automatically created. Document Root - This field also will be automatically populated. Basically it will create a sub folder under your public_html folder with the addon domain name.

  Under this, you will see an option “Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain”. It will be unchecked by default. You would be able to use the main domain’s FTP account for addon domain as well. However, if you want to hire a separate developer for this addon domain, and want to give him access to this addon domain alone, then you would require an FTP account for it. In that case, you can create one by checking the option mentioned above. It will ask you to enter the following details.

FTP Username - Enter the username that you wish to create Password - Enter a strong password for the FTP user. Recommended to use the password generator provided by cPanel.

  The entire screen would look as follows. I am creating an addon domain by name ‘myaddon.com’.

    Once all the required details are filled in, click ‘Add Domain’. If the domain is created successfully, you will receive a confirmation as shown below. If the domain creation fails, the exact error message will be displayed instead.

  Parked Domains (Aliases)

A Parked Domain is a domain which will have a different name from the main domain, but will display the same contents as that of the main domain. For example, if your main domain name is abc.com and you want to create another domain named xyz.com with same contents, then you can easily do so by creating an Alias (formerly known as Parked Domain) through cPanel. This relieves you from the headache of creating another domain and uploading all contents again. The browser bar will display xyz.com and automatically display the contents of  abc.com. No other folders or logins or anything extra is created along with parked domains, as in addon domains. It is same as main domain itself and shares everything with the main domain, the only difference being in the domain name.

Let us now see how a Domain Alias or a Parked Domain can be created through cPanel. Login to your cPanel account and go to Domains -> Aliases

  Click on Aliases which will take you to the domain creation page. The process is simple, just enter the new domain name that you wish to create and click ‘Add Domain’.

  Once the Alias is created successfully, you will receive a confirmation message as follows. If there were any errors, the exact error message will be displayed.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/magento-payment-modules/

Magento : Configuring Payment Methods

Introduction

Magento, as everyone knows, is the most popular software recommended for creating online stores. The settings are a little complex, however the wide variety of features that Magento offers usually outweighs the complexity and Magento continues to be the personal favourite for many. In the past topics which dealt with various Magento aspects, we discussed how to install Magento, how to perform the initial configuration, how to add custom themes to Magento, how to add and manage products within the store etc.

In this post, we will see how we can configure payment modules in Magento. The greatest advantage of online stores is that you can choose your product from the wide variety of options from your home itself, and also make payments through the website. When a customer places an order, he can immediately pay online through your site. Anything which deals with money should be utmost secure, especially in the medium of internet. How can you configure secure Payment Modules in Magento is described in this post. We will be describing a few options as follows.

This article includes:

Login to Magento Admin Area

Choosing your Payment Method

Paypal

Saved Credit Card

Check/Money Order

Testing the Payment Setup

Login to Magento Admin Area

Payment modules are configured in the Magento admin area. Suppose I installed my store under the domain newtest.com in a folder named magento. I will access the store as http://newtest.com/magento. I configured my magento admin area to be http://newtest.com/magento/admin123

You first need to login to the admin area before you can configure the payment settings. Access the admin interface and enter the login details which you gave at the time of installation. If you forgot the login details, you can click on the ‘Forgot your password?’ link to reset it.

  Choose your Payment Method

Once you are inside the admin area, go to System -> Configuration.

    You will notice a menu on the left hand side, scroll down to the section name Sales. Click on ‘Payment Methods’.

  Various Payment Methods

Now, you will be listed with a number of payment methods available in the store. It includes Paypal, Credit Card, Cash on Delivery, Check/Money Order and many others.

  Before configuring any payment method, you need to set the Merchant Country first. You can choose the country from the dropdown box. Say for example, I choose United States. If I do not enter one here, then it will choose the country I set during the initial configuration.

    Beneath that, comes the various payment methods. Let us check the various options and basic configuration of the payment methods one by one.

Paypal

Paypal has many options listed under it. You can click any option based on your paypal account and click ‘Configure’ to add the settings.

    You will be required to enter the following details.

We assume you have already created a paypal merchant account. Enter the email address associated with your paypal account. Next you need to set the API credentials. For that, login to your paypal business account and you can request the API details under Profile -> Selling Tools. Enter the API username, password and API signature obtained from paypal in the respective text boxes.

    Next you will find the Basic Settings, enter the details as follows, depending on how you want it to be setup.

    Click on Advanced Settings and you will find a lot more options to be entered. Most of them can be left at default values, however make sure to read through them and see if any modifications are required. However, the most important section you need to consider here is the SSL part. It is a mandatory requirement for all payment modules that the requests that you carry out related to payment are secured and are sent over an encrypted channel. Make sure you opt ‘Yes’ for the option ‘Enable SSL verification’. If there is no SSL, chances are that your customers might not feel confident in entering their payment details through your website. Also remember to install SSL for your website.

    Saved CC

Another payment method available in magento is ‘Saved CC’. This option lets your customers make their payments through credit cards. Click on the option ‘Saved CC’ which will list the basic configuration parameters.  You can enable the option by setting ‘Enabled’ option as ‘Yes’.  You can set a title for this type of payment, choose which all credit card types are accepted, choose from which all countries you will accept payment, choose what should be the minimum or maximum amount for payments to be processed via this option etc. Once you have configured it according to your requirements, click ‘Save Config’ for the changes to get into effect.

      Check/Money Order

Another option available lets customers pay using offline methods. It makes use of the traditional methods where by the customer sends you the amount as Check or Money Order and upon successful receipt of the money, you ships the product back to them.

To enable this option, click on ‘Check/Money Order’ and set ‘Yes’ under the option ‘Enabled’.  Just like credit card, this feature also brings a lot of options to be configured like set the title you want to, choose the countries from where you want to accept money, set the name to be displayed on the check as to whom the amount is to be paid, set your address so that customers can send it to you, set the maximum and minimum order etc. Once you have configured it as you wish, click ‘Save Config’.

