Land Down Under v700
Website engine - Copyright Neocrome - http://www.neocrome.net
This guide updated : 2004-may-20
 
Introduction
Requirements
Licences, copyrights and disclaimers
History
New installation
Upgrade from a v603 or a v604
Upgrade from any older version
Get more help...
Credits
Links
 
Introduction

Land Down Under is a CMS, a Content Management System.
It's a dumb machine, made of PHP files that reads and stores datas in a MySQL database, and sends those datas to clients as HTML pages, with the help of skin files (also called "templates").

The key features are :

 
Requirements

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Licences, copyrights and disclaimers

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Important: Since version 500, LDU is not an open source software product anymore.

 
History

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Please see the history pages at LDU's home.

 
New installation

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  1. Get the latest Rar pack

    Download and extract the latest version from www.neocrome.net (and here only ! Any other distribution is illegal).

  2. Main configuration entries

    Open datas/config.php, and modify parameters such as email, site title, etc.
    Fill up parameters about your MySQL database.
    Do not change settings that you do not understand yet !

  3. Upload files to your server

    You do not need to upload all skins folders, one is enough.
    The default skin is set in /datas/config.php, by default it's "ceremony".
    Do not upload the /docs/ folder, its not required by the engine.

  4. Allow file writing for some folders

    'CHMOD 777' folders (to allow files writing) :
     
    /datas/avatars/
    /datas/thumbs/
    /datas/tmp/
    /datas/users/

  5. Create the SQL database

    Open a MySQL remote manager (PHPmyAdmin is the most famous).
    Select your database, and create tables with the SQL script : docs/ldu-createnew-700.sql

  6. Create your account

    Open your home URL with a browser, select 'login', then 'register', to create your account.
    Once it's done, ignore the 'Read your email...' message, because the first user to register is automatically activated and assigned the highest level available (Server-op, 99).

  7. It's done !

    Log in, and go to the administration panel to adjust settings and menus.

  8. Not working ?

    Bad luck, so restart from the beginning and follow the steps carefully, and if after this second try the result is the same, head for the LDU forums, there's several pinned topics about common pitfalls, issues and troubleshooting. Please put your website in your profile there, so the helpers can see the problem "live".

 
Upgrade from a v603 or a v604

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  1. MySQL database upgrade

    A full backup of the database is highly recommended just before the upgrade !
    Then run /docs/ldu-upgrade-604-to-700.sql with phpMyAdmin to update the database to the very latest version.

  2. Main files

    Replace all system files and all default plugins :
    /*.php (all files in the root)
    /system/*.* and all sub-folders.
    /plugins/*.* and all sub-folders.
     
    You do NOT need to upload a new skin, your "old" one will still work fine, after the changes listed in the section "Skins" below.
    You do NOT need to replace files in /datas/, apart if asked later in this manual.
     
    WARNING, FIRST FULLY DELETE the old folder /system/core/ and replace with the new files, do NOT copy-over !

  3. Administration plugins

    Trash and replace all the admin plugins, old admin plugins won't work under v700 !!!
     
    A lot of administration tools are now made as plugin, so be sure to upload all the new files of the Rar pack in /plugins/admin/...

  4. Configuration file

    The structure of the configuration file is new, so replace your datas/config.php with the "fresh" one from the v700 pack, and copy/paste your old settings in the new one.

  5. Notes

    The upgrade process will raise the Server op level from 59 to 99, and all the users with a previous level 10 with go down to 1, for better consistency. It's recommended to check all your third-party plugins for conditional tests over the userlevels.

  6. Skins
  7. Tools

    In the Administration panel, tab "Tools", then "Re-sync forums".

  8. Language packs

    A lot of changes, all language packs from previous versions will have to be re-worked.
    Note that the administration panel is now translatable (/system/lang/admin.lang.php).

 
Upgrade from any older version

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First, apply all the SQL upgrade scripts from your version until the v700, those scripts are stored in the folder /docs/old mysql scripts/.
Once done, upgrade your old skin using the same way, apply all the changes 1 by 1, the upgrade manuals are in the folder /docs/old upgrade manuals/.
Note that for both the skin and the SQL database, you can directly skip the step between v603 and v604.

As sample, to upgrade from LDU v525 to LDU v700 :

525 --> 601 (SQL upgrade + upgrade manual + skin upgrade)
601 --> 602 (SQL upgrade + upgrade manual + skin upgrade)
602 --> 603 (SQL upgrade + upgrade manual + skin upgrade)
603 --> 700 (SQL upgrade + upgrade manual + skin upgrade)
 
Upgrading a very old skin can be a pretty long process, so you should consider the replacement by a fresh v700 official skin...

 
Get more help...

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- Online manual, general configuration, FAQ, articles, etc.
- LDU forums, to meet other LDU webmasters, and technical support.
- Licence and services, to order specific LDU services and support Neocrome.Net

Feedback and comments are welcome in forums at www.neocrome.net
Please do not email or send private messages to request technical support, use forums instead !

 
Credits

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Please see this page.