Ready-made Website Installation Follow These Simple Steps
This entry presents the way of installing a free and professional website on a selected server. The application is not a template, but a ready-made website based on CMS Made Simple. The free website has been created in a similar way to our other solutions: project list. Like them, it focuses on maximum performance and optimization. According to my (Daniel) maxim: "Facilitates for the website creator should not be made at the cost of its performance". With the downloaded website, you can do literally everything, you are only not allowed to sell it. I encourage you to read.
Shortcuts
- Information about the project
- Project demo
- Download link for the project
- The address to the back end is the address of YOUR DOMAIN with the addition of "admin".
For example, our-free-website-www.com/admin - Administrator account data:
login: compsoul
password: compsoul
Installation of a ready website
At the beginning, I would like to point out that this is not a template, it is a ready website with a CMS already configured. All you need to do is to transfer the files to the server and configure the connection to the database. You can find the server requirements on this page.
Downloading the ZIP package
You can download the package of files of the ready website with the help of this link. Then, you need to unzip the package using any file extraction program, for example, WinRAR or WinZip. After unzipping the package, you should get a directory that contains a database file named "compsoul" and a directory with FTP files with the same name.
Transferring files to the server
Files can be transferred to the server in many ways. It will be safest to transfer the compressed files to the server and unzip them using the software provided by the hosting. However, I will present the fastest method.
Downloading the email client
To transfer the files to the server, we will use the free software FileZilla. Download the program and install it by following the installation wizard. After successful installation and opening of the program, we receive the following window:
Next, from the top menu, we select File > Site Manager and add a new address using the New Site button. We should get a window to enter the address:
We fill them with data to our server, if I don't know what data and where to enter them, we should contact our hosting provider and send him the link to this article. Indicating the place where we have a problem. After completing the data, we click the connect button. Depending on the configuration of our account (the data we just filled in), we can be at different levels in the tree of our directories on ftp. We are looking for a folder called "public_html" (Note our account may be configured so that it takes us directly to the public_html folder after connecting). Then, when we are in the target directory, the content of the ftp folder is selected and moved using the mouse (grab and drop) to our directory on FTP. The operation may take a while, but after moving nearly 4000 files, the following window will appear to our eyes:
Pay attention to the tabs at the bottom of the window, correct copying should result in no number next to the Failed transfers tab. After transferring the files and starting our website (i.e., entering the domain that points to the appropriate directory on ftp), we should receive a database connection error. We will deal with this aspect in the next point.
Importing the database
Looking at our unpacked package, we see that next to the "ftp" folder, we have a "compsoul" file. This is the database file that we also need to add to our server. To do this, we need to create a new database using the software provided by our hosting provider. If you don't know how to do this, contact your provider, they will definitely help you. Unfortunately, I cannot write instructions because most providers have their own proprietary software. After creating the database, we can log in to it using the phpMyAdmin software. Information on how to run the software is also available from the hosting provider. After logging into your database (the data you used when creating the database), you should receive the following view:
In the upper left corner, on the list of our databases, we select the database we just created. Then, in the top menu, click the Import tab and select the "compsoul" file from the unpacked package (in the ftp folder). After selecting the file, click the Go button. The import process may take a few minutes, but after it is completed, we should receive the following message:
With the Browse button, we indicate the compsoul file located in the package. Then we click the Execute button, thus importing our database, after importing we should receive a message about a successful import. And the database! We are getting closer to our ready and free website WWW.
Configuration of the config.php file
At this stage, we must connect our files to the database, this will be done for us by the config.php file located on our FTP. So we run the FileZilla program and by clicking on the config.php file with the right mouse button, we edit its contents by choosing the Preview/Edit option in the menu. An editor should start up for us, which we have assigned as the default editor for php files, or you can also open this file in a regular notepad. In my case, the following editor opened:
Now we must fill in the file with the data entered during the database creation. In my case, these will be the following data:
That is: $config['db_username'] is the name of the user assigned to the database. $config['db_password'] is the password to the database and $config['db_name'] is the name of the database. After filling in the data, we save our file using the File > Save menu and return to our FileZilla program. A dialog box should open for us where we agree to overwrite the config.php file. Now we can go to the address of our website, where the following page will be displayed:
Finally it works, though not completely. Because we need to log in to the website's backend, and click one button!
Login to the backend and module initialization
This is the last point :( It's a shame, it was great working together! To initialize the modules on the website, we need to go to the backend by adding the word admin to our domain address. So our administrative panel address should look like this: our-free-website.pl/admin. After entering a similar address, we receive the following view:
Login data is:
- user: compsoul
- password: compsoul
Remember to change these data right after logging in, otherwise someone will be able to access your website!
After logging in, from the left side menu, we select Extensions > LISE. After opening the view, we click on the Field Definitions tab and then click the Scan Field Definitions button:
After scanning, we can return to our website and enjoy its proper appearance.
Summary
For security reasons, you should change the access rights to the config.php file on FTP and set a strong password for your website's backend. That's all from me, a free website is an ideal alternative to all kinds of creators such as WiX or Elementor. I encourage you to share your comments in the comments section, in case of questions I invite you to our group on telegram or if we have a question regarding the CMS, we can use the available support options provided by the creators. Thank you for reading :)