Automated Installation Using Softaculous

Most leading Control Panels like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, InterWorx and H-Sphere have Softaculous Auto Installer. For more information about Softaculous, please visit What is a Web Application Auto-Installer? To use Softaculous Auto Installer, your web server hosting must have it! Here are the instructions how to automatically install the software that you want, to your website by using Softaculous:

1. Log in to the control panel of your hosting account.
2. Click the application named "Softaculous" on the section such as Software/Services heading for cPanel user.
   
3. Find the exact name of the software you may wish to install. (For this time we choose WordPress.)
4. Check the Space Required and make sure you have enough space and can able to add another database.
5. And click Install for automated installation of the software that you've chosen.
6. And fill out the following form:
   1. Software Setup
      1. “Choose Protocol” that you have wanted. If your site has SSL, I suggest to choose the HTTPS protocol.
      2. “Choose Domain” where you want to install the software.
      3. The directory is relative to your domain and should not exist! For exmple, to install “In Directory” at "example.com/unexist/", just type "unexist". Leave it empty to install only in "example.com".
      4. Type the “Database Name” that you want to be created for the automated installation.
   2. Database Settings
      1. I suggest to leave the “Table Prefix” in its default. It will be the prefix of every table name on the database that will be created, such as "wp_users", "wp_posts" and "wp_comments" if you have "wp_" as your table prefix.
   3. Site Settings
      1. Fill the title of your website in “Site Name”.
      2. Fill the description of your website in “Site Description”.
      3. “Enable Multisite (WPMU)” option for your WordPress blog if you want but your server must support Apache mod_rewrite to use this feature.
   4. Admin Account
      1. Fill your personal username in “Admin Username”.
      2. Fill a strong password in “Admin Password”.
      3. Fill the email of the original administrator, in “Admin Email”.
   5. Choose Language
      1. “Select Language” depends on your dialect and on the language of your site.
   6. Select Plugins
      1. Checking “Limit Login Attempts” will installed and activated the specific plugin that will limit the login attempts, with your installation.
   • If you want more advanced then you would surely fill out Advanced Options also.
     1. If you don't want to receive an email notification for updates available for the installation, then “Disable Update Notifications”.
     2. Check “Auto Upgrade” if you want the installation to be automatically upgraded to the latest version when a new version is available.
     3. Choose the frequency for “Automated backups” to perform, if you want Softaculous to automates the backups via CRON as per the frequency you select.
        • If you enabled Automated backups, you will be allow to limit the “Backup Rotation”. If the backup rotation limit is reached, Softaculous will delete the oldest backup for the installation and create a new backup. The backups will utilize your space so choose the backup rotation as per the space available on your server.
   • You can Email installation details to : the e-mail you've inputted in the text field below the form if you want.
   And last, click the "Install" button below the form to start the automated installation of the software that you've chosen.
7. Do not leave the installing process till the progress bar reaches 100%! It may take 3 or 4 minutes if there's no error exist.
   1. First, Softaculous is Checking the submitted data, and if an error exist the Installation cannot proceed. The data that you've submitted may not right or the files are already exist in the target folder.
      • If the files already exist, the solutions are nested below:
        1. In the Install area where you'll be redirected if the files exist, there will be a new “Overwrite Files” check box that you need to check.
        2. And now click the "Install" button below the form again.
      • Or you can choose another folder by filling the folder name that you want “In Directory” field.
      • The hardest solution is to delete or to move all those existing files in the target folder manually.
   2. Second, it's Propagating the database and if this fail, you will be redirected to the Install area again.
      • You need to fix the specific error about database to make the installation work:
        • If the error is because of temporary database connection, it's the system fault temporarily and not yours.
        • If the error is about the unavailability for a new database to be created, then go to your database management system (DBMS) and delete the unused database or upgrade your database limitation.
        • And if it's about the database disk space, then you need to get more database disk space by upgrading your database storage.
      • If you get an error while Propagating the database, you will now need to follow this guide:
        1. If you now press the "Install" button below the form again, see the following no# 2 guide.
        2. You will be redirected to the Install area again and see that the files are already exist because of the previous failed installation. The area where you've redirected is with a new “Overwrite Files” check box under the Software Setup section now.
        3. You need to check that box to escape the error about the files that were created because of the failed installation.
        4. And click on "Install" below the form to restart the installing process again.
8. You need to wait till the Checking the submitted data, Propagating the database and the Plugin Installation if the Limit Login Attempts plugin was checked, till the progress by Softaculous have competed!
9. If the software was installed successfully, the screen will print where URL the specific software has installed and will tell you the administrative URL such as "http://www.example.com/wp-admin/".
   • You can now Return to Overview the specific software that you've chosen, where you can see your Current Installations.

If you've completed all the instructions above without any error, the specific software that you've been chosen before has now installed to your website!