Database Manager - Setup Tutorial

This tutorial assumes that you have a MySQL database set up on your server and that you have a username and password to access that database (which will be the case for most customers of web hosts who offer MySQL functionality). If you find that any of these steps do not work, you will need to read through the detailed instructions for Database Manager.

This is the procedure to use the first time you set up your Discus board to use MySQL. Once your board has been set up to use MySQL, you shouldn't ever do this again!

1. Put your board in Maintenance Mode: Log into administration as the board administrator and click the Options Manager link from the left. On the ensuing screen, in the first box, check the box for "Maintenance Mode." Save your options, verifying that "Maintenance Mode" is still checked.

2. Go to Database Manager: Click the Database Manager link from the left. This brings you to the "Setup" tab of Database Manager. (If you get a message about the DBI module not being supported, review the system requirements here, since your server doesn't meet them.)

3. Supply appropriate login data: Enter the database name, username, and password (if any) to connect to your database. This information should be available from your web host.

   In some unusual configurations, your MySQL database server might be on a different machine from your web server, enter the database name, followed by a semicolon, and then the string "host=" and the host name. For example: databasename;host=mysql.webhost.com. All of this information should be available from your web host.

   When you've filled in the settings, click the "Save Parameters" button. If you were successful, you should see "With the parameters shown here, a connection was successfully initiated to database!" Proceed to the next step when you see this.

4. Initialize the database: Click the "Initialize" tab, make sure all available boxes are checked, and click the "Initialize Selected Tables" button. (Some of the boxes may be grayed out and not able to be checked -- do not worry about these.)

5. Import data: Click the "Import" tab, make sure that all available boxes are checked, and click the "Import Selected Data" button. (Some of the boxes may be grayed out and not able to be checked -- do not worry about these.) This will display a gauge screen of the progress, and may take a while.

6. Toggle the database on: Click the "Toggle" tab, select "Database (Database ON)" from the pulldown list, and click the "Save Database Setting" button.

7. Take your board out of maintenance mode: Click the Options Manager link from the left, uncheck the maintenance mode box, and save your options.

If you were successful in taking your board out of maintenance mode in the last step, after you toggled on the database, you know that it worked! Your operation of going to Options Manager validated your administration password against the moderator password table, which is now being obtained from your database!

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