A lot of online entrepreneurs

A lot of online entrepreneurs end up learning this skill out of necessity. Personally, I
taught myself and spent hours if not days trying to figure out how to install various
scripts. It’s a wonder I don’t have massive bald spots from the aggravation!
If you have Cpanel with your web hosting, I’m sure you’ve noticed Fantastico (which
auto-installs a variety of certain scripts.) Fantastico’s great but its variety doesn’t include
numerous scripts you’ll actually want to install.

Back to the bald spots ... no need to worry about those anymore! Once I figured out how
to install scripts, it became a cinch! Each script is different and requires certain steps to
install it. Usually, though, the steps are basically the same.
For example, let’s say we’re installing ‘UltraReviewPro script’ (no such script, as far as I
know.)

For this script, it has the steps below:

1) Create an SQL database.
2) Modify config.php file with DB settings.
3) Upload files to web server.
4) Run install.php file

Sound like Greek to you? Take a deep breath and release it. It’s not hard stuff, it’s no
harder than learning to cook. As soon as you understand what each step means, you’ll be
installing scripts in 5 minutes and less! I’m going to quickly run you through how to
install this ultra-easy script.

The first step, creating an SQL database in your Cpanel, is SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE!
On your CPanel, you’ll want to find the icon that looks like this:
On the page that comes up, you want to navigate where you find the Add Db entry box as
pictured below. It is here that you will enter the name of your db (try to make it
something relevant to the script that you’re installing so that if necessary, you’ll be able
to recognize what the database details if you ever need to refer to them in the future.)
Copyright 2006 My-Resell-Portal.com

For example, for the UltraReviewPro script, I might create a database name urpro or
ureview or urp. In this example, I’m using ‘exampledb’ as the database name.
Obviously, once you’ve put in the name of your database, you click the ‘Add Db’ button.
Once you do so, you’ll see a page with a confirmation of the database’s creation (as
pictured below.)

Click the ‘Go Back’ link to return to the Database management screen.
Next we want to create a user whom we’ll give access to the database you just created.
You’ll need to navigate to the ‘Add User’ entry area.
For this example, I’m creating ‘exampled’ as the UserName and ‘ex123’ as the Password.
I then click on the ‘Add User’ button. Again, I will see a confirmation screen as pictured
below. Click Back to go to the Database Management area.
Last but not least, we need to link the database with the database user we just created. To
do so, you’ll need to navigate to the linking area as pictured below.

Make sure to select the correct User and Db. Once you’ve selected each from their
respective pull-down menus, click the ‘Add User to Db’ button. You will see one last
confirmation screen (again, as pictured below.)

And that’s all you have to do to create an SQL database. A large amount of scripts
require SQL databases so knowing how to create one is crucial.
On to step two: Modifying config.php file with the DB settings you’ve created. Most
config files will include something like the example below.

$host = "localhost";
$dbuser = "username_here";
$pass = "";
$dbname = "database_name";

Anything denoting the host will usually be ‘localhost’; if this doesn’t work, you’ll want
to check with your web hosting provider to find out for sure.
Anything denoting a database user (in this example, ‘$dbuser’) will correlate with the
database user you created already (in this example, I already created ‘exampled’ as the
username. Where did the ‘kcengel_’ prefix come from? You will have your own prefix
and you’ll find it on the database management page in which we created the database and
database user earlier.

All of your databases, which will be listed on the main database management page,
(example pictured below) will contain your prefix. In my case, the prefix is ‘kcengel_’
Moving right along, any value denoting the password, will be the password you entered
when creating your database’s username. Finally, any value denoting the database name
(in this example, ‘$dbname’), will be where you put the database’s name.
Copyright 2006 My-Resell-Portal.com

When finished, in this example, we end up with the following:

$host = "localhost";
$dbuser = "kcengel_exampled";
$pass = "ex123";
$dbname = "kcengel_exampledb";
Make sure to save after making your changes. The next step in this example is uploading
your files to your web server. For the sake of this example, let’s say we upload to a folder
called ‘reviews’. As explained in a previous section of this Ebook, do remember to
upload php files in ASCII mode, pictures in binary mode and html files in auto mode.
The last step is to run the install.php file. Let’s just pretend that my domain name is
kimsexamples.com and that I installed the ‘reviews’ folder on the root level. That would
leave us with the following install URL: http://www.kimsexamples.com/reviews/install.php
(This link of course, is not active – just a figment of our imaginations, remember?) That
should give you an idea, though, of what your path would look like if you installed
UltraReviewPro.

If you installed the same script to pinkypoplop.com, it would still end up being:
http://www.pinkypoplop.com/reviews/install.php
Most web-based install pages will either automatically populate your SQL databases for
you and give you a success message, or they will have you enter your database details,
admin/password details and click an enter/next button. From there, the script will install
itself. Once successful, it’s important to remove your install files (unless indicated
otherwise) as install files pose a security risk. Why? Anyone who hacks into your server
could re-install over your current installation if those install files are still there.
Most scripts will also indicate where to login to your main page/admin panel. That’s it! If
you can understand this basic install, you’re well on your way to achieving more
complicated script installs.