Land Down Under v701
Website engine - Copyright Neocrome - http://www.neocrome.net
This guide updated : 2004-sep-01
 
Introduction
Requirements
Licences, copyrights and disclaimers
History
New installation
Upgrade from a v700
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 "eternity".
    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-701.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. Install the extended plugins

    Log in, and go to the administration panel, tab "extended plugins".
    Open all the extended plugins one by one, and at bottom, click "Install all".

  8. It's done !

    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 v700

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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-700-to-701.sql with phpMyAdmin to update the database to the very latest version.

  2. Main files

    Replace only the system files :
    /*.php (all files in the root)
    /system/*.php
    /system/core/*.php
    /system/core/admin/*.php
    /system/lang/uk/*.php
     
    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.
    You do NOT need to replace any of your existing standard plugins (apart the who's online plugin)  

  3. Plugins

    In v701 there's a new kind of plugin, named "extended", this one can replace several old types of plugins.
     
    Upload ALL the folder /plugins/extended/, and all the files within.
     
    Update the files in the folder /plugins/standard/whosonline/ to the latest version.
     
    Delete the file /plugins/index/default_plugins.index.php, this feature is now handled by the new extended plugin named "Recent items".
     
    For better consistency, a special extended plugin, the "wrapper" is included in the distribution, this tool will allow the old plugin types to run under v701 or any newer version.
     
    So copy all your existing plugins :
     
    From plugins/fposts/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.fposts/
    From plugins/ftopics/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.ftopics/
    From plugins/fsections/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.fsections/
    From plugins/index/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.index/
    From plugins/global/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.global/
    From plugins/output/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.output/
    From plugins/users/ to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.users/
     
    Warning, move the files only, not the parent folders !
    As sample, move the file plugins/index/abc.php to plugins/extended/wrapper/autorun.index/abc.php
     
    Once done, delete the folders (that should be empty now) :
     
    plugins/fposts/
    plugins/ftopics/
    plugins/fsections/
    plugins/index/
    plugins/global/
    plugins/output/
    plugins/users/
     
    Then go in the Administration panel, tab "Extended plugins", then select "Wrapper", and at bottom, click "Install all".
    It's done, your old plugins should now work fine under v701.
    Note that if there's some legacy plugin types you do not need, you can disable the related parts in the wrapper, this should speed up the engine by few milliseconds.

  4. Skins
  5. Language packs

    Very few changes, look for the string "New in 701" in the 3 main language files to spot the additions.

 
Upgrade from any older version

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First, apply all the SQL upgrade scripts from your version until the v701, those scripts are stored in the folder /docs/old mysql scripts/.
Once done, upgrade your old skin, apply all the changes 1 by 1, the upgrade manuals are in the folder /docs/old documentation/.
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 v701 :

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)
700 --> 701 (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 v701 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.