Appendix 2: Uploading XOOPS via FTP

This appendix walks through deploying XOOPS 2.7.0 to a remote host using FTP or SFTP. Any control panel (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, etc.) will expose the same underlying steps.

1. Prepare the database

Through your host’s control panel:

1. Create a new MySQL database for XOOPS.
2. Create a database user with a strong password.
3. Grant the user full privileges on the newly created database.
4. Record the database name, username, password, and host — you will enter them into the XOOPS installer.

Tip

Modern control panels generate strong passwords for you. Since the application stores the password in xoops_data/data/secure.php, you do not need to type it often — prefer a long, randomly generated value.

2. Create an administrator mailbox

Create an email mailbox that will receive site administration notifications. The XOOPS installer asks for this address during the webmaster account setup and validates it with FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL.

3. Upload the files

XOOPS 2.7.0 ships with its third-party dependencies pre-installed in xoops_lib/vendor/ (Composer packages, Smarty 4, HTMLPurifier, PHPMailer, Monolog, TCPDF, and more). This makes xoops_lib/ significantly larger than in 2.5.x — expect tens of megabytes.

Do not selectively skip files inside xoops_lib/vendor/. Skipping files in the Composer vendor tree will break autoloading and the install will fail.

Upload structure (assuming public_html is the document root):

1. Upload xoops_data/ and xoops_lib/ next to public_html, not inside it. Placing them outside the web root is the recommended security posture for 2.7.0.

   /home/your-user/
   ├── public_html/
   ├── xoops_data/     ← upload here
   └── xoops_lib/      ← upload here

   

2. Upload the remaining contents of the distribution htdocs/ directory into public_html/.

   

If your host does not allow directories outside the document root

Upload xoops_data/ and xoops_lib/ inside public_html/ and rename them to non-obvious names (for example xdata_8f3k2/ and xlib_7h2m1/). You will enter the renamed paths into the installer when it asks for the XOOPS Data Path and XOOPS Library Path.

4. Make writable directories writable

Through the FTP client’s CHMOD dialog (or SSH), make the directories listed in Chapter 2 writable by the web server. On most shared hosts, 0775 on directories and 0664 on mainfile.php are sufficient. 0777 is acceptable during installation if your host runs PHP under a user other than the FTP user, but tighten the permissions after the install completes.

5. Launch the installer

Point your browser at the public URL of the site. If all files are in place, the XOOPS Installation Wizard starts and you can follow the rest of this guide from Chapter 2 onwards.