How Difficult It Is To Manually Install iAuto?

[iAuto/iRealty Sales]

Hi everybody,

We are trying to figure out how easy it is for our iAuto users to install the software from scratch on the hosting server? It would be great if you could share your installation stories with us and open a discussion.

We have recently noticed that some of our clients are experiencing difficulties installing the software, and oftentimes the process is painful with some hosting accounts that are restrictive in giving users the ability to do things with their user space. We ourselves are battling with some of the hosting providers such as Yahoo! that is simply cannot be used to install the software onto.

Other major reason can be summarized by four letters, RTFM. Of course, if our installation manual is not very useful, please let us know that so that we can improve.

The third major reason is that the software installation is halted having discovered an issue that needs to be resolved by the user, and the user has no idea as to how to resolve this issue.

Anyway, we look forward to your comments and possible issues with the iAuto installation. It would be nice if you could include some basic info such as your hosting SP, your server settings at the time of installation, and other info that could help our readers understand what may be the causes of the problem(s) you may have experienced.

[david4ie]

Hello

I Had some difficulty installing the software because when I ran install.php the process was interupted by an error page from my host (HostMonster) saying "This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota".

I then had to edit the Install script to make it work. But after deleting a few functions from the install script the rest of the installation was quite easy and straight forward.

Dave

[Stan]

My opinion is that you should have a text file with step by step instructions. For examlple: do you upload the database first, and how to work with permissions for multiple folders and files (I found that most annoying). I still have an issue with videos.

I think you guys came up with very nice system and price is very reasonable. So, like you said: anything could ne done for the right price 

[iAuto/iRealty Sales]

David,

I am always glad to see your posts. I like your approach to the system - if something doesn't work like it should you go ahead and fix it!

It is very difficult to create a script that would work well for every single hosting environment, and we noticed that generally US-based hosting providers give far more in terms of access, privileges and options to their clients as opposed to their European colleagues. Thank you for the feedback!

[iAuto/iRealty Sales]

Stan,

I am actually going to write such a file with step-by-step easy to understand instructions and post it here, as well as include it in the manual. This is the reason why I'm gathering user feedback, and thank you for providing yours.

Have you used the Installation Instructions (install.html in the root of your /doc folder)? Was it of any help to you?

[pntkl]

Initially, I was unable to get iAuto to install without errors. Being low on time, I let the client submit a trouble ticket to iAuto, and I was told there were issues with the .htaccess files and permissions (although, the client couldn't offer specifics).

I was able to get the 3.2 upgrade to install today, after uploading the files via Slackware as opposed to Windows. I don't really see what could be the root-cause, other than maybe the Windows FTP client wasn't setting permissions.

My biggest problem with installation was the fact that my host doesn't offer access to tar. It would be nice to be able to upload just the tar file, make a php script (exec('tar xvf iAuto.tar'); exec('chmod a+w filea fileb ...'), and then just run the install.php. The reason it would be nice is because the host ftp likes to time-out while uploading the 1300 or so files iAuto contains. On my first install attempt after the initial upload, I noticed that a lot of files weren't transferred (probably on the files that were being transferred at time-out). This caused install errors, and threw me off for a good 30 minutes.

I didn't notice any way to upgrade the site, so I ended up re-installing the site w/the new 3.2 files. This has caused me quite a headace, after realizing the the static pages are nowhere to be found in the 3.1.2 site backup (FTP xfer to my Desktop). I was going to have the client backup the database, but he was having trouble with his host's cpanel and I told him to just blow it out. I only expected to lose trivial template DB items, not the static pages.

As for the iAuto manual, I had a hard time reading through it. I browsed through the content, somewhat, but my impression is that it could be much more thorough. Just as an example, the static pages section only briefly describes the static pages. It doesn't tell you that if you blow out your development DB without backing it up, you lose your static pages too.

[iAuto/iRealty Sales]

Hi pntkl,

This is some great feedback you have provided us with. I do understand your frustration with the hosting environment that aren't very user-friendly.

One out of two expert installations we've implemented has to deal with hosting accounts similar to yours. Yahoo!, for instance, still believes everyone is in the pre-dynamic html era when everything a small business owner needs is the ability to upload a bunch of static html pages or hand-design them using their smart-ass Fronpage-replacement interfaces . The result - our client got a different hosting account and everything worked fine.

As for your suggestions regarding the manual and the installation script, I am definitely forwarding them to our developers for their review and consideration. We are already adding stuff to our manuals to make them more user-friendly and useful to our clients, and your inputs are much appreciated, it gives us the sense of direction.

Best regards,
iAuto/iRealty Sales

[Stan]

Install.php was a good help, but installation took a long time because I had to set up permissions file by file through my cpanel. It was la lot of files...

[iAuto/iRealty Sales]

Hi pntkl,

We had already had our install.php set up the way you described it, but had to get rid of that because of the file permissions issue that would cause a potential security implication. I am not going to go into detail about it, but this was actually one of the first things we tried when facing this problem.

I would still thank you for your feedback

Regards,
iAuto/iRealty Sales