Phpfoxs Ala Carte

Table of Contents
Phpfox v3 vs. Social Engine 4 ................................................................................................. 3 Phpfox Hosting Requirements & Comparison ..................................................................... 5 Installing phpfox v3 on a live website .................................................................................... 8 Importing Users from Social Engine 4 ................................................................................. 12 Importing Users from Ning ................................................................................................... 14 Installing phpfox v3 on local pc (only for testing)............................................................... 15 Upgrading to phpfox v3 ........................................................................................................ 16 What to do right away after completed installation .......................................................... 20 White-Labeling Phpfox ......................................................................................................... 21 Walkthrough of AdminCP .................................................................................................... 24 How to install theme in phpfox v3 ........................................................................................ 28 Mail Settings ........................................................................................................................... 29 How & Why to Install Comet chat in phpfox instead of using default IM? ..................... 31 Why not to use a shout box in phpfox? ................................................................................ 33 Language pack in phpfox v3 ................................................................................................. 34 Enable Janrain Engage Integration in Phpfox v3 ............................................................... 36 Enable Facebook Connect in Phpfox v3 .............................................................................. 41 Enable Facebook & Twitter Sharing in Phpfox v3 ............................................................. 43 How to add OpenInviter Contact Importer in phpfox v3? ................................................ 44 How to install a 3rd party plugin in phpfox v3? ....................................................................... 46 How to enable TinyMCE the WYSIWYG text editor? ........................................................... 47 Why Not to use Amazon S3 in Phpfox v3? ................................................................................. 48 How to manage Phpfox v3 productively? ................................................................................... 49 How to create apps in Phpfox v3? ................................................................................................ 50 Enabling Debug Mode in Phpfox v3? .......................................................................................... 51 Managing User Groups ................................................................................................................... 52 How to do Full Site Backup/Restore? .......................................................................................... 53 How To Install Nginx on an Ubuntu 9.04 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support?...................................................................................................................... 56 How to setup X-cache with phpfox v3? ....................................................................................... 58 Premium Support, Resources & Tutorials ................................................................................. 61

Phpfox v3 vs. Social Engine 4

That was just comparison of se4 vs. phpfox 2 Now come to 3 it will blowout SE4 10X.

Phpfox Hosting Requirements & Comparison

Server Requirements

Web Server - Apache, IIS, CGI, FastCGI or ISAPI Operating System - Solaris, Linux, BSD, Windows or Mac PHP Version - Minimum - 5+ MySQL Version - Minimum - 4.1 GD complied with your PHP Build - Yes SendMail - Yes PHP safe mode - OFF PHP memory_limit - 32M PHP CURL - Yes Minimum Web Space - 15 mb

Optional Server Requirements The requirements listed below are only required if you decide to use one of the following optional modules.

Video Module o FFmpeg o FFmpeg-PHP o Mplayer + Mencoder o flv2tool o Libogg + Libvorbis o LAME MP3 Encoder o PHP file_uploads - 1 o PHP post_max_size - 100M o PHP max_input_time - -1 o PHP upload_max_filesize - 100M Music Module o PHP file_uploads - 1 o PHP post_max_size - 40M o PHP max_input_time - -1 o PHP upload_max_filesize - 38M Short URL o mod_rewrite (Apache) Facebook Connect o PHP OpenSSL

Web Browser Requirements

The requirements for a web browser depends on what theme you are using for your site. The default theme we release has been tested to work on the latest versions of all the most common web browsers (eg. Firefox, IE8, Opera, Chrome etc...). For those that use Internet Explorer must have version 7 or higher installed in order to properly use all the features provided with v2. How to check your hosting provider meets these requirements: 1. Ask your host. The best way to check your requirements is to simply contact your host and ask them. Simply link them back to this page so they can look over the list. 2. You can also download our test script here. The zip package will have 1 PHP file called "phpfox.php". Upload that PHP file to your server and run it like: http://www.example.com/phpfox.php

There are indeed several choices nowadays:

1. Shared Hosting Very cheap (us$4~10/month), many hosting accounts in "one" server. (Behind the scenes they may be using more than one server but you get the feeling its just one). Common drawbacks are the resources available to your site. If your site has low traffic and doesnt need custom libraries (like FFMPEG) this is usually good enough. 2. VPS Hosting Pretty much the same as the Shared Hosting except you get to install custom libraries and change server settings as you need. 3. Dedicated Hosting You rent a server, its yours and only your site is using it. This means much more resources but it could also mean wasted resources, for example you're paying for the server to stay on 24/7 when there may be times that absolutely no one is using it. This used to be the immediate second step when your shared hosting wasnt enough. Its still a good idea to consider it. 3.1) Co-location: You buy a server and a hosting company makes sure it stays online. You dont pay for using the server but to keep it online. * Extra: Managed Server, the hosting company does to the server whatever you want them to do (install/update/remove OS, libraries, settings...) 4. Cloud Hosting Deep down its still a VPS, only that its managed much more efficiently and you pay only for what you use (or so they advertise). This is not necessarily the next step from a Dedicated Hosting but a good option and I would consider when my shared hosting isnt enough. In general it depends on your server needs. For example, lets suppose your site

