SMF stands for Simple Machines Forum, which is a software for implementing forum sites. A forum is a discussion site where people can interact by posting topics and sharing opinions. An example of a forum on the internet is http://www.nairaland.com/ .
This tutorial is for someone with little knowledge of internet technologies but is enthusiastic about the techies on the net such as a forum.
To implement a forum on an intranet, you need a web server, database, php and a forum software.
In this case, instead of installing the web server, database and php one by one, we shall be installing a bundle software called wamp server (Windows Apache MySql Php). Apache is the web server , MySql is the database and php is the language used since we are dealing with a dynamic site.
Let’s get started!
· Download a free version of wamp server from www.wampserver.com/en/
· Install wamp to C:\wamp
· After installing wamp, you have to test it. How? Open your web browser, in the address field, type in localhost and press enter. The output is shown below
· Now, you need to create a database for the forum using MySql. To do that, click on phpmyadmin under 'Tools'. The phpmyadmin window is shown below
>Name the database ‘smf’ and click Create. After creating the database, exit phpmyadmin.
N.B: the default user name which you are using for the database is ‘root’ and it has no password.
>Download smf (Simple Machines Forum) from www.simplemachines.org. Extract the contents to a folder and name the folder ‘smf’.
>Copy the smf folder to C:\wamp\www which is the localhost directory.
>Go back to your browser and refresh the localhost page.
>You will notice that the smf folder has appeared under ‘Your Projects’.
>Click on ‘smf’ to start installation.
>‘Forum name’ is what you wish to name the forum while ‘Forum URL’ is the address of the forum (what you’ll use to access the forum from your browser).
·
> Username: your admin username that you’ll use to log in to the forum.
> Password: Specify any password you know you won’t forget.
> Email Address: specify a valid email address
> MySql Database Password: there is no password since we used the root account.
·
> Check the box to delete the install.php file for security reasons. Click on ‘your newly installed forum’ to see your forum.
· The figure below shows the homepage of the newly installed forum
Coming Soon: Part 2- How to configure and deploy the forum on an intranet
