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SMF Tutorial

How to use SMF forum software?

Simple Machines Forum is an Open Source bulletin board software package. SMF is free to download and use and with its template management allows you to easily customize your forum outlook. Its unique SSI (Server Side Includes) function lets you have your forum and your website interact with each other.

SMF is a PHP/MySQL based solution and offers a rich set of features, which, however, does not overload your web server.

This SMF tutorial will help you learn how to install your discussion board and how to integrate it with other tools. Below you can have a look at the topics we have included:

With SiteGround SMF hosting services each customer receives a free installation of SMF on his/her website. Our support team has acquired serious experience in managing SMF and will make sure that your forum runs trouble-free!



SMF Softaculous Installation Tutorial

In this tutorial we will show you how to use Softaculous to install a Simple Machines Forum application to your site. The installation process is pretty straightforward and it will take only a few minutes. You don't need any advanced skills to perform it and at the end you will have a fully functional SMF application on your hosting account. 

First , you need to access your cPanel account and find the Softaculous icon under the "Software Services" section. It should be located in the lower part of your cPanel page, right under the "Domains" section. 


You have to click on the Softaculous icon and then you will be redirected to the auto installer's home page. On the left side of the screen is the categories menu. The next step is to find the "Forums" category and click on it to expand it. You will see a lit of forum apps that you can install. Click on the SMF link, so that Softaculous will open the SMF installation page. 


On the next page, you will find out more information about the SMF forum application and the different features that it offers. To proceed to the installation screen click on the blue "Install" button. 


This is the most important step at which you should configure the new SMF application. Most of the fields are automatically filled in by the installer and you don't need to change them. However, we advise you to change the text in the following fields: 

  • Site Name: This is the name of your website. By default it is set to "My Board". 

  • Board Email: This is the main email message for the forums. Users will be able to send messages to it, so that they can request assistance from the administrators. This email address should exist and it will not be automatically created by Softaculous.

  • Admin Username: By default this field is set to "admin". You can change it and we strongly advise you to do it, so that an attacker will not be able to guess your administrative username. 

  • Admin Password: The administrative password for your website is a randomly generated one. If you want to change it simply type the new password in the field. 

  • Admin Email: In this field you should type your email address. It is needed, so that the application can send you a new password in case you can't login. 

  • Real Name: Here you can type your real name if you want to. 

Please note that by default Softaculous will install the SMF app in a "smf" sub-folder. That being said, if you would like to be able to access the website only via your domain name you should delete the smf string from the "Directory" field. If you want to install the CMS in another sub-folder simply type it in the field. 


Finally, scroll down to the end of the page and click on the "Install" button:


That's it! Your Simple Machines application is installed and ready to use. The installer will redirect you to a new page where you will see the details for the completed installation. You can now login and create your new SMF forum.


SMF Installation

Get a FREE installation of Simple Machines Forum with SiteGround SMF hosting Package!

SMF is the next generation of forum software, and best of all it is and will always remain completely free. It is available and can be installed easily via Fantastico in your cPanel:

Check out the SMF installation video tutorial:
SMF Installation Video Tutorial SMF Installation Video Tutorial

SMF Installation Detailed Tutorial

Once logged into Fantastico, select the SMF link from the list of scripts that appears to the left and follow the instructions during the process.

If your hosting account does not have Fantastico tool, you can click here to learn how to install SMF manually.



Manual Installation of SMF

Get a FREE installation of Simple Machines Forum with SiteGround SMF hosting Package!

First of all, you'll have to download your Simple Machines Forum (SMF). This can be done easily from the SMF official website.

Once the SMF installation package is on your local computer, you're ready to upload it to your web hosting account. There are two ways to do it. The first one is to use an FTP client. A good way to understand how to do that is to visit the FTP tutorial.

Please note that you'll have to create a directory inside your public_html folder where you want your SMF to be stored (e.g. /public_html/forum), then you can use the drag and drop option of the FTP client to upload your SMF install package to the directory you've just created. Once it's uploaded you should log in into your cPanel > File Manager and extract your SMF install package.

The other way to upload the package is to do it directly through cPanel's File Manager. More information on how to do this can be found in our cPanel tutorial.



Manual Installation of SMF

Now you should create a database for your SMF forum. The database will be used by your SMF installation for storing all comments, polls and results, and almost everything else that SMF needs to remember.