gets too much traffic and Shared Hosting isnt enough anymore, the reason why I would consider going to Cloud Hosting right away is because I can set up several servers and still pay (in theory) very little, I would have 2 or 3 database servers, one memcache server and one application server and the bill would probably be lower than that of a dedicated server. Cloud/VPS vs. Dedicated: - Not one single point of failure, in a dedicated server if your database crashes your site goes down, in cloud (or VPS) if you have several DB servers, one of them can go down and the site still works, maybe a little slower but it works. - Cost, supposedly Cloud hosting is cheaper than renting a dedicated server. This needs to be analysed for every situation as cloud servers are usually not as powerful as dedicated servers - Contracts, to the best of my knowledge in Cloud hosting you can cancel at any time and you stop paying right away, where in Dedicated Hosting you need to pay to month's end still. Again, this may not be the case for every offer out there. - Dedicated servers have usually much more capacity reaching dozens of gigs of ram and more extras than common Cloud Servers. VPS vs. Cloud: - Think the Contracts topic still applies here - VPS you are still sharing a server, where in a cloud you are allotted a set of resources (say 1.7 Ghz) and you may use those resources at any time - You can add Cloud servers at any moment and they're ready instantly, in a VPS most often you need to wait for the hosting company to set it up for you. - Cloud is still very new, there may be security issues not yet discovered, while VPS is a time proven principle. I'm still not good on the shared hosting numbers, but by 4,000 you'll definitely need a dedicated Celeron server (1TB bandwidth is sufficient for a normal site). 7k-18k seem to work fine on a Pentium D / core2duo server. 20k-35k works ok on a Dual Xeon Dempsey 5050 (8x virtual processors). Beyond this, you will definitely need a cluster.

I & my friend ho-ll-er recommend 7skyhost as its owner is a very popular member on socialengineforum & phpfox camp also his support is the best.

Installing phpfox v3 on a live website

This guide will help you through the installation process of phpfox. Installation is very straight forward, only taking about 15 minutes from uploading the files to logging into your Administration Control Panel (AdminCP). You will need an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client, if you do not have one you can download Filezilla for Windows/Linux or InterArchy for Macintosh. You do not need an in-depth knowledge of PHP programming to install phpFox, but a working knowledge of FTP functions is a plus. Preparation & Uploading of phpFox At this point you should have the zip archive "unzipped", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

tools/ upload/ readme.html

Go into the folder "upload/", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

file/ include/ install/ module/ static/ theme/ favicon.ico htaccess.txt index.php robots.txt

Rename the file:

include/setting/server.sett.php.new

To
include/setting/server.sett.php

Next, upload the files and folders within the "upload/" folder to your site using an FTP client. Be sure to overwrite any old files. Once that is completed we can move on to the next step.

CHMOD & File Permissions

With the phpFox package there are certain folders and files that need write permission in order to execute certain tasks. Below you will find the files and folders that must have full write permission and set to 0777 in order for the script to be installed:

file/attachment/ file/cache/ file/css/ file/gzip/ * file/log/ file/music/ file/pic/app/ * file/pic/ad/ file/pic/egift/ * file/pic/emoticon/ file/pic/emoticon/default/ file/pic/event/ file/pic/group/ file/pic/icon/ file/pic/marketplace/ file/pic/music/ file/pic/pages file/pic/photo/ file/pic/poll/ file/pic/quiz/ file/pic/subscribe/ file/pic/user/ file/pic/video/ file/pic/watermark/ file/static/ file/session/ file/video/ include/setting/server.sett.php

* This 3 files even the official guide forgot to add.

Once you have completed CHMODING all the needed files and folders continue to the next step.

Using the Web-Installer

An installer is provided to assist you in entering the information phpFox needs to connect to your SQL database. Run the installer file through your web browser by entering the URL into your browser address bar (if you have followed our example, type in http://www.domain.com/install/index.php , naturally substituting 'domain.com' for your web address.) Then follow these steps: Step 1: Verification We first check if the domain you are attempting to install the product on currently has a valid product license. There are several ways you can run a licensed product. You can run it on a licensed domain, which you provide the full path to where the software will be installed. You can also run a test site only for development purposes in a folder, sub-domain or localhost. The folder or sub-domain name must be called "phpfoxdev" or "development" and must be access protected. Here are some examples:
http://www.yoursite.com/phpfoxdev/ or http://www.yoursite.com/development/ (Live Development Server) http://phpfoxdev.yoursite.com/ or http://development.yoursite.com/ (Live Development Server) http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1 (Local Server) http://209.85.135.104/ (IP to Your Development Server)

Step 2: License Agreement Abide to the License Agreement to continue to the next step. Step 3: Requirement Check Step 3 will consist of checking your server if it meets the software requirements and all the required files/folders have the correct permissions. Step 4: Configuration This step is where you will need to know your SQL username and password. If you do not know it, please ask your web host - in most cases it is different from the FTP log in information. The form is very straightforward, with only the following points needing closer examination. If you do not know what your "SQL Host" is, try "localhost" (without the quotes). If the SQL server is on the same server as your website (and in most cases it is) this will suffice. If you have created a new database for phpFox, or wish to use an existing database, enter the name of the database in the appropriate field.

Video Module Configuration These settings are optional and only should be filled if you plan to use the video module. The script will attempt to find the correct paths for both FFMPEG and MENCODER, however you should verify if they are correct with your host. If at any time these settings are incorrect you can change them directly from the AdminCP at a later time. Step 5: Installer The installer will now be automated until the final step. It will install all the required database tables and insert any data into each of the tables depending on what modules are being installed. Step 6: Administrators Account Fill out the form to create your administrators account. Step 7: Complete Congratulations phpFox is installed!

