Please Help Me!

[SmooCruise]

Okay....here is the deal. I am the webmistress for a site listed here at Total Choice. I am NOT an expert by a long-shot. The website is for a group of cruisers who go on group cruises together. We also like to chat. We are currently chatting on an Invision board but are not happy with the owner of the group. The travel agents who host our group want to start our OWN message board. They are looking at vBulletin. But apparently you have to have a "server" to host it. So I am here trying to figure out if we have to pay extra to have it hosted here. We are already paying for a site here. Oh...and they also bought a domain name for the board. While exploring here I see that Invision is available here, correct? Do you pay more to run an Invision board here? Can we run the vBulletin here? If we host a message board here can we use the domain name that they bought? As you can see I am very green. Can anyone help me???

[TCH-Andy]

Welcome to the forums SmooCruise

 

You could install Invision or vBulletin ( both of which you need to buy a license for ) or you could using a forum such as SMF which is free.

[SmooCruise]

Which way would you recommend going for someone whose not real technologically advanced? And can we use the domain name the Travel Agents bought for a new message board without buying more space here? In other words...we are already using a domain name here for our website (http://www.troublemakertours.com/)....can we use a different domain for our message board? Sorry if I seem dumb...

 

Oh....and thank you so much for replying!!!

[TCH-Andy]

You will need a new account for the forum, if you want it to be on a different domain name.

 

Personally I'd go for SMF - http://www.simplemachines.org/ but it does depend what your exact requirements are. Since that one is free, try installing / using it ... have a play.

[SmooCruise]

Thanks Andy! I'll pass this on to the owers of the site here and see what they want to do.

[SmooCruise]

Andy....or whomever is out there...I just spoke with the TA's. They are going to purchase new space here to run the boards. I think they want to go with Invision because the people that will be coming here are already used to Invision. Is it going to be hard for me to put Invision on here? Hard as in real technical???

[TCH-Andy]

Adding Invision Power Board onto an account is relatively straightforward, they provide relatively good installation instructions. If you have problems, just ask

[SmooCruise]

Adding Invision Power Board onto an account is relatively straightforward, they provide relatively good installation instructions. If you have problems, just ask

 

Thanks Andy! My new best friend...

I will be taking you up on that I'm sure!

[TCH-Bruce]

Welcome to the forums SmooCruise

[SmooCruise]

Welcome to the forums SmooCruise

 

Thanks Bruce. Something tells me you're going to be seeing a lot more of me soon! *LOL* I'm the only one in the cruise group with any savvy about website design, etc. And I know just enough to get me in trouble!

 

The leaders of our cruising group want our own message board though, so I guess I'll be muddling through this. With you TCH gurus' help! One of the TA's is in the process of buying space here today for it. Then we'll make the final decision as to which message board to go with. Then the fun begins!

 

I do have one question....out of curiosity...if TCH offers SMF free, then why are you using an Invision board? Just curious...

[TCH-Bruce]

As Andy said, before spending money on a license for Invision or vBulletin check out SMF forums.

[TCH-Dick]

I do have one question....out of curiosity...if TCH offers SMF free, then why are you using an Invision board? Just curious...

 

Besides the fact that we can get direct and immediate support for IPB when needed, SMF did not exist in its current form when we setup this forum.

[SmooCruise]

WOW!!! You guys are sure friendly and helpful! I'm impressed!

[TCH-Thomas]

Welcome to the forum, SmooCruise.

[mike]

I have to tell you, Smoo, I have been around here for quite some time now and

it doesn't get any better than the folks here at TCH.

 

Welcome aboard.

[SmooCruise]

okay all my new techie friends.....HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The owners decided on vBulletin. It's been downloaded, configured and uploaded. I'm following the manual for vBulletin and got as far as Running the vBulletin Install Script

Entered the customer number, it was accepted. Then went to the next step and this is the message I got:

 

 

 

Step 2) Connect to the database

 

Attempting to attach to database

 

Error description: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Access denied for user 'nobody'@'localhost' (using password: NO) /home/jqcvjrjv/public_html/forums/includes/class_core.php on line 274

 

The database has failed to connect because you do not have permission to connect to the server. Please confirm the values entered in the 'includes/config.php' file.

 

 

What am I doing wrong????? Please help me. I've been working on this for 4 hours and am FRUSTRATED!!!

