eZ publish: PHP's Killer App - Parts 1-3

The Magic Moment...

Head to http://localhost/public/ezpublish_2_2_6/index.php to view your site! To login to the admin interface, head to http://localhost/public/ezpublish_2_2_6/index_admin.php and login with:

userid: admin
password: publish

Don't worry about the "failed to create image variation" images -- this simply tells us that the images it expected weren't available (they don't come with the eZ publish installation zip). If, after you view the eZ publish homepage, you find that you've made mistakes in the eZ publish installation, and need to further alter site.ini.php after you make a change, you'll need to delete any files you find in [eZ publish_root]\classes\cache (where eZ publish caches your site.ini.php file). Otherwise, if you have any problems, don't hesitate to ask around in the SitePoint Forums discussion at the end of this article.

Installing on Linux Hosts

If I can make yet another assumption -- that you host your PHP site on a shared Linux server -- the installation process will be very similar, but there are a few pitfalls. Here are a few tips to help you out.

• Make sure you have "ssh" access to your Website. On Windows, putty makes a great SSH client. SSH is a secure (encrypted) version of telnet. There are loads of resources on Google to help you out, and you Web host should be able to provide some good advice, too.
• When you transfer the eZ publish code to your site, be sure to transfer it as a complete zipped file. If you download it to your PC, unpack it, and then transfer the separate files to your site, you will have problems, due to file permissions. Either upload the entire archive in one go, or, when logged in with ssh, fetch it from eZ systems using the wget command line: wget http://developer.ez.no/filemanager/     download/413/ezpublish_2_2_6.tar.gz Once you have the archive on your Web server, you can unzip it with the command: tar -zxvf ezpublish_2_2_6.tar.gz This will extract the lot to a new directory "ezpublish_2_2_6" below the directory where you typed the command.
• In step 7 of the Windows installation above, we used a DOS batch file to create the cache directories. The Linux equivalent is the file called modfix.sh, which you can run by changing the [eZ publish_root] on your server and typing:
./modfix.sh Note this file also sets up security permissions on the cache directories which are not entirely secure (although the risk is low). And alternative secure_modfix.sh exists, but you'll probably run into trouble if you use this in a typical shared Linux environment.
• To make use of Image Magick, the convert binary needs to be installed on the Web server. Time to beg your Web host for a favour (it's not hard for them to install), and get them to tell you where they put it.

If you have any problems installing on your Web host, feel free to add your questions to the discussion at the end of this article.

Homework

eZ publish is now up and running! Before heading into the second part of this series, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is (when logged in as Admin):

ez Image Catalogue

• Delete the existing categories
• Create a new category called Logos to which only Admins and Article Authors can "Write" and "Upload"
• Below the Logos folder, create a category called "Software" with the same permissions as "Logos"
• Upload a couple of images to the Software folder, such as the PHP logo and the MySQL Logo.

ez Article

• This gets a little tougher: edit the "Article Tags Demo" article and see if you can get it to use the two logos you've added.
• The big one: learn about eZ article tags. If you download the eZ article documentation and read Adminguide.pdf, you'll find full details -- a more brief description is provided online at http://doc.ez.no/article/articleview/3/1/7/. It's important for the next article that you're comfortable with the eZ article module -- grade A students will work out how the static page "Thank you for your feedback" relates to the eZ form module.

And if that's not enough, have a look at the files in [eZ publish_root]/checklists -- these are meant to help you test whether eZ publish is functioning correctly, but also serve as a nice series of exercises to get used to all the features. Oh, and don't forget to have a look at the error.log file when you're finished. You'll find in your eZ publish root -- it makes interesting reading!

In the next part of this series, we'll assume you're fairly happy using the modules, and move on to how to customize your eZ publish site to give it your own look and feel. Until then, may all your publishing be... well eZ, in fact!