Importing Users from Social Engine 4

The importer will convert your Social Engine 4.x.x to PhpFox 3.x.x There is no download link as the importer is already included in your phpfox ^ ^ Just go to: http:/www.yoursite.com/index.php?do=/admincp/foxporter/ The importer is hidden in your admin cp, that's why you should add: /index.php?do=/admincp/foxporter/ after http:/www.yoursite.com What was added to this script: Forum Categories Forums Threads Posts Installation: Note: I have only tested this with a clean install of phpFox 3.0.0 Beta (1/2/3/4). 1. Upload the folders into your root folder and overwrite existing files (Note: you may want to back up the old files found in includes/library/foxporter/) 2. Follow the install just as the original importer (Note: Depending on your server/the size of your Social Engine install this could take some time) 3. The passwords to each user's profile is randomly generated and should have a new password emailed to them (tell them to check their spam folders as well) 4. Enjoy Tested: This was tested on phpFox 3.0.0 Beta 3, with social engine (4.1.4 and 4.1.7) install with 1000+ members, 200 threads, 4 categories, ~12 forums, 1000+ posts, and it worked for me. Currently this will import Social Engine's... Users Friends Photo Categories Photo Albums Photos The goal is to release updates in stages so if you already imported your users you can skip that and import the next batch of content depending on the update we have provided.

To access the import script login as an Admin and visit: http:/www.yoursite.com/index.php?do=/admincp/foxporter/ Your Social Engine site (source files) must be located on the same server as phpFox v3 as we require to know the full path to where it is installed in order to get the information required to access the database and import the content. Social Engine and phpFox v3 do not have to be installed in the same database. Known Bugs: 1. Emails are UNIQUE!, so if you have the admin/current member of your phpfox community has the same email as someone you are importing... it will NOT port their account information, forum posts, pictures, etc... therefore you need to change the email on the Social engine Website / use a new email on the phpFox / a complete CLEAN install of phpfox Example: I have an account with an email Registered to exampleemail@gmail.com on both the phpFox and Social Engine website... Both are admin accounts... none of the information/pictures/forum posts will be ported to phpfox... so you need to use a new email or change the old one. Currently this will import Social Engine's... Users Friends Photo Categories Photo Albums Photos The goal is to release updates in stages so if you already imported your users you can skip that and import the next batch of content depending on the update we have provided. To access the import script login as an Admin and visit: http:/www.yoursite.com/index.php?do=/admincp/foxporter/ Your Social Engine site (source files) must be located on the same server as phpFox v3 as we require to know the full path to where it is installed in order to get the information required to access the database and import the content. Social Engine and phpFox v3 do not have to be installed in the same database.

Importing Users from Ning

To import users from your Ning community this can be done from a CSV file that can be downloaded direct from your Ning website. More information on how to download the CSV file can be found here: http://creators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-exp... Once you have your CSV file you can continue below and import your users into phpFox. Note that you are required to have phpFox version 2.0.4 (build 3) or higher installed. Upload the CSV file to your server and place it here: include/library/foxporter/module/ning/memberdata.csv Note the name of the CSV file must be: memberdata.csv Once that is done log into your AdminCP and browse to the following page: http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?do=/admincp/foxp... Be sure to substitute "www.yoursite.com" with your sites URL. Once you have reached that page you will find a list of modules. Look for: Ning and click on: Start Importing Follow the steps included with the module to complete the import.

Installing phpfox v3 on local pc (only for testing)

The first step is to have a local web server. While you can download Apache, Php and MySql separately there is really no need for this and our recommended approach is to just download and install XAMPP. Assuming the installation went fine your public documents' folder will sit on C:/xampp/htdocs this is where you want to put your local files and the phpfox script. Since you used XAMPP you should now already have a working web server, you can proceed with the normal Phpfox Installation instructions given above If downloading the default software, you might need to enable curl. This is done by opening \xampp\php\php.ini in a text editor. Find the line: ;extension=php_curl.dll And remove the ; Save the document and restart the Apache service.

Upgrading to phpfox v3
I tested in my site; it will overwrite your file, but not will remove your database. If your user have a custom design in their profile its will be fine. Also if you do some setting in your admin cp it will be fine too. And Don't Forget to BACKUP you File first.
This guide will help you through the upgrade process of phpFox. This guide assumes that you have successfully downloaded the latest release from phpFox and have the ZIP file "unzipped". The upgrade script only works with phpfox version 1.6 build 21 and newer so if you are running 1.6 build 20 or older you will need to upgrade to build 21 and then use this guide to get to version 2. It also will only upgrade content generated by the default unmodified modules. No themes or modifications will be upgraded.

Preparation & Uploading of phpFox

At this point you should have the zip archive "unzipped", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

tools/ upload/ readme.html

Go into the folder "upload/", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

file/ include/ install/ module/ static/ theme/ favicon.ico htaccess.txt index.php robots.txt

Next, upload the files and folders within the "upload/" folder to your site using an FTP client. Be sure to overwrite any old files. Once that is completed we can move on to the next step.

CHMOD & File Permissions

With the phpFox package there are certain folders and files that need write permission in order to execute certain tasks. Below you will find the files and folders that must have full write permission and set to 0777 in order for the script to be installed. You will notice in the list below we have the file:
include/setting/server.sett.php

If this file does not exist you are upgrading from a legacy version and will have to rename the file:
include/setting/server.sett.php.new

to
include/setting/server.sett.php

Notice: Do not rename the file above if it already exists and/or you are upgrading from v2.0.0rc1 or higher. Again, if you are upgrading from any v2 to a new v2, do not rename the file above.

file/attachment/ file/cache/ file/css/ file/gzip/ * file/log/ file/music/ file/pic/app/ * file/pic/ad/ file/pic/egift/ * file/pic/emoticon/ file/pic/emoticon/default/ file/pic/event/ file/pic/group/ file/pic/icon/ file/pic/marketplace/ file/pic/music/ file/pic/pages file/pic/photo/ file/pic/poll/ file/pic/quiz/ file/pic/subscribe/ file/pic/user/ file/pic/video/ file/pic/watermark/ file/static/ file/session/ file/video/ include/setting/server.sett.php

* This 3 files even the official guide forgot to add.

