I've downloaded PHP nuke, after unzip the file, I didn't know how to start. There was no help file telling step by step. Would like to help of how to install it, any other suggested resources are welcome.

What OS?

Yes, there is help, you have a detailed "INSTALL" file :)

> emacs INSTALL

i prefer pico :)

I'm a cat | more kinda guy.

The OS is Win2000 and thanks, I found the install file. But does it work with Win2000 server? It works as long as Win2000 supports PHP and SQL, right?

Help,

You'd better ask your host if they support PHP/MySQL. If they say no, then you're out of luck and you'll need to move to a *nix host which offers PHP/MySQL. By default most Win2K hosts do not offer PHP/MySQL, since ASP/Access/SQL Server is offered by default.

If they do support it, then installation procedures will be different from what they specify in the installation file.

What's the name of the host?

Looking at the WebExpose site, it seems that they offer PHP/MySQL, as well as JSP and Java servlets. How do they manaage to do all this on Windows 2000 ?

BC, my host is webexpose, and I believe they support PHP and My SQL, but, on the PHP nuke help file, it says in Linux OS??? Whatever, if it works on W2000 server, does the installation is different than in Unix/Linux system?

Allen, I'm using webexpose and going to setup the PHP nuke on it. Same question as you.

I heartily recommend PHP Nuke. It is a GREAT online portal system. And it's free. I installed it briefly in August on an Alabanza account and it worked flawlessly - but that's Linux and MySQL. I'm not using it at present, but plan to do so in the near future.

But the best place to get help is at the PHP Nuke homepage now at
http://www.phpnuke.org

and at the PHP Nuke group at

http://www.egroups.com

The eGroups PHP Nuke group has a VERY active newsletter/newsgroup with sometimes over a hundred messages posted a day. Sign up for the Digest version or you will be inundated with emails. But this is where you're most likely to get a quick and complete answer to your problems.

In addition to these places, check out

http://www.phpnuke.web.id

for the latest add-ons to PHP Nuke.

There really is a great community building up around this GPL software.

Hope you solve your problem. I do not know if PHP Nuke will work on a Windows 2000 server, probably not. The founder is a decidedly in favor of Linux. But at the three places I mentioned you will get your answer.

Sean

So now I know why one of my customers asked me to set up a Mysql database name called "nuke".

You learn something new every day.

Gordon

Help,

Ouch. They're my host too ;) But I do *not* recommend installing PHP/MySQL applications on your site yet, despite them having PHP/MySQL installed. The DBs are not quite secured yet (this will come after they fix everything with the CP) and you need to install phpMyAdmin yourself to manage MySQL.

I really like the look, feel, and features of nuke as well, however just about every nuke site I have looked at is very..............very........slow.

Whenever I visit a nuke site, I start getting misty eyed about the old dial-up days, where you would load up a site and then wait, and then see a little of it rendered by the browser, and then wait, and then finally the whole page appears.

Why is it so slow? Is this a software "feature" or does it have to do with the quality of the host provider?

The main PHP-Nuke site (http://www.phpnuke.org) is slow because of the server, the connection and the PHP files themselves. The site's hosted in South America...

PHP-Nuke tends to be quite slow because of the way it's been structured. Because it's not really modularised and the number of other PHP files called, as well as the no. of DB connections made/required, it's slower than what it really can be.

The size of the main PHP files doesn't help either. Two of the main PHP files (mainfile.php which contains the global variables for many of the site's functions) is 44KB, while admin.php is 27KB. And when you consider the fact that you haven't added the header/footer includes and other bits and pieces it makes for a long download.

That said, I've been testing it out on my server with Zend Optimizer at full belt and it seems to run quite a bit quicker. I'm sticking with it because it's a great product and I don't have to waste too much time trying to figure out new templates and other stuff...

BC,
I dont want to divert the topic, but I read about MetaDot portal server on Hotscripts.com which too has received good reviews there. I want to find the best portal server for my site. Metadot is in Perl/MySQL.

For the same code, which is faster (the database is mySQL with both) - PHP with Zend Optimiser 4 or Perl?

Are there any other free portal servers? Also, is there a way to restrict/approve the sign-ups with PHPnuke? Metadot has this. I require this feature, to approve each sign-up for an alumni site.

TIA,
Wing.

At the moment the moderation features in PHP-Nuke don't work 100%, so no, approving/rejecting users doesn't quite work correctly at the moment. I believe this will be addressed in the second or third update of PHP-Nuke 4.

PHP/Zend Optimizer runs much faster than Perl - PHP by itself runs about 4-5 times faster than Perl (according to many tests) as it automates many of the tasks it has to do, compared to Perl which creates new 'forks or threads' every time someone executes a Perl script. So PHP/Zend Optimizer definitely runs faster than Perl.

That said, PHP-Nuke is quite slow on PHP alone, due to the size of the main PHP files and the lack of separation between PHP and HTML code, slowing down the parsing of PHP. You really need to use Zend Optimizer to ensure PHP-Nuke runs at a reasonably quick speed (as compared to something like MetaDot).

As for free PHP-Nuke hosting, if you search on PHP-Nuke's EGroups mailing list (http://www.egroups.com/group/phpnuke), the main PHP-Nuke site (http://www.phpnuke.org) or the PHP-Nuke AddOns (http://www.phpnuke.web.id) site you should find a kind person hosting PHP-Nuke portals for free.