How to install mybb forum board

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How to install mybb forum

In this article I’m going to write about how to install mybb forum script, one of the best free opensource forum board script, it covers the basic things you need to do, however if you have any issues, feel free to comment.

Download MyBB forum script

The very first thing you need to do is get the script to be able to install it. You can download the latest version as of now here:

Download mybb forum

Preparing the installation process

What we need for us to install almost any script out there is :

  1. Mysql details (MySQL hosname, MySQL database, MySQL User, Mysql Password)
  2. Means for uploading the script to your web server (You can use a FTP client like Filezilla or just use Filemanager directly from your hosting control panel)

In every installation, the above two apply. In my recent articles I’ve explained how you can create a MySQL user and database using cPanel, so in that I assume we are covered.

Next is to download the script by clicking the download button above to get the last version. Using cPanel you can upload it directly using Filemanager, then unzip it. The content that you need to use is inside the “upload” folder. The content from this folder needs to be moved (if using Filemanager) or uploaded using a FTP client like Filezilla to your website document root ( usually the document root folder is named public_html, www or htdocs).

Setting the correct permission for mybb

Setting permission is needed for everything to work as expected. To set correct permission you can use Filemanager or a FTP client using the “chmod” option or the permission option.

The files below need to have permission set to 666 (writeable file permission)

The folders below need to have permission set to 777 (writeable folder permission)

Running the MyBB script installer

Now that everything is set, we can run the script installer to actually install MyBB. To do this, we only need to access our web address:

http://www.mydomain.com/install/

If this was uploaded inside a folder, for eg. “forum” we need to use

http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/install

You should see at first the page that welcomes you to the installed, click “Next” here and then “Next” again to accept the license agreement.

On the next page, you should have the requirements check with all green marks. If something is marked in red, then you need to correct this. If you followed the chmod permission properly and uploaded the files correctly everything should be green there.

Click the “Next” button to get to the next page and enter the mysql details that you created before in step 1 of the first section of this article.

What you should know though, are the following:

  • Database Engine – This is normally MySQL or MySQLi, but you could also use SQLite3 or PgSQL if your hosting provider has this services installed
  • Database host – this is usually localhost on most servers, but when you use phpmyadmin you can find there your mysql server.
  • Database Username and password and also the database name were created in the step 1 of this article
  • Database Path – is only necessary if using SQLite3, enter the path were the sqlite file needs stored
  • Table Prefix – this can be left as it is

Hit the “Next” button to proceed in creating the tables for your database. You will see there a result providing all tables that were created. Click “Next” again to proceed further to your forum configuration.

Here you will need to enter the :

  • Forum name
  • Forum URL (Without the trailing slash “/”)
  • Website name
  • Website URL
  • Cookie Domain – this should be left as it is
  • Cookie Path – Same, it should be left as it is
  • Contact email

Hit the “Next” button again to proceed to setting up your administrator user. You will need to enter here:

  • Username
  • Password and Retype password
  • Email address

Hit the “Next” button again for the last time and you should be all set and ready to use your new board!

If you have any problems, please leave a commend and I’ll try to help as much as possible.

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