Once you have completed CHMODING all the needed files and folders continue to the next step.

Using the Web-Installer

An installer is provided to assist you in entering the information phpFox2 needs to connect to your SQL database. Run the installer file through your web browser by entering the URL into your browser address bar (if you have followed our example, type in http://www.domain.com/install/index.php , naturally substituting 'domain.com' for your web address.) Then follow these steps: Step 1: Verification We first check if the domain you are attempting to install the product on currently has a valid product license. There are several ways you can run a licensed product. You can run it on a licensed domain, which you provide the full path to where the software will be installed. You can also run a test site only for development purposes in a folder, subdomain or localhost. The folder or sub-domain name must be called "phpfoxdev" or "development" and must be access protected. Here are some examples:
http://www.yoursite.com/phpfoxdev/ or http://www.yoursite.com/development/ (Live Development Server) http://phpfoxdev.yoursite.com/ or http://development.yoursite.com/ (Live Development Server) http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1 (Local Server) http://209.85.135.104/ (IP to Your Development Server)

Step 2: License Agreement Abide to the License Agreement to continue to the next step. Step 3: Requirement Check Step 3 will consist of checking your server if it meets the software requirements and all the required files/folders have the correct permissions. Step 4: Updates This step is automated and is when all the updates take place. Depending on what version you are upgrading from the time taken to complete the upgrade can differ. The older the version you are upgrading from the longer it will take. Step 5: Completed Congratulations your site has been upgraded to the latest version of phpFox. If you upgraded from version 1.6.21 test your site, and when you can confirm it is working properly you can remove the folders: /include/settings/ /include/modules/

/site/

Common Pitfalls - I am upgrading but the site says "Install" R/ Make sure you did not rename the file /include/setting/server.sett.php.new and that your site was working before uploading any file

What to do right away after completed installation

After Installation Phpfox v3 Installation These Warnings Will Appear In AdminCP Dashboard. Main configuration file (include/setting/server.sett.php) is writable. This is a security risk and this file should not have any "write" permission.

Main file folder is writable (file/). This is a security risk and this folder should not have any "write" permission.

Use your file manager in Cpanel. Set your files permissions to 555 & it will solve these warnings. Delete /Install if it exists in phpfox root folder.

White-Labeling Phpfox
1. How to remove branding in PhpFox3 Through FTP go to yoursite.com/include/library/phpfox/phpfox/phpfoxclass.php Find: public static function link($bLink = true, $bVersion = true) { return 'Powered By ' . ($bLink ? '' : '') . 'phpFox' . ($bLink ? '</a>' : '') . ($bVersion ? ' Version ' . PhpFox::getVersion() : ''); } And replace with: public static function link($bLink = true, $bVersion = true) { } 2. Change your site's logo One of the first steps of making your phpFox site unique is to change the site logo. To change your site logo login to your AdminCP, then go to: Extensions >> Theme >> Manage Themes then to click on the drop down button next to the current theme - usually "phpFox - (Default)" Manage Styles then click on the current style - usually "phpFox - (Default)" here too. Then click on the option: Change Logo Browse after your logo then upload it. You can have the script automatically resize the logo for you - if you want. Once done click: Upload Logo

3. Change Favicon in your site All you have to do is rename your custom icon to "favicon", and upload it to your root phpFox directory (replacing your old favicon.ico). After that, clear your browser's cache, and you should be set. If you need to convert an image to a favicon, I'd suggest searching for a free converter online. You can try this one: http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/ 4. Change the Site Name You change your site name from the AdminCP -> Settings -> System Settings -> Manage Settings -> Core: Site Name, it will show there instead. 5. Site title, copyright, keywords and site description The site title is what is shown on the web browser at the very top in the window border, by default it reads something like "phpfox - Social Networking Script". The site description is used by search engines to identify what sort of information your site has, it is also shown in search results, by default its "The ultimate solution for your online community. phpFoX is easy to use, easy to customize and packed full of advanced software features found on most top community websites!" The keywords are also used for SEO and by default they do not relate to your site. You can change these by going to the AdminCP -> Settings -> System Settings -> Manage Settings -> Core. Search for "Site Title", "Copyright", "Meta Keywords" and "Meta Description" 6. "Kind Regards, Phpfox" This is the phrase that is used as a signature for outgoing emails. There are two ways to change: Easy one: just go to AdminCP -> Settings -> System Settings -> Manage Settings: Mail, look for "Signature" and replace what is there with whatever text you want. More personalized one: First you will need to create a language phrase. This phrase can belong to a product so if you have not done so yet, please create a Product. Now go to the AdminCP -> Extensions -> Language -> Add Phrase. Here choose your product from the drop down list. In the "module" drop down you can select "core". This is an access control measure, if this module is disabled the phrase will be disabled as well, but the core module cant be disabled so that guarantees this phrase will be enabled as long as the script runs. The variable

name can be all lower case letters and must have no spaces; this would make a good variable for this case: general_site_email_signature Now in the "text" field you can add whatever you want, you can use HTML to format your signature. Submit and you should have a new language phrase. Now lets tell the script to use this phrase: please go to the AdminCP -> Settings -> System Settings -> Manage Settings: Mail. There is a section called "Signature", it references to the previous language phrase so change the text there for: {phrase var='core.general_site_email_signature'} if you named your variable differently then make the appropriate change. Save and to make sure, clear your site's cache by going to AdminCP -> Tools -> Maintenance -> Cache Manager. 7. Change Default Text/Phrase of Homepage Go to admincp/theme/template/user look for Welcome.html.php <h1>{param var='core.site_title'} helps you connect and share with the people in your life.</h1> <div class="t_center"> {img theme='layout/banner.png'}-----> You can also change Your logo where it says img theme to layout whatever your Image name is:) </div> Now replace Helps You connect and share with people in your Life With Your Tag or Catch phrase.. if you want change text of something else you could do this by using phrase manager.

