Here is the very first how-to guide requested from the request page.
PROPS is an open, extensible Internet publishing system designed specifically for periodicals such as newspapers and magazines who want to publish online, either exclusively or as an extension of their print publication. PROPS is written entirely in PHP using a MySQL database backend, and is free software released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
In this tutorial, we will use the latest version of PROPS which is 0.8. Before the installation, please make sure your host has fully supported for the below requirements:
- Apache webserver
- MySQL 4.1 or greater (5.x is recommended)
- PHP 4.3.0 or greater (5.x is recommended)
- ImageMagick or PHP with GD support (required for photos)
Firstly, download the package from Sourceforge.net you will get the file named props-0.8.final.tar.gz. Extract the downloaded file and you’ll get the following files and directories:
cache/
INSTALL.TXT
locale/
README.TXT
TODO.TXT
CHANGELOG.TXT
lib/
modules/
sql/
UPGRADING.TXT
includes/
LICENSE.TXT
public_html/
templates/
Next, create a new database on your hosting account. Then, head to PHPMyAdmin and import props-mysql.sql which is located in sql/ directory.
Upload all files and directories in public_html/ to root of your site where you want PROPS to be installed. Then, rename config.default.php to config.php and open it in your favorite text editor.
Edit the following sections to fit your need:
- props_setkey(‘config.publication.name’, ‘Your Site Name‘);
- props_setkey(‘config.default.copyright’, ‘Copyright Notice‘);
- props_setkey(‘config.db.name’, ‘database_name‘);
- props_setkey(‘config.db.user’, ‘database_username‘);
- props_setkey(‘config.db.password’, ‘database_password‘);
Save and upload back to the server.
Okay, now upload the rest of directories to one level before your root directory:
cache/
modules/
includes/
lib/
locale/
templates/
For example, if your root directory is /home/username/domains/sitename.com/public_html/ then upload the above directories to /home/username/domains/sitename.com/
Point your browser to http://domain.tld/ (replace domain.tld with your domain name) you will see the follow error:
Internal Server Error
While responding to your request an error encountered in the application. The administrator has been notified.
Sorry for the inconvenience, we correct the error as soon as possible.
This site has nothing published yet. Please come back in a short time.
« Go back »
This is because you haven’t added any article yet. So just point your browser to http://domain.tld/admin/ and login with username admin using password password
When you access to the admin panel for the first name, you will be noticed about using default admin details. Just ignore it and scroll down and click on Update user privs
You also have to change your password for admin account as well. To do this, click on admin on the left sidebar. Edit the information as needed.
Publishing content
To begin with publishing your contents, Click on the Content management tab, click Manage editions and start with adding an edition following by story. Don’t forget to click publish it after saving or it will not show on the home page.
See it in action http://props.how2cms.com/
The bottom line
What I really forgot in the article is, having step-by-step screenshots as usually. Really sorry for that 
Anyway, I hope you found this article useful. If you have any issue with installation, please add comment below.
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3 Responses
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Thank you! Nice job with the instructions. The one thing that I had to do in addition to what you outlined was change the path for require_once(‘../lib/common.php’); in index.php. For some reason I was getting an error message that Props couldn’t find the common.php file, but once I gave the full path I was able to bring up the admin screen.
The problem I am having now is that I can login to admin with the default username/password but it won’t let me do anything once I am there. Every link I click on sends me back to the admin login screen. This was something that was mentioned several times in the Props forums, but the solution remains a mystery. (The support request show resolved as the status but do not explain how it was resolved…)
Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.
Hi Pat,
I believe the reason of getting error with finding lib/common.php is because you didn’t put the lib directory (and other dir) one level before your root directory.
For admin login issue, you may try clearing cookie. If that doesn’t work. Try reinstall it on another host, sometimes this is something to do with hosting.
Actually, I have been unable to get Props working at all on my original host. I get to the login screen and when I put in the username/password I get an error that says database offline. After about a week of trying to figure out what I did wrong, I gave up and tried to load Props on one of my other websites (on another host). I had no problem logging in, but that is where I am having the click on the link – get kicked back to the login screen problem. I’m usually pretty good with these things, maybe I’m just Props challenged.