    There are a few more payment methods available like Bank Transfer, Authorize.net, Cash on Delivery etc. All of them have more or less the same characteristics and basic settings to be configured, hence we are not explaining them in detail here. Just click on the option you want to enable, set Enabled to ‘Yes’ and configure the parameters listed below accordingly, click ‘Save Config’ and you are done. The options are self explanatory and hope you would be able to configure it by referring the above sections, hence leave it for your trial.

Testing the Payment Setup

After configuring the payment methods, we need to test whether the options we enabled will be displayed for the customers. Let us take a look from the customer’s side and order a product based on it.

Let’s say for example, I am purchasing a shirt. I search with  my requirements, and get the list of products available in the store based on my search.

    I choose the one I like and click on ‘Add to Cart’.

    I can now either continue with shopping and find other products that I require or stop shopping and proceed to pay the money and get the product. I click on ‘Proceed to Checkout’ so that I can purchase the product. If the store owner provides any offers or discounts, I can enter the coupon code in the section titled ‘Discount Codes’ and the related discount will be applied to my purchase.

    I will now be asked for a few details. If I am already a registered user of the store, I can simply login with my login details and all data will be automatically populated. I do not have a login now, neither do I wish to register one, so I chose the option ‘Checkout as Guest’.  Click on ‘Continue’ after that.

    Next step would ask for the customer’s billing address so I enter my address here. Towards the end of the screen, you see two options – ship to this address and ship to a different address. I choose ship to this address, so the same details will be automatically populated in the next section ‘Shipping Address’ and I don’t have to enter them again.

    Next it asks for the Shipping Method. We have not configured it yet, and would be coming to it in the next post, so let it show the default. You can also see in this screen that the previous option ‘Shipping Information’ was skipped as I chose it to be the same as billing address.

    Next step is the most important and the one relevant for us in this post. We have configured a few  payment methods and we need to know whether it will be listed to the customer here.

    As you can see, three options are listed there – Paypal, Cash on delivery and Credit Card.  If I choose Paypal, when I click continue, the request will be sent from store and you will be taken directly to paypal site where the customer can make the payment using his paypal account there. Once the payment has been successful, the customer would be sent back to the original store. You should not click the back button or refresh anything while the requests are being sent between your store and paypal or the API calls would be affected.

For our example, I am choosing Credit Card option here. I will enter my name as seen on my card, the card type, card number and card expiration date and click on continue.

The next step will let you review your order, adds the shipping charge and shows the final price. At this point, you can either return to your cart and make changes or accept the amount and place order.

    Once the order is placed, the customer will receive a confirmation displayed regarding the order. An email also will be sent to the customer with details.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/php-upload-max-filesize/

How to solve the error upload_max_filesize in PHP

If you own a website where users are allowed to upload files, you might often get complaints stating that they are unable to upload files. They would be hitting an error as follows:

“Error: The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini”

upload_max_filesize mentioned in the error above is the limit of the size of a file that can be uploaded to the server. The default value is normally 2M in all servers, and when someone tries to upload a file greater than 2M this error is obtained.

Users can change the value of upload_max_filesize from their cPanel itself and this post describes how to do that. First, login to your cPanel account using the cPanel login details.

  Once you are in the dashboard, go to Software -> Select PHP Version. It will take you to a page where you can select the PHP version and other PHP extensions. To the top right, you will notice an option ‘Switch to PHP Options’.

  Click on that option and you will find a list of PHP options that you can configure. To the bottom of the list, you will find upload_max_filesize. To its right, there is a drop down box with various sizes to choose from. Choose the value you require and hit ‘Apply’. Beneath it is a ‘Save’ button, click on it.

  For example, I choose 64M.  Before confirming the changes, you also need to consider the option ‘post_max_size’. If the size of the total upload exceeds the default 8M, it will again hit error. Hence, it is advisable to raise the value of post_max_size also in the same page.

Now, let us confirm the changes we made by uploading a phpinfo page. Create a file, say for example info.php with the following contents and upload it to the public_html folder of your domain.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

My domain is copablog.com and now I can access the file in a browser as http://copablog.com/info.php. Search for upload_max_filesize and check the value. I can see that it has changed to 64M.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/increase-php-max-execution-time/

How to increase PHP Max Execution Time in cPanel

Sometimes you might have noticed that certain PHP scripts that you wrote are not working as desired. A very common errror message is Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded.  The cause is the PHP restriction on the directive max_execution_time. The amount of time a PHP script is allowed to run is defined by the PHP variable max_execution_time. In most shared servers, it will be given a default value of 30 seconds. This post explains how a customer can modify the value of this variable, in case his PHP scripts are supposed to run a little longer. Setting it too high is not recommended.

How to solve Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded

First, login to your cPanel account using your cPanel username and password. If you forgot the password, you can reset it any time using the ‘Reset Password’ option under the login box.

  Once logged in and you are in the cPanel dashboard, go to Software -> Select PHP Version option.

  It will take you to a page which lets you choose the version of PHP you would like to run along with the extensions you would like to enable or disable. To the top right of the page, there is another option ‘Switch to PHP Options’. Click on it.

  Now, you will see a list of PHP variables along with the values associated to each variable. Check the value of max_execution_time, mostly it will be the default 30. Click on it and you can enter the new value you require. Suppose, I need the value to be raised to 60 seconds, ie. 1 minute. I will enter 60 in the box and hit ‘Apply’. Scroll to the bottom and click on the ‘Save’ button for the changes to get into effect.

