Dolphin Tutorial

Learn how to install Dolphin on TMDHosting account

Dolphin can be installed in two ways – from source, which involves uploading files, creating databases and activities, which will waste your time; it also can be installed from the TMDHosting cPanel, which provides a One-Click-Install via the Softaculous tool. It does literally the same what you will do in case of manual installation, but saves you plenty of time, which you can put in another activities, such as managing your new community. In order to get started with this, you need to advance in your cPanel, details about which you can find in your Welcome email. Once in, look for the Softaculous icon, which looks like this:



In the TMDHosting cPanel, it is usually located in the Software/Services section. When you find the icon, click on it and you will be redirected to the Softaculous software main screen. It, by the way, can install plenty of other applications with one click only, but a separate article will follow on this subject. Now, let’s find Dolphin on the list in the left:

It, as you can see, is located in the Portals/CMS section. Click on the link and the Dolphin application section in the Softaculous tool will appear on the right:

In the top right corner you will notice that there are various tabs, such as Install, Overview, Review, etc. Click on the install tab and you will be directed to the Dolphin one-click-installer. There, you will be asked to choose in which folder the installation should be committed, as well as what database name you would like to use. You will be also asked to provide a title and brief description of your community. Of course, administrator (super user) account will be set for you.

As shown on the image, you are first provided with choice whether you would like to install on your main domain or in a subdomain. In our case, we have chosen to install on a subdomain, for the purposes of this tutorial.

Afterwards, you are asked to provide a directory name, in which Dolphin will reside. Be careful with this, as it will affect your community’s address. If your domain name, for example is www.mycommunity.com and you choose to install in a folder named, say, “community” your new Dolphin installation will be reachable via www.mycommunity.com/community (or whatever name for folder you choose). One the one side, it is handy, if you have a website separate from the community at the www.mycommunity.com, but on the other if you will have a Dolphin only on this domain, we suggest you leave the field blank, so that the install can go at www.mycommunity.com.

You can leave the database name as generated by default by Softaculous, as well as the crontab job settings, unless you intend specifically to set it in certain time or you would like to name your database in a certain manner.

When done entering the above information, input the name of your community, for example “My Community” and a brief description, for example “Tutorial Community!”. Do not worry about these two – they can be easily changed from your administration area later.
Finally, pick up a username, password and e-mail address for your installation. IMPORTANT: Write these down, so you are able to login later.

When all the information mentioned above is entered, click the “Install” button and – as promised – the one click installation is completed. You will be present with a confirmation screen, containing your community’s URL and administrator area URL. Write these two down, as well, especially the administrator URL. The screen, itself, looks like this:

When you write all the information down, open both of the URLs provided on the screen above with new windows and let your journey in the world of social networking begin.