LimeSurvey

This article describes how to install LimeSurvey, an open source survey application. This guide was written for Version 1.90+.

For help on using the shell you can take a look at the UNIX commands and you can also get help on changing directories. If you want to save the output for debugging and support then you can look at the Redirection Symbol.

Create a new fully hosted subdomain and a new MySQL database

 * 1) From the Dreamhost control panel, create a new subdomain such as yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com.
 * 2) (Optional) Specify PHP mode: PHP 5.3 FastCGI
 * 3) Specify your web directory: /home/username/yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com/
 * 4) From the Dreamhost control panel create a new MySQL database named yourdatabasename.

Checkout the source code
BEWARE: It is NOT recommended to retrieve the source code as described below. Basically you will download a development version with the following instructions. Also this version will NOT be updateable by the LimeSurvey-internal ComfortUpdater. If you want to make sure that your version is a regular stable one please download from http://www.limesurvey.org/download.


 * 1) SSH into your Dreamhost account
 * 2) Enter commands below in the terminal

$ cd ~/yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com $ rm -r public $ svn checkout https://limesurvey.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/limesurvey/source/limesurvey ./

Check http://docs.limesurvey.org/Accessing+the+Source+Code for the latest version.

Configure the LimeSurvey installation

 * 1) Make your LimeSurvey setup readable for the web. You can use
 * 2) Make a backup the config file:
 * 3) Edit   with a text editor.

In basic setup section, find $databaselocation  =   'localhost'; $databasename      =   'limesurvey'; $databaseuser      =   'root'; $databasepass      =   '';

// File Locations $rooturl           =   "http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/limesurvey";

Change it to:

$databaselocation  =   'mysql.yourdomain.com'; $databasename      =   'yourDatabaseName'; $databaseuser      =   'yourDbUsername'; $databasepass      =   'yourDbPassword';

// File Locations $rooturl           =   "http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}";

Run the installation script
cd admin rm -r install
 * 1) Go to "http://your.domain.com/limesurvey/admin/install"
 * 2) If you configured everything correctly you will be asked to create the necessary tables inside the database. Select "Populate database" button. After the script shows that it successfully created the tables, select "Main admin screen" button.
 * 3) You will be prompted to rename or delete the /admin/install directory.

Connect to the administration site
Congratulations, you're done with installation. Now, login to the administration site:


 * 1) Go to "http://your.domain.com/limesurvey/admin/admin.php"
 * 2) Login with username: , password:
 * 3) Assuming everything was successful, read the LimeSurvey first login instructions and change your username and password.

Credits
These instructions were based on Redmine installation instructions.