Parallels Plesk SiteBuilder 4.5 Unix Quick Start Guide

Parallels

®

Plesk Sitebuilder

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Contents

Preface 4

Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 4

About Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder .................................................................................................. 5

About this Guide ............................................................................................................................ 6

Getting Help ................................................................................................................................... 6

Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Installing Plesk Sitebuilder 7

Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder 8

Preparing Servers to Be Used for Publishing Users' Sites

Creating Service Plans

Creating User Accounts

Managing Users' Sites

Glossary of Terms

14

16

9

11

13

4 Preface

Preface

In this section:

Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 4

About Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder ....................................................................... 5

About this Guide ................................................................................................ 6

Getting Help ...................................................................................................... 6

Feedback .......................................................................................................... 6

Typographical Conventions

Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation conventions used in it.

The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.

Type of information Example Formatting convention

Special Bold

Italics

Items you must select, such as menu options, command buttons, or items in a list.

Go to the

Hosts

tab.

Titles of chapters, sections, and subsections.

Read the Getting Started chapter.

Used to emphasize the importance of a point, to introduce a term or to designate a command line placeholder, which is to be replaced with a real name or value.

These types of users are called

Plesk Sitebuilder user roles .

Monospace URLs, names of commands, files, and directories.

For example: http://sitebuilder/Login

Names of keys on the keyboard. SHIFT, CTRL, ALT CAPITALS

KEY+KEY Key combinations for which the user must press and hold down one key and then press another.

CTRL+P, ALT+F4

Preface 5

About Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder

Plesk Sitebuilder interface consists of two parts: Wizard and Administrator Panel.

Wizard is a web application enabling its users to create sites by simply choosing a design preset, adding text and images, and setting up various add-ons (picture galleries, blogs, online stores, and more).

Administrator Panel is a web interface for managing application system settings, user accounts, web sites, and other Plesk Sitebuilder objects.

6 Preface

About this Guide

This guide is intended to give Plesk Sitebuilder administrators a practical introduction to the product by explaining how to perform basic administrative tasks. It covers a straightforward

Plesk Sitebuilder scenario and is intended to help you start working with Sitebuilder immediately after installation.

For more information about Plesk Sitebuilder functionality, refer to

Plesk Sitebuilder for

Linux/Unix Administrator's Guide

( http://www.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilder/docs ).

Getting Help

The Plesk Sitebuilder help system has been created to assist you in solving problems you might encounter when creating your site. To find the information you need, you can do the following:

 Use on-screen context-sensitive help.

At the bottom of the navigation pane, you can find short instructions on the operations that are available on the current page.

 Refer to our knowledge base ( http://kb.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilderlinux ).

The knowledge base provides solutions to the most common problems with Plesk

Sitebuilder.

 Go to our forum

( http://forum.swsoft.com/forumdisplay.php?s=f2b895fc3636e705ec9b9a85ef81f040&foru mid=99 ).

Here all users can post questions, exchange ideas, and troubleshoot issues not described in the knowledge base. Note that Parallels does not provide official support through this forum.

 Contact technical support.

If you have any problems or questions that are not covered in the user documentation or knowledge base, you can click Support located on the navigation pane and submit your problem to our Technical Support team.

Feedback

If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to improve this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/ . Please include in your report the guide's title, chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.

C H A P T E R 1

Installing Plesk Sitebuilder

 To install Plesk Sitebuilder:

1 Download the required Plesk Sitebuilder distribution package from the

Parallels Web site

( http://www.parallels.com/en/download/sitebuilder ).

2 Install Plesk Sitebuilder as described in the

Plesk Sitebuilder Installation

Guide ( http://www.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilder/docs ).

C H A P T E R 2

Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder

 To log in to Plesk Sitebuilder:

1 In your browser's address bar, enter the URL to your Plesk Sitebuilder

Administrator Panel 1 .

For example, http://sitebuilder/login where ' sitebuilder ' is the domain name of the server where your Plesk

Sitebuilder is installed.