 

this is the address I'm trying to install the forums at if it helps:

http://www.cruiseshiptalk.com/forums/

 

any ideas???

Edited November 7, 2007 by SmooCruise

[SmooCruise]

oh....and the other question was this. While preparing my files for upload I came across these instructions:

 

# tools.php - This file must be uploaded to the admincp folder and allows you to perform certain tasks should your board go down or you accidentally lock yourself out of the Admin Control Panel. This file must be deleted immediately after use or it will cause a SEVERE security problem.

 

The file they are talking about is in the "do not upload" file. So I upload it to the folder it stated and then delete it from my harddrive???

[TCH-Andy]

For the database error, you will need to login to your cpanel, go to the mysqldatabase section ( icon about 3/4 of the way down) and then create a database.

 

You will also need to create a user ( on the same page as you create a database) and then add that user to the database ( again, the same page) giving it all permissions.

 

With regards to that file ..... you really need to just keep a copy on your hard drive. If you ever have accidentally lock yourself out - you upload it at that point.

[TCH-Bruce]

To add to what Andy has said, once you create the database and add the user you will also need to edit that information into the 'includes/config.php' file.

 

Remember that your database name and user name will be preceeded with yourCpanelname_. So if you created a database called vbdata the database name in the config file will be yourCpanelname_vbdata. Same goes for the user name.

[SmooCruise]

To add to what Andy has said, once you create the database and add the user you will also need to edit that information into the 'includes/config.php' file.

 

Remember that your database name and user name will be preceeded with yourCpanelname_. So if you created a database called vbdata the database name in the config file will be yourCpanelname_vbdata. Same goes for the user name.

 

 

I had created my database before I did anything else. At least I got that part right!

 

This is my database name: *****_cruiseshiptalk

This is my user name: *****_Smoo

 

I "think" this is the area where I have something wrong in my config file:

 

****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME AND PORT ******

// This is the hostname or IP address and port of the database server.

// If you are unsure of what to put here, leave the default values.

$config['MasterServer']['******_cruiseshiptalk'] = 'localhost';

$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;

 

What should go where it says "*****_cruiseshiptalk"

 

Thanks guys so much for your help!!!

[TCH-Thomas]

$config['MasterServer']['******_cruiseshiptalk'] = 'localhost';

 

this should be

 

$config['MasterServer']['localhost'] = 'localhost';

 

I think.

[SmooCruise]

thanks for the edit Bruce. Guess that wasn' t too smart of me....

I blame it on being up too late last night and up too early this morning and working on something I don't know that much about! *LOL*

[TCH-Bruce]

From the vBulletin installation instructions:

$config['Database']['dbname'] This value should be altered to state the name of the database that will contain your vBulletin installation on the database server.

$config['Database']['technicalemail'] An email address should be entered here. All database error messages will be forwarded to the email address provided.

$config['MasterServer']['servername'] This sets the address of your database server. On most installations the database server is located on the same computer as the web server, in which case the address should be set to 'localhost', otherwise use the address of the database server as supplied by your web host.

$config['MasterServer']['username'] This variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server.

$config['MasterServer']['password'] The password that accompanies the database username should be entered here.

 

$config['Database']['yourCpanelname_cruiseshiptalk']

$config['Database']['a-valid-email-address']

$config['MasterServer']['localhost']

$config['MasterServer']['yourCpanelname_Smoo']

$config['MasterServer']['password-you-assigned-for-user']

 

That is all you should need to change.

[SmooCruise]

Bruce....I HAVE all that in there. And I still get the same error message....

 

I don't know what to try next....

[SmooCruise]

Gotta go to work now....

I'll check back here tonight....this thing is driving me nuts!!!

[TCH-Bruce]

****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME AND PORT ******

// This is the hostname or IP address and port of the database server.

// If you are unsure of what to put here, leave the default values.

$config['MasterServer']['******_cruiseshiptalk'] = 'localhost';

$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;

 

Is that still in the config file?

 

It should be $config['MasterServer']['localhost'] = 'localhost';

[SmooCruise]

It says that Bruce!! Where do I go from here to get this fixed? Is there someway someone can go in and look at my files and see if they can see what's wrong? Or is that not a free service??? Guide me o wise one! Pretty please??

[TCH-Thomas]

If you want, I can check it for you, if so please pm me.

