Installing engenu

An engenu installation begins with the three files you downloaded when you registered for engenu:

To install engenu, we need to unzip the first two files, commingle the last two and FTP the resulting folders up to your file server.

Let's unzip...

The files engenu.zip and engenuComponents.zip are stored as compressed archives. You will need to unzip these with a program like WinZip. On the Macintosh, unzipping software is built into the operating system. Depending on how your preferences are set, the zip files may auto-unzip on the Macintosh. When you have unzipped these two files, you will have two folders on your local disk named engenu and engenuComponents.

Let's commingle...

The file named engenupageDex.bin was created especially for your implementation of engenu. It contains the keys engenu will need to run -- your password, among other things. Because engenu can edit the files and folders on your file server, we want to make sure that only those people you have authorized are able to work with your engenu installation.

What you will need to do now is move the file named engenupageDex.bin into the folder named engenuComponents. This is where engenu will look for this file, so if it is not there, engenu will not work.

Let's FTP...

The initials FTP stand for File Transfer Protocol, a basic internet protocol. To work with engenu, you are going to have to learn to be very adept with FTP client software -- if you are not already.

What are some good FTP clients? On the Macintosh, we use Fetch and Cyberduck. In the Windows world, I have heard good things about WS_FTP and CuteFTP. Without endorsing any of these, two features that mean a lot to me are drag 'n' drop uploading and downloading and the ability to open more than one FTP window at a time, which should also include moving or copying files across FTP windows. Bonus feature: Integration with a text editor for making quick and dirty changes directly on the file server.

So you have an FTP client that will do the job. Now you need to connect to your file server. If you don't know how to do this, it was probably in the kit of information you got when you contracted for hosting. If not, you have to communicate with your hosting vendor to find out what you need to do.

Once you are connected to your file server, you need to navigate to the top-most level from which your web pages are served. If your file server were named myserver.com, the most likely location of your top-most HTTP level would be myserver.com/ -- right where you landed from your FTP client.

Its possible, though, that your web pages are served from a directory within your file server, The two most likely locations would be myserver.com/www/ or myserver.com/public_html/. If you live on a big file server, your top-most HTTP level might be something like this: bigserver.com/public_html/myserver/.

Here's the trick to this: Wherever on your file server http://www.myserver.com lands you, when you go there from a web browser, that's the top-most HTTP level of your file server.

Why do we care about this? Because that's where the folders named engenu and engenuComponents need to be uploaded. So once you've found the right level to use (which should be easier than all this reading about it!), use your FTP client to copy these two folders into the the the top-most HTTP level of your file server.

How can you check your work?

Easy. From your web browser, navigate to http://www.myserver.com/engenu/. If you see this:



enter your password and get to work, If you get a "page not found" error instead, you need to start over in this section and find the top-most HTTP level of your file server. Don't hesitate to bug the tech support staff at your hosting vendor. They work for you, after all.

So what's next?

That's for the next section, Once you're into engenu, you're fully installed -- with a couple of caveats. First, you may have functionality issues with your hosting vendor. And second, you may need to install a custom "skin" for your engenu installation.

Hosting vendor troubles?

engenu is built to be a good citizen in the Apache web browser world. We don't use the "mail" function, for instance, which is often abused by spammers. We read files only from within our own file server, whatever that might be, never going off-site for PHP or supplemental files. And we write files only to the local folder where engenu happens to be working at that time.

In other words, your hosting vendor has no reason at all to be afraid of engenu. Even so, the systems and support people at hosting vendors can be a paranoid bunch, so you may have to prevail upon them to turn on some or all of PHP's functionality for you. In other words, while they promised you PHP when you signed up for your hosting account, in many cases your own implementation of PHP will be partially or even wholly crippled until you ask for it to be turned on.

Installing a custom "skin" for your engenu installation

engenu is file server and appearance independent. What that means is that files created by engenu will take on the appearance of the "skin" found in the engenuComponents folder of the file server hosting those files. The pages you are seeing here are built with the default engenu "skin." But watch this:

Here is the site we built for 101 West Seminole Drive expressed with three different "skins":Everything is the same in these three expressions of engenu's files -- except for the "skins."

Note that virtually any existing web site or weblog appearance can be replicated in a custom engenu "skin."

If you have purchased a customized "skin" for your engenu installation, you can install it by FTPing your new copy of the engenuComponents folder up to your file server. Make sure that the file engenupageDex.bin does not get deleted. Just to be safe, download a copy of engenupageDex.bin to your local hard disk before you install the customized "skin." That way you can copy it back into the engenuComponents folder on your file server if you need to.

Can you install engenu on multiple files servers?

You bet. engenu itself is free. If you buy a customized "skin," I'm not going to stop you from using it wherever you like. On the other hand, it seems plausible to me that you might want more than one customized "skin" if you have more than one business or division to support.

But another possible use for multiple engenu installations is to create "branded" and "unbranded" versions of engenu sites -- and if you're not a Realtor, you can ignore this whole discussion.

engenu is communications software, not presentation software. But if you wanted to use it to create an "unbranded" version of a single-property web site, to be used as a virtual tour from your MLS system, you could do something like this:

Create the full site just the way you want it, then copy it over to a file server running the default engenu "skin." If the file server's name does not identify you or your brokerage, and if nothing in the engenu files themselves, exclusive of the "skin," identifies you, you should be in compliance with MLS rules for virtual tours.