Walkthrough of AdminCP

How to install theme in phpfox v3

To install a theme in V3 is a fairly straightforward process. 1. Upload the contents of the Themes Upload folder to your root folder using your FTP program. 2. Go to your Adminpanel -> Extensions -> Theme -> Import Themes 3. You will now see a list off themes that are waiting to be installed, find the theme you just uploaded and click on Install on the right. This theme will now be active and available in the customise sections on your site.

If you want to set this theme as your default, follow the following steps : Adminpanel -> Extenstions -> Theme -> Manage Themes You will see a list of the themes on your site Click the dropdown arrow on the left of theme and select Manage Styles, now find the style you want to be default and click on the Red Dot to make it the active theme. Click on Update Clear your Cache afterwards

Mail Settings
To change the send mail settings. 1. Go to your Adminpanel -> Settings -> Manage Settings -> Mail If you want to change the send mail method to smtp: Change Send Mail Method To SMTP; then fill these settings: SMTP SMTP SMTP SMTP Host Authentication Username Password

If you want to change the name displayed when users receive emails from this site: Change From to your desired name If you want to change the default email: Change Email to your desired email If you want to change the site signature: Change Signature to your desired signature
Headers

No matter which method you choose there is a portion of the message called headers. the headers specify many things, between them the importance or priority of the message, who sent the message, the message id and many others. So, now that you have a little better understanding of the options at hand we need to mention that mail is handled internally in phpfox by a third party package called phpmailer. It is considered as the best mail handling library available and its free. It takes care of all the headers and formatting and standards compliance so your mail goes out just as perfect as it can be. Here is the whole picture:
1. In your site someone triggers an action that sends an email, the phpfox script gets this action 2. The phpfox checks the users that will receive the mail and sets their emails

3. The phpfox script sends the message, the from and the to fields to phpmailer, it also sends the character set (UTF-8 or else) and line breaking settings as well as smtp settings if available and the method to use (smtp vs mail). 4. Phpmailer takes all those parameters and sends the mail.

Thats as far as we're concerned here (the details of how it connects to the other server are not relevant right now) and this is why it gets difficult to say this, if your mail does not come out, there is very little responsibility on the Phpfox end, I would dare to say that 10% or lower is actually done on the phpfox side. There are of course ways to check if your mail is working, one is by using another script to check if it works, a simple php line like this would test if the "mail" method is working for this one case:
<?php $bSent = mail('youraddress@yourmailprovider.com','subject', 'message'); var_dump($bSent); ?>

it would output true if mail was sent and false if it wasnt and here's one caveat, the fact that it got sent, doesnt mean it got received. Mail Clients like Yahoo!, Hotmail, GMail, etc, do not return right away if the message was received properly or not, they can place the message in a queue to be checked and by then the communication between the servers has been closed already. But if you test this and you actually got the test email (when checking your inbox or spam folder) then you know this method works (or at least worked for this one case).
SPF Records

Among the many reasons why a mail could not make it to the recipients' inbox is that it got marked as SPAM, each mail client has its own rules on defining what SPAM is but perhaps the most important one is the SPF Record. In internet there are translators that say "the address www.site.com is the computer 219.219.219.219", thats an IP number, unique to your server and the way in which internet computers are identified, you can think of it like your house address, theres only one address for each house. In these servers you can host a small record that says "the server 219.219.219.219 is the only server that sends mail from www.site.com ". Mail clients check on these records and if they find one they compare it to the message they just received. Implementing an SPF record is free, and your hosting company can help you with that. This is the official site for the openspf project.
Checking your SPF records

When having problems with mail you really want to check if your domain has a SPF record, the following tools will help you to identify whether you have one and if its properly set up.
1. http://www.openspf.org/Why 2. http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html

How & Why to Install Comet chat in phpfox instead of using default IM?
As a note, keep in mind that the default phpFox's IM use a very greedy resource consumption technology called "long pooling", in order to keep the chat updated. The problem with this technology is that it uses the server to keep the chat updated. Therefore, replacing the default IM with a peer-to-peer IM chat can increase the performance very much, because the peer-to-peer technology avoids the use of the server to keep the chat updated. How? By keeping a direct connection among the users involved, instead of using the server as a centralized place to update. You can download the latest comet chat nulled here: Cometchat 3.01 Platinum For phpFox Nulled: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FWFTK7NQ Introduction This guide will help you through the installation process and get CometChat running on your site. Installation is very straight forward, only taking about 5 minutes from uploading the files to viewing the CometChat bar on your site. Before you begin, you will need an FTP client, if you do not have one, some popular solutions include FileZilla (free) or CuteFTP (trial). You do not need programming knowledge to install CometChat, but a working knowledge of FTP functions is a plus. This guide assumes that you have successfully downloaded the latest release of CometChat and have the zip file "unzipped" and ready to go. If not, you can download the package from your client area. The instructions will term the zip file you downloaded as cometchat.zip. Uploading At this point, you should have the zip archive cometchat.zip and find a single folder- "cometchat". If you don't know already, find out the folder in which phpFox is installed.

