iStrip installation

iStrip installation
Table of contents Preamble Requirements Installation (Apache 1.3/*ix)

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Preamble
This documentation aims to cover installation issues. It is kind of sparse but it should hopefully be enough to get you up and running. If anyone wants to help with writing more comprehensive documentation then leave a note on the iStrip sourceforge project page. If you have already installed an older version of iStrip then refer to the upgrade instructions for information on upgrading iStrip without losing the strip database.

Preamble

This documentation aims to cover installation issues. It is kind of sparse but it should hopefully be enough to get you up and running. If anyone wants to help with writing more comprehensive documentation then leave a note on the iStrip sourceforge project page. If you have already installed an older version of iStrip then refer to the upgrade instructions for information on upgrading iStrip without losing the strip database.

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Requirements
For iStrip to run on the following elements are required: A PHP compatible HTTP server, such as Apache or IIS. iStrip was developed under Apache 1.3 and has not as of yet been tested under Apache 2.0 or IIS. PHP 4.2.x or later. iStrip should work on 4.1.x but hasn't been tested under this version of PHP. iStrip hasn't been tested under the CGI version of PHP and it's strongly recommended that you don't attempt to use it under this version. Smarty requires PHP 4.0.6 or later to run, therefore iStrip will not function on any PHP version older than this. Smarty. Version 2.5.0 of the Smarty template engine is included in the package already. A modern web browser to access the admin control panels. File upload support is a requirement. CSS support and JavaScript support are recommended, though iStrip will function fine without either. The admin pages were tested successfully under Internet Explorer 6 SP 1, Mozilla 1.2.1 and Opera 7.01, and should function under other modern, well-behaved browsers. Register_Globals doesn't need to be on for iStrip to function correctly. In fact it is strongly recommended that you turn register_globals off unless you have other PHP scripts installed that depend on register_globals. If this is the case then it is recommended that you should rewrite scripts you've written yourself to not depend on register_globals, and to check for new versions of any third party scripts you are using that don't depend on register_globals. The register_globals setting can open up a security hole on your server. See here for more details. You need to have safe mode disabled for iStrip to work. iStrip writes files to disk and other operations upon which restrictions are imposed when running in safe mode.

Requirements

For iStrip to run on the following elements are required:

A PHP compatible HTTP server, such as Apache or IIS. iStrip was developed under Apache 1.3 and has not as of yet been tested under Apache 2.0 or IIS.
PHP 4.2.x or later. iStrip should work on 4.1.x but hasn't been tested under this version of PHP. iStrip hasn't been tested under the CGI version of PHP and it's strongly recommended that you don't attempt to use it under this version. Smarty requires PHP 4.0.6 or later to run, therefore iStrip will not function on any PHP version older than this.
Smarty. Version 2.5.0 of the Smarty template engine is included in the package already.
A modern web browser to access the admin control panels. File upload support is a requirement. CSS support and JavaScript support are recommended, though iStrip will function fine without either. The admin pages were tested successfully under Internet Explorer 6 SP 1, Mozilla 1.2.1 and Opera 7.01, and should function under other modern, well-behaved browsers.
Register_Globals doesn't need to be on for iStrip to function correctly. In fact it is strongly recommended that you turn register_globals off unless you have other PHP scripts installed that depend on register_globals. If this is the case then it is recommended that you should rewrite scripts you've written yourself to not depend on register_globals, and to check for new versions of any third party scripts you are using that don't depend on register_globals. The register_globals setting can open up a security hole on your server. See here for more details.
You need to have safe mode disabled for iStrip to work. iStrip writes files to disk and other operations upon which restrictions are imposed when running in safe mode.

