Hello everyone, This tutorial is for everyone who want to setup a Discussion Forum Website.
About Simple Machines Forum : SMF in short — is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.
Its powerful custom made template engine puts you in full control of the lay-out of your message board and with our unique SSI - or Server Side Includes - function you can let your forum and your website interact with each other.
SMF is written in the popular language PHP and uses a MySQL database. It is designed to provide you with all the features you need from a bulletin board while having an absolute minimal impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software - and best of all it is and will always remain completely free!
Requirements :
Download the latest SMF version : SMF2.0 RC2or SMF 1.1.10 Stable
Now extract the contents of the zip file to a folder and upload the extracted content to the root of your publicly visible web folder, generally it is /public_html/ Now you need to create a database which you will use to save the forum's contents like usernames, posts, etc. Create a database and remember your server, username, password and database name. You will need these while installing SMF.
I will assume the the server is 'localhost', id and password need not be assumed and database name will be assumed as 'smf'. Ok, now lets install SMF.
Open any web browser and got the the web address of your website. Now you will get this screen :
Now Click on Continue located on the right-bottom and then you will reach this screen :
In the above screen, you need to type in the database details as which include :
- Database Type
- Server Name
- Username
- Password
- Database name
- Table Prefix
Table prefix is used so that you can create multiple tables within a single database for different sub domains or completely different domain.
Now Once done with it, Click on Continue, again on the right-bottom side of the page. Now you will get this screen :
Now On this screen adjust the url where you need to install the Forums, I have given the example, where the forums will be the direct home location that is shown in the screenshot above. Once done with the URL, USe whatever title you want to use. Then click on Continue. You woll then reach this step where the data base will be updated and you need to confirm installation :
Now once you click on Continue, SMF will finish the installation and configure the forums and you will now need to create an Administrator Account. The screen will look like this :
Fill in with proper details and then click on continue. You need to type in the database password at the bottom so that your admin id is created. You will be then presented with this screen :
Now once you fill proper details and click continue you will get to the next screen. Check on "Click here to delete this install.php file now. (doesn't work on all servers.)" check box and click on the link which says "your newly installed forum". This screen will look like this :
Once you click on "your newly installed forum" you will reach your home page which will look like this :
Hope this is helpful to everyone who wanted to create a forum of their own.
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