Requirements

openvoter's requirements aren't all that extensive, so here's a quick list of what is needed:

Installation Instructions

Installation of OpenVoter 3.2 is pretty simple. There are a few things you will need: an FTP client, a MySQL database, a zip file utility like 7zip or WinZip, and a text editor (Notepad will do).

  1. First, Download OpenVoter
  2. Unzip the files to your hard drive
  3. Navigate to the root directory and open up ov-config.php in your favorite text editor
  4. This next step assumes that you have created your MySQL database. If you haven't, you can use your MySQL tools such as phpmyadmin to do so.
    You need to modify this file to create the connection to your database.
    You will see the following in the file:
    // the name of your database
define('DB_NAME', 'openvoter');

// the database user for the database.
define('DB_USERNAME', 'user');

// the password for your database user
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'secret');

// the database host, will likely be localhost, but make sure 
// to check with your hosting provider.
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

// the id of the site (generally 1 if you only have one site)
define('SITE_ID', '1');

// the database table prefix, make sure it is unique if sharing a database.
// If you don't use or want a prefix, leave it blank
define('DB_PREFIX', 'ov_');
    DB_NAME: Put the name of your MySQL database in this field
    DB_USERNAME: Put the username of your MySQL user in this field
    DB_PASSWORD: Put the password for your MySQL user in this field
    DB_HOST: Put the server hostname of your MySQL database in this field
    SITE_ID: Unless you're planning on running multiple OpenVoter sites on your server, leave
    this as one (1)
    DB_PREFIX: All of your tables can begin with the prefix you set here. If you're worried about uniqueness, just leave this as 'ov_'

    Save the file and close.
  5. Using your favorite FTP client (I would recommend FileZilla), upload the files to your web server. Due to current limitations within the system, it is best to run OpenVoter in a root domain or subdomain.
  6. After the files are uploaded, navigate to /ov-admin/install.php -- So if your domain was example.com, you would navigate to http://www.example.com/ov-admin/install.php
  7. Enter in the fields with your site's information.
    Root URL: This refers to your domain name, so again, if your domain is example.com and you're running it on the root domain, you would enter in 'http://www.example.com' (without the quotes)
    Title: Enter your site's title here
    Email: Enter your email address here. This is the email address for your admin user to receive notifications of feedback messages and moderation reports
  8. Click Install and the installation script will run. When complete it will give you your admin name and password. Make sure to note the password, and change it immediately upon logging into the Admin Console. It's a random password, but better safe than sorry. Plus, you'll remember your own password better!
  9. Congratulations, you're all set up!

Updating Instructions

***Please note that these instructions are for updating from 3.1 to 3.2.x***

  1. Download the latest version of openvoter from here
  2. Unzip the files to your hard drive
  3. The configuration file has changed from 3.1 to 3.2. The file is named ov-config.php and is in the root directory. Just copy over the settings into the new file.
  4. Upload all the new files to the server overwriting any current files. Please note there are two .htaccess files that may not show up by default in your ftp browser depending on your configuration. They are located in the root directory and the ov-admin directory. Failure to upload these files will result in your site failing to work. (Please note that due to the new theme engine, any custom css/themes you have worked on will have to be re-done. I'm sorry for the inconvenience but this change will make it easier in the future, I promise)
  5. If you want to take the time, you can go through the files and see what's been removed and do some file cleanup on the server to get rid of the deprecated files...there's a lot, but it shouldn't affect functionality.
  6. Navigate to /ov-admin/update.php and click the update button to run the SQL scripts to update your database to handle the new functionality
  7. That's it, you're now updated to openvoter 3.2

Theming

One of the best new features of openvoter 3.2 is the new theme engine. Here I'll show you how the themes are organized and how you can modify or create your own new theme.

The new theme engine works on the idea that you create the files for the theme inside of a directory and the user would place that folder, as well as an xml file defining the theme into the 'ov-content/themes' folder in their openvoter directory. Once the theme is in place and installed, the pages are pulled from the theme folder created. These theme folders should contain all the images, javascript, and stylesheets needed.

The default theme utilizes the base openvoter javascript files located in the 'js' folder, so any development should utilize copies of these files and placed in the theme directory.

XML Definition File

The XML Definition File defines the theme name, directory, and theme information

<OpenVoterTheme>
	<name>THEME NAME</name>
	<author>THEME AUTHOR</author>
	<website>AUTHOR'S WEBSITE</website>
	<screenshot>URL of THEME SCREENSHOT</screenshot>
	<rootFolder>THEME FOLDER NAME</rootFolder>
</OpenVoterTheme><

Theme Files

Main Site

Mobile Site

The files for the mobile site should be located in a folder called 'mobile' within the main theme folder

Support

If you run into any problems, please let me know, you can use this handy form below.