Project Info | Installation Guide | Object Diagram

Steps:
1. MySQL | 2. InkTank Web | 3. Archangel

Before you start…

These instructions assume that you have a web host ready for InkTank. Please verify your webhost supports each of features listed under Deployment Requirements on the Project Info page. If you've decided to give InkTank a try, read on…

First: create the database.

InkTank requires a database to store its stories and its data. The first step is to create a database that will hold InkTank's data.

(InkTank currently only supports MySQL officially, because most providers offer it. PostgreSQL support is in the code, and if your provider supports Postgres, and you know what you're doing, you could use it instead. However Archangel doesn't support PostgreSQL, so you’d have to port it over too.)

Let's create the database. The steps depend heavily on which webhosting provider you use. I've included instructions for DreamHost, and for generic cPanel-based providers, which includes many of the cheapest ones.

If you're using DreamHost.

DreamHost makes it all pretty quick. If you use DreamHost, you'll be pleased to know they support everything InkTank needs—after all, I wrote InkTank for a DreamHost server in the first place.

1. You will need to sign into your domain control panel, with the username and password DreamHost gave you.
2. Under Goodies, choose MySQL.
3. Click on Add New Database, give it a name. Perhaps “inktanksql.”
   
   We need to create users for the administrator and for the web server.
4. Returning to your MySQL page, locate your new database, and click Add User.
5. Enter a username and password for your administrator. “itadmin,” perhaps.
6. Click on [ Edit ] beside your new username.
7. Enter % under the “Edit the hosts” box, replacing the numeric address, and click Add Host.
8. Back on the MySQL page, click Add User again, and choose a username and password for the webserver. “itweb,” perhaps.
9. Click on [ Edit ] beside the new web username.
10. Uncheck the Create, Drop, Index, and Alter privileges.
11. Click Change.
    
    We need to add a MySQL hostname to the database, if there isn't one already.
12. On the MySQL database list page, look for your new database.
13. If there is a MySQL hostname, remember its address as the database server address.
14. If not, click [ Add MySQL hostname ] and add one, and remember that.

Congratulations, in an hour or so your database will be ready for access!

If you're using a cPanel-based provider.

Your webhost should provide everything InkTank needs. Because cPanel-based hosts vary somewhat, these steps may change somewhat at a future date (now being December 6th, 2003).

1. Log into your Account Control Panel.
2. Access your MySQL Databases panel.
3. Find the Add Database box. Enter a database name, say, “inktanksql.” Write it down.
4. Scroll down a bit, and create two new users, one admin and one for the webserver. Name them, say, “ikadmin” and “ikweb.”
5. Above, add your new admin user to your new database. Make sure “All” permission is checked.
6. Add the web user to the database. Check permissions “select,” “insert,” “update,” and “delete,” but not “All.”
7. At the bottom under Access Hosts, enter %, and click Add Host.
8. Note your database server is your domain name.

Apply the schema.

Both cPanel-based providers and DreamHost provide phpMyAdmin, software which can apply the InkTank database schema. On DreamHost, simply access http://your databaser server/. On cPanel hosts, you can access phpMyAdmin on the bottom of the MySQL page. Log in with your admin username and password. phpMyAdmin may not work until your webhost's time delay is up, so if you can't log in, go exercise for a while.

You will need a copy of the database schema — the set of rules that tell the blank new database how to store InkTank data. It's contained within the InkTank Web distribution zipfile available on the Project Downloads page.

1. Click on your inktank database name on the left.
2. Click on the SQL tab. Copy and paste into the box the contents of mysql.sql, which you'll find inside your InkTank zipfile inside the “distribution” directory.
3. Click Go.

No errors? Congratulations, you have a working MySQL/InkTank setup! Go get yourself a snack (some orange juice and grapes, if you're me), and continue on to the InkTank Web instructions, where you will install and configure the PHP-based web browsing interface for InkTank.