    To confirm the changes, I will upload a file, say named info.php, to the public_html folder of my domain copablog.com. The file will have the following contents in it.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

  Now take a browser and try accessing the file as http://copablog.com/info.php. Remember to change copablog.com to the domain name you are using. Search for max_execution_time in the page displayed and check the value listed. I can see that it has changed to 60 seconds.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/fix-php-register-globals-errors/

How to fix PHP register_globals errors

If you are using an old version of PHP, it is likely that you have seen errors as follows: PHP Fatal error: Directive ‘register_globals’ is no longer available in PHP in Unknown on line 0

“PHP Fatal error: Directive ‘register_globals’ is no longer available in PHP in Unknown on line 0”

“PHP Fatal error: Directive ‘register_globals’ is deprecated in PHP 5.3 and greater in Unknown on line 0”

Now, register_globals is a php setting which will automatically take the values which were input through any forms to variables. This is a security risk, and hackers can easily guess the values and variables. Hence, from version 5.3 of PHP, this directive has been removed from PHP and is no longer supported.

Solution:

If you get any of the above errors, chances are that you currently reside on a server with PHP version above 5.3 or you were migrated from a server with old PHP to a server with latest PHP. In such cases,  you need to search for a file named php.ini under your domain and comment the following line if found or change the value to 0

# register_globals=1; or register_globals=0;

  Sometimes the same will be present in any .htaccess file. Remove the line if found or change the value to off or ‘0’.

# php_flag register_globals on or php_flag register_globals off

You can do the same via cpanel also. Login to your cpanel account using the cpanel login details. Once in the dashboard, go to Software -> Select PHP Version.

  You will be taken to a page where you can manage the PHP settings. Click on ‘Switch to PHP Options’.

    It will take you to a page where you can turn register_globals on or off. Choose Off and hit ‘Apply’. Scroll down and click ‘Save’.

  You can confirm the successful change in value by placing a phpinfo page in your site. Go to the public_html folder of your domain, and create a file named, say info.php, and enter the following contents to it.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

  My domain is copablog.com, now I can access the file as http://copablog.com/info.php. I can see that register_globals shows as off there.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/check-update-php-version-cpanel/

How to check and update PHP Version in cPanel

PHP is by far the most favourite scripting language when it comes to websites. Our servers run different versions of PHP and customers are free to choose the version they like. This is accomplished using the PHP version selector in cPanel. The post describes how versions can be selected based on your requirements. It’s very easy to check PHP version and update PHP, as we will show.

First, login to your cPanel account using the username and password provided at the time of sign-up. If you forgot the details, you can reset it by clicking on the ‘Reset Password’ option at the bottom of the login box.

Once you are in the dashboard, go to Services -> Select PHP Version option.

  How to check the current PHP version in the server

It will take you to a page which lets you modify the PHP settings. It displays the current version of PHP installed in the server. As shown in the image below, you cna check the PHP version that is active. The current PHP is 5.4. There is a drop down box beneath it which displays the various PHP’s available and you can choose among them.

  How to update the PHP version

Suppose I want to use PHP version 5.6. Select the version from the drop down box and click on ‘Set as Current’. It will update the current PHP version to 5.6

  The page also renders the option to enable or disable php extensions. Simply check or uncheck the box to the right side of the extension you want to enable or disable and click on ‘Save’. For example, the image below shows I want to enable ioncube loader and I checked the box to its right. It also displays the current PHP version as 5.6

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/increase-php-memory-limit-cpanel/

How to increase PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

Sometimes when you execute a PHP script, you will notice that it returns an error like “Fatal Error: Allowed memory size of xxxxxx bytes exhausted”. This is because the amount of memory allocated to the php script has exhausted, and hence the script cannot finish execution. It’s already known as PHP Memory Limit.

The amount of memory available to PHP is defined by the term memory_limit in your server’s PHP settings. With the help of cPanel, you can change this value to anything you like. How that can be done is described below.

First, login to your cPanel account using your cPanel username and Password. If you forgot the password, you can reset it using the ‘Reset Password’ option in the same page.

  Once you are in the dashboard, go to Software -> Select PHP Version.

  Click on it and it will take you to an interface where you can change the PHP version and select/deselect extensions. To the top right side of the page, you will see another option ‘Switch to PHP Options’.

  Click on it and you will be welcomed by an interface which displays the various PHP variables and its associated values. They will be greyed out by default. To change the PHP memory limit, click on the value to the right side of memory_limit. A drop down will appear with possible values you can choose. Select the value you require and hit ‘Apply’. After that scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘Save’. Only then the changes will be fully applied.

  You can confirm whether your changes have got into effect by creating a php file with the following contents in it. Suppose I create a file named info.php. Enter the following into it.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

  Save the file and upload it into your domain’s public_html folder. My domain name is copablog.com and once uploaded, I can view the file as http://copablog.com/info.php. You can now see your PHP settings in the browser by simply accessing http://copablog.com/info.php in a browser. Search for the option ‘memory_limit’ to confirm whether the new value you modified has taken effect. In my case, it is correctly showing it as 256M as displayed in the image below.

New Post has been published on https://www.copahost.com/blog/cheap-shared-hosting/

Cheap shared hosting: the evolution over the years

This article explains what is a cheap shared hosting provider, and how a web server can be sliced into several “slots”, hosting more than one website at once. One hosting server is a hardware node that has several gigabytes of disk storage and many RAM memory. Each site has a disk space quota, with a specific web server configuration. The web server is shared, having several virtual hosts.  Each customer have access to a control panel, where it manages its email accounts, site configuratins, databases and other configurations.

One single server hardware can over 500 websites at the same time. Apache web server, the most popular http server, is able to identify which domain is being requested for the client, and output the corresponding hosted website according to its domain name.

Cheap shared hosting companies will sell spaces in a professional hardware server. Copahost provides cheap shared hosting from €1,99 per month.

