Moving Up ...

Lengthy installation details are available on the Step-by-Step installation page. For this Walk-Through tutorial, we will simplify and illustrate deploying HTML Master Pages to a hosted web server.

Requirements

Before installing HTML Master Pages, make sure your web host meets these key requirements:

1. Provides the Apache web server (usually on Linux servers but it can be provided on Windows)
2. Allows you to use .htaccess configuration files
3. Has PHP 5.3 (or later) installed and enabled for your web-site
4. Has libxml for PHP installed and enabled

While it may be possible for HTML Master Pages to run under other conditions (with some tweaking), the Walk-Through tutorial presented here will only succeed for you when all of these requirements are met.

Not sure how to verify these requirements? Try this:

1. Create and upload the following one-line file to the root directory of your web-site:

   <?php echo phpinfo(); ?>

2. Open that page in your web browser by pointing it at http://your-site/test.php (of course, http://your-site/ means whatever the URL is to your actual web-site).
3. If PHP is installed and running, you will get a whole lot of colorful information. Most importantly, search the page for these three facts:
   1. PHP Version should be at least 5.3

      If you are instead prompted to download the test.php file or you see the bare <?php echo phpinfo(); ?> source code when you attempt to open it, then PHP is not installed or it isn't enabled for your web-site. In this case, it is up to you to discover how to enable PHP because each web hosting provider has their own requirements and methods. This is usually simple to do and if all else fails, contact your web hosting provider's support team.

   2. Server API should contain Apache

      If the Server API isn't Apache, then this tutorial may not be of much benefit to you. If you are particularly savvy, you may be able to read the remainder of this Walk-Through and adapt it to fit your particular scenario but you will be treading in untested waters. Otherwise, it may be easier for you to switch to an Apache provision. Some web hosting providers allow you to make this choice (usually between Linux Apache vs. Microsoft IIS). Others may not give you any choice other than to move to a different web hosting provider.

   3. libXML support should be active

      If you cannot find libXML anywhere on the page or it is not active, you will need to contact your web hosting provider and ask them to make it available to you.

4. Delete the /test.php file from your web-site when you have finished verifying these requirements. You really don't want everyone else in the world knowing every intimate detail of your web-site!
5. We will know on the next page whether or not you are able to use .htaccess configuration files.

Acquire and Upload

After you have confirmed that your web host meets the requirements, download the HTML Master Pages source files and extract them to your computer. This will give you three files:

1. demuxer.php, the "glue" that sits between your web server and the rest of HTML Master Pages
2. CresourceFile.php, which handles your resource documents
3. CmasterPage.php, which handles your Master Pages

Upload all three of these files to the root directory of your web-site. You may certainly upload these files to any directory you prefer, but the remainder of this tutorial will assume that all three files are located in the root directory. Feel free to adjust the remaining instructions to suit your actual deployment if you elect to use a different directory.