NADA Documentation

# Installation

# NADA requirements

NADA requires PHP, a MySQL database and a web server.

# PHP

The minimum required version is PHP 7.3 with the following PHP extensions enabled, see page PHP configurations:

  • xsl
  • xml
  • mbstring
  • mysqli

For Microsoft SQL Server, see page installation with SQL Server.

# Web server

  • Apache 2.4 or later
  • IIS 6/7.x or later
  • NGINX

# Supported databases

  • MySQL 5.x or MySQL 8
  • Microsoft SQL Server with fulltext support

For MySQL, NADA supports version below 5.6 (no longer supported by MySQL community) but for better performance use the latest 5.7 or MySQL 8.

# Option 1: Download source code package

# Copy files to your web server

Copy the files to a folder on the web server root folder. If installing on a localhost - for example the computer currently being working on – then copy and paste (or move) the files into the root folder (or a sub-folder) of the web server. If, however, the server is running on a remote host (such as an ISP), then this process will involve the use of a FTP client program or file manager from the ISP’s Cpanel.

NOTE

The folder name chosen will in many cases become the URL for the catalog. Examples for a folder name might be – data, microdata, catalog etc.

The root folder is located in different places depending upon the operating system/distribution and web server package you are using and it might be called htdocs, httpd, or www. On Windows servers this might be located in the inetpub directory and on Linux in the /var/www/html directory. Consult the documentation for the operating system being used or contact the ISP if unsure where the root web folder is.

# Option 2: Download source code using GIT

You can use GIT to download NADA source code from Github, you'll need a GIT client installed to be able to run GIT commands.

# Install GIT client

For running the GIT commands to get/clone the source code, you'll need to install GIT on your web server or your local machine. There are several options available:

There are many other GIT tools available, you can use whichever you prefer. Almost all GIT tools, come with a command line (CLI) tool. We will be using the GIT CLI commands.

# Download source code

To get the source code, use the following command. This will create a copy of the source code into a local folder on your machine or web server.


#this will create a folder named nada
git clone https://github.com/ihsn/nada.git 

#to create a different folder name
git clone https://github.com/ihsn/nada.git <folder-name>

# Set folders permissions

Change the permissions for the following folders and their contents to READ/WRITE.

datafiles – this is the folder where NADA stores data

NOTE

For added security, it is strongly recommended that the location of the datafiles directory be changed after installation to a location outside your web root structure.

logs – this is where the log files will be stored files - folder for storing sessions files, thumbnails and other temporary files

# For IIS on Windows

On Windows servers make sure the IIS AppPool\<applicationpoolname> user has read/write/delete permissions. If you are using the default App Pool, the user account is named IIS AppPool\DefaultAppPool.

# Linux

For linux, you can run the following command to set the permissions

$ chmod -R 755 datafiles files logs

Make sure you set the web server user account to be owner of the files and folders. For example, if you are running Apache with the user account www-data, run this command to change the ownership:

$ chmod www-data:www-data -R <nada-root-folder>

# Configure MySQL database

  1. Browse to the your-nada-web-folder/application/config folder.

  2. Make a copy of the file database-sample.php and rename it to database.php

  3. Open the database.php file in a text editor like Notepad or Notepad ++, and fill in the following informaiton:

hostname - ipaddress or the machine name where database is hosted

username - database user name

password - database password

database - database name




 
 
 
 



















$db['default'] = array(
	'dsn'	=> '',
	'hostname' => 'localhost',
	'username' => 'nada_user',
	'password' => '<db-pass-here>',
	'database' => 'nada',
	'dbdriver' => 'mysqli',
	'dbprefix' => '',
	'pconnect' => FALSE,
	'db_debug' => FALSE,
	'cache_on' => FALSE,
	'cachedir' => '',
	'char_set' => 'utf8',
	'dbcollat' => 'utf8_general_ci',
	'swap_pre' => '',
	'encrypt' => FALSE,
	'compress' => FALSE,
	'stricton' => FALSE,
	'failover' => array(),
	'save_queries' => TRUE,
	'prefix_short_words'=>TRUE
);
  1. Save the file.

NOTE

Do NOT use the root username and password (MySQL) or SA Account (MSSQL) on your production server. Create a separate user name and password for your NADA database. This can be done either from your Cpanel or from PhpMyadmin, MySQL Workbench.

# Create database user account

You'll need to create an empty database for NADA to use. You'll need to use a database client such as MySQL Workbench, PhpMyAdmin or Command line:

From the command line type to connect using the root account:

$ mysql -u root –p

To create a new blank database, run:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE nada;

Now create a user who can access the new nada database and give the user only the rights necessary to run the NADA.

mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,LOCK TABLES ON nada.* TO 'nada'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';

yourpassword - can be anything you choose. It is a good practice to use a password that contains text, numbers and special characters.

NOTE

Make sure to write it down, you will need it to configure your NADA!

Then exit MySQL console by typing exit.

mysql> exit

# Running the installer

Open web browser to the location of the NADA installation. For example: http://your-domain/nada-folder-name (opens new window), or http://localhost/nada-folder-name (opens new window).

NADA installer

Check that all settings are marked with a green tick and fix any that are not on your webserver before running the installer. See page PHP configurations to update PHP extensions and configurations.

Click on the Install Database button and complete the form to create an initial Site Administrator account.

Complex Password

Create a complex password at least 12 characters long with some uppercase, punctuation and numbers to aid security of your site. Do not forget this username and password!

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