  Cost evolution of the cheap shared hosting

Any PC can be used as a web server and perform a shared hosting role. Professional hosting companies uses Xeon CPU servers with more than 4 or 8 disks in RAID-10. Of course there are cheap shared hosting servers as alternatives. In this article, we tested a dedicated server with mysql and php in a raspberry pi.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/cheap-vps-hosting-with-cpanel/

Cheap VPS Hosting with cPanel: choosing your server

Having a cheap VPS hosting with cPanel is a powerful way to host several websites. Just like a reseller hosting account, but with plenty more space and resources control. In the early 2000’s a VPS server used to cost more than 90€ per month. Nowadays, you can order a VPS Server for less than 4€ only, with Linux operating system, plus the cPanel license (15€ per month).

The VPS Server comes with cPanel installed. A valid license key is provided also. You can host unlimited websites.

How much does it cost a cheap vps hosting with cPanel ?

Copahost offers a variety of cheap VPS hosting plans from 3,59€ , and instant activation. We can help you performing the initial configurations of your server if you prefer. If you are unsure about what’s the best VPS hosting plan for you, you can contact Copahost and explain your needs. We will give you the best advice possible.

The basic monthly cost is 3,59€ for the smallest VPS Server, plus 15€ for the cPanel license.

The advantages of having a cheap vps hosting with cPanel

Full root ssh access – You can control your entire server

Server resources are fully manageable.

Wide backup options – You can perform backups of your server anytime. By FTP, throught phpMyAdmin, R1soft, etc.

Customizable plans – Create any hosting package as you wish

Custom branding of your cPanel – Your customers will see your logo in their control panel

Custom apache compilation – You can compile apache with any module you need.

Firewall configuration – You can install APF, CSF or any firewall option.

Custom scripts and server configurations – You can perform very customized server configurations, that you weren’t able to do in a shared reseller package.

VPS With cPanel: Huge management possibilities

The cPanel VPS license allows you to perform every administrative task. Having a VPS With cPanel allows you to have the full controll of your server.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/cheap-web-hosting-plans/

Cheap Web Hosting Plans: choosing the best option

The web hosting market is growing every year. And so the hosting companies always offer best services, wich cheap web hosting plans to gain market.

Cheap Web Hosting Plans

The hosting plans prices are going down every month. In the middle 90’s, a cheap web hosting plan used to cost more than 40€ per month. In the ealy 2000’s, this price went down to 10€. Nowadays, Copahost offers cpanel hosting plans for as low as 1,99€ (Economy Hosting).

Some advantages of 2017’s cheap web hosting plans, compared to the early 2000’s:

More powerful servers. Today’s CPU’s are 400% faster than 10 years ago.

Cloudlinux, which allows  you to control the server resources, protecting each customer from overloads.

Many backup possibilities, throught cpanel, phpMyAdmin or R1soft.

Better reseller hosting usability

Softaculous auto installer

With softaculous you can install automatically several applications, like wordpress, joomla, install magento, install mybb and many others. Even without advanted technical knowledge, you can have a great website, like a blog, forum or an online store.

Free SSL Certificates

Copahost is now offering free ssl certificates with the cheap web hosting plans Value Hosting and Professional Hosting. By ordering a hosting plan, you have access to generate unlimited free ssl certificates, as you wish.

Each Free ssl lasts for 3 months, and must be renewed for free from your hosting control panel. Copahost offers several articles and tutorials showing how to generate a free ssl certificate.

Cheap vps hosting with cpanel 

Just like the shared web hosting plans, the VPS Server plans are lower nowadays. You can order a cheap vps hosting with cpanel for less than 19€. That’s 3,59€ for the VPS Server, plus 15€ for the cPanel license (monthly).

Some advantages of choosing a cheap web hosting plan in a VPS server:

Privacy, as you don’t share the same server with other customers

Full resources control, like CPU usage, processes, aplications, mail queues, etc.

Full customization of your own server

Root/SSH access

You can create a custom branding, with language customizations.

Wide backup configurations possible.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/magento-products/

Adding and managing Products in your Magento Store

In the previous tutorials of Magento, we discussed, how to install magento, how to configure magento for initial setup, and how to change the magento theme. In this post, we will look into the details of magento produts and learn how to add new products to the store. The whole process of adding new products to a Magento store can be summarized as follows.

Login to Magento Admin Area

Adding Products

Attribute Sets

Product Types

Adding Associated Products

Now, let us get into them in detail.

Login to Magento Admin Area

First we need to login to the admin dashboard, to be able to add products. Let’s say my store is installed under the domain newtest.com in the folder magento. My admin folder is admin123. I will access magento admin area as http://newtest.com/magento/admin123

Enter the username and password you provided while installation, and login.

  Adding Products

Products can be added from the Catalog -> Manage Products section of the admin area.

    Click on ‘Manage Products’ and you will see an option to add product there, as shown by the red arrow in the image.

    Click on ‘Add Product’ and you will be taken to a page which asks you the attribute set and product type.

  Let me explain what each term refers to.

  Attribute Sets

An attribute is nothing but the various features of products like color, size, shape etc. An attribute set is a group of such features, all put into a specific set. Magento has a default set of attributes which is accessible at Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes as shown below. As you can see it consists of various features like color, cost, country, description etc.

    These will be used in common by all. Say for example, size attribute applies to any garment product you sell like shirt or trousers, as well as for any shoe or other product. So, if you want, you can create an attribute called shirtsize and apply it to a separate attribute set called shirts.

Let’s create an attribute called shirtsize first. Go to Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes and click on “Add New Attribute”. It would ask a lot of details as follows, enter the details based on the attribute you set.

  Now, we will put this attribute into a new attribute set, so that it will be available in that attribute set only. Go to Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attribute set and click on ‘Add New Attribute Set’. For example, I am creating the attribute set named ‘Shirts’.

  Now, click on ‘Save Attribute Set’ and it will take you to a page where different groups are available. Some attributes may be automatically assigned while some others may be unassigned. The attribute shirtsize which we added just now is unassigned. We need to add it, and just for the sake of learning, let’s remove a few attributes as well. Attributes can be added or removed by just dragging them to the required positions. In the image below, you can see that I am dragging the attribute ‘manufacturer’ to the group name ‘General’

    Similarly I moved all unassigned attributes to the group named ‘General’ and saved the attribute set ‘Shirts’. Now, you can see that the new attribute set you created is also listed along with the default attribute set.

