This article describes how to install Dokuwiki on Free.fr

Honestly, dokuwiki is a great wiki, so I wanted to install it on Free.fr. Unfortunately, it won't work there straight of the box (because of free - to my understanding): you have to install a patch.

• Download dokuwiki, upload its directories to your home page on free.fr
• Get the patch from this forum , or directly there
• Unzip it, and upload the bin, inc and lib directories to your home page on free. Overwrite previous files.
• Create a session directory at dokuwiki's root, erase data/locks, enable PHP 5 (php 1 in .htaccess)
• Launch dokuwiki's install (install.php) and then erase it.
• It's possible to move out most directories of DokuWiki, see the security page.

It works !

Upgrade messages usually appear when you login. I successfully upgraded DokuWiki using the procedure detailed here. It just works without any problem, though I strongly recommend to backup your wiki first (in particular .htaccess and doku.php). Also, remove unnecessary files listed in that link. Finally, no need to upload install.php when you're doing an upgrade !

I've successfully install DotClear on Free.fr. No problem at all.

• Download Dotclear
• Unzip and upload it to Free.fr (via FTP)
• In your browser, open http://mywebsite/install, the installation procedure starts.

DotClear uses a MySQL base. With Free, use sql.free.fr

This article explains how to transfer a local Joomla website onto Free.fr. Basically, it's just the same as what's already written for MediaWiki … except it's for Joomla :)

I'm using Joomla's 1.5 beta version and PHP5.

Export your Joomla database to a gzipped filed (Free doesn't seem to recognize the zipped format):

• connect locally to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/
• on the left panel, select your Joomla database
• on the right panel, click on Export
• then, select all tables
• Finally click on “Go”

Then, transfer this file to your own MySQL Free database:

• With your web browser, connect to http://sql.free.fr with your Free logon and password. You get to a simplified PhpMyAdmin web page.
• click on your name (on Free, this actually is the name of your database)
• click on “SQL”
• browse to your gzipped file, and click on “Go”
• all Joomla tables are loaded in your own Free database.

On Free, your MySQL server is sql.free.fr. Your database name is your logon name, except dots are replaced with underscores. If your logon is “foo.bar”, your database name is “foo_bar”. The password to this database is the same as your Free password.

Consequently modify the following setting in configuration.php:

var $host = 'sql.free.fr';
var $user = 'foo.bar';
var $password = 'passwd';
var $db = 'foo_bar';

You must also modify the absolute path to your website. On Free, retrieving the root of your own website is possible with the formula: $_SERVER[“DOCUMENT_ROOT”]. Append to this name the subdirectories you have put your Joomla website into (or none if your Joomla website is at the root of your site).

var $live_site = 'http://yourwebsite.free.fr';
var $absolute_path = '$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]'.'/your path';

Transfer all your local Joomla files to your FTP account: connect to ftpperso.free.fr with your free login and password, and upload the entire Joomla directory.

In addition, don't forget, on Free, to create a “sessions” directory (permissions: drwx——), or you won't be able to initiate a PHP session.

Well, at this stage, it's only very basic security settings…

In the administrator directory of Joomla (or in any directory you wish to protect), create an .htaccess file with the following:

PerlSetVar AuthFile yourpath/password-file  

AuthName "Acces Restreint"  

AuthType Basic  

require valid-user

This .htaccess requires correct user authentication to access the corresponding directory. By the way, Free's help is wrong: PerlSetVar and AuthFile MUST be on the same line or your .htaccess file won't work !

If you want to restrict access to a particular user, use rather:

PerlSetVar AuthFile yourpath/password-file  

AuthName "Acces Restreint"  

AuthType Basic  

require user martin

In 'your path' (the place where you've indicated the password file would be), create a password file such as:

martin:PasSw0rd  
jean:SecR3t  
sophie:H1dDeN

i.e username followed by ':' and then by a clear text password ! Yes, currently Free doesn't not support other authentication modes.

Finally, in that directory ('your path'), create an other .htaccess containing:

deny from all

so that nobody can move to that directory

mysqldump -u <username> -p <database> > blah.sql

mysql -u USER -p <database> < dumpfilename.sql 

With Free.fr, MySQL tables can be backuped using this URL.

- créer une base dédiée à Joomla, avec les permissions pour le user axelle (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP). C'est dans http://localhost/phpmyadmin /, 1/ create database 2/ permissions

- ajuster les menus: Joomla admin → Menus → User menu → New: sélectionner Articles, création d'article.

- créer un nouveau menu: Joomla admin → Menus → menu manager → New

Ensuite, il faut associer ce nouveau menu à un module: Extensions → Module Manager → New. Là créer un nouveau menu module (mod_mainmenu). Pour ce nouveau module, indiquer comme menu name le nom du menu à y associer, et pour pages: All.

Pour créer un menu qui pointe vers une catégorie, il faut créer un menu item “category blog” (pour avoir le look blog).

Pour avoir le joli encadré bleu autour du menu, il faut Extensions → Module Manager → choisir le menu en question, et dans module class suffix, mettre _menu

- pourquoi mon article est affiché dans admin → article manager avec une drôle d'icône en guise de published ? C'est parce que la final publishing date est passée…

- pour éviter de devoir approuver les articles, mettre le user en Publisher : site → user manager → sélectionner le user → group : Publisher.

- pour ajouter des images, il faut aller dans site → media manager, créer éventuellement un nouveau répertoire, et uploader les dites images.

Ensuite, pour pointer sur ces images depuis un article: images/lerepertoire

- pour désactiver la création de nouveaux comptes de la part des personnes qui viennent sur le site: Admin → Site → Global configuration → users: allow user registration → No

- le news flash fait apparaître des news sur l'entête du site. Pour le configurer, il faut aller dans Extensions → Module Manager → Newsflash

- pour modifier le logo de Joomla, il faut aller à la main dans le répertoire du template (D:\softs\wamp\www\joomla\templates\rhuk_milkyway\images) et modifier mw_joomla_logo.png par ce qu'on veut…

- pour ajouter un copyright en bas du site, il faut modifier le template: Extensions → Template Manager → choisir le template, éditer HTML.

- le readmore permet de n'afficher qu'une partie de l'article (notamment dans le cas de display de la catégorie en mode blog). Cependant, ça semble ne pas bien marcher (au moins dans la section Home), quand on clique sur le read more, on obtient un 404… Dans l'HTML, il faut mettre <hr id=“system-readmore”/>

Unzip the package somewhere in the web server's directory (/var/apache2/htdocs)

chmod a+w config

• open in your browser the setup script (config/index.php)
• make sure to create a MySQL user with SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and CREATE privileges.
• mv config/LocalSettings.php to .. : beware that file contains cleartext passwords.
• The problem with Mediawiki is that I find it a bit slow for the very simple usage I need it for.

So, actually, I use DokuWiki. That wiki does not need MySQL.