/Tutorials/ Create your own dating site (Part 2)
07/07/2006 | Filed under Develop > Tutorials
Click here to read Part 1 of this tutorial
TUTORIAL 2: Installation
Step 1: All being well, you should be ready now to install PHPizabi. Open up your favourite web browser and enter the URL of your web site, adding the path to your PHPizabi installation at the end. It should look something like www.[yourdomainnamehere. com]/phpizabi/. You’ll be redirected to the installer. |
Step 2: This is a straightforward, wizard-based installer, but things can still go wrong so we’ll continue step-by-step. Click to step two – the installation will prompt you to check that essential PHP extensions GD and CURL are installed. You can check with your host to make sure they are or make your own PHP script to do this. |
Step 3: Here’s how. Open any text editor and enter the following three bits of code on separate lines, one below the other: ‘’. Save the file as ‘phpinfo.php’ and upload it to your web space. Open the file in a browser and you’ll get a list of details about your PHP installation. |
Step 4: With GD and CURL confirmed, click forward to stage three. The wizard makes sure that permissions are set correctly on the folders that it will later need access to. You set these earlier so everything should work. There’s a chance you may have to set read/write/execute permissions on some subdirectories, though. |
Step 5: Now for a trickier bit. Some web hosts enable you to create new MySQL databases on the fly, at will. Others restrict you to using their interface. You can check whether yours is the former or latter by filling in the required details at stage four, then ticking the ‘Try to create database if it doesn’t exist’ box. |
Step 6: You’ll need to enter your database username and password, which may be different to your hosting account name and password, and provide a database name. If the installer fails to create the database, then you’ll have to check your host’s documentation, create a database using their control panel and then try again. |
Step 7: At step five you’ll be prompted to populate you’re newly created database with tables. Presuming that everything else has gone well, that should be a simple case of clicking Next and waiting for the installer to do its job. When you get the all clear and click on to stage six, you should get an ‘Installation Success’ message. |
Step 8: Follow the link to your new installation, click Register and work your way through the profile creation and sign-up procedure. The first person to sign up is automatically flagged as the site administrator. Make sure that you provide an email address that works – that’s where your password will be sent. |
Step 9: Finally, when you’ve finished the sign-up procedure and have retrieved your password from your inbox, you can log into your PHPizabi installation. You see exactly what anyone else using your site will see – expect you have a blue admin link in the top right corner of the screen. Click that now to start configuring your site. |
TUTORIAL 3: Configuration
Step 1: So, you’ve now got your own social-networking site ready to rock. Like the Wizard of Oz, though, you can peer behind the curtain and move the levers in this world – and there’s a lot of functionality to control here. We’ll start with the various system configuration options that will need immediate tweaking. |
Step 2: Click the General System Configurations link first. There are lots of bits and pieces you’ll want to change here. Start with changing the site name to something more suitable and fill in your own site URL. You’ll also want to change the default Site Email Address, which is where mail sent from your site appears to originate from. |
Step 3: A little further down, you’ll get the first clues to the customisation that’s possible with PHPizabi. The software uses a themes based system based around CSS and PHP templates. The default scheme is automatically selected. We’ll look at how you can make simple customisations and edit themes a little later. |
Step 4: We’ll skip back to the remaining configuration options for now, as there are still a few to go through. Click the Admin link again, then go to Dynamic Content Administration. This section is, essentially, a pared down CMS system that enables you to publish your own material on the site in a series of preordained categories. |
Step 5: First up: news. To add a news item, just type it into the first text box and click Submit. You can delete items that have been submitted quite easily. The news items appear on users’ My Account page, so you can use this feature to make important announcements and clue your visitors into any changes or updates. |
Step 6: The next tab, Horoscopes shows you how cynical astrology can be… The horoscopes PHPizabi generates are a finite list of new age-style proclamations that you can edit, delete or add. The ‘readings’ are added randomly to one of the 12 horoscope signs every day. You could have a lot of fun with this feature. |
Step 7: More useful features are the Mail and Help systems. Click on the Mail tab and you’re able to edit the content of posts. You’ll notice that the existing entries use PHP placeholders to automatically insert your site name, usernames and so on directly into emails. You can edit around these placeholders to customise your emails. |
Step 8: The help system enables you to create a FAQ section for your site but it would’ve been helpful if the folks at PHPizabi had started this off for you. You simply add a title for your help article, then write a supporting article below it. Like the News system, you can edit or delete articles at anytime by returning to the Help section. |
Step 9: There are many other sections to explore in the System section of the PHPizabi Administration Panel, though we think these are the most important ones to start with. You’ll notice that you can also administer a forum and even a live, Java-powered chat system. Next we move on to administering user details. |
Comments
eamon / 12/09/2006 / 10:00 / http://eamons_singles_club
i makeing this website becouse am so sick of being single and i am looking for a girlfriend ok bye
Mike Braid / 05/02/2007 / 18:16 / http://www.singles247.co.uk
Excellent example and Ive found some of the info helpful when deveoping my own site.
Keep up the good work
Scott / 03/03/2007 / 23:40
Im not that great at IT or creating, but I want to build a website with members and chat facility, any one, know any companies or person who could build this for me? email me pls
louisiana home equity loan / 03/04/2007 / 22:45 / http://health86.narod.ru
What ever your need is, there are plenty of mortgage products available: adjustable and fixed rate mortgages, interest only mortgages, balloon mortgages, jumbo loans and different types of government funded loans (VA and FHA).
Mathew / 25/07/2007 / 23:29 / http://www.mbwebdesign.co.uk
@Mike - not a bad effort, there!
@Louisiana - excellent comment spam, a superb contribution
@Scott - I'd email but (a) your post is now several months old and you've probably already finished the site and launched it, and (b) there's no way to contact you ;)
lordmarin / 04/01/2008 / 13:38 / http://www.incontriescontri.it
I have tested PHPIzabi, but in my server appare some error and the basic template is created width table..
andrew / 19/02/2008 / 05:57 / http://www.highlifeschool.com
pretty good tutorial! i installed phpizabi on my own linux computer in my hall. i think its great software for being free. i see other programs like buddy zone but phpizabi is the one i prefer. check out my site and see what ive done with it!!
Justin / 02/05/2008 / 23:20 / http://www.imingle.ca
I ran phpizabi for about a year to replace MSN Groups when they forced people to start paying and took away a lot of the features such as chat. Had I found this tutorial before then, It would have made my life a whole lot easier. Maybe I'll have to give it a second look now. Thanks for the awesome tutorial.
