SomeryC Tutorial:
Webcomic Automation For The Uninitiated
So, you have a webcomic. Your site is up, your comic has already begun or is about to begin its serialization on the internet, and you have sufficient knowledge of HTML to create and mantain a nice looking site.
But you have heard there is a way to automate the process of updating a webcomic and creating an archive. You know you need something called a webcomic automation script to do this. But you know nothing of MySQL and PHP. So, much to your chagrin, you resign yourself to having to manually update your site and maintain your archives with simple HTML, which, after awhile, can get to be quite a lot of work.
Until now. I myself had difficulty with the process of setting up a webcomic automation script, but I was very fortunate to have the help of SomeryC author Zachary Lewis.
Mr. Lewis was very helpful, patiently answering all of my questions, and walking me through the process. I have now written a step-by-step tutorial to share what I have learned with you, so as to make the process as easy as possible for you.
But, please keep in mind that this tutorial is for SomeryC only. I imagine the process of setting up other webcomic automation scripts would be similar, but there may be slight differences in the process for each different script. I have no experience with any other scripts, so I cannot help you with them.
Also, again, I have made this tutorial as simplified as I possibly can. I have even gone so far as to explain things that are self-explanatory. It is not my intent to be condescending towards you, I simply wish to make everything as easy to understand as I can. So please do not take any offense from this.
Step 1: Create a MySQL Database
Assuming, of course, that your host allows you to have MySQL Databases. If your host has provided you with a webpanel from which you can administrate your site, log into it now, and go to your MySQL Database creation page.
Database Name: This is the name of your database. Name it whatever you wish.
Hostname: Typically, your Hostname will be mysql.yourdomain.com/net/whatever you use. Unless you are installing your database to a subdomain (To do this, just select the subdomain for the Hostname dropdown menu.) then it will be mysql.subdomain.yourdomain.
New Hostname: This is where you will enter your new Hostname if you select "Create a new hostname now" option from your Hostname dropdown menu.
First User: The first user with access to the database. If you have created a MySQL database before, you can opt to give an existing user access, or you can create a new user account.
New Username: Enter the username you desire for your database here.
Password: Enter your password here. It should be something easy to remember, and something that uses letters (But no words. This is to prevent hacking programs from guessing your password.) and numbers.
Again: Enter your chosen password again.
Database Comment: This field is optional. You can enter something to help you remember what your database is for here, if you wish.
Add New Database now!: Click this button once you have filled in all the necessary information to create your database.
Step 2: Edit the Configuration File
According to the SomeryC readme file, this step should come third, but I prefer to do it second.
Open your Somery C folder. Then open the upload folder and open config.php. Then edit it to match your settings.
As you can see, I have provided a screenshot of my config.php file, edited to match my settings. When you first open your config.php file, you will see explanations of each field you need to fill out, so because it would be redundant, and because I am very lazy, I won't type them out here.
Step 3: Upload the Files
Open your FTP client and connect to your FTP account.
I use FlashFXP. To connect to your FTP account, simply enter your FTP account information into the appropriate fields. You may also have to uncheck the "Anonymous" option. If you have connected to your FTP account before, you can select it from the History dropdown menu. Your host should have e-mailed you your account information when you signed up. If you have difficulties, consult your host's support documentation. If you still have difficulties, contact their technical support personnel.
Open the folder of the domain you wish to upload SomeryC to on the rightmost panel, and open your SomeryC upload folder on the left. Click on the admin folder, hold down your shift key and press the down key until everything has been selected. Then click the Transfer Selected button on the left side.
Step 4: Install SomeryC
Direct your browser to http://www.yourdomain.com/install.php
Login.
Proceed.
Do as instructed here.
Now that you have installed SomeryC, I will show you how to administer your site. Go to http://www.yourdomain.com/admin/
Login.
Once you have logged in, you can begin administering your site.
First, edit your Profile.
Then, go to your comics screen.
Enter your comic title, select your comic using the "Choose" button, (And make sure to upload it to your comics folder.) and enter the date and time you want the comic to be posted on. Click proceed. Now, depending on the date you specified, your comic will be listed in either the active or hidden categories. Either way, you'll notice two icons appear to the right of each comic listed. An icon representing a piece of paper, and one representing a speech balloon. Clicking on the paper icon will take you to your articles page.
Enter your articles here. When you're done, click proceed. And remember, you need to use BBCode for formatting, (It's the code most commonly used on messageboards.) not HTML.
Finally, you can customize your index page by editing your index.php file. Just put in your HTML or other code where appropriate.
There you go. You should now know how to maintain a webcomic with SomeryC. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, go to the SomeryC Headquarters.
Protecting Your Comics:
If you upload comics in advance, and want to keep your readers from reading them before they are scheduled to be posted, simply create an index.html file and upload it to your comics folder. You can use this:
"[html]
[head]
[title]No Comics Here![/title]
[/head]
[body]
[h1]There Aren't Any Comics Here![/h1]
[p]Stop trying to read comics in advance you impatient bastard![/p]
[/body]
[/html]"
Just paste the above code into Notepad or another text editing program, take out the quotation marks, and replace these brackets [] with these <>. Save it as index.html and upload it to your comics folder.
|
