Apollo Hosting- Company Blog

Nothing tempers the strong desire to forge out on the web then the installation instructions that accompany that cool blog, forum or gallery software you just downloaded. Sure, it was free, but where's that cool ".exe" file that makes the "magic" happen on all your other programs? Sadly, looking for that file will, generally, be a fruitless endeavour. It's not that anyone is trying to make it hard on you; it's just the circumstances are little different than installing a program from a disc to your hard drive.

I'll cover one aspect of many web application installations that can make the novice shake their head and wonder what use "instructions" are for if they don't tell you how to do something. That would be the creation of the database that is a core component of many web apps, most notably blogs, forums, galleries. Databases are where the posts, images, and comments that come together to make your application shine are stored. They aren't the hamsters running the show, they're more like the hamster food.

I should note this advice may be unnecessary in many cases. I say that because many popular website hosting control panels do provide "one-click" installation of many popular open-source web applications. Our own trusty Plesk control panel features an Application Vault absolutely brimming with blogs, galleries, forums, and far more esoteric fare that requires you only answer a few questions and you're good to go. For many, this will suffice. Even our Application Vault doesn't hold everything the Internet has to offer. It will also take some time for the latest versions of those applications to enter the Vault. Those who crave the latest-greatest will have to apply a little elbow grease to get their hands on it.

Even if you've graduated to being a wiz at uploading your files via FTP, you might not be absolutely comfortable with creating databases. Though it can cause some trepidation, creating databases is a relatively simple process from within most website hosting control panels, including our own Plesk and HSPc systems.

Just a quick note to say I'll be looking at a very wide overview of the process and this is hardly meant to be a substitute for whatever the specific steps your particular web application will be providing you. This is primarily to focus on the slightly more "vague" parts of the instructions that just tell you to "create a database" and then feed that information to the installation script. The instructions are vague because they don't know what tools you have available to create databases, they just know you need one.

Fortunately, both our control panels make this pretty easy.

Basic Database Creation Steps - Plesk

• 1. Log into your control panel
• 2. Click "Databases" under Services in your domain section.
• 3. Select "Add New Database" (If you have used Application Vault installations before, there may be some databases there already, just leave those alone).
• 4. Give the database a name, which you'll need to remember. Leave the other options as their default choices, click "OK".
• 5. Once the next screen is loaded, click "Add New Database User".
• 6. Enter a "Database user name". Enter and confirm a password for this user and click "OK" This information is also important, so make sure to jot it down.

That's it, you're done.

Basic Database Creation Steps - HSPc

• 1. Log into your control panel.
• 2. Click the "System" tab.
• 3. Under "Databases Management" click "Databases"
• 4. Click "Add Database"
• 5. Enter a name.
• 6. You'll be given an option to use an existing user or to create a new user for the database. Generally speaking, it's best to create a new user, so click the radio button beside "Create a new database user" then enter the requested information and click "Save."

Your database is ready to go.

The central things to remember in either case are the:

• 1. Database name.
• 2. Database user name.
• 3. Database password.

Generally speaking, this is all you will need to provide your web application's setup program (in terms of database information, at least) in order for its installation scripts to work. You've done the "easy" part and created an empty box for the application to configure. The script will go in and populate the database with all the tables it requires to run, basically the "heavy lifting" of the process, while you sit back and relax.

Oh, and in closing, apologies about the post title. The Clever Machine was broken so I just had to settle for the Straightforward Dispenser.