CMS Made Simple Forums

I have some very basic questions, as I am not familiar with CMSs generally and CMSMS in particular. Neither Google nor a forum search has found answers. Apologies for my highly advanced level of ignorance at this point :-)

I've successfully installed CMSMS 1.6.6 locally on my Win XP PC, running against Apache.

My installation files are in the following directory
D:\Websites\CMSMS_test\www.dummy.com\public_html\cmsmadesimple

so the admin interface is accessed via
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/admin/login.php

and a default set of  pages can be accessed via
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/index.php

(1) If I create a trial web site locally on my PC using this installation, which directory will the home page reside in?
IOW, can I choose to have it in public_html, or does CMSMS require it to reside inside public_html\cmsmadesimple for example?

(2) Do the default set of pages starting at
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/index.php
serve any purpose other than as a helpful introduction? IOW, will they have any relationship to any site I will build?

Thanks in anticipation for any advice.

Post should be moved to "Installation and Setup"

If I create a trial web site locally on my PC using this installation, which directory will the home page reside in?

You can choose directory whatever you want (it depends on your apache configuration). You already have installed CMSms, haven't you?

Do the default set of pages starting at...

As you already mentioned default content is very

helpful introduction

arcms wrote: I have some very basic questions, as I am not familiar with CMSs generally and CMSMS in particular. Neither Google nor a forum search has found answers. Apologies for my highly advanced level of ignorance at this point

We were all there once...  (some of us still are  )

arcms wrote: My installation files are in the following directory
D:\Websites\CMSMS_test\www.dummy.com\public_html\cmsmadesimple

so the admin interface is accessed via
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/admin/login.php

and a default set of  pages can be accessed via
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/index.php

(1) If I create a trial web site locally on my PC using this installation, which directory will the home page reside in?
IOW, can I choose to have it in public_html, or does CMSMS require it to reside inside public_html\cmsmadesimple for example?

It sounds like you haven't yet fully absorbed the concept of CMSMS.  There is a "homepage" of sorts (\index.php), but it itself does not hold any content.  The content is stored in the database and rendered on-the-fly when the visitor accesses one of the URLs on your site.  You will not be creating standalone pages like you may have done in the past.  After you have created 5, 10, or 100 pages, the files/folders in public_html\cmsmadesimple will look exactly like they did right after the installation.

If you want your site to be accessible from localhost\index.php, then you need to move the CMSMS files/folders directly into public_html, without the cmsmadesimple parent directory.  If you want your site to be accessible from localhost/foo/bar/here/we/go/index.php, then you would move all your files/folders into public_html\foo\bar\here\we\go\

arcms wrote: (2) Do the default set of pages starting at
http://localhost/cmsmadesimple/index.php
serve any purpose other than as a helpful introduction? IOW, will they have any relationship to any site I will build?

They are excellent references, but have NO relationship to the site you will build.  In fact, part of the installation process allows you to choose whether or not to install the default sample content.  For a first time user, you did the right thing by installing it.  For an advanced user, it is usually not necessary.

As you get started, make good use of the default content and forum search, as probably 95% of questions have already been answered.  If you need to ask a question, be sure to provide all the requested information and follow the forum rules, http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... ,40.0.html

Welcome!

Thank you both for your patient & helpful replies.

BTW, I posted my question in this forum because I had already installed CMSMS successfully. I hope that's OK.

If you want your site to be accessible from localhost\index.php, then you need to move the CMSMS files/folders directly into public_html, without the cmsmadesimple parent directory.

@jmcgin51, thanks, you guessed correctly that I really needed to know where the index.php of the final web site would reside. I will follow your advice and move everything from under the cmsmadesimple directory up to the document root.

FWIW, the reason I currently have the software under the cmsmadesimple directory is that I was following the (very helpful) getting started example given on this page
http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php ... Windows_PC
At the end of the section titled 'Install CMS Made Simple' it says

Drag this cmsmadesimple directory and drop it in c:\wamp\www\

For absolute beginners to CMSs it would be helpful if the relationship between the CMS install directory and the intended web site document root directory was made clear at this point.

arcms wrote: For absolute beginners to CMSs it would be helpful if the relationship between the CMS install directory and the intended web site document root directory was made clear at this point.

during development, many developers will run multiple sites on one server; therefore keeping your installation inside the cmsmadesimple directory (or whatever you want to call it) keeps it isolated from another site that might already be in the root.  This keeps things clean and prevents conflicts with existing index files.

In my case, I have separate directories for each cmsms installation (site) on my local server, so I have localhost\firstsite, localhost\secondsite, localhost\thirdsite, etc.  This frees up my local webroot for any other uses I might have.  When a site goes live on a public server, it obviously goes in the web root.

jmcgin51 wrote:

arcms wrote: For absolute beginners to CMSs it would be helpful if the relationship between the CMS install directory and the intended web site document root directory was made clear at this point.

during development, many developers will run multiple sites on one server; therefore keeping your installation inside the cmsmadesimple directory (or whatever you want to call it) keeps it isolated from another site that might already be in the root.  This keeps things clean and prevents conflicts with existing index files.

In my case, I have separate directories for each cmsms installation (site) on my local server, so I have localhost\firstsite, localhost\secondsite, localhost\thirdsite, etc.  This frees up my local webroot for any other uses I might have.  When a site goes live on a public server, it obviously goes in the web root.

Thanks for clarifying that point.