Configuration

The basic configuration of Noah's Classifieds requires a few easy steps and it starts right after the successful installation. The first page you can see after the installation performs a checking of the configuration and displays the result. It also tells you what to do if it finds any problems. It checks the following:

• Because app/config.php might have been created by you manually during the installation, the correctness of this file is checked now - particularly, it is ensured that no white space characters (spaces, new line, etc.) have been accidentally (or automatically by your text editor) inserted before the beginning <?php or after the ending ?> lines. If there would be some, you have to delete them, because white space characters can cause a premature output, which leads to various problems in the program.

• The install script creates an admin user with password admin - the configuration page warns you to change this password if you haven't done that yet.

• The install script set up the program with an empty System email address. In most of the cases, however, it is required for the program to be able to send out email notifications that the System email address has been set to a valid existing address. The System email address will also populate the 'From' and 'Reply-to' fields of the notification emails.

• If the System email address has already been set, the configuration page provides a link through which you can send a test email to the given System email address. If this works and you get the email on that address, you can be pretty sure that the notification sending will work all right in the program. If there are still problems, you may want to use the SMTP method to send out emails. You can read more about this on the advanced configuration page.

• It is checked whether the GD library is available on your server. This is a Php extension, which is responsible in php programs for the image manipulation. In Noah's Classifieds, it is used for creating thumbnail images to the full sized uploaded pictures. Without this support the program can't generate thumbnails, this way the browser have to shrink every big images 'on-the-fly' on each pages where thumbnails can appear. This method works, but it is far from effective (the page have to download every time every big image!) If GD library is not installed, you should contact your server support to install it.

• There are a few directories that the program must have write access to and the configuration script verifies if it can really write these directories. Click here to read more details about the file permissions!

• The configuration script checks whether the “nice URL”-feature is enabled and works in the program. Noah's Classifieds is installed so that it is enabled by default, but it can happen that it still doesn't work, or even if it works, it might cause problems on some unusual server configurations. If it seems so that it doesn't work, the configuration page displays some brief information about its advantages and how to set it up. Click here to read more about the “nice URL”-feature and it's troubleshooting.

• There is no need to keep the installation files after installing Noah's - what's more, it can be a serious security leak to have them there in the installation directory. The configuration script checks whether they exist and it warns you to delete them.

• From version 2.3.0, most of the php files that used to be directly under the installation directory, must reside under the htaccess-protected app sub directory. The installation root directory may only contain index.php and initdir.php. There is a check that ensures that no spare php files remain under the installation root. Besides the old php files, old update backup directories could also hurt security, so they have to be deleted or moved outside from the web space of your site.

The configuration page is “sticky”, which means it is the default page until you manually disable it by clicking on the link on the bottom of the page! Even if you have already disabled it, you can access it any time as admin by clicking on the Check menu point. It is also highly recommended to make a configuration checking from time to time - especially after updates.