I'm Learning Silverstripe

The first time when we want to use Silverstripe CMS we must know how to install silverstripe. The way is actually quite easy, even I was surprised by the people who say that it was difficult to install silverstripe. In this post, I will explain step by step how to install silverstripe on a web server.

System Requirements

Before we do the installation we need software minimum specifications required by silverstripe order to run well. You can actually read the online documentation silverstripe about the server-requirements about these minimum specifications:

• Programming language PHP version 5. Highly recommended to version 5.2.0+. PHP 5.1.0 can also be used. PHP installation must also have a extension module for gd, mysql, hash and mbstring installed.
• MySQL database 4.1+. Silverstripe Version 2.4 supports SQL Server 2008 database and PostgreSQL versions 8.3+.
• Webserver, either Apache or IIS which can use mod_rewrite. mod_rewrite is a module on the webserver which is used to rewrite the requested URL. Silverstripe need mod_rewrite.

In this post I use the computer with Ubuntu 9:10 Operating System, Apache web server 2.2.12, PHP version 5.2.10 and MySQL version 5.1.37. But basically, the installation of silverstripe almost the same in every operating system.

Installation Step

1. 

   First you must make sure your computer already has software dependencies with the silverstripe needs, then you can download the installation files on silverstripe website http://www.silverstripe.org/stable-download/. The downloaded file format usually like SilverStripe-vx.x.x.tar.gz where "x.x.x" is the version of silverstripe.
2. While you wait for the download, the next step is to create a database in mysql. Here I use PHPMyAdmin to create the database. I created a database named ss_sslearn.
3. After you have finished downloading the Silverstripe installation files, then you can extract the file into your webserver directory, then you can change the directory name with another name. In this post I use the directory sslearn so later to access the URL will be like http://localhost/sslearn/.
4. To start the installation run your silverstripe URL in a browser. The browser will display the silverstripe installation page.
   
   On that page will appear information with the red color that indicates that you still can not install silverstripe because there are still some problems that must be done. Usually we need to do to continue the installation are:
   • Filling host, username, password and name of database that we use.
     
   • Check PHP Configuration
     
   • File Permission, at the time of installation there are some silverstripe application files / directories should be set to be available for writing.
     
   • Webserver Configuration
     
5. If all the necessary configuration is done then we can press the Re-check Requirements button to continue the installation.
6. Next installation will enter the next step, choose the templates will be installed. We can install a standard template named BlackCandy or we can install without selecting a template. If you've chosen then you can continue the installation process by pressing the Install Silverstripe button.
   
7. Wait a few moments during installation, the installation silverstripe will start automatically.
   At this moment might come up some error messages that do not greatly affect the installation process, you can ignore the message.
   
8. If the installation process is complete it will display the page that provides information that the installation was completed. You are required to remove the installation files index.php, install.php and rewritetest.php.
   
9. Installation is completed, you can access the admin pages by adding /admin on your silverstripe URL. Of course I access it by using the URL http://localhost/sslearn/admin.

Its quiet easy, isn't it.