ImpressCMS Installation

In this tutorial we will show you how to install ImpressCMS. To complete the installation, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Create a MySQL database and add a new user to it. This can be done easily with cPanel by following the MySQL tutorial.

Step 2. Download ImpressCMS from the official website.

Step 3. Upload the package to your hosting account and extract it there. The structure of the extracted folder will be:

docs/
extras/
htdocs/
release_notes.txt
upgrade/
XOOPS_copyrights.txt

The files you need for a new ImpressCMS installation are located in the htdocs folder.

Step 4. Copy/move these files to the folder where you wish to install Impress CMS. In our tutorial we will install ImpressCMS in a folder called impress.

Step 5. Once you create the folder and move the files there, open your browser and go to www.yourdomainname.com/impress:

Currently only English is available, so you should simply click "Next".

Step 6. The next page is the ImpressCMS introduction page:

Click "Next" to proceed.

Step 7. The next step is the server configuration check. All SiteGround servers meet all of Impress CMS' requirements:

so you can safely click "Next" again.

Step 8. The next page shows the path settings. The application should automatically determine the paths, so unless you know what you are doing, you can leave all paths unchanged. The only thing you should do here is click "Create Trust Path" to create a trust path for your ImpressCMS application.

Then your path will be created and you will be able to proceed to the next step by clicking "Next".

Step 9. Next is the database connection page. Here you should enter the MySQL user you created earlier.

You can leave the "Use persistent connection" option unchecked.

Click "Next" and you will be taken to the database configuration page where you should enter the MySQL database you created earlier.

Unless you know what you are doing, you can leave the rest of the options unchanged and click "Next".

Step 10. In the next step of the ImpressCMS installation your configuration settings will be saved to mainfile.php. Click "Next" to proceed.

Step 11. On the next page of the installation the system tables will be created - click "Next" to confirm their creation.

Step 12. Once the tables are created, you should once again click "Next" to proceed to the admin account creation page:

Step 13. Type the details for the administrator account, click "Next" two more times and you will finally reach the installation successful page:

Step 14. The ImpressCMS installation is now completed. Click "Show my site" and you will be taken to the front page of your newly-installed Impress CMS.

ImpressCMS Admin Area and Mail Setup

In this tutorial we will show you the ImpressCMS admin area and how to configure the mail settings of your site.

When you first log in with your admin username and password, you will see the following page:

Click "Submit" to proceed.

If you have not removed the install folder and changed the permissions of the mainfile.php file to 444, you will see some warnings.

Once you remove the install folder and change the permissions of mainfile.php, the only warning remaining will be about the Protector module.

For more information on how to install a module in Impress CMS you can refer to the module installation page.

Now let's take a look at the general settings of your Impress CMS. You can access them from the admin area > Preferences > General Settings.

From here you can change your site's name, slogan, theme, the admin address, etc.

All options are self-explanatory and you should have no problem changing the general settings to your preference.

Next let's configure the mail settings of your Impress CMS.

For the purpose of this tutorial we will configure Impress CMS to work with SMTP.

The important settings here are:

Mail delivery method - choose SMTPAuth from the drop-down menu

SMTP host(s) - here you should enter mail.yourdomainname.com

SMTP username - here you should enter an existing mail account, e.g. john@yourdomainname.com

SMTPAuth password - here you should type the password for john@yourdomainname.com

Click the "Go" button to save the changes.

ImpressCMS Themes

In this tutorial we will show you how to install a new theme in ImpressCMS and set your site to use it.

For our example we'll use the "green 2" theme available at this URL.

You can find more free ImpressCMS themes at the official website.

To install a theme, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Download the theme package to your computer.

Make sure you download a theme compatible with ImpressCMS, because some themes are only compatible with Xoops, the predecessor of Impress CMS.

Step 2. Upload the theme package to the "themes" folder within your Impress CMS directory.

Step 3. Extract the theme package.

(If you are not using cPanel and you don't have the option to extract the package directly on the server, you can simply extract it on your computer and upload the theme folder using your favorite FTP client).

Step 4. Go to your ImpressCMS admin area > Preferences > General Settings [Edit].

Step 5. To set the new theme as default for your website, select it from the "Default theme" drop-down menu.

Step 6. To give your visitors the option to select this theme as default, choose the theme from the "Selectable themes" menu.

Step 7. Click the "Go!" button at the bottom of the page to save the changes.

Step 8. That's it :) Your new theme has been successfully installed. Your visitors will be able to use it from now on.

ImpressCMS Blocks

In this tutorial we will tell you more about ImpressCMS blocks and how to manage them.

Settings such as which menu is published or not, as well as the different menu and module positions, login form module, etc are managed from the Blocks Administration section in your ImpressCMS admin area.

The "Side" column of the Blocks Administration section defines at which side of your pages a given menu/module will appear.

From the "Visible" column you can publish/unpublish blocks (green represents published and red represents unpublished blog).

From the "Action" column you can "Clone" (copy), "Edit" and "Delete" a block.

Let's take a look at the Edit options for a block, for example the Login block.

Here you have basically the same options as the ones on the main Blocks Administration page, as well as two additional options - "Content" and "Cache lifetime".

The "Content" option allows you to edit the template (code) of the block. We don't recommend changing anything here unless you know what you are doing.

The "Cache lifetime" option allows you to set the cache lifetime of the block. You can disable caching for the block (No Cache), or choose cache lifetime from 30 seconds to 1 month.

To save any changes, use the "Submit" button.

Adding Content to your ImpressCMS Site

In this tutorial we will show you how to add content to your ImpressCMS site.

To add new content to your site, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Log in to the Impress CMS admin area and go to Content Manager.

Step 2. Click the "Add Content" button.

Step 3. Here you will be able to set a title for your page, add meta tags for it, select a parent item and, of course, write the content of the page. Let's call our page "Test" and select "Welcome to ImpressCMS" as parent item. For content let's put "Hello World".

You can also use custom CSS, select whether the page to be active or not, choose where to show a link to the page and select which groups will be allowed to view the page.

Step 4. When the page is ready, click "Submit" to save the changes.

Once the page is saved, it will appear in your Content Manager as a Sub of your "Welcome to ImpressCMS" page.

The new page will appear under the "What is ImpressCMS?" article on your front page:

ImpressCMS Modules

In this tutorial we will show you how to install modules in ImpressCMS.

In order to learn how to install modules in Impress CMS, we'll install the Protector module. Follow the steps below to complete the installation.

Step 1. The first thing you should do is download the module from this URL.

Step 2. Upload the archive to your account and extract it there. The extracted package will contain two directories:

html/
xoops_trust_path/

Step 3. Move the contents of the html folder directly into your Impress CMS installation directory.

Step 4. Move the contents of the xoops_trust_path folder to your trust path. The trust path for our Impress CMS installation was automatically set to /home/user/trust_patheb3b5. This path will vary depending on your Impress CMS installation.

Step 5. If you remember, when we extracted the Impress CMS package, there was a folder "extras" along with thehtml and the other directories. Inside the extras folder there is another folder called "preload". Inside this folder is the file we need in order to complete the Protector installation. The file is called protector.php and you should copy it to your ImpressCMS main folder.

Step 6. The final step is to install the module from your Impress CMS admin area. Log in as administrator and go toModules. There you will see that the Protector module is ready to be installed. All you have to do is click the install button to initiate the module installation: