The are two installation packages for ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro - the automated setup package (.msi file) and manual setup package (.zip file). If automated method is used, you do not need to go through all the steps in this manual, you just need to run the setup and register the product (step #7 below). However, we still encourage you to go through this document (especially steps #1, #7, #9, #10 and #11) even if you use automated setup to better understand the installation process and to secure you server.
Below are the steps needed to be performed manually (.zip file) for successful ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro server installation:
Install Prerequisites.
Setup chat physical
directory and copy files to it.
One of the advantages of the product is that it allows for XCopy deployment.
That means that you do not need to register any objects or run any setups.
All you need, is to copy files to your web, which is especially important
for hosting at a third party Internet Service Providers (ISP).
Please copy the content of ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro zip file to the local
directories on your server. The
zip archive has 4 directories and 2 files on the root of it: directories
web, db,
samples and logs
; and files license.txt and readme.htm. The main thing that you would definitely
need is the contents of the web directory. So, please go ahead and copy
the contents of the web folder (without the web folder itself)
of the zip archive into the directory on your server where you plan to
put the chat application.
For example, you may have a directory on your web server with the path
c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\sitewwwroot. That is the root of your web site pointed
to by a DNS name, say, www.mygreatwebsite.com . So, you would create a sub-directory for
the chat called chat, for example, and copy into it the files
from the web folder of the zip archive. For instance,
we have a page named login.aspx in the chat. So, in our example that page
would end up at c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\sitewwwroot\chat\login.aspx (and NOT in c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\sitewwwroot\chat\web\login.aspx ) and will be accessible by the following
URL: www.mygreatwebsite.com/chat/login.aspx.
Next, you will need to create a logs directory. Many ISPs allow you to create
directories on levels higher than the actual web root. This way the contents
of those directories is not publicly accessible. So, if you have such
ability create the logs directory outside of your web root. Following
our example you would create your logs directory at: c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\logs. If you provider only allows creating directories
on the root of the site then go agead and create logs directory there.
Finally, depending on which database your are planing to use (see below),
you might need to copy the db directory with MS Access database to your
web server. We recommend that you copy the database, also, into a directory
outside of your web root to prevent unauthorized access. If we go with
our example, the database file will end up at: c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\db\zbit_chat.mdb. You do not need other files in the db
directory if you are going to use MS Access database.
Directory samples
and
two files on the root of the zip file are not needed on your web server
for the chat to run.
Please do NOT try to open the newly created site in a web browser before
the product has been registered. Please follow this guide step by step
to the end in order to avoid certain complications.
Set up ASP.NET application.
ZBit ASP.NET chat needs to run in the context of a ASP.NET web application.
IIS ASP.NET engine should be able to execute DLL files (assemblies) in
the bin sib-directory of the chat folder structure.
There are 2 ways of doing it - either assign the chat folder as virtual
directory with a new application or use the application running on the
root of your web site. First method is simpler - all you need to do is
to change a configuration parameter in IIS settings, but second method
provides greater flexibility in terms of future integration with the rest
of the web site. Besides, some ISPs do not allow you to assign new ASP.NET
applications to sub-directories; then the second method is your only option.
Create Microsoft SQL
Server database (Optional).
ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro can be configured to run against any OLEDB compliant
relation database management system (DBMS or database) that has some concept
of stored procedures. Out of the box support is provided for two DBMSes:
Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server. The later is recommended, being
more salable and robust database engine. If you are going to use Microsoft
Access database please skip this step and follow with the step #5.
To setup SQL server database for ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro you can ether
create a new database for the chat or
use your existing database if you already have one. To create the "zbit_net_chat"
database on your Microsoft SQL server use the scripts zbit_chat_schema.sql
and zbit_chat_populate_data.sql, located in db\mssql_setup
directory in the installation zip file. The two scripts are creating database
schema and populate initial data correspondingly. Please run zbit_chat_schema.sql
script first.
If you already have an existing database that you would like to use
for chat as well you can create tables and stored procedures used by chat
using the same script. All the tables and procedures that script creates
are prefixed by "zbc_", so there is little chance that they
would override your existing database elements. To use the zbit_chat_schema.sql
script on an existing database just delete the top portion of it where
it tries to create a new database and run the rest of it. Then run the
second script to populate the initial data.
Configure database
Connection String and Log directory.
You should open web.config file located in the chat directory for editing
and modify zbc.ConnectionString key under the appSettings
in configuration section. Sample connection strings are shown in
the web.config file.
If using Access database, provided in the package, you should point Data Source attribute of the connection string to the location of Microsoft Access Database file located in db\zbit_chat.mdb under the installation root. In our example, the full pass to the Access database will be c:\inetpub\mygreatwebsite\db\zbit_chat.mdb
If using Microsoft SQL Server database point Data Source attribute of the connection string to the database created in step #3. If the new database was created in step #3 then use 'zbc_user' as user name and 'zbcpwd' as password in the connection string. If your existing database was used, then use your existing login credentials in the connection string. After everything is setup it is highly recommended to change the password of the SQL account 'zbc_user' - see change passwords section below.
Change permissions on some sub-directories
(Very Important).
Most of the installation problems that were encountered during the
beta testing of the product were cased by omitting this important step.
By default, the windows account that is running ASP.NET applications
has only read access to the files in the directories on your machine.
For ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro to run properly it needs to have write access
to the directory where the log files will be created. Additionally, in
order to register the product another directory should be made writable
temporally for the time of installation (see Register Product section
below). Finally, if you are using MS Access database, the directory where
database is located should be made writable as well.
Register Product (Very
Important too)
If your chat server is not registered with ZBit Inc. it will not function
properly. All installations of the ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro, both trial and
release versions, must be registered.
To register your ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro server make sure your computer
is connected to the Internet during registration. If your machine is not
online, the registration will fail and the server will not function properly.
Please note: The connection to the Interment is only required during
registration; once the product is registered it doesn't need to be connected
to the Internet.
Please note: We also provide an off-line installation procedure but
you would have to contact us
in order to perform it.
Assuming that you installed chat in a directory called chat
on port 80 off of the default web (see step #3), please open a web browser
and direct it to the following URL:http://localhost/chat/setup.aspx
This page allows you to register the chat server. If you bought the
product please enter your registration code. Otherwise just leave the
corresponding field at 'TRIAL' for trial version registration. Click the
Register button.
Please read carefully the status of registration. If an error occurs
please try to fix it or contact customer
support. Most likely case of an error is absence of write permissions
to the etc directory as described in previous step. You might receive
several warnings or even errors in the beginning or in the middle of the
output string, however the most important message that indicates the outcome
of the registration is on the bottom of the text. As long as it says that
the registration was "successful" then it means that it went
through.
Remove not -needed
Permissions
Once the product is registered without any errors please change the
permission for etc directory back to the way it used to be before performing
step #6. Usually it means removing the write permissions from windows
account running ASP.NET application on that directory.
Configure ZBit ASP.NET
Chat Pro
Most of the configuration parameters for the chat server are stored
in the database.
Some settings, however, are stored in web.config file located in the root of chat installation.
Please see step #5 above and configuration section of readme
file for information how to configure logging directory, database connection
string and UI culture.
To change settings stored in the database you can either modify the
on the DBMS directly or, preferably use web interface to make such changes.
In case of MS Access, it is located in the folder /db/ . If you have MS Access installed on your
machine, you might want to open the database file zbit_chat.mdb to study configuration parameters. If you
use SQL Server, you can view parameters in zbit_net_chat database on the DBMS.
However, It is recommended to change all the settings through administration
web interface. When the server is running properly you can log-in to the
chat server as Server Administrator and change configuration parameters.
Assuming that you setup ZBit ASP.NET Chat Pro in directory chat
as per step #3, please open your web browser on the server and point it
to the following URL:
http://localhost/chat/login.aspx
Log-in as chat server administrator. The default log-in for Server
Administrator is administrator
/ administrator for log-in ID
and password correspondingly. When you log-in as server administrator
you are automatically directed to the administration page where you can
change many settings.
If you can't log-in to chat at this point, and error messages that
you get are not helpful, please check the log file for detailed error
message. If you see registration errors please try to restart chat application
by either restating IIS or by re-saving web.config file.
Please read the rest of this help file for operations that can be performed
in administrative interface specific to chat server administrators. For
site administration please check corresponding help file.
Change passwords
It is highly recommended that you change the password for Server Administrator
as well as password of SQL Server account if you are using SQL Server
database. Both should be changed as soon as possible, once you made sure
that everything works. To change password for chat server administrator
please log-in to chat as described in the previous step then, once in
administration page, click on "enter
site" to enter a default
site. Then, once in the chat interface, enter any room and finally click
on your log-in name (Administrator) to see your profile. On the profile pop-up
window you can change your password and other profile fields.
To change the password for SQL Server (if you use SQL database) please
change it the DBMS first and then edit connection string setting (zbc.ConnectionString) in web.config file so that the password matches the one
you just modified.
Rename / Delete dangerous
pages
Some of the pages that come with the installation are there for debugging
purposes and are not needed for the application to work. We recommend
you to rename those pages or remove them completely when the application
is functioning properly to avoid security issues. The files that you need
to rename or delete are setup.aspx, chatstats.aspx and chat_debug.aspx