If you access your phpFox site via 'http://www.domain.com', then look for the webroot directory. The "webroot" directory is usually 'public_html' or 'www', but this varies from server to server so if you're unsure, contact your hosting provider. Using your FTP client, copy the cometchat folder inside your phpFox folder. e.g. http://www.domain.com/cometchat Installation Step 1 You should now run the installer file through your web browser by entering the URL to it into your browser address bar (if you have followed our example, type in http://www.domain.com/cometchat/install.php, naturally substituting 'domain.com' for your web address). If the installation was completed successfully, then two lines of HTML code will be displayed on your screen. Please copy these two lines. Step 2 Now edit your template header. If you are using the default template, then the header file will be: /theme/frontend/default/template/template.html.php Immediately after the opening head tag add the copied code: <head> Now delete install.php file from the cometchat folder. That's all! Now log-in to your site and you will be able to see the CometChat bar. For customizing the text, icons, plugins, theme and modules, please refer to other documents here.

Why not to use a shout box in phpfox?

As a note, keep in mind that the default phpFox's Shoutbox use a very greedy resource consumption technology called "long pooling", in order to keep the shouts updated. The problem with this technology is that it uses the server to keep the shouts updated. Therefore, replacing the default Shoutbox with a peer-to-peer Shoutbox chat can increase the performance very much, because the peer-to-peer technology avoids the use of the server to keep the shouts updated. How? By keeping a direct connection among the users involved, instead of using the server as a centralized place to update. Then Also I Dont recommend you keep shout box as you have cometchat; yes it is better than default im then also when your users will increase load will also increase so dont use shout box to keep you site fast as you have wall. Facebook dont have a shoutbox. Still, if you want to keep it I recommend using a 3rd party shoutbox like Yshout.

Language pack in phpfox v3

How to Install a Language Package? To install a language pack you need to unzip the language pack and upload the entire folder (ex. ES) to the include/xml/language/ Once you have done that go to you admincp>>Extensions>>Language>>Import Language Pack How to create a language pack? Go to AdminCP--Extensions--Language--Manage Language Packs and then Click to the left of the Master English pack and click to Export it (you can export it with 3rd party phrases too) you can edit the file that you export. Save it as your language and import it. Make sure to never edit the Master English one and even when you set a different default the English one will always be named Master English. When you will un-zip the language pack u will get different xml files for all your Modules present on your site. So now you have to edit these XML files, you can use some Text editor or some specialized File Editors like Notepad++. NOTE: You just have to edit the text between the Phrase Tags into your Desire language. Follow the Image Given below for more explanation:

Very IMP Note:

I upload all files in the correct path but when i check on AdminCP to install the new lang.... Dont show anything like if i no upload the files.... Solution: what i have to do please!!!

1) Make sure that only one (1!!) language pack is installed and set as default 2) Then click "import language packs..." You can install any language pack beside the default. But you can have only one pack for one language.

Enable Janrain Engage Integration in Phpfox v3

Janrain Engage Integration (Free One Includes Up to 2,500 unique users per year & 6 social id Login) 1. Create Janrain Account By Signing up here 2. Create an application name

After Saving Click on Deployment Application Settings

Here is the result

Enable Facebook Connect in Phpfox v3

Creating the Facebook Application To create your Facebook Application log into Facebook using your own personal account. Then visit the following page: http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php For the field: Application Name use a name that will represent the application when users are connecting your site with their Facebook account. Once you have submitted the form and you have successfully created your application Facebook will send you to the page where you can edit all the settings for your new application. To your left you will find a sub-menu (About, Web Site, Facebook Integration, Mobile and Devices & Advanced). Click on the sub-menu: Web Site For the field: Site URL enter the full path to your phpFox site. For example the index page for our live demo is located at: http://live.phpfox.com/demo/ So we would enter: http://live.phpfox.com/demo/ Next, save the changes you have just made. Once you have saved your changes Facebook will send you to a page where it will display your Secret and API keys, which are the keys required in the upcoming step below. Enabling your Facebook Application in phpFox Now that you have successfully created your Facebook Application you will need to enable this feature from our AdminCP. To do this log into your AdminCP and go to:

Settings >> System Settings >> Manage Settings >> Facebook Connect For the field: Facebook API Key enter the API Key Facebook provides you with. Next, for the field: Facebook Secret enter the Application Secret Facebook provides you with. Next, for the field Application ID enter the Application ID Facebook provides you with. Now enable this feature by setting: Enable Facebook Connect to True Your Facebook Connect should now be setup. To test this feature log out of your site and visit your sites index page. Under the login form you should see a Facebook Connect button.

Enable Facebook & Twitter Sharing in Phpfox v3

Go to AdminCP--Settings--Manage SettingsShare For Twitter: 1. Create A Twitter App By using this guide (https://dev.twitter.com) 2. Enable Twitter Social Sharing to true 3. Enter your consumer key and your consumer secret. For Facebook: 1. Follow Enable Facebook Connect in Phpfox v3 guide above 2. Enable Facebook Social Sharing to true

How to add OpenInviter Contact Importer in phpfox v3?

