Welcome!

Vanilla was born out of the desire to create customizable, integratable, and downright entertaining community solutions. Vanilla has been used to power over 400,000 community forums around the world - We couldn't be happier that you've decided to use Vanilla to grow yours.

- Mark O'Sullivan

Requirements

• PHP version 5.2.0 or newer.
• The pdo_mysql module must be enabled (it is enabled by default, but some web hosts disable it).
• MySQL 5 or newer.

Installation

1. Upload this entire file structure up to your web server.
2. Navigate to that folder in your web browser.
3. Follow the instructions on screen.

If you run into any issues during your install, it is most often related to file permissions on your server. Try granting PHP write access to the following files & folders:

• /cache/*
• /conf/config.php (if this file doesn't exist, don't worry about it)
• /uploads/*

Upgrading from Vanilla 1 to Vanilla 2

Some of your customizations to your Vanilla 1 forum (plugins, themes, and translations) will not be easily portable to Vanilla 2. You will most likely need to create a new theme for your forum.

Important: Back up all of your existing files and your database.

1. Delete all of your Vanilla 1 files.
2. Upload this entire file structure to your web server.
3. Vanilla 2 requires that PHP have read/write access to the following files/folders:
   • /conf
   • /cache/*
   • /uploads/*
4. Browse to your Vanilla 2 files in your favourite web browser and follow the installation instructions. Make sure to use the same database that your Vanilla 1 tables are in.
5. Browse to http://yourdomain.com/path/to/vanilla/import and follow the instructions.
6. Navigate to the role management screen and re-assign each role's permissions.

Additional Resources

If you are having difficulties, encountered errors, or just have some basic questions, here are some additional resources to help you out:

• Vanilla Documentation
  The Vanilla Documentation is a community-managed set of documents that cover topics from getting Vanilla installed to creating plugins and themes.
• Vanilla Community Forums
  The Vanilla Community Forums are a free resource where users, fans, and developers can help each other with all Vanilla-related questions.

Giving Back

Once you experience all the ways that Vanilla can help you grow your community, you'll be as excited about Vanilla as we are. All we ask in exchange for your use of this software is that you tell others about it. The more people you tell, the more people use it, the more time we can devote to making it even better.

Copyright

Vanilla is released under the GPL (see LICENSE.txt).