  Product Type

Now, let’s get back to adding a product. We already discussed the attribute set option there. Now, let us see what the various product types listed there means.

a) Simple product – As the name implies, it is a simple physical product which is shipped as is. The customer has to buy it exactly the way it is, and there is no option to choose among the features like color or size. For example, a camera lens.

b) Grouped Product – This is a group of simple products. Say for example, the store owner groups a phone, earphone, screen guard, case etc along with the phone. These are simple products which can be sold separately, but the owner is selling them as a grouped product at a special prize for the entire group. If you are buying it, you need to purchase all the products in the group, you cannot choose which are required and which are not.

c) Configurable Product – An example for a configurable product is something like a shirt, which comes in various sizes and colours. Say for example, the shirt is available in two size – large and extra large and two colours of it are available, say red and green. The customer can choose the size and colour before purchasing. That is, they are able to configure the product based on their likes, and hence the name configurable product.

d) Virtual Product – A virtual product, as the name implies, is not a product that can be shipped. It would instead be a service that is available for purchase. For example, someone requires a security auditing of their website. It is not something that can be shipped. The security auditing service is available at a fixed rate, the customers purchase it, and the service vendors contacts them to provide the service.

e) Bundle Product – Like Grouped Product, a Bundle product also contains a set of simple products. However, unlike Grouped Product, a bundle product allows the customers to choose which all products are required and which are not. Each simple product present inside a Bundle Product will have individual rates, and based on which products the customer choose, the total amount will be billed. In the example of phone purchase, along with the phone the customer can purchase the case and screen guard and not choose earphone. It’s the customer’s wish and he pays for what he needs only.

f) Downloadable Product – A product which needn’t be shipped physically, but the customer can simply download it to his machine is termed a Downloadable product. The best example for such a product would be an e-book.

  So coming back to our section of Adding Products, let us know see what options to choose. In our example, we are adding shirt as our product. We created an attribute set specifically for shirts, and we are going to provide various colours and sizes of shirts, hence it is a configurable product. So select the appropriate options and click on ‘Continue’.

  The next page lists the attributes which are configurable, and I choose shirtsize and color from it.

  Click ‘Continue’ and it will take you to the page where you can add the product name. Since I am selling shirts, I enter the product name as ‘Louis Philippe’. Enter description and short description for your product as they are mandatory fields marked with a star(*).  SKU is a unique identifier for this product, which you can choose based on your wish. I am setting it as LP. Remember to set the status as ‘Enabled’ and let visibility be set to ‘Catalog, Search’ option which is the most commonly used one.

    Now configure the price tab and other suitable options required for your product in various tabs beneath it.

    Adding Associated Products

To the bottom of that menu, there is an option to create ‘Associated Products’. So, I created the product named ‘Louis Philippe’. Now I can quickly create associated products as shown in the image below.

  We can create any number of products like that. If you go back to Catalog -> Manage Products, you can see the products created.

  So, we have added the products now and it will be listed in the website once all the changes are saved. Refresh your website and check whether the products are listed in the website.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/change-magento-theme/

Magento Theme: how to change your theme

Magento ships with a default theme which, by itself, is not bad, however most store owners would like to modify the theme and choose another one of their choice. In these other articles, you can read more about how to install magento and how to perform the initial configuration of Magento through previous posts. In this post we will discuss from where a magento theme can be downloaded and how it can be installed in your store. The post explains the following topics with step by step instructions and images, so that anyone can understand it easily.

Choosing the Theme Downloading Theme Installing Theme Changing Theme Testing Theme

Choosing a Magento Theme

Magento themes are available in plenty, and there are many websites which offer them. Before choosing any theme, you should analyze your website requirements, for what purpose your store would be used, what sort of products would be displayed etc and then choose a theme which suits your requirements. Both free and commercial plugins are available, so do a thorough search and choose wisely when you purchase a theme.

The most common landing page you get when you search for a magento theme in google would lead you to the magento.com website. It will list all the free and paid themes present, and you can choose among them. The most important thing you need to consider while choosing a theme is to make sure that the theme is compatible with the version of magento you installed. It will be listed at the front page itself as shown with the red mark in the image below.

    In case the version detailing is not available in the front page, just click on the theme name and it will list all versions which are compatible and you can also choose the magento platform which the theme is compatible with.

    Downloading the Magento Theme

Once you have gone through the various mind blowing themes in the website and have made a final decision on which to choose, you can proceed to install it. You need to be a registered user and logged in, before you can get the extension key. So, first register your account there and login with the details you gave at the time of registration.

Once you have logged in, click on the ‘Install Now’ button which will provide further options to choose from. You will be asked to choose the platform, the Magento Connect version and also accept the license agreement. I am running magento 1.9, and all versions above magento 1.5 are said to use magento connect 2.0. Hence I choose Magento Connect 2.0.

      Next click on the ‘Get Extension Key’ button which will display a key. Click on the Select button and it will copy the key for you.

    Installing Magento Theme

Now you have the extension key for the theme you chose. Installation is done through the Magento admin interface using Magento Connect Manager, which is the option available in Magento admin interface to install extensions, plugins and themes. Go to System -> Magento Connect -> Magento Connect Manager.

    It will take you to a login page for the Magento Connect Manager, input the same admin username and password as that of your Magento Admin

    Login and you will be taken to the Magento Connect interface which lets you install the extensions. Enter the extension key you received for your theme earlier, in the column “Paste extension key to install: “. However, there is one thing you might come across. Sometimes, pasting the key exactly as you got from the site might not work and might give you an error. In such case, try the link as follows with your extension key name.

http://connect20.magentocommerce.com/magento-community/magento_classic_theme_free

    Click on the button named ‘Proceed’ and it will display a screen at the bottom of the page with the installation steps.