Go to http://openinviter.com/ and create a free account and set up your website there and your api. Download the General package, not the phpfox integrated one because that is for older version 1.6 and does not work for newer versions. Create a folder on your server in public_html and name it what you want. Unzip the General Package file you got and read the install.txt. Upload the files into your folder that you made, following the install.txt instructions. Follow the installation instructions in the install.txt. To make a page for this, go to AdminCPCMS--Pages--Add New Page Product: phpFox (V3 the product is Core) Module: User Page Title: (name this what you want) In the Options, make sure you have Add to Menu set to Yes. In the User Group Access, make sure you have Guest and Banned unchecked as this is an iframe and not good for guests or banned members to access. For the Page Date Link, where I say to insert the link to your openinviter file, you replace that sentence with your link. The file I used, which you see here http://www.scripttec...mport-contacts/ but you have to log in, was example.php but a nicer one that I can't get to work yet is example_list.php which is found in the more_examples folder in your openinviter folder. I'll play with it some more to see if I can make it work. Page Data

<iframe src="Insert the link to your openinviter file here" width="900" height="950" frameborder="no" scrolling="auto" style="border-width:2px; border-color:#fff; background:#FFF; border-style:hidden;"> </iframe> Submit and you should be taken to the Add Menu screen. Connection: (I put on Main but you can put where you want) Language Package Details: This is the title for your menu Submit

How to install a 3rd party plugin in phpfox v3?

STEP 1

Upload the contents of the /upload folder to your root phpfox directory directory. Usually, this directory will be /public_html, /www, or /htdocs.

STEP 2

Go to "Import Products" section of the Phpfox Admin Panel. The section can be found by going to the Main Menu "Extensions">"Products"->"Import Products". Install the product by clicking the "Install" link under the "Action" column. And you're done!

How to enable TinyMCE the WYSIWYG text editor?

1. 2. 3. 4. Login in to AdminCP Settings -> Manage Settings Core WYSIWYG Editor Change From Default to tiny_mce

Why Not to use Amazon S3 in Phpfox v3?

http://forums.phpfox.com/project.php?issueid=4688

How to manage Phpfox v3 productively?

See Index-visitor without logging-out and add it to members menu: This will save time & increase productivity Ok this is what I did : In admincp/CMS/Menu/Manage Menu I edited the dashboard menu like this Rename the word (Dashboard) to (Home)and Where it says URL add URL: core/index-visitor We are goanna change this to show users both user dashboard link and visitor home link In admin you should see 2 Home like this So I renamed mine like this So I created a NEW menu under the member home menu like this and this is my result So when you click home you will be taken to visitor page And when you hover the mouse you will see all the My dashboard link that take you to the dashboard...

How to create apps in Phpfox v3?

What are apps? Apps are a new method of creating features for phpFox clients without the need to actually store source files on the clients server. You as the developer will host an app and this allows you to have 1 location for all of your phpFox clients. Updating will be a breeze as you only need to update it on the one server. There are no limitations on what you can do as our app system is based on an API so on your server you are free to do anything with the information we send you about the user. How do you create apps? Like most API systems you will need to apply for a developers key on the clients phpFox site. This can be done by going to "Apps >> Create an App". Once you have created an app you will find your APP ID. Save this information as you will need to use this when building your apps. For further information it is best to follow the app guide found on the clients phpFox site. This can be found by visiting the "Developers" link found at the bottom of the site. This will link to a page with guidelines on how to create an app and all the supported methods, as this depends on the version they have installed.

Enabling Debug Mode in Phpfox v3?

If you encounter problems on your site, enabling Debug Mode in many cases helps answer the question on what is causing a problem. By default all errors are suppressed so end-users do not see such errors. To enable Debug Mode this can be done either by enabling it from your AdminCP or accessing your web server. If you encounter a problem that does not cause a blank white screen you can enable debug mode from your AdminCP, however if your problem is due to a blank white screen you must enable debug mode by accessing your server and creating a PHP file. Settings >> System Settings >> Manage Settings >> Debug
Change Debug Level from 0 to any other value according to your need.

Manage User Groups

Each user belongs to a user group and each user group has several hundred ways on how to control them. To control user groups we will go over how we can edit "User Group Settings". By controlling these settings you will be able to control many features you use on your site thus allowing you to create special user groups that you can create promotions or even charge for in order for users to get the rights to use certain features on your site.

To manage user group settings, first log into your AdminCP and go to: Users >> User Group Manager >> Manage User Groups

Here you will find a list of all the available user groups. We will start working with the default user group "Registered User". To the left of that user group you will find a drop -down icon. Click on that icon and then click on the sub-menu "Manage User Settings". You will now find a page with all the user group settings organized based on the module they belong to. By clicking on a module you will find many settings that control features for that specific module

How to do Full Site Backup/Restore?

Login into your Cpanel:

Backup:

Restore:

How To Install Nginx on an Ubuntu 9.04 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support?
1.)System Requirements a.) VPS or Dedicated Server b.)Reccomended Dedicated Server At 7Skyhost Webhosting http://www.7skyhost.com/dedicated.html c.) SHH usually installed with Dedicated or VPS Webhosting d.) PuTTy a Shh Client For Windows where You can Cut paste Codes 2.) So Lets go Ahead Download PuTTy A.)http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html B.)After that install Putty and configure it 2.) Lets go grab Nginx on an Ubuntu 9.04 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support And Install it a,)Open Putty By Double Clicking it and then put Your SHH Config. In this tutorial I use the hostname server1.example.com with the IP address 192.168.0.100. These settings might differ for you, so you have to replace them where appropriate. I'm running all the steps in this tutorial with root privileges, so make sure you're logged in as root: sudo su <------------------Copy paste just those words ok Lets install Mysql 2 Installing MySQL 5.0 In order to install MySQL, we run aptitude install mysql-server mysql-client<------Copy and paste This INto Putty Black Screen You will be asked to provide a password for the MySQL root user - this password is valid for the user root@localhost as well as root@server1.example.com, so we don't have to specify a MySQL root password manually later on: New password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword Repeat password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword Now Lets install Nginx: 3 Installing Nginx

