How to install Car Portal

The built-in installer creates the database tables, the configuration file and your administrator account. You only need an empty MySQL database.

Before you start

• Check the system requirements.
• Create an empty MySQL/MariaDB database and a database user (your hosting control panel can do this).
• Note the database host (usually localhost), name, user and password.

Install with the web installer

1. Upload the files. Unzip Car Portal and upload everything to your web folder (for example public_html), or to a sub-folder if you want the site in /cars/.
2. Open the installer. Go to https://your-site/install/ in your browser. The installer first checks PHP version, extensions and folder permissions.
3. Enter the database details. Type the host, database name, user, password and table prefix (the default carportal_ is fine).
4. Name your website. Enter the website name, contact e-mail and default language.
5. Create the administrator. Choose a username, e-mail and a strong password. This is your login for the admin panel.
6. Choose demo content. Select Yes to start with sample cars, dealers, news and FAQ so you can see the site working immediately, or No for a clean empty site. You can delete demo data later.
7. Finish. The installer imports the database and writes config.php. Open the website and the admin panel to confirm.

Manual installation (no installer)

If you prefer to install by hand:

1. Copy config.sample.php to config.php and fill in the database host, name, user, password and prefix.
2. Import sql/schema.sql, then sql/base.sql, and optionally sql/demo.sql, with phpMyAdmin or the mysql command line.
3. Insert your administrator into the carportal_admin_users table. Store the password with PHP’s password_hash(), never as plain text.

Installing in a sub-folder or on a sub-domain

Both work. The installer detects the folder automatically. If you enable SEO-friendly URLs afterwards, make sure the .htaccess file is uploaded together with the other files (it is a hidden file in some FTP programs).

Last updated 1 November 2026