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Installation (Apache 1.3/*ix)
Before you can make use of iStrip you need to install it to your web server. These instructions cover how to achieve this under Apache 1.3 running UNIX, Linux or similar. If you have already installed an earlier version of iStrip then you should see the upgrade documentation for information on upgrading your installation to this version. Unpack the contents of the archive You have to upload the following directories and files: admin/ All files and directories include/ All files and directories smarty_templates/ All files and directories index.php viewpage.php .stripindex It is also recommended that you upload all the .htaccess files to keep private files protected. iStrip uses Smarty for template generation. Smarty creates "compiled" versions of your templates in order to speed up page rendering. These compiled templates are stored on the server in a directory so you need to create a directory for iStrip to use. By default the directories Smarty uses are smarty_compiled/ for the public pages and admin/smarty_compiled/ for the admin pages. Make sure these files exist within the iStrip directory tree. Empty directories are provided in the iStrip distribution You need to create directories for strips and news. You can also create one for banners if you intend to use the random banner display functions. The default locations are content/strips/ for strips, content/news/ for news items and content/banners/ for banner images. The content/ directory in the archive contains an empty directory structure for you to use, and iStrip is configured to use this structure by default. Unless you intend to use a different directory structure, you should upload the content/ directory or create the same directory structure in the iStrip tree on your server By default, the .htaccess file provided in the admin directory prevents anybody from accessing the the admin pages. This is for security reasons, to prevent anybody accessing the admin directory until you password protect it. In order to password protect the admin directory under Apache you should modify the supplied .htaccess file and create a .htpasswd file. As this is highly dependant on how your host machine is configured I will not go into detail here. Contact your host for more help on setting up password-protected directories. WARNING: If you don't upload the admin default .htaccess file, anyone can access the admin control panels! Make sure you have some kind of protection for the admin directory. If you are using a Windows box then you will need to find software for making the .htpasswd files Apache uses. You can find a useful utility for doing this at http://www.magsys.co.uk/apps/ In order for iStrip to function it needs to be able to write to several directories and files. You should CHMOD the following files and directories: content/strips/ (Wherever you are storing your strips) - 0777 content/news/ (Wherever you are storing your news items) - 0777 smarty_compiled/ (Wherever you are storing compiled templates) - 0777 admin/smarty_compiled/ - 0777 include/istrip-config.php - 0666 .stripindex - 0666 Note that these are only recommended settings that should work under most server configurations. It should be possible to use different CHMOD values if possible. The permissions you pick should allow iStrip read/write access to the specified files. If you can get away with more restrictive CHMOD values, such as 0604 instead of 0644 then you should use them. You should now have a working iStrip installation that will allow you to upload new strips and change configuration settings via the control panel. If you are migrating a webcomic over to iStrip then you may also wish to install and run the buildindex.php script. For more information on using this script consult the tools documentation.

Installation (Apache 1.3/*ix)

Before you can make use of iStrip you need to install it to your web server. These instructions cover how to achieve this under Apache 1.3 running UNIX, Linux or similar. If you have already installed an earlier version of iStrip then you should see the upgrade documentation for information on upgrading your installation to this version.

Unpack the contents of the archive
You have to upload the following directories and files:
- admin/
  - All files and directories
- include/
  - All files and directories
- smarty_templates/
  - All files and directories
- index.php
- viewpage.php
- .stripindex
It is also recommended that you upload all the .htaccess files to keep private files protected.
iStrip uses Smarty for template generation. Smarty creates "compiled" versions of your templates in order to speed up page rendering. These compiled templates are stored on the server in a directory so you need to create a directory for iStrip to use. By default the directories Smarty uses are smarty_compiled/ for the public pages and admin/smarty_compiled/ for the admin pages. Make sure these files exist within the iStrip directory tree. Empty directories are provided in the iStrip distribution
You need to create directories for strips and news. You can also create one for banners if you intend to use the random banner display functions. The default locations are content/strips/ for strips, content/news/ for news items and content/banners/ for banner images. The content/ directory in the archive contains an empty directory structure for you to use, and iStrip is configured to use this structure by default. Unless you intend to use a different directory structure, you should upload the content/ directory or create the same directory structure in the iStrip tree on your server
By default, the .htaccess file provided in the admin directory prevents anybody from accessing the the admin pages. This is for security reasons, to prevent anybody accessing the admin directory until you password protect it. In order to password protect the admin directory under Apache you should modify the supplied .htaccess file and create a .htpasswd file. As this is highly dependant on how your host machine is configured I will not go into detail here. Contact your host for more help on setting up password-protected directories. WARNING: If you don't upload the admin default .htaccess file, anyone can access the admin control panels! Make sure you have some kind of protection for the admin directory. If you are using a Windows box then you will need to find software for making the .htpasswd files Apache uses. You can find a useful utility for doing this at http://www.magsys.co.uk/apps/
In order for iStrip to function it needs to be able to write to several directories and files. You should CHMOD the following files and directories:
- content/strips/ (Wherever you are storing your strips) - 0777
- content/news/ (Wherever you are storing your news items) - 0777
- smarty_compiled/ (Wherever you are storing compiled templates) - 0777
- admin/smarty_compiled/ - 0777
- include/istrip-config.php - 0666
- .stripindex - 0666
Note that these are only recommended settings that should work under most server configurations. It should be possible to use different CHMOD values if possible. The permissions you pick should allow iStrip read/write access to the specified files. If you can get away with more restrictive CHMOD values, such as 0604 instead of 0644 then you should use them.

You should now have a working iStrip installation that will allow you to upload new strips and change configuration settings via the control panel. If you are migrating a webcomic over to iStrip then you may also wish to install and run the buildindex.php script. For more information on using this script consult the tools documentation.

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