How To Install MyBB
Want to create a community, but don't have enough money to purchase a paid forum script such as vBulletin, XenForo, InvisionPowerBoard, or WoltLab's Burning Board? Well, you can make an amazing board with MyBB! In this tutorial, I will be showing you how to install MyBB.
Step 1: Download MyBB. Find a copy of the latest version of MyBB available for download on MyBB's homepage, MyBB.com. Unzip the file (Windows has a tool integrated into it that allows you to unzip files, but you can also use a tool such as 7Zip).
Step 2: Upload the files. Enter your file transfer protocol (such as FileZilla) or your file manager (which is located in your cPanel). If you are using a file transfer protocol, login to your account. Upload all of the files that you unzipped earlier to your website's root directory (possible names are "htdocs" and "public_html"). If you do not wish to have it in your root, you can still easily upload the forum to a subdirectory of your domain (such as yourdomain.com/mybb, yourdomain.com/forum/, or yourdomain.com/community). All you have to do is create the subdirectory and upload the files. There are almost 800 files in all, so it will take a while to complete the upload.
Step 3: Install MyBB onto your website. Once the upload has finished, go to the "install" directory of your site. (http://example.com/install) You should see a "welcome" page, if you did everything correctly so far. Simply click "next" here.
After doing the above, agree to the license. Then on the next page, you will be told if your server meets the necessary requirements in order to install MyBB. If it says one of your directories or files is not writable, then this means that they do not have the proper permissions (inc/config.php and inc/settings.php should be CHMOD'ed to 666, and cache/themes and uploads/avatars should be CHMOD'ed to 777 - if you do not know how to do this in your file manager, contact your web-host; in FileZilla, simply right-click on a directory or file to change its permissions - if you use another file transfer protocol, contact them for support).
Once it says you meet the requirements to install MyBB, click "next." For Database Engine, it should be MySQL or MySQL Improved. For database host, database username, database password, and database name; these details are for your MySQL database. You can create one with your cPanel. Once you create one, you should have the details as well. If you do not, contact your web-host for support. It is not necessary to change database path. For table prefix, it is highly recommend you change "mybb_" to something else. Remember to use '_' (this is good for security reasons). For table encoding, keep it as UTF-8 Unicode. For the next three steps; table creation, table population, and theme installation, simply click "next" on each of them. In board configuration: Enter your forum's name, URL, website name and URL (if applicable, otherwise, use the same as forum), cookie path, cookie domain, and contact e-mail. Cookie path and cookie domain fields are usually already filled in and are correct, so only change them if you know that they are incorrect. Change the contact e-mail to the e-mail you want your users to contact if they need something. It is also the e-mail used when sending out mass mail. Next, in create administrator account, simply type in your account details. Make sure you use a secure password. Finally, you're done!
You have installed MyBB onto your website! Congratulations!
