INSTALL.txt

ASP-VBScript-CMS Installation Instructions

  This document is intended to help you get started using the application and
  contains instructions for installing and configuring the software on your
  local development server as well as on production servers.


INTRODUCTION

  ASP VBScript CMS is built for rapid configuration AND deployment to enable
  you to get your client sites up as quickly as possible. There are as little
  as three steps to getting setup on localhost.

  ASP-VBScript-CMS tends to use more convention over configuration, so if you
  accept this and go with the flow, things will be much quicker to setup. That
  being said, the cms facilitates customization and configuration to fit your
  development or production environment. These are the basic steps to setup the
  software. Each step is explained in further detail below.

    1. Unzip and create a new project.
    2. Rename the database file.
    3. Update the PROJECT_NAME in the configuration file.
    4. Create the virtual directory in IIS.

  Note that if your only testing out ASP VBScript CMS then you can simply unzip
  the file and skip to the last step, setting up your virtual directory, name
  it "cms" and it should work out of the box at http://localhost/cms/


INSTALLATION


1.a) Download and unzip the source code.

  Unzip the downloaded project file (asp-vbscript-cms.zip) to your projects
  directory. The path to the project can be anything you like. For example:

    * C:\Projects\
    * C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\Projects\

1.b) Create a new project

  Rename the unzipped folder asp-vbscript-cms to the name of the project you
  are creating. For demonstrative purposes, lets create a project called "New
  Project".

    * C:\Projects\new_project\ is the project path
    * C:\Projects\new_project\public\ is the site root

  TIP: When assigning a Project name (PROJECT_NAME in the code) please use only
  lowercase letters ASCII letters, numbers, underscores and dashes. A short
  string of 3 to 10 characters works best.  Spaces are not advised.

  The standard project folder structure looks like this:

    new_project\
    .\core\   <-- all CMS core files
    .\data\   <-- databases should be located above the web root
    .\public\ <-- web root (aka public_html)
    .\public\admin\ <-- default CMS Administration interface location
    .\public\modules\ <-- add-on modules location
    .\public\
    .\assets\  <-- project assets (information architecture, design comps, etc)


2) Update PROJECT_NAME in the configuration file to match the Project name.

  Open the file .\core\configuration.asp and change the PROJECT_NAME string to
  match the Project name.

    const PROJECT_NAME = "new_project"


3) Create the virtual directory.

  In IIS Administrator, add a new virtual directory using the *public* folder,
  NOT the project root folder!

	* Virtual directory alias:  new_project
	* Virtual directory folder: C:\Projects\new_project\public\

  NOTE: The virtual directory alias MUST BE THE SAME as the the Project name,
  the database file name, and the PROJECT_NAME configured in the previous steps.

  Now your done setting up the CMS on localhost you will be able to access your
  new project's front end website here:

    * http://localhost/new_project/
    * http://localhost/new_project/admin/
        o user: admin
        o pass: password




INSTALLING TO PRODUCTION SERVER

1) Upload the entire project to the webserver, via FTP (SFTP recommended), or
  using your favorite code revision control utility. GIT and Subversion are our
  recommended choices for keeping code in sync between development, staging,
  and production servers.

2) If you are using a production server, you should set the ENVIRONMENT const to
  "production" in .\core\configuration.asp. While this is technically not a
  required step, it helps to avoid accidental loss of data and other random
  fatalities that often happen while synchronizing local development code with
  production server code.

  Rename or copy .\data\development.mdb to: .\data\production.mdb

  *NOTE: Only Microsoft Access MDB files are supported by ASP VBScript CMS.*

CUSTOMIZATIONS THAT VARY FROM THE CONVENTIONS

  To get an idea of the variables available to customize your applicaiton,
  including its installation location and the database locations look at the
  following files:

    .\core\configuration.asp
	.\core\config\globals.asp

TROUBLESHOOTING ON LOCALHOST

  Getting strange errors creating new pages in the admin?

  In order to create pages from the administration web interface, IIS must be
  given permission to create files in your project folder. The IUSR_ must have
  write permissions on the site folder.

  This was my solution to getting around not having a url rewrite module
  available on the production server (1and1.com).

  The file created can be placed in subfolders and its contents are simply an
  include of 404.asp (the file that currently drives everything on the site).