Hi. I have read as many of the pertinent docs as I can find, regarding installing Umbraco 4 on different flavors of shared hosting, but unfortunately the tutorial for Plesk hosting I read addresses v4.0.0 and it directed one to upload the contents of the "build" directory, but in 4.0.4.2 I do not find a build directory; I have the zip files of both the regular 4.0.4.2 download package, and the other one, with "WebDeploy" in the filename, but I don't know which one to use; it appears that inside the 'webdeploy" one there is a dir called "Umbraco" which contains exactly the same thing as the plain download zip.
So, should I just upload the contents of the regular zip package?
Also, I don't wish to install Umbraco in the root httpdocs directory, but in a directory of its own -- the hosting plan I'm on allows just one domain, so I have to share the wealth, so to speak. Is it better to install Umbraco in a folder, like, http://mydomain.com/umbraco, or is it better to use a subdomain, http://umbraco.mydomain.com ? I can use unlimited subdomains.
I don't know if it's pertinent or if they're well-known enough for anyone to know any details of their servers, but I'm on MochaHosting, their Windows/ASP.NET type hosting, with Plesk 9.3.0. All their tech-specs appear to be in order, for this program to run successfully -- ASP.NET 2.somethingorother, MS SQL 2005/2008, full trust, etc.
I have been using another ASP.NET CMS, which I won't name in deference to your request at signup but is a rather popular ASP.NET CMS, which was auto-installed by the Plesk Web Application installer, but it has proven impossible to upgrade that program past the rather antiquated release contained in the auto-installer, so I'm looking at other options, and Umbraco looks very flexible, and should offer me an opportunity to learn to use this ASP.NET thing in the somewhat cushioned environment that a good CMS offers -- if I can just get it installed!
Well, since no one else has responded, I thought I should reply to this message myself, with the details of my own experience, which might help some other newbies who're hosted on a Plesk system. This is probably the easiest install to a MS/ASP.NET server I've yet experienced, (which is completely awesome and extremely welcome when you're new to MS/ASP.NET as I am, and can't seem to get a handle on just what the heck is going on), but there are a few details that are worth mentioning.
First: the contents of the plain download package, in this case "umbraco_v4042.zip", is exactly what should be uploaded. If you're like me, you like to get the upload going while you do the other parts of the install, although in this case, it's blessedly small in size; Linux CMS things tend to be around 25mb-50mb, but this was only about 14-ish mb. Setting the file permissions thru the Plesk interface took a great deal longer than uploading those files! (More below about the file permissions)
The other thing that does bear repeating is that yeah you really do have to install MS SQL server 2008, Express or whatever it is that is available for free, on your own computer, to enable you to set the permissions properly for the database -- this is important to stress because it's such a foreign concept to those who are accustomed to php/MySQL/phpMyAdmin -- but it has to be done that way. The URL for that free download is available in several spots, but the actual thing I installed was "SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU.exe", you can find it for free at Microsoft. And you also need to install this other Windows doohickey called "Windows PowerShell" (also free from Microsoft, go hunt for whatever version you need for your Win version), only you wouldn't have known that till you tried to install the SQL Mgmt Studio and it failed because PowerShell probably isn't installed -- and before you install either thing, it's a darn good idea to do a backup of your boot drive, since you're actually updating the operating system. If something goes kerblooie -- you know how these Windows things can go -- you'll want that backup. :) Once you get all this stuff installed, the instructions for setting things up are in the wiki here, at http://v3.umbraco.org/documentation/books/installing-v400-on-a-plesk-shared-host -- Mr. Jon Webb has explained it beautifully so no need to repeat. (it's specific instructions for Plesk users, but he describes connecting and configuring the SQL Studio Mgmt thing really well!)
The file permissions are the next part, and this also gets into my questions above, about whether it's better to use a virtual path (your domain.com/umbraco) or a subdomain (umbraco.yourdomain.com) -- this is if you don't want to install into your root httpdocs folder -- it's best to use a subdomain! Because with a subdomain, it appears to Umbraco to be in a "root folder" -- it's the root of the subdomain -- but because it's ACTUALLY a folder off your httpdocs folder, you can set the file permissions for that folder (for "Full Control") which you cannot do to your ACTUAL root folder in a shared-hosting account. So that when you go to run the install program, all your permissions will be set correctly and it won't give you any backtalk about setting connection strings manually. (if you try to use a virtual path you will get 1 or more server errors that seem impossible to resolve -- using a subdomain IS the resolution!)
Anyway, the same wiki URL I referenced above (http://v3.umbraco.org/documentation/books/installing-v400-on-a-plesk-shared-host) explains the file/folder permissions that need to be set and how to do it thru the Plesk File Manager. You can't do it thru FTP the way you do chmod on a Linux system, it has to be thru the Plesk File Manager; it's slow since it's one at a time, but it's the only way.
Then you just browse to the URL where you installed umbraco (http://umbraco.yourdomain.com or whatever) and the installation program will begin. At that point you should be home free and have a working, albeit blank, installation of Umbraco within a very few minutes.
Hey, if this ASP.NET newbie can make it work, it should be a piece of cake for some of you developer types. Great job, Umbraco!
Thanks. :) After re-reading, I realized that I left out any mention of the modifications to web.config, but that same wiki URL also covers that beautifully, along with that bit at the end about modifying web.config after the installation, to reflect the version you've just installed -- that wiki talks about v4.0.0, but I just made it "4.0.4.2" and it worked great. All systems are now go, now I just have to figure out how to make it pretty. :)
installing v4042 on a Plesk shared host
Hi. I have read as many of the pertinent docs as I can find, regarding installing Umbraco 4 on different flavors of shared hosting, but unfortunately the tutorial for Plesk hosting I read addresses v4.0.0 and it directed one to upload the contents of the "build" directory, but in 4.0.4.2 I do not find a build directory; I have the zip files of both the regular 4.0.4.2 download package, and the other one, with "WebDeploy" in the filename, but I don't know which one to use; it appears that inside the 'webdeploy" one there is a dir called "Umbraco" which contains exactly the same thing as the plain download zip.