    The theme has now been installed successfully.  Now, let’s go back to the admin area to switch the default theme to the one we installed now. Click on the link ‘Return to Admin’ on the top right of the page and it will take you back to the magento dashboard.

Changing Theme

Now go to System -> Configuration -> Design and follow the installation manual of the theme you chose. In my case, the magento_classic_theme_free which I chose had the following actions to perform, in order to change the store theme.

Under Design tab, I had to set the package name as f002. In addition, under the Themes tab, the Skin(Image/CSS) option had to be set. The theme provider had various options provided out of which I chose green. Now you can set the theme name as well.

      Now, move on to Template Master -> Modules Section.  This is the last part of theme installation.

    There, click on your theme name which will ask to which store would you like to apply this theme. I chose ‘All Store Views’. Similarly, choose the one of your choice and click Run to save the changes.

    NB: What mentioned above is specific to the theme I chose. Whichever theme you select, you would have an installation manual along with it. Read it thoroughly and proceed.

Testing the new theme

Now, that’s it !!! You have successfully installed the new theme on to your store. Now, go to your store, clear your browser cache and check if the theme has changed. In my case, my store view had changed from the default to the theme I had applied.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/magento-tutorial-initial-configuration/

Magento tutorial: initial configuration

We covered how to install Magento through cPanel in the previous post. In this magento tutorial we will discuss about how to login to the admin backend of Magento, and perform the initial steps on Basic Magento Configuration.

Article topics: Logging in as admin Configuring account settings General configuration Web configuration Design configuration Currency setup Store email address Contacts Content management

  Logging in as admin

In last post, we installed Magento at http://newtest.com/magento

The admin backend was created at http://newtest.com/magento/admin123

Now login to the admin interface using the username and password you had provided during installation.

  Click ‘Login’ and you will be taken to the Magento Dashboard. You will be amazed to see the various options that it provides.

  What seen above is how the magento dashboard looks like, after a fresh install of magento. Let us start with the admin account itself.

Account Settings

If you want to make any modifications to your admin account, from what was installed, you can change it at System -> Account.

You can change the username, email address, name and password if required.

  Magento tutorial: General Configuration

Go to System -> Configuration and you will see a lot of options to configure. We will start with General Configuration.

On the left side, you will see a list from which you can choose the scope of the configuration changes you make. The default installation has only the default website and default store options set. Whichever options you choose, it means that the changes you make will be applied to that part only. Let us configure the website section now. First choose the Countries Options.

The ‘Use Default’ option will be checked by default. You will not be able to make any changes unless you uncheck it. I am going to set the Default country as United Kingdom and allow US and UAE also to the list.

I am leaving the Locale options to default, hence the check buttons to the right of default values are not removed. Click on ‘Save Config’ button at the top to save the changes.

    Now it’s time to set the Store Information. I am making my own store, hence I unchecked all the default options and entered mine as follows.

  Click on ‘Save Config’ to save the changes. Now under configuration scope, switch to Default Store view and you will see that details you entered there.

Web Configuration of the magento tutorial

Go to System -> Configuration -> General -> Web and here is where you set the URLs or links related to your magento store. Though there are many options, we will be concentrating on the Unsecure and Secure options only. You may leave the rest as default.

Unsecure – The Base URL where I installed my store is the only data that I need to enter here. In our example, it is http://newtest.com/magento and was already populated under the Base URL section. All the rest of the paths like skin url, media url, javascript url etc are relative to the base URL. Hence you can leave them to default.

Secure – The entries here are same as that of Unsecure except for the last question which asks whether to use secure URLs in front end, which is your store. I want only my admin backend and payment modules to be secure, and I don’t mind if the rest are transmitted without encryption, hence I leave it as ‘No’. If you choose ‘Yes’, remember to install an SSL certificate for your store.

Once the changes are made, remember to click ‘Save Config’ to save the changes.

  Magento design configuration

This section deals with the default design for your store. You can either choose the default theme or download a theme of your choice from any third party website and upload it here. Details on how to install magento themes are described in detail in another post. For the time being, I leave the settings as default so that the default magento theme will be used.

Currency Setup

This section deals with the currencies that your store will accept. I chose the countries as UK, US and UAE. I can choose any currency of my like, however I am choosing British Pound Sterling as the default currency. I am also choosing US Dollar and UAE Dirhams as additional allowed currencies. Though you have already chosen Pound as default currency, you need to add it again in the Allowed Currencies section, without which it will fail to save.

  Store Email Addresses

Magento comes with pre-configured roles with access to store. Magento occasionally sends emails to customers regarding order acceptance, payment, password recovery, any other notifications etc. In each of these cases you can choose the from address to be used based on these roles. Magento has a default contact created for General, Sales and Support respectively. If you want any other addresses to add, you can choose the Custom Email Option.

Fill the fields with the desired sender name and corresponding email addresses, click ‘Save Config’ and you are done.

Contacts

This section lets your customers contact you through a contact form on your store. If you do not want the contact form enabled, select ‘No’, otherwise leave the defaulted ‘Yes’. ‘Email Options’ section beneath it determines to which email address the data entered from contact form is to be sent. I have chosen the email address as [email protected]. You can choose the sender based on the contacts you created above and also choose the email template to be used. Since this magento tutorial do not have a custom template now, I chose the default one. Click ‘Save Config’ once you are done entering the details.

When you access your store front end, you will notice a Contact US page at the bottom of the site as follows.

  When the customer fills out that contact form, you will get an email based on how you configured it above. An example is as follows.

