Installation guide
simpleContact Lite is designed to be easy to use. Follow the steps below and you should be set up in minutes. The screencast video shows the installation process from start to finish.
Step 1
This is the one and only tricky bit, so let's get it out of the way...
You should have already ensured that your host has PHP and MySQL support – now it's time to create a database. The exact method of doing this varies between hosting platforms – please consult your host's documentation. If you have installed applications (e.g WordPress) on your website before, you have all the access and know-how you need.
See the minimum requirements forum post for more details.
Step 2
OK, it's easy from here on in!
Open sc_config.php in a text editor. You don't need to be a PHP expert, but you need to set some values here.
$database is the name of your MySQL database, and $db_username and $db_password are the user account credentials that simpleContact Lite needs to be able to communicate with your database.
Enter your information between quotemarks like so:
- $database = "yourdatabasename";
- $db_username = "yourdatabaseusername";
- $db_password = "yourdatabasepassword";
Simply put, without these details your server will refuse simpleContact Lite's attempt to install its database tables.
You may also want to set values for your SMTP server or port number (for sending emails). If your SMTP server is not the default “localhost” you should set the following:
- $smtp_server = "yoursmtphost";
If your SMTP port number is not the default 25, you should set the following:
- $smtp_port = yourportnumber;
If your SMTP host requires authentication then you should set the following:
- $smtp_authenticated = true;
- $smtp_username = "yoursmtpusername";
- $smtp_password = "yoursmtppassword";
Please note: The $smtp_port and $smtp_authenticated values should not be inside quote marks.
It's fairly likely that you won't need to change the SMTP values...
Step 3
Upload simpleContact Lite to your web server.
I'm a Mac user myself, and recommend Transmit by Panic. On Windows, I hear that SmartFTP is a good choice.
Step 4
Visit either contact.php, list_subscribe.php, list_unsubscribe.php or sc_admin on your web server. simpleContact Lite will install its own database tables.
To administer the system visit sc_admin – simpleContact Lite will know that you are using it for the first time because no admin account exists. You will be asked to create one with a similar form to the standard login (with an additional password confirm field – just to be sure!). Completing this form will log you in.
Step 5
Integrating the contact, list subscribe and unsubscribe forms with your website is easy. I suggest that you start by creating the page that you want the form to exist on. Make sure that this file has an extension of .php (not .html) and that the links to it around your site are correct.
Open the sample file (e.g. contact.php) that is supplied with simpleContact Lite in your text editor. You need to copy some code from this page and paste it into your page:
- The links to PHP files at the top of the page, from the opening <?php tag to the closing ?> tag
- The entire form code, from the opening <form> tag to the closing </form> tag
You may also want to link to the CSS file, but this is optional...
The file links are relative, so please ensure that they are correct for the location of your page.
Please note: The forms must post to the page they are on. Make sure that the action attribute on the form is correct.
That's all!
You should now find that your form is successfully integrated with your website.
Enjoy!