Nginx is available as a package for Ubuntu 9.04 which we can install as follows: aptitude install nginx Start nginx afterwards: /etc/init.d/nginx start Type in your web server's IP address or hostname into a browser (e.g. http://192.168.0.100), and you should see the nginx welcome page: Now Lets Install Php 5 With FGI: 4 Installing PHP5 We can make PHP5 work in nginx through FastCGI. Fortunately, Ubuntu 9.04 provides a FastCGI-enabled PHP5 package which we install like this (together with some PHP5 modules like php5-mysql which you need if you want to use MySQL from your PHP scripts): aptitude install php5-cgi php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl-------------------->Copy Paste this in Putty Client Then open /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini and add the line cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 right at the end of the file: vi /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini---------->Goto Your Favorite File Manger Program login into root Edit This File add cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 right at the end of the file [...] cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 There's no standalone FastCGI daemon package for Ubuntu 9.04, therefore we use the spawn-fcgi program from lighttpd. We install lighttpd as follows: aptitude install lighttpd<-------------copy and paste this into the putty Client You will see an error message saying that lighttpd can't start because port 80 is already in use: Starting web server: lighttpd 2009-04-30 15:51:50: (network.c.300) can't bind to port: 80 Address already in use failed! That's how it's supposed to be because nginx is already listening on port 80. Run update-rc.d -f lighttpd remove----------------> Copy Paste This into Shh Client Congratulation you just installled Nginx on an Ubuntu 9.04 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support

How to setup X-cache with phpfox v3?

1.) System Requirements a.) VPS or Dedicated Server b.)Recommended Dedicated Server at 7Skyhost Webhosting http://www.7skyhost.com/dedicated.html c.) SHH usually installed with Dedicated or VPS Webhosting d.) PuTTy a SHH Client for Windows where You can Cut paste Codes 2.) So lets go Ahead Download PuTTy A.)http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html B.)After that install Putty and configure it 3.) Alright Now We Are Talking Lets Grab X-cache From Its Source and then install it. a.)Copy and paste this Code To putty in Black Dos-Like Screen wget http://xcache.lighttpd.net/pub/Releases/1.3.1/xcache-1.3.1.tar.gz tar -zxvf xcache-1.3.1.tar.gz cd xcache-1.3.1 phpize ./configure --enable-xcache make make install b.) Copy Paste the Code With # before it into Putty #include Replace / update as follows: #include "timelib_config.h" C.)Now lets create a Password for admin by copying only # before the Words into Putty Create one password for Xcache administration: # echo -n yourpassword| md5sum

Now make Sure You make a password only you know Example: Create one password for Xcache administration: # echo -n deacon| md5sum ok Now that you installed x-cache lets properly Configure with php.ini Now we are Done with putty, Now Login into Your Favorite FTP-Client or File Manager Find php.ini and edit add this Code before loading any other Zend Extension by Cut and paste using Note Pad [xcache-common] zend_extension = /usr/lib/php/modules/xcache.so [xcache.admin] xcache.admin.user = "admin" ;how to create md5 pwd: echo -n "password"| md5sum xcache.admin.pass = "a364b1d54799c713b8a377de50f8ed3c" #easywms.com [xcache] ; Change xcache.size to tune the size of the opcode cache ; to disable: xcache.size=0 ; to enable : xcache.size=64M etc (any size > 0) and your system mmap allows ; someone said, if >=64 will get problem xcache.size = 32M xcache.shm_scheme = "mmap" ; set to cpu count (cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -c processor) xcache.count =4 ; just a hash hints, you can always store count(items) > slots xcache.slots = 8K ; ttl of the cache item, 0=forever xcache.ttl =0 ; interval of gc scanning expired items, 0=no scan, other values is in seconds xcache.gc_interval = 0 ; Change xcache.var_size to adjust the size of variable cache ; same as aboves but for variable cache, if you have not used xcache function in script,forget it xcache.var_size = 8M xcache.var_count = 1 xcache.var_slots = 8K

xcache.var_ttl =0 xcache.var_maxttl = 0 xcache.var_gc_interval =

300

xcache.test = Off xcache.readonly_protection = On ; for *nix, xcache.mmap_path is a file path, not directory. ; Use something like "/tmp/xcache" if you want to turn on ReadonlyProtection ; 2 group of php wont share the same /tmp/xcache ; for win32, xcache.mmap_path=anonymous map name, not file path xcache.mmap_path = "/tmp/xcache" ; leave it blank(disabled) or "/tmp/phpcore/" ; make sure its writable by php (without checking open_basedir) xcache.coredump_directory = "" ; per request settings xcache.cacher = On xcache.stat = On xcache.optimizer = Off [xcache.coverager] ; per request settings ; enable coverage data collecting for xcache.coveragedump_directory and ; xcache_coverager_start/stop/get/clean() functions (will hurt executing performance) xcache.coverager = On ; ini only settings ; make sure its readable (care open_basedir) by coverage viewer script ; requires xcache.coverager=On xcache.coveragedump_directory = "" Congrats you now have installed X-cache and properly configured it.

Premium Support, Resources & Tutorials

Resources & Tutorials: 1. http://www.phpfoxcamp.com 2. http://scripttechs.com/article/ 3. http://www.phpfox.com/kb/article/263/knowledgebase-article-listing/ Premium Support (First Month Only): Any Problem, Any Queries or Any Help: Contact: Phpfox Camp: geekwithlens / holler By Email: geekwithlens@gmail.com