2 Press ENTER.

3 On the opened page, specify the default Plesk Sitebuilder credentials

( admin-admin ).

4 Click

Log in

.

After your first login to Plesk Sitebuilder, be sure to change the default user name and password (

My profile

>

Personal Info

tab).

1 Administrator Panel is a part of Plesk Sitebuilder interface that enables users to manage system settings, user accounts, web sites, and other Plesk Sitebuilder objects.

C H A P T E R 3

Preparing Servers to Be Used for

Publishing Users' Sites

In Plesk Sitebuilder, sites can be published to:

 FTP servers

 Virtuozzo Containers on servers running Business Automation, Standard

 Local Plesk Sitebuilder server using XCOPY technology

The default Plesk Sitebuilder license allows you to register only one publishing server

(or host 2 ). To purchase a license with unlimited number of publishing servers, contact

Parallels Sales

( [email protected]

). With this license, you can publish Plesk

Sitebuilder sites to any FTP servers at your disposal, without having to register a new server in Plesk Sitebuilder first. (After you publish a site to a new host, this host is automatically registered in Plesk Sitebuilder.)

If the number of hosts is

Unlimited

, then users who have the permission to modify site publishing settings can also publish their sites to any available FTP servers. For users restricted from modifying the site publishing settings, you specify the publishing settings yourself. The permission to modify the site publishing settings, as well as a list of servers available to a particular user, is defined in a user's plan 3

.

Before adding a server to be used for publishing Plesk Sitebuilder sites, make sure that it meets the following requirements:

 PHP version 4.3.9 or later is installed.

 PHP supports:

 The ionCube PHP Loader 3.1.15 or later

 DOM XML with XSLT support or PHP XSLT extension (Sablotron)

 Multibyte string functions ( mbstring extension)

 Zlib compression functions ( zlib extension)

 Session handling functions support (session extension)

 SQLite 2.x with UTF-8 encoding support

 GD library 2.0.1 or later

 In php.ini the following directive is installed:

 default_charset = ”UTF-8”

2 Host is a web server used for publishing web sites.

3 Plan is a set of limits and permissions applied to a user account.

The general purpose of a plan is to regulate distribution of the Plesk

Sitebuilder resources, such as hosts, sites, modules, and so on among the users.

10 Preparing Servers to Be Used for Publishing Users' Sites

Note: Make sure that all extensions you have installed are listed in the extensions directory and in the php.ini file. If PHP is installed as an Apache module, restart

Apache after applying the changes.

 To register a publishing server in the system:

1 On the navigation pane, click

Server

.

2 Click

Hosts

.

3 Click

Add New Host

.

4 In the

Host DNS name or IP address

field, enter an IP address or domain name of the host.

5 Click

OK

.

To verify that a publishing server meets all the Plesk Sitebuilder requirements, go to

Sites > site name > Publishing Settings tab, specify all the required parameters and click

Verify Location .

To make a publishing server available to a user, include the server into this user's service plan (on the Hosts tab) and make sure that the corresponding publishing mode is also included in the plan (on the Publishing Settings tab). For information on configuring service plans for users, see the next chapter.

C H A P T E R 4

Creating Service Plans

 To create a plan:

1 On the navigation pane, click

Users

.

2 Click

Plans

.

3 Click

Add New Plan

.

4 In the

Name

field, specify a name for the new plan.

5 To easily distinguish the created plan from other plans, you can provide a short description for it in the

Description

field.

6 To define the general permissions for plan assignees, specify them in corresponding fields:

 Maximum number of pages per site

Sets the maximum number of pages a user can add to one site.

 Maximum number of root level pages per site

Defines the maximum number of pages a user is allowed to have on the first level of site navigation.

 Maximum number of regular sites 4

Specifies the maximum number of sites a plan assignee can register in Plesk

Sitebuilder.

When applied to a reseller account 5 , the limit provided here is shared among all dependent user accounts belonging to the reseller.

