phpBB Installation Tutorial

PHPBB Requirements

  • Your Web hosting should support PHP 4.0 or latest PHP version and MySQL
  • download Latest PHPBB Version
  • Extract All file and upload on your web host using any FTP Program
  • Now login your web hosting control panel (cpanel/plesk) and create database for PHPBB forum
  • Then create username and password against this database, if you have no knowledge about database creation see this tutorial

PHPBB Installation

After you have uploaded phpBB to the location you want it to be, you have to enter the URL into your browser to get to the installation screen. phpBB will automatically detect that it is not yet installed and forward you to the installation screen.

Introduction

This is the introduction page of the installation system.

Introduction

The installation screen gives you a short introduction into phpBB. It allows you to read the license phpBB 3.0 is released under (General Public License) and provides information about how you can receive support. To start the installation, use the Install button.

Requirements

The first page you will see after starting the installation is the Requirements list. phpBB 3.0 checks automatically whether everything that it needs to run properly is installed on your server. You need to have at least the minimum PHP version installed, and at least one database available to continue the installation. Also important, is that all shown folders are available and do have the correct permissions. Please see the description of each section to find out whether they are optional or required for phpBB 3.0 to run. If everything is in order, you can continue the installation with Start Install .

Database settings

You now have to decide which database to use. See the Requirements section for information on which databases are supported. If you do not know your database settings, please contact your host and ask for them. You will not be able to continue without them. You need:

  • The Database Type - the database you will be using.
  • The Database server hostname or DSN - the address of the database server.
  • The Database server port - the port of the database server (most of the time this is not needed).
  • The Database name - the name of the database on the server.
  • The Database username and Database password - the login data to access the database.

Database settings

The database settings screen, please make sure to have all the required data available.

You don't need to change the Prefix for tables in database setting, unless you plan on using multipe phpBB installations on one database. In this case you can use a different prefix for each installation to make it work.

After you entered your details, you can continue with the Proceed to next step button. Now phpBB 3.0 will check whether the data you entered will lead to a successful database connection and whether tables with the same prefix already exist.

A Could not connect to the database error means that you didn't enter the database data correctly and it is not possible for phpBB to connect. Make sure that everything you entered is in order and try again. Again, if you are unsure about your database settings, please contact your host.

If you installed another version of phpBB before on the same database with the same prefix, phpBB will inform you and you just need to enter a different database prefix.

If you see the Successful Connection message, you can continue to the next step.

Administrator details

Now you have to create your administration user. This user will have full administration access and he will be the first user on your forum. All fields on this page are required. You can also set the default language of your forum on this page. In a vanilla phpBB 3.0 installation it only includes English [GB] . You can download further languages from http://www.phpbb.com , and add them later.

Configuration file

In this step, phpBB will try to write the configuration file automatically. The forum needs the configuration to run properly. It contains all database settings, so without it, phpBB will not be able to access the database.

Usually writing the configuration file automatically works fine. But in some cases it can fail due to wrong file permissions, for instance. In this case, you need to upload the file manually. phpBB asks you to download the config.php file and tells you what to do with it. Please read the instructions carefully. After you have uploaded the file, use Done to get to the last step. If Done returns you to the same page as before, and does not return a success message, you did not upload the file correctly.

Advanced settings

The Advanced settings allow you to set some parameters of the board configuration. They are optional, and you can always change them later. So if you are not sure what these settings mean, proceed to the final step and finish the installation.

If the installation was successful, you can now use the Login button to visit the Administration Control Panel . Congratulations, you have installed phpBB 3.0 successfully.

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