Content Management

You can choose the WYSIWYG editor which is default there, unless you plan to use magento as a CMS which will require better editors.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/install-magento-using-cpanel/

How to Install Magento using cPanel

This post explains how you can install Magento, at a single click through cPanel, the most accepted control panel in the hosting environment. This single click installation is made possible through the software named Softaculous. It includes 300+ software in its store, all installable at a click. Online stores has become one of the most successful business these days. People are interested in getting everything at their finger tip, and this laziness of common man has been well exploited by many internet companies worldwide. The process of doing business -both selling and buying – through  internet is termed E-commerce.  Day by day we see new shopping websites being launched. There are many software available to make shopping carts, however Magento is indeed the best and favourite shopping cart software for all.

Magento is an ecommerce software written in PHP, based on open source technology. It provides a strong ecommerce platform to business people. Also provides a lot of features and control for the customers to modify both look and functionality of their store. It is very rich in features and offers almost everything that a cart owner would require. It also provides great tools to take care of your marketing, search engine optimization and catalogue management requirements. This is not something that every vendor does. The greatest advantage of Magento is said to be its scalability which makes it popular among small and big business alike.

Install Magento through cPanel using Softaculous

In order to install Magento, you first need to login to your cPanel using your login details. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen where you will see Softaculous App Installer. Click on it to take it to the softaculous interface.

  You can choose magento from the Ecommerce section of softaculous. You can also just search magento at the top search bar and click on the Install Now button to get it installed.

    Now you will be taken to a screen which will ask a few details from you, entering which your application will be installed. You need to answer the following.

Choose the version you want to install - Unlike other software in softaculous, magento offers the flexibility to choose the version of software you would like to install. However, before choosing the latest version you need to make sure that your server software like PHP version etc meets the magento requirements. For version 2 of magento, you will need PHP 5.5 Choose Protocol - Depending on whether you would like to access the store securely or normally, you can choose between https and http. If you want secure access, go for https and make sure to install SSL. Choose Domain - The domain name under which you need to install magento In Directory - The directory name under your domain where you need magento installed. If you need it under your root domain, like http://newtest.com, then do not enter anything in the text box, leave it blank. If you need it installed in a folder named magento, enter 'magento' in the text box. There is no need to create the folder, the installation will create it automatically CRON Job - It is when you want the software to run scheduled tasks. Since we are in the beginning stage, it is recommended to leave it by default and modify only later. Admin Path - The folder where you would like the admin interface of magento to reside. You can choose any name here. Admin Username and Password - Choose any username of your wish, but for password make sure you generate a very strong password by clicking on the key icon to the right of the password field. First Name, Last Name, Admin Email - Name and email address of the administrator.

  For our example, I am going to install version 1.9 of magento under http://newtest.com/magento. I need the admin folder under admin123, and my admin username is admin and password is strong one generated by the key. My installation interface looks as follows.

  Once you have confirmed the details, click on the ‘Install’ button at the bottom of the page. Based on your server load, it will take a minute or two to complete the installation. All required features including database will be created automatically during the installation. When the installation finishes, you will receive a confirmation message as follows.

    Now you can return to the overview section and your recent installation will be listed there. Click on the pencil icon to the right of it and you will be able to edit any installation details, if required. Scroll down to the bottom of that page, and a small dialog box with information on the installation will be displayed.

    You can now access your shopping cart and also login to the admin area and make changes to build the cart.

The following is how the default store appears to me after installation. The magento installed from softaculous does not contain any sample data, hence it looks plain.

    We have successfully completed the installation of magento. The post covered how to install Magento through cPanel using softaculous. The magento admin interface has a lot of options to configure the store which will be explained in detail in another post.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/install-mybb-cpanel/

MyBB: How to install a free forum

MyBB is a free bulletin board software that stands out among the top most open source bulletin boards available today. MyBB is the short form of My Bulletin Board. MyBB has been designed with easiness and quality in mind, which lets the users use the free forum without any difficulty at all. It’s a similar software just like Simple Machines Forum (SMF) . It is created in a perfect bulletin board structure and has all features required to run it smoothly. It uses PHP any MySql for its functioning, and is apt for any types of hosting environments including shared and  cheap web hosting from Copahost.

This post describes how MyBB can be installed through cPanel using the software installer called softaculous. Softaculous is a one click installer which most hosting providers use so that their customers can install any software they wish at a click.

Install MyBB using cPanel and Softaculous

To start with the installation, first login to your cpanel account using your cpanel login details. When logged in, scroll down to the bottom where you will see the softaculous app installer.

  Click on it and you will be taken to the Softaculous interface. You can find MyBB under the forums section or you can simply search it on the search bar at the top left. Once found, click on MyBB and it will take you to the installation interface.

    Click on the ‘Install Now’ button and you will now be taken to the actual installation page. You will be prompted to answer a few questions like the domain name where you need it installed, the folder under which you require it, the name of the board, the desired admin login details etc. Enter the required information and click on the install button at the bottom of the page.

Suppose I want the blog installed in my domain ‘newtest.com’ under the folder ‘mybb’. If I need the board installed and accessible as http://newtest.com then I would leave the ‘In Directory’ option blank. Another thing to notice is the admin password. You should always choose a strong password for the admin user. It is always recommended to generate a strong password by clicking on the key icon.

    Depending on your server load, it might take 1 to 2 minutes for the installation to complete, after which you will receive a confirmation message as follows.

    The above message confirms that the installation has completed successfully. You can access the board as http://newtest.com/mybb and the admin area as http://newtest.com/mybb/admin.

Return to the overview section and you will see the installation you did currently being listed there. Click on the pencil icon to the right of it, and you will be able to make any edits to the installation as you wish. A general info regarding the current installation will be displayed at the bottom of the page.

    Accessing the Board

I installed the board in the folder ‘mybb’ under my domain ‘newtest.com’. Now that the installation has completed, we can access the forum as http://newtest.com/mybb . You will be greeted with the beautiful interface of the board. You can also see that the name of the board has been set as ‘My Board’ which we gave during installation.