To create a database, you should log into your cPanel and click on MySQL Databases. Look for the "Create Database" button. Pick a simple name for the database (e.g. 'smf'), fill it in and click on the "Create Database" button.

Now that you have created the database, you also need to make sure that SMF will be able to access it. You need to create a MySQL user that has privileges for accessing the database.

Again, go to cPanel -> MySQL Databases and find the "Create User" button. Right above it, fill in a username and password for the MySQL user and click on the "Create User" button. It is a good idea to keep the username the same as the name of the database.

At this point, the only thing left to do regarding the database setup is to grant privileges to the user for the database. On the cPanel -> MySQL Databases page, find the two drop-down menus for users and databases, select your SMF database and the user you have created and click "Add". On the next page check the box next to ALL PRIVILEGES and click on "Make Changes".

We're now ready to proceed with the SMF installation.



Manual Installation of SMF

Assuming the previous steps went well, you should now have the SMF source files on your server with their appropriate permissions set. All that is needed now is to run the install.php file to configure your MySQL database, settings and admin account.

Open up your web browser and browse at

http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum/install.php

(where forum is the directory name you chose earlier). Provided you set the permissions correctly on Settings.php and Setting_bak.php, you should see a form asking for various settings. Fill these in as follows:

  • Forum Name: This will be the name of your forum. It starts as "My Community" but you should probably change it.
  • Forum URL: This is the url your Forum will be located at, the SMF installer should have worked this out for itself so in most cases you can leave this setting at its default value.
  • MySQL server name: This is where we specify the location of the MySQL database.. 99% of the time this will be localhost.
  • MySQL username: This is the Username for your MySQL database created earlier with your cPanel.
  • MySQL password: This is the password for your MySQL database created earlier with your cPanel.
  • MySQL Database name: This is the name of your MySQL database created earlier with your cPanel.
  • MySQL Database prefix: This is a prefix to the table names in your database. It enables you to run more than one application on a single MySQL database. You should generally leave it as smf_, unless you are installing a second copy of SMF on the same database.

Once you have filled in all of the settings, click on proceed, and you will now be asked for details of your admin account; this will create your username on the forum. As a security measure, you are also asked for your database password again. Once you have filled in the form, click on proceed.

Your Forum is now installed and you can browse to it. However, before doing so, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you delete the install.php file from the server as leaving it there is a major security risk. The installer will offer you a check box to do this, if it fails, you will see a warning on your forum, if this appears you must remove the file manually. To do so, use your FTP program to return to the directory where you installed SMF, locate install.php, select it, and hit delete or use the cPanel -> File Manager.

Congratulations! You have now successfully installed SMF. Follow the link to your forum. We hope you enjoy using SMF!



SMF Packages

At the official website of SMF you can find a lot of packages for your forum. Just visit the SMF Mods page and choose the mods you need.

To start managing your SMF, you need to login as an administrator. You can do that from the login form at the top left corner of your forum.

Once you have logged in with the administrator's credentials, you'll just have to click on the ADMIN button.

After that on the displayed page you'll see five sections at the left side of your screen named as follows:

  • Main
  • Configuration
  • Forum
  • Members
  • Maintenance

Find the link "Packages" in the "Main" section, click on it and you'll see the package manager page:

To install a new package just click on the link "Download Packages". After that by clicking on the "Browse" button at the displayed page, navigate to the package you've already downloaded to your local computer and click "Upload". Once it's uploaded you'll see a confirmation page.

To apply the package, you'll just have to go to "Browse Packages" and click on "[Apply Mod]" in front of the package you've just uploaded.

Make sure you read all the notes provided in the SMF installation package to avoid any further problems.



SMF Themes

At the official website of SMF you can find a lot of themes for your forum. Just visit the SMF Themes area and choose the themes you like.

To install a theme, you should go to your forum's admin area and click on "Themes and Layout" in the "Forum Configuration" section.

To install a new theme just click on the "Browse..." button to navigate to the theme you've already downloaded to your local computer and click "Install". Once it's installed you'll see a confirmation page.

Another option for installing the SMF theme is to extract the theme's .zip file on your local hard drive and to upload the files via FTP in the "templates" or "themes" folder of your SMF system.

To apply the new theme, go to "Themes and Layout", change the theme from the drop down menu in front of "Overall forum default:" to the new theme and then click the "Save" button.

Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com