 

But first, please double check that you have not only created the database and its user but also added it to the database.

[SmooCruise]

OMG!!!

sooo....I've been obsessing over getting this going. Pouring over manuals, help sections, etc. I figured out that my editing was done to the LEFT of the = sign instead of the right. I was SO excited!!! I went and changed it all. Saved it. Then tried to run the installer script again. Now I'm getting a NEW error code:

 

 

Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home/********/public_html/forums/includes/config.php on line 249

 

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/********/public_html/forums/includes/config.php on line 249

 

 

I am SOOOO frustrated. Why does this have to be so hard??

[TCH-Andy]

It sounds like you have a '\' not a '/'

 

Can you PM me ( click on the name above my logo to the left ... then send a message) and let me know domain name for the account you are having the fun with - I'll have a quick look at it for you.

[SmooCruise]

Post to gurus from TCH: Bruce, Andy, Dick, Thomas or whoever else has time to help this dumb blonde:

 

I am so sorry guys....you're not going to believe this...but our message board is barely 24 hours old and I've already broke a part of it. Here is what I was trying to do. I was trying to replace the vBulletin logo with our own logo. I was researching last night and read that all I had to do was upload our logo into the forums/images folder and then replace the vbulletin logo .gif with ours. So I looked at the source to figure out where the coding for it was. It looked to me like it was in search.php. So I went into there. Which brings up problem #2. Which I have had off and on on the other 2 sites that I manage here at TCH. How come sometimes when I hit edit I get this little thin box where you can only see one line of code at a time? Sometimes I can hit reload and it will open up the whole page and I can work. Anyways......I got that little box that would only let me see one line of code at a time. I hit reload a couple of times and still couldn't get it to go away. So then I just started scrolling trying to find the line with the pic of vBulletin logo so I could replace it. I got frustrated with the one line thing, plus I had to get ready for work so I just saved changes and went out. But I didn't make any changes. From there I went back to the forums as a user. And now when you try and hit "view new posts" you get that syntax error about line 246. Same one I was getting Bruce, before and you went in and fixed it. So here are my questions:

 

1. How come sometimes I get that thin little box when I'm trying to edit?

2. If I didn't make any changes in the bulletin coding other than upload a pic into the forums/images folder how did I break it? Does just going in and looking at those .php files mess them up?

3. Where DO I go to change out the vBulletin logo for ours. Eventually I want to add a whole new style. And I've printed out instructions on how to do that. But for now I just want our logo there.

4. And can someone either go in and fix what I broke or tell me how to fix it?

 

I need to get this fixed before the owners of the site make me walk a plank! The site is located at:

cruiseshiptalk.com/forums

 

Thanks guys!!!

[TCH-Bruce]

1. I never use the editor in cPanel so I can't answer that question. I do all my edits offline and upload them to the server using FTP. I also make sure I have a backup of what ever I am changing in case I screw it up I can replace it quickly and start over.

 

2. If you just uploaded a new image with the same name it should not have corrupted anything. Again, I don't use the online editor, but I would not expect it to rewrite unless I did a save.

 

3. I have never used vBulletin so I don't know where to go to change the logo or themes, sorry. Maybe one of our users familiar with vBulletin can answer that one. I'm sure vBulletin has a forum where you can probably find lots of info for changing it and also making other mods.

 

4. I recommend that you upload original copies of anything you changed. Or open a help desk ticket and ask the techs to restore those files for you.

[TCH-Thomas]

How did you try to replace the logo?

 

I would rename your own logo to vbulletin3_logo_white.gif and upload it to forums/images/misc/

[SmooCruise]

Thanks so much guys.. Really do appreciate your response....

[SmooCruise]

It sounds like you have a '\' not a '/'

 

Can you PM me ( click on the name above my logo to the left ... then send a message) and let me know domain name for the account you are having the fun with - I'll have a quick look at it for you.

 

TCH Bruce fixed that problem for me Andy. Forums were running great....until I broke them.

[TCH-Bruce]

While I would like to take credit for fixing something it must have been Andy or Dick that did it.

[SmooCruise]

While I would like to take credit for fixing something it must have been Andy or Dick that did it.

 

Ooops! You're right! It was TCH Dick! My bad! I have been up late 3 nights now trying to get this up and running....not thinking clearly! Sorry Dick!

 

But I think you're all great and so helpful!