Aliro

Before you start - remember that Aliro is alpha code!! It may contains bugs and certainly requires more polish - but much of the functionality is sound.

To install Aliro, first make sure you have a working Apache, PHP5, MySQL5 system. Aliro requires PHP5 and MySQL5! Then create two databases if possible - one for the critical core tables and the other for general tables. If you cannot create two databases, it is possible to work with just one - simply enter the same details twice during the install. The system is more secure if you use two separate databases. For each database, a user is needed who can carry out all functions within the database, but not outside it.

If your hosting is operating with an effective suexec, then the Apache user will be the same as the site owner (and FTP etc user) and you will have no problems with file permissions. If you do not have this or are not sure, then use AliroLoader as explained below.

Get a copy of the Aliro package - please look carefully at the different versions available and select the most appropriate one. To use AliroLoader, first download it and unzip the single file inside, aliroLoader.php. Upload this file to your site and then point your browser to it. It will offer to accept an upload of an Aliro package (still in archive form). The entire package can then be uploaded - it will take a while, depending on the upload speed of your connection. The package will be extracted, and you can then proceed with installation.

If you are not using AliroLoader, the safest installation method is to upload the entire package to the web site and unpack it on the site. Transferring many files by FTP is extremely error prone. If SFTP is available, this is decidedly more reliable.

Once the expanded Aliro files are located at the web site, the rest of the installation is done using a browser. Point your browser to http://www.mydomain.com/administrator/index.php. (The basic domain will just display a message saying the site is not ready yet, so you could password protect the administrator directory right from the start, preventing anyone else from getting at the installation). You will see a simple form. The fields should be self explanatory. You can omit the password if you prefer the system to generate one.

Once the form is submitted, the installation will be done and you will have a rudimentary site. If you have installed a version with extensions included, the extensions will be installed as soon as you go to the admin login - there will be a pause while this happens. But note that there is presently no sample data (any volunteers to help create it?), so your initial installation will not show anything significant on the user side. A useful feature of Aliro is that the user side of the site can be blocked using the configuration setting, but you can still access it provided you have an administrator session open in the same browser (the mechanism relies on a cookie).

Please report your experiences in the forum and enjoy Aliro!