 Maximum number of accounts

Specifies the maximum number of dependent user accounts a reseller can register in Plesk Sitebuilder. Is applied to reseller accounts only (when applied to site owner accounts, this limit is ignored).

 Maximum number of hosts

Defines the maximum number of publishing servers that a plan assignee and his or her dependent users can publish sites to.

7 If you are creating a trial plan, define a lifetime period during which the created trial sites will be stored on the Plesk Sitebuilder server.

When applied to registered users, this limit is ignored.

8 On the

Hosts

tab, configure the list of servers available to the plan

4 Regular site is any Plesk Sitebuilder site belonging to a registered user.

5 Reseller account enables a user to perform almost the same tasks as a

Plesk Sitebuilder administrator, excluding some specific operations, such as upgrading and backing up Plesk Sitebuilder, viewing logs, and the like.

12 Creating Service Plans assignees.

9 On the next tabs, configure the list of site creation presets to be available to plan assignees:

 Templates 6

 Page Sets 7

 Modules 8

 Site Families 9

Note : For each site family, make sure that the page set and at least one design template constituting a site family are included in the plan.

10 Go to the

Publishing Setting

tab.

11 To allow the plan assignees to specify site publishing settings themselves, select the

Allow users to modify publishing settings

check box.

Users without this permission can publish their sites only after a higher-level user specifies publishing settings for them.

12 Select publishing modes to be available to plan assignees. The options are:

 FTP

- Publishing sites to FTP servers

 VPS

- Publishing sites to Parallels Virtuozzo Containers on servers running

Parallels Business Automation, Standard

 XCOPY

- Publishing sites to local servers using the XCOPY technology.

13 If you want to display your promotional content on the plan assignees' sites, go to the

Promotional Footers

tab and enter the content into the text-box.

Promotional content may include all kinds of animation, banners, pop-ups, and text messages. This content is displayed in the footer of all site pages, including second-level pages of the modules.

14 If you want to let resellers add their own content to your promotional footers, select the

Allow resellers to append to your promotional footers check box.

15 Click

OK

.

6 Template is a ready graphic design solution for creating web sites.

7 Page set is a pre-defined site structure, common for sites devoted to a certain subject.

8 Module is a plugin extending site functionality. For example: Blog,

Forum, eShop, Image Gallery, etc.

9 Site family is a pre-defined site template (design template + page set), common for sites devoted to a certain subject.

C H A P T E R 5

Creating User Accounts

 To create a user account:

1 On the navigation pane, click

Users

.

2 Click

Add New Account

.

3 Specify the contact and login information.

4 From the

Role

list, select the user account type ( reseller 10 or site owner 11 ).

5 Select a plan which you want to assign to the new user.

6 If you want to proceed to registering a site for this account immediately after creating it, select the

Proceed to registering a site for this user

check box.

7 Click

OK

.

10 Reseller account enables a user to perform almost the same tasks as a Plesk Sitebuilder administrator, excluding some specific operations, such as upgrading and backing up Plesk Sitebuilder, viewing logs, and the like.

11 Site owner account enables a user to manage their web site created in the Wizard.

C H A P T E R 6

Managing Users' Sites

 To register a new site in the system:

1 On the navigation pane, click

Sites

.

2 Click

Add New Site

.

3 On the

General

tab

 In the Site name field, provide any arbitrary name for the site.

 In the Owner field, specify the user name of a registered Plesk Sitebuilder user you want to assign this site to. You will be able to change the owner of the site at any time.

4 Click the

Publishing Settings

tab.

Note: For trial sites 12 , this tab is disabled because you cannot publish a trial site until you upgrade it to a regular site.

5 Select a publishing mode for the site:

FTP

,

VPS

, or

XCOPY

.

The list of publishing modes and hosts available to a user you configure in the user's service plan. For details about setting up service plans, refer to section

Creating Service Plans

(on page 11).

