Hotaru CMS Documentation

Here's a quick overview of how to get started with Hotaru CMS: If you'd like to access the files via Subversion, instructions are here (needs link).

Looking for upgrade instructions? See Upgrading Hotaru CMS.

Requirements

Hotaru CMS has been tested using PHP 5.2.5 ~ 5.3.2 and MySQL 5.0~.

First-time Installation

1. Download the latest version of Hotaru CMS.
2. Create a database called "hotaru" in cPanel->mySQLdatabases, phpMyAdmin or equivalent.
3. Upload the contents of the "hotaru" folder to your server.
4. Files should have permissions set to 644 and folders should be set to 755, except...
5. Set /cache and its sub-folders to 777
6. Open example.com/install/index.php in your browser and step through the five steps, following the instructions in each.
7. When finished, delete the install folder.

If the installation script has difficulty writing to your server it may prompt you to manually create a hotaru_settings.php file. If so you need to:

1. Rename /hotaru_settings_default.php to /hotaru_settings.php.
2. Open /hotaru_settings.php and edit the top section with your database details and path to Hotaru, e.g. http://example.com/

Note: This may not be necessary for most installations.

Setting up your site

1. Log into Admin* and go to Admin -> Settings
2. Change the settings as appropriate, but leave DB_CACHE as false for now.
3. Download plugins from the Plugin Downloads forum, unzip and upload them to the /content/plugins/ directory.
4. Go to Admin -> Plugin Management and install the plugins one by one. See Installing Your First Plugins.
5. Edit settings for each plugin listed in the sidebar under Plugin Settings.
6. Click the site title/banner to view your changes*.
7. When finished, return to Admin -> Settings and set DB_CACHE to true.

• You may need to do a hard refresh (CTRL + F5) and/or clear the language cache from Admin -> Maintenance.

Friendly URLS

If you want to use friendly urls, rename htaccess_default to .htaccess, and edit it according to the instructions within the htaccess file. Then go to Admin -> Settings and change the "friendly urls" setting to true.

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble installing Hotaru, please post your questions with as much detail as possible in the Installation and Upgrades forum.