  Registering a User

In order to post topics or make replies, you will need to login to the board as a user. Click on the register button at the top of the board, accept the board rules by clicking ‘I Agree’ button. It will take you to a form where you need to enter the desired username, email address, password, a few security inputs etc. You also can check which all features are required and select them accordingly. The best thing about MyBB is that it enforces two security mechanisms – one is a captcha and the other is a simple mathematical logic to make sure that the form is filled by humans and not bots. In addition, it sends you an activation email and lets you post on the forums only when the activation link is clicked and the process is completed.

    User Control Panel

I have created a user named ‘prad’ above. Now, just click on the ‘Login’ link at the top left of the board and I can login to MyBB as that user and setup my profile.

  Click on the link ‘User CP’ shown with an orange arrow in the image above (top left), and it will take you to your user control panel. You can view your private messages sent by any other forum members, send messages to other members, edit your profile details, manage groups, buddies etc here.

    Creating posts and threads

We are now logged in as the user ‘prad’. There is only a default category named ‘My Forum’ in the board. A normal user do not have the privilege to create new categories, however they can create new threads (topics) within a given category. Click on the category named ‘My Forum’ and click on ‘Post Thread’.

  You will now be taken to a page which lets you create a new post. You can enter the thread subject, enter the contents, choose whether or not to use your signature and smilies in the post, choose the subscription method based on which you will or will not be notified of the replies in the thread etc. Once you are done entering the data, you can click on Preview button to see a preview of how your post looks before actually posting it. Once you are all set, click ‘Post Thread’ and your post will be shown in the forum.

    Now that your post is public, anyone who accesses the board can view your post and registered users can reply to the post as well. As you can see in the image below, there is a ‘Quick reply’ option which lets the users reply to your posts.

New Post has been published on http://www.copahost.com/blog/install-simple-machines-forum-smf/

How to Install Simple Machines Forum SMF

An online forum is a piece of website software which people mainly use as a discussion portal. They can create new threads or posts in the forum, express their views and opinions and also comment to others’ posts. People register in the forum as members and they can create posts and reply to them. The posts will be monitored and moderated by an admin of the forum. The comments they post are public and is readable by anyone who has access to the thread. The forum will have certain rules and the members are abide to obey them. There are a lot of commercial and open source forums available these days, just like MyBB. Simple Machines Forum, abbreviated as SMF is one of the most popular open source forums available for use.  This post explains how to install Simple Machines Forum through the most popular control panel called cPanel.

Most cPanel providers offer a one click software named Softaculous which helps you to install Simple Machines Forum at a single click. Softaculous provides a lot of software in its store, and users can install it very easily without having to undergo any long process of creating databases or assigning users or anything. Just fill in a few details and you are done !!

Install Simple Machines Forum (SMF)

Suppose I have a website named copablog.com and I want to install a forum under it. Follow the step by step instructions given below to install Simple Machines Forum (SMF) in your website.

Login to your cpanel using your cpanel username and password

Scroll down to the section named Softaculous App Installer. It will list all the software present under Softaculous. Click on SMF which will take you to the installation interface.

    The installation interface has an ‘Install Now’ button and while scrolling down it will list all the current installations of SMF under that domain. We are installing it afresh, so click on the ‘Install Now’ button to start the process of install simple machines forum in your website.

  The next screen that appears will ask you a few questions, so that Softaculous can install the SMF forum as per your requirements. Given below are the questions.

  a) Choose Protocol - http or https based on whether you require SSL or not. b) Choose Domain - Enter the domain name under which you want to install the forum c) In Directory - If you want the forum to reside in a subfolder, enter the directory name there. Otherwise leave it blank so that the forum will be installed in the base directory and will be accessible as http://domainname d) Board Name - Choose any name that you would like to give for your forum e) Visual verification image to display - Since it is a forum, chances for it to be misused by spammers is high. Hence, the forum offers various verification techniques to ensure that the one who is posting in the forum is not a spammer or bot but a human. You can choose from the list of verification methods available. f) Board Email - It is the forum's email address g) Admin Username - Every forum requires an administrator to monitor the posts and manage the forum and its users. You can enter any name as the admin username. This user will be the super user and will have full control over the forum h) Admin Password - Password of the admin user chosen above. Make sure to give a strong password. It is recommended to generate a random password by clicking on the key icon to the right of this column. i) Real Name - Name of the Administrator j) Admin Email - Email address of the administrator k) Select Language - Choose the language in which you want the contents of the forum to be displayed.

  I have a domain copablog.com (for example) and I need the forum to be accessible as http://copablog.com/forum. Hence I will install SMF in the sub folder ‘forum’. Rest of the details are filled in as shown in the image below.

  We chosen the language as English, and once again confirmed that all details are entered correctly. After that click the ‘Install’ button to start with the installation.

Depending on the hosting you are, it may take a few minutes for the installation to complete. The installation will automatically create the database, username and associated privileges. Once the installation is completed, you will see a message as follows.

  Click on ‘Return to Overview’ link at the bottom of it and you will be taken back to the main page. It will now list your forum installation which was just finished. Towards the right of it, there is a pencil icon, clicking on which you will be able to edit the installation details like the installation folder, database details, admin login details etc. In addition, it will also list all the information related to the current installation. Note the admin URL in it, as you will require that to login to the forum as administrator.

    Using Simple Machines Forum

In the image above, my forum URL is http://copablog.com/forum/.  Acessing it will take me to the forum page as follows.

    The admin URL for the installation is shown in the Info page, clicking on which you will be asked for the admin login details. Enter the admin username and password you provided during installation.

    Upon providing the correct admin details, you will be taken to the main dashboard which will help you manage the forum.

    There are a few configuration steps required at your end, before you can open the forum to public. The main configuration steps will be explained in detail in another post.

The post is intended to help anyone trying to start a forum in their website. The installation is quite easy to handle, especially with a control panel like cPanel and Softaculous. Hope the post helps you to install Simple Machines Forum without trouble.

SMF Initial Configuration (Continuation)