Overview and Setup

Summary

Overview and Setup
Overview	LnBlog is a web-based weblog program that is written in PHP 4 and stores data in text files.
Requirements	The only hard and fast requirements for LnBlog are PHP 4.1 and he ability to write files to the web server.
Installation	The setup process for LnBlog is entirely web-based and mostly painless.
Upgrading	Upgrading LnBlog is normally pretty simple.
License	LnBlog: A simple file-based weblog focused on design elegance.

Overview

LnBlog is a web-based weblog program that is written in PHP 4 and stores data in text files. It aims to be full-featured, flexible, and configurabe, but still remain easy to use and keep software requirements low. It is designed to work well on inexpensive shared web hosts.

In terms of functionality, LnBlog includes support for all the basic blogging features, such as user comments, TrackBacks, RSS feeds, and file uploads. LnBlog also allows you to create multiple independent weblogs with multiple user accounts. This feature is ideal for managing multiple sub-sites on the same web site.

One of LnBlog’s main design goals in flexibility. To this end, it includes a theme system and a plugin system to allow user extensions. The theme system is powerful, allowing you to change virtually every element on a page, yet flexible enough that you can simply override one file for one blog without having to change or copy anything else. Various page elements, such as the sidebar, are provided by plugins and can be removed or rearranged simply by moving or renaming plugin files.

Requirements

The only hard and fast requirements for LnBlog are PHP 4.1 and he ability to write files to the web server. LnBlog does support running with safe_mode enabled by using FTP for file writing. You can also choose to use the standard file writing functions. If you want to use LnBlog in a language other than English, then the PHP gettext and iconv extensions are highly recommended, but not strictly required. The CURL extension is recommended if you plan to use trackbacks, but is not required.

You can use any web server or operating system. LnBlog is tested on Windows XP with IIS and Linux with Apache. It currently works with both PHP4 and PHP5. No database is required.

Installation

The setup process for LnBlog is entirely web-based and mostly painless.

1)	Unzip the LnBlog archive into a directory on your hard drive.
2)	Upload the LnBlog directory to your web server.
3)	Point your web browser to the LnBlog directory on your web server. This will start the setup process.
4)	Pick the type of file writing you want. If you have PHP safe_mode enabled on your web server, then you must use FTP. If you use “native” file writing, make sure that the LnBlog “userdata” folder and all the files in it are writable for all users. You will also have to make the folder where you will be creating blogs is writable. See the fsconfig.php documentation for details. If you are using a shared hosting account or if you don’t have root/administrator access to the server, FTP is recommended.
5)	Create a user account. This initial user will be a system administrator.
6)	Log in with the account you just created.
7)	Start creating new users and weblogs.

Upgrading

Upgrading LnBlog is normally pretty simple. Assuming your LnBlog installation is in a folder named “LnBlog”, then you would do the following to perform a clean upgrade.

1)	Rename your old LnBlog directory on the server to LnBlog-old.
2)	Upload the new version into a folder named LnBlog.
3)	Copy the contents of your LnBlog-old/userdata folder into LnBlog/userdata.

If you keep all your non-standard plugins and themes in your userdata folder (which is recommended), then this will result in a clean installation of the new version with all your settings carried over. If for some reason the new version does not work as expected, this method will allow you to revert to the old version by simply deleting the new LnBlog folder and renaming LnBlog-old to LnBlog.

Alternatively, you can perform a “quick and dirty” upgrade by simply uploading everything except the userdata folder from the new version to your existing LnBlog folder. This method is useful if you have added any custom files outside the userdata folder, e.g. to the themes or plugins directories.

In some cases, a new version of LnBlog will incorporate changes to the directory structure used for blog storage. In these cases, it is necessary to upgrade existing blogs to use the new structure. Note that this is normally not required, so you do not need to perform an upgrade unless the release notice specifically directs you to do so. The upgrade steps are as follows.

1)	Go to the LnBlog administration page and log in as an administrator.
2)	In the “Upgrade Functions” section of the page, select your blog’s path in the “upgrade to current version” drop-down box.
3)	Click the “Upgrade” button and wait until the page has finished loading. When it completes, you should see a status message.
4)	Repeat for each blog you created using LnBlog.

Note that upgrading your blog is not required for every version upgrade of LnBlog, although doing it normally won’t hurt anything.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.