So, should I just upload the contents of the regular zip package?
Also, I don't wish to install Umbraco in the root httpdocs directory, but in a directory of its own -- the hosting plan I'm on allows just one domain, so I have to share the wealth, so to speak. Is it better to install Umbraco in a folder, like, http://mydomain.com/umbraco, or is it better to use a subdomain, http://umbraco.mydomain.com ? I can use unlimited subdomains.
I don't know if it's pertinent or if they're well-known enough for anyone to know any details of their servers, but I'm on MochaHosting, their Windows/ASP.NET type hosting, with Plesk 9.3.0. All their tech-specs appear to be in order, for this program to run successfully -- ASP.NET 2.somethingorother, MS SQL 2005/2008, full trust, etc.
I have been using another ASP.NET CMS, which I won't name in deference to your request at signup but is a rather popular ASP.NET CMS, which was auto-installed by the Plesk Web Application installer, but it has proven impossible to upgrade that program past the rather antiquated release contained in the auto-installer, so I'm looking at other options, and Umbraco looks very flexible, and should offer me an opportunity to learn to use this ASP.NET thing in the somewhat cushioned environment that a good CMS offers -- if I can just get it installed!
Thx,
Andria
Well, since no one else has responded, I thought I should reply to this message myself, with the details of my own experience, which might help some other newbies who're hosted on a Plesk system. This is probably the easiest install to a MS/ASP.NET server I've yet experienced, (which is completely awesome and extremely welcome when you're new to MS/ASP.NET as I am, and can't seem to get a handle on just what the heck is going on), but there are a few details that are worth mentioning.
First: the contents of the plain download package, in this case "umbraco_v4042.zip", is exactly what should be uploaded. If you're like me, you like to get the upload going while you do the other parts of the install, although in this case, it's blessedly small in size; Linux CMS things tend to be around 25mb-50mb, but this was only about 14-ish mb. Setting the file permissions thru the Plesk interface took a great deal longer than uploading those files! (More below about the file permissions)
The other thing that does bear repeating is that yeah you really do have to install MS SQL server 2008, Express or whatever it is that is available for free, on your own computer, to enable you to set the permissions properly for the database -- this is important to stress because it's such a foreign concept to those who are accustomed to php/MySQL/phpMyAdmin -- but it has to be done that way. The URL for that free download is available in several spots, but the actual thing I installed was "SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU.exe", you can find it for free at Microsoft. And you also need to install this other Windows doohickey called "Windows PowerShell" (also free from Microsoft, go hunt for whatever version you need for your Win version), only you wouldn't have known that till you tried to install the SQL Mgmt Studio and it failed because PowerShell probably isn't installed -- and before you install either thing, it's a darn good idea to do a backup of your boot drive, since you're actually updating the operating system. If something goes kerblooie -- you know how these Windows things can go -- you'll want that backup. :) Once you get all this stuff installed, the instructions for setting things up are in the wiki here, at http://v3.umbraco.org/documentation/books/installing-v400-on-a-plesk-shared-host -- Mr. Jon Webb has explained it beautifully so no need to repeat. (it's specific instructions for Plesk users, but he describes connecting and configuring the SQL Studio Mgmt thing really well!)
The file permissions are the next part, and this also gets into my questions above, about whether it's better to use a virtual path (your domain.com/umbraco) or a subdomain (umbraco.yourdomain.com) -- this is if you don't want to install into your root httpdocs folder -- it's best to use a subdomain! Because with a subdomain, it appears to Umbraco to be in a "root folder" -- it's the root of the subdomain -- but because it's ACTUALLY a folder off your httpdocs folder, you can set the file permissions for that folder (for "Full Control") which you cannot do to your ACTUAL root folder in a shared-hosting account. So that when you go to run the install program, all your permissions will be set correctly and it won't give you any backtalk about setting connection strings manually. (if you try to use a virtual path you will get 1 or more server errors that seem impossible to resolve -- using a subdomain IS the resolution!)
Anyway, the same wiki URL I referenced above (http://v3.umbraco.org/documentation/books/installing-v400-on-a-plesk-shared-host) explains the file/folder permissions that need to be set and how to do it thru the Plesk File Manager. You can't do it thru FTP the way you do chmod on a Linux system, it has to be thru the Plesk File Manager; it's slow since it's one at a time, but it's the only way.
Then you just browse to the URL where you installed umbraco (http://umbraco.yourdomain.com or whatever) and the installation program will begin. At that point you should be home free and have a working, albeit blank, installation of Umbraco within a very few minutes.
Hey, if this ASP.NET newbie can make it work, it should be a piece of cake for some of you developer types. Great job, Umbraco!
--Andria
Really great feedback Andria, your efforts in replying to your own thread can be really, really helpful to others. +1 from me!
Cheers,
/Dirk
Thanks. :) After re-reading, I realized that I left out any mention of the modifications to web.config, but that same wiki URL also covers that beautifully, along with that bit at the end about modifying web.config after the installation, to reflect the version you've just installed -- that wiki talks about v4.0.0, but I just made it "4.0.4.2" and it worked great. All systems are now go, now I just have to figure out how to make it pretty. :)
--Andria
Good luck on the journey, and do let us know if you run into any issue..
Cheers,
/Dirk
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