How To Make A MyBB Forum From SCRATCH--Step by STEP Instructions with pictures!

[MasterZuFu]

I'm writing this tutorial for you guys who have little or no understanding on how websites or forums are made. This tutorial WILL be in-depth, it will require understanding of several different functions of the internet and web development. When you have completed this tutorial you will know exactly how to make a bulletin board from SCRATCH with maybe only needing about $100 out of your own pocket. With that, we'll get started.

STEP ONE: Get a web host

The first and most important step to having a website, is having your site hosted. Now you can host your own site, I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. There are sites which will host your site for a set price. As an example, I'll use a host I used some time ago.

The hosting site is called "www.siteground.com". They aren't the cheapest, but I love their help desk, very organized and professional.

So we'll go to siteground's site and create an account.

Spoiler (Click to View)

After you've signed up, go to your cpanel (you'll have to click on "My Account" at the top. Then you'll have to click on "My Account" again after you've logged in.

You'll then see something like this:



Click on "Cpanel". Cpanel is a web-based admin-control function that gives you access to several things to administrate your site from here. Once you're in, you're going to want to go to what's called "PHPMyAdmin". This is a web-admin functionality which allows you to manage your MySQL databases. Basically a MySQL database is simple a container that holds information in table format. if you use microsoft excel you could "almost" picture it as being sort of the same thing. You have tables in which you put certain information in for other things to access, etc. etc.

To use MyBB you're going to need a database. This will be "populated" after you install the software, which we'll get to later.

STEP TWO: Creating a Database

PHPMyAdmin is used to MANAGE your databases, NOT create them. To create them we're going to use a tool called simply "MySQL Database". It should be in the same grouping section as PHPMyAdmin.

There should be a field to create a new database. Type in the name of your database here, and then click 'Create Database'. Use a simple name, short and to the point. Depending on what your site is named and how it was setup when you created it, you'll have a specified prefix, and THEN your database name, it would looksomething like this:

Maxit22_test

"test" will be your database name you just entered, and "Maxit22_" is the prefix.

Once you've created your database, now you're going to need to create a user for that database. Scroll down a bit and find "MySQL Users".

There are two fields here, the "username" field and the "password" field. The username will be given the same prefix as your database was. Forexample:

Maxit22_MasZuFu

Then you can make a password. I recommend using the password generator to make your password. Once you have put the password in, you can click "Create User". The next thing you're going to do is attach the user to the database so that this user with this username and password has administrative functions over this particular database.

Scroll down a bit further and you'll find two drop boxes with a button "Add" underneeth them. Select the user and the database and click "Add". Now your user is added to your database. NOW YOU'RE READY TO ADD THE FORUM!

STEP THREE: Downloading and Uploading The Forum

You're going to want to go to http://www.MyBBoard.net/ to download your forum software (It may be www.mybb.com in a few months if mybb is able to buy their new domain name). Currently, here's the direct link to download the forum software:

http://mybboard.net/download/latest

That'll start your download immediately. The reason I'm calling this a forum 'software' is because this contains several pages of php coding to allow you to create, manage, and use the basic bulletin board functionality. It is more than just a website, it's a unique and in-depth piece of software based entirely on the internet.

Now what do you do? You've downloaded your forum software, now you need to upload it to your server. But how do you do that? I don't recommend using the cpanel uploading features for so many files as what's in the forum software. For this, I would recommend some other type of FTP program. I recommend using "Filezilla", which can be found here:

http://filezilla-project.org/download.php

Once you have the FileZilla client already downloaded and activated on your computer, enter your domain name in the address field (you can also use the server's IP address). The username and the password you need to type in are the same as the ones you use to log in to your cPanel. The FTP port is 21.

Once you've connected to your FTP, find 'public_html' and open that up. Extract the downloaded forum software on your computer (not through the FTP, on your desktop or something). Then browse to that location through filezilla, select all files, and click and drag them into the public_html folder. It'll take a few minutes to upload all the files to your server. Once you're done, you're going to now need to "Chmod" your files. Chmodding is when you give permissions to folders and files in ftp or file management under unix based operating systems.

You chmod by right clicking the folder and going to "file permission". Please use this link to see which files you need to chmod etc. etc.

http://wiki.mybboard.net/index.php/CHMOD_Files

If you don't see a file or folder, it may have to be done AFTER you've installed the forum software.

STEP FOUR: Installing Your Forum

From here, you can follow these instructions to install your software:

http://wiki.mybboard.net/index.php/Installer

I won't go over all of that, but what I will go over is the database configurations as these seem confusing for a new webmaster.

You're going to see something like this (please make sure you followed the instructions in the previous link before you've reached this step)



For here, we're most likely going to set it up like so:

Database Engine: MySQL Improved
Database Server hostname: localhost
Database Username: (example) Maxit22_MasZuFu
Database Password: (example) Password123!@#
Database Name: (example) Maxit22_test
Table Prefix: (read below)

Table Prefix
This is the prefix for the tables in the database. Unless you already have a MyBB installation in the database you entered with the prefix mybb_, you should leave this how it is. If you do already have a MyBB installation in the database, you should change it to something else.

Leave the Table Encoding as the default.

Once you've gotten everything setup, please continue with the following link:

http://wiki.mybboard.net/index.php/Insta...e_Creation

From here it's pretty much self-explainatory, just follow the instructions already posted on MyBB (from the link I just gave you, just continue).

STEP FIVE: Completing Your Forum

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You've successfully bought a domain name, got a web host, downloaded, uploaded, and installed your forum software, and now you can browse to your website (using your domain name, example: www.ethical-hackers.org) and view your forum!

Now what do you need? Well, you're going to need a theme and possibly some plugins. You're going to need to think of a theme for your forum (honestly this should be the first thing you did before you even bought your host name). You need to have a set topic of discussion for the forum to be based on so that your visitors and members can have proper organized discussions.

There are several sites I would suggest grabbing your themes and plugins from, as well as any support inquiries you need help with. you can, obviously, post your support inquiries here if you like and I or another member can help you through your problems.

http://www.mybbcentral.com/
http://www.mybboard.net/
http://www.mybbsource.com/

mybboard is the only one that offers plugins and themes for free, the other two you'll need to pay a subscription fee (separately) for each on to download and get your subscriptions.

For now, that concludes our tutorial. I'll post another tutorial on Themes and Plugins later and link them in this tut as well. If you have any questions just comment in this thread.

-ZuFu