How to integrate an Vanilla Forums installation in Concrete5

From Vanilla Forums: Vanilla is forum software that powers discussions on many sites. Built for flexibility and integration, Vanilla is the best, most powerful community solution in the world.

In this tutorial you would learn to integrate Vanilla Forums in your Concrete5 installation.

Download de compressed 'Vanilla Forums' folder from the attachments. Uncompress the downloaded .zip file and give the folder an name you want.

Now open an connection with your server to upload the above renamed folder. Vanilla Forums should be installed in the same directory as the Concrete5 folder, so if Concrete5 is installed at 'website.com/cms', vanilla would be installed at 'website.com/cms/vanilla'.

Go to the url you've uploaded the folder. In the above example 'website.com/cms/vanilla'. If you see the page below, you must set the right permissions.

Set the rights persmissions on the folders 'cache', 'conf' and 'uploads'. Click 'Try again'.

If you get the error 'You are missing Vanilla's .htaccess file'. You should be sure that you've uploaded the by default hidden .htaccess file.

When you've downloaded Vannilla Forums from the attachments you must rename the file 'test.htaccess' to '.htaccess' on your server.

If you've downloaded Vanilla Forums somewere else, make that you could see the hidden files on your filesystem. Upload the '.htaccess' file to your server in the folder of your Vannila Forums installation.

You could also download the 'test.htaccess.jpg' from the attachments and upload it to your server in the folder of your Vannila Forums installation. Rename the file after uploading to '.htaccess' on your server.

Reload the page and follow the instructions on your screen. Give the needed information of the database you've created at your server.

Now download de compressed 'ProxyConnect' folder from the attachments. Uncompress the downloaded .zip file and upload the folder to your server in the 'plugins' folder of your Vanilla Forums installation. E.g. 'website.com/cms/vanilla/plugins/'.

Now install the Concrete5 addon Vanilla Forums. You could read here how to upload and install packages.

Go to your Vanilla Forums installation and login with the credentials created above. Open the 'Plugins' page and enable the 'Vanilla Proxyconnect' plugin.

After that click on the 'Settings' button of the 'Vanilla Proxyconnect' plugin. 

Finally, open, in another tab, the vanilla configure dashboard page on your Concrete5 site. On the vanilla page, select the manual integration manager. Copy the info from the Concrete5 dashboard into Vanilla Forums, and copy the url of Vanilla Forums installation into the Concrete5 dashboard.

Go to the 'Registration' page of your Vanilla Forums installation and select under 'Method' the bullit 'Connect'. Select the right 'Email Confirmation Role' and click 'Save'.

Now you're done! All your Concrete5 users can login into your Vanilla Forums installation. E.g. 'website.com/cms/vanilla/'.

In a later stadium we will create a tutorial how to make your own theme for the Vanilla Forums installation.