6 If you select

FTP publishing mode, provide the following parameters:

 Host is the IP address or domain name (without the http:// prefix) of the FTP server.

 If the maximum number of hosts allowed by your license is limited, select a host from the list. The list contains hosts registered by you in your

Administrator Panel.

 If the number of hosts allowed by your plan is unlimited, you can specify any

FTP server you have at your disposal. After you specify a custom host (i.e. a host not registered in Plesk Sitebuilder), it will be automatically registered in the system and appear in the list of hosts on the

Hosts

screen.

 Port

is the port for connecting to the specified FTP server.

 In the

Login

and

Password

fields, specify your credentials to the specified FTP server.

 Working directory

is the path on the FTP server to the folder where the site files will be stored after publishing.

 Web site URL

is the address where the site will be available after publishing.

Note: Make sure that the Web site URL and the Working directory settings point to the same publishing location. For example, to publish a site with URL http://test.url.com/myfolder, the working directory should be myfolder .

12 Trial site is a web site created by an anonymous user in the Wizard.

A trial site has a limited lifetime period and cannot be published until its owner registers a Plesk Sitebuilder account.

Managing Users' Sites 15

7 If you select

VPS

publishing mode:

 Host is the IP address or domain name of the Parallels Virtuozzo Service

Container to be used for publishing.

 Container ID

the digital identifier of the Container on the hardware node.

 User is the name of the Apache user on the Plesk Sitebuilder machine ( apache , www-data , etc.).

 Group

is the name of the Apache group on the Plesk Sitebuilder machine

( apache , www-data , etc.).

 Working directory

is the path on the FTP server to the folder where the site files will be stored after publishing.

 Web site URL is the address where the site will be available after publishing.

8 If you select

XCOPY

publishing mode:

 Working directory

is the path to the folder where the site files will be stored after publishing. For example, /var/www/yoursite.

 Web site URL is the address where the site will be available after publishing.

9 To verify that the specified publishing location meets all the Plesk

Sitebuilder requirements, click

Verify Location.

10 Click

OK

.

After you register a site for a user, it appears in this user's Administrator Panel. He or she can proceed to creating the content of the site in the Wizard by clicking the

Edit icon for this site in the list.

 To publish a site:

1 On the navigation pane, click

Sites

.

2 Click the

Publish

icon opposite the site you want to publish.

16 Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Terms

Administrator Account

Administrator account enables a user to manage all Plesk Sitebuilder parameters and objects.

Administrator Panel

Administrator Panel is a part of Plesk Sitebuilder interface that enables users to manage system settings, user accounts, web sites, and other Plesk Sitebuilder objects.

Host

Host is a web server used for publishing web sites.

Module

Module is a plugin extending site functionality. For example: Blog, Forum, eShop,

Image Gallery, etc.

Page Set

Page set is a pre-defined site structure, common for sites devoted to a certain subject.

Plan

Plan is a set of limits and permissions applied to a user account. The general purpose of a plan is to regulate distribution of the Plesk Sitebuilder resources, such as hosts, sites, modules, and so on among the users.

Regular Site

Regular site is any Plesk Sitebuilder site belonging to a registered user.

Reseller Account

Reseller account enables a user to perform almost the same tasks as a Plesk

Sitebuilder administrator, excluding some specific operations, such as upgrading and backing up Plesk Sitebuilder, viewing logs, and the like.

Glossary of Terms 17

Site Family

Site family is a pre-defined site template (design template + page set), common for sites devoted to a certain subject.

Site Owner Account

Site owner account enables a user to manage their web site created in the Wizard.

Template

Template is a ready graphic design solution for creating web sites.

Trial Site

Trial site is a web site created by an anonymous user in the Wizard. A trial site has a limited lifetime period and cannot be published until its owner registers a Plesk

Sitebuilder account.

Wizard

Wizard is a part of Plesk Sitebuilder interface that enables users to create web sites and publish them on the Internet.