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Installing Serendipity
Wow, that went well, and it even looks pretty hot if I do say so myself
This article shows you everything you need to know to make Serendipity blog work. If you're not familiar with webservers, don't panic, I know they can be confusing but I promise to explain everything in plain english. Also, feel free to register at the
Serendipity forums where I (my username is carl_galloway) and hundreds of other users are waiting to help you with your installation.
Before we get involved with installing Serendipity I want to share a couple of the reasons why I use Serendipity. If you've seen any other Serendipity blogs you'll know that my blog is completely different. It looks different, and it includes multilingual translations. I've done this deliberately to demonstrate what can be achieved with a little patience. Your blog could also be wildly different from the average blog. This is Serendipity's major strength, and all this is possible because the developers of Serendipity have incorporated two major features into the
software. The first is the
smarty template language that allows theme designers to create spectacular themes without having to know PHP programming. The second is the Spartacus online vault for templates and plugins which enables any user of Serendipity to automatically install new templates and plugins when you select them from a list within the administration suite.
Installing Serendipity goes like this;
1. Get Serendipity
2. Setup a MySQL database on your webserver
3. Upload the Serendipity files to your webserver
4. Start your browser, type in the address for your blog.
5. Complete all fields in the install screen that appears
6. Start using your blog
Of course nothing in life is ever easy, and webservers aren't as friendly as the Windows update manager, so keep reading.
Getting Serendipity
Getting Serendipity is easy, simply
download the latest stable release. The first trap I encountered was that the file I downloaded was a tar.gz archive instead of a zip archive. Linux users don't think twice about this, but I couldn't find the zip file to download. Windows doesn't know how to deal with tar.gz files so I had to install extra software that does. A quick Google for 'freeware windows zip tar' will give you more options than you could ever shake a stick at.
Setup MySQL Database
Serendipity uses a MySQL database to store your settings and articles. You could use other databases, but if you aren't familiar with these things then stick with MySQL. The database allows you to make changes to your blog without having to know any html at all. You simply log in to your blog, make your changes in your browser, save the changes and you're done.
Setting up your database can be involved, and unfortunately all of the other major blogging packages are just the same so stick with me, you haven't made a mistake getting Serendipity, its just the way webservers and databases work. Your webhost should provide an administrative screen (control panel) for setting passwords, email addresses, sub-domains etc, and this same screen should allow you to configure a MySQL database. My control panel (H-Sphere) has a menu for databases with a MySQL wizard listed. This couldn't be easier to use and asks me for a database name, then a username and password. The important thing to know is that Serendipity needs to know these things, and cannot work without them.
Chances are setting up your database will be really easy. However, there are a couple of other things you need to do. Have you got pen and paper handy. Write down the database name, username and password you've just selected. Now within your webhost control panel make sure the username you selected has its permissions set to 'dba', meaning database administrator. This is important, without this you will not be able to manage your blog. Next, write down the url of the MySQL server. In most cases this will be listed, and will be different from your regular domain name. For example, it could look like mysql.mywebhost.url
Uploading Serendipity to your Webserver
Once the files were extracted from the archive I simply had to upload them using my ftp client to the server. An ftp client is a program like
SmartFTP,
FileZilla, or any other ftp client. If you're not using Windows, you'll need an ftp client that suits your operating system.
The next issue involves permissions on some of the folders. Serendipity needs to be able to write files to the webserver and most webservers are configured to prevent this for security reasons. The readme that comes with Serendipity explains which folders need to have write access and then the install goes smoothly. The problem comes when you start using Spartacus to automatically install new themes and plugins. Unfortunately the readme and install screen didn't tell me that the plugins folder and templates folder also needed to be writeable. Ah well, these things happen, but not before many hours of pulling my hair out trying to work out if I had missed something in the configuration screen.
Start Serendipity Install
If you've successfully uploaded Serendipity, created your database and changed all your permissions, you're ready to fire up your new blog. In your browser address bar type in the location of your blog. You should see a screen like the one to the left. If you can, well done, you're nearly there. Notice that this screen tells you if the permissions are correctly set? If any of the permissions are incorrectly set you won't be able to continue with your install. These are marked in red. Go ahead and make any changes you need, then select simple install at the bottom.
The screen to the left shows the page where you enter all your details. You'll notice the first few lines configure the database. These must be typed in exactly as they were in your webhost control panel, with the same combination of upper or lower case characters, and without any extra spaces.
The rest of the details are fairly standard, except for the admin username and admin password. Don't make the mistake of leaving these the same as the default. Please enter a new username and password that means something to you. If you leave the password the same as the default, or forget your passowrd you may not be able to login to your blog. And you can't even look at your database using phpMyAdmin to find your password because Serendipity encrypts all passwords. Now save your changes. [Edit: If you forget to thange the username and password, the default settings are username = "John Doe", password = "john"]
Start using Serendipity
Congratulations, if you now see a screen similar to the one on the left you have successfully installed your new Serendipity blog. I hope you enjoy using your blog, and invite you to bookmark this site. I periodically add new tutorials for the savvy blogger. Be sure to join us at the forums.
Judebert said,
Saturday, December 3. 2005 at 19:51 (Reply)
I wanted to point out that the requirements you cited are required for just about any blog tool. They'll all need a database with write access, for instance. And the de-facto Windows compression tool, WinZip, understands .tar.gz effortlessly.
Of course, like the "Joe Blog" password, Serendipity does has its own idiosyncracies. But they're tiny compared to most, as your install shows. And when you do have trouble, you can find a whole host of people ready to help you out.
Carl said,
Monday, December 5. 2005 at 08:33 (Reply)
Newcomers to php/mysql haven't used mysql before would probably get caught up with permissions fairly quickly, and I don't think many hosting companies set write access by default. These sorts of traps for the unwary litter the Internet and computers generally. They are easily overcome but take time to figure out.
CD said,
Monday, May 22. 2006 at 11:22 (Reply)
I do wish the documentation was a little better and the plug-ins had better descriptions. In fact, a site where you could see how some of the plug-ins work would be great also! But the forums and people have been great so far!