WHMCS Basic To Advanced Setup & How-To's

[REVOLUTIONS inc.]

There seems to be a high demand for info on the WHMCS so i have decided to create this tutorial and info thread for all things WHMCS.

(this text is just to hold this thread, it will be deleted once i make and post my setup basics and how-to tutorials.)


Could a staff member sticky this please.

[REVOLUTIONS inc.]

Installing WHMCS is very simple. The following steps will guide you through the process:

1.) Unzip the contents of the zip file to a folder on your computer
2.) Rename the file configuration.php.new to configuration.php
3.) Upload the entire whmcs folder to your website in binary mode - you can rename the folder to whatever you like (billing,clients,etc)
4.) If you don't have Ioncube installed on your server then simply upload the runtime loaders folder named "ioncube" also included in the zip file to the whmcs directory
5.) CHMOD the following folders & files (unless your php is SUphp or phpsuexec):

/configuration.php 777
/announcements.xml 777
/attachments 777
/downloads 777
/templates_c 777

6.) Run the installation script at http://www.yourdomain.com/whmcs/install/install.php (choose New Install on Step 2) - This will guide you through the rest of the setup process. On the last step, it will ask you to setup a cron job and provide you with the exact command you need to use. If you fail to do this, then automated tasks will not be performed.
7.) Once completed, delete the install folder from your web server and CHMOD the configuration.php file back to 644.

Post Installation Suggested Steps

After installation is completed, we recommend that you go through and configure your new WHMCS system in the following order:

1.) Login to the Admin Area and configure your General Settings (Configuration > General Settings)
2.) Setup your Payment Gateways (Configuration > Payment Gateways)
3.) Setup your Products & Services (Configuration > Products/Services)
4.) Configure your Domain Pricing (Configuration > Domain Pricing)
5.) Setup your Support Ticket Departments (Configuration > Support Departments)
6.) Setup email piping so you can manage tickets using the WHMCS Support Desk - for full instructions on this please see the relevant article
7.) Ensure the WHMCS Cron Job is setup and configure automated tasks (Configuration > Automation Settings)
8.) Place some test orders on your website to check everything works as expected



Common installation issues.

comeing soon....

(i can't seem to edit the first post cause it's been more than 15 min, but could a mod or admin put these posts in the first post once they are all done. Thanks.

[ghpk]

Always Password Protect your /admin/ folder on WHMCS,
you can use "password protect a directory" option in cPanel to do so.

This protects you from many problems before one could think of creating.

[striddy]

Also, in WHCMS admin, clicking Help > Documentation takes you to the WHMCS wiki

http://wiki.whmcs.com

[REVOLUTIONS inc.]

Customizing Your WHMCS

Client Area Template Files

WHMCS is 100% customisable. Utilising the Smarty templating system, with the WHMCS template files you can:

Change the entire look of all aspects of the client area
Add your own HTML & PHP code to extend the system
Add your own text strings which change based on the users language selection

Basic Steps

1.) Duplicate the "default" folder in the templates folder and rename it to a custom name
2.) You can then make your changes to the template files as required - header.tpl and footer.tpl affect the header and footer of all pages - all other template files are for their respective pages
3.) Once complete, upload your new templates folder to the templates directory of WHMCS on your server
4.) Finally, to activate the template, login to the admin area, go to Configuration > General Settings and on the first tab of the general settings choose your custom template name from the Template dropdown menu.

Templates can also be changed on the fly per-user via the URL. Add ?systemtemplate=templatename to the url when accessing the client area, or ?ordertemplate=orderform to change the order form displayed.

E.G.
http://yourdomain.com/whmcs/clientar...emplate=portal http://yourdomain.com/whmcs/order.ph...ate=singlepage



Admin Area Template Files

Certain parts of the administration area of WHMCS are customisable in the same way as the client area. As of version 3.6.1 the following areas can be customised:

The drop down navigation menus: topmenu.tpl
The administration dashboard/homepage: homepage.tpl
The left-hand statistics panel: navbar_statistics.tpl
The clients summary page: clientssummary.tpl

These files are all located in the admin/templates/ directory, relative to your WHMCS installation's root, which also contains style.css so you can customise the appearance and colours of your administration panel.



Order Form Templates
By default, the cart order process is used and so the templates are in the templates/orderforms/cart folder. Below is a breakdown of what each file is used for:

products.tpl - Lists product categories and products
adddomain.tpl - First step for domain registration only orders
addons.tpl - Lists the addons a user can order for their existing packages when logged in
configureproductdomain.tpl - Domain selection for domains attached to a product
configproduct.tpl - Configure the product before adding to the cart eg. billing cycle, configurable options, custom fields
configuredomains.tpl - Choose domain addons, complete custom field requirements & custom nameservers
viewcart.tpl - Showing cart contents & checkout process
login.tpl - Used for login for existing users
complete.tpl - This page is showed at the end of the checkout process

Third Party Order Conversion/Affiliate Tracking

If you use a third party order conversion tracking system or affiliate system then you may need to insert a code snippet that gets run when a user completes an order. With WHMCS, you would add this to the complete.tpl template file between the ispaid section of code as shown below:

{if $ispaid}
Enter any HTML code which needs to be displayed once a user has
completed the checkout of their order here - for example
conversion tracking and affiliate tracking scripts
{/if}
You can use variables including {$orderid} {$ordernumber} and {$amount} where necessary to fill in order details.



View more info on template syntax

[dsbiz]

This has been very helpful. Thanks!

[kmaw]

Originally Posted by striddy

Also, in WHCMS admin, clicking Help > Documentation takes you to the WHMCS wiki

http://wiki.whmcs.com

That was going to be my contribution too.

[Fox3]

Newbie here...

After installation how do I login to the 'Admin' area?

Thanks in advance!

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Fox3

Newbie here...

After installation how do I login to the 'Admin' area?

whateveryourdomainnameisdotcom/admin

[Fox3]

Thanks! I figured it was something easy like that but I couldn't get the thing to work. Then I remembered I had changed my admin folder name. Works! LOL

[Fox3]

I was able to successfully customize the header.jpg file that was in the "default" folder, but what about the .tpl files? How do you open or customize these file types?

Thanks in advance!

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Fox3

I was able to successfully customize the header.jpg file that was in the "default" folder, but what about the .tpl files? How do you open or customize these file types?

If you have experience in html it should be no problem.

[Fox3]

Originally Posted by striddy

If you have experience in html it should be no problem.

Not to put words in your mouth striddy, but I gather that you meant that .tpl files can be opened in any html editor. I could not open it from Finder (there assumed it unrecognized) but I was able to open it from Dreamweaver where I was sucessfully able to customize with ease.

Perhaps this is "basic knowledge" for most of you guys but thank you for making this a beginner-friendly enviornment and resource for us newbies.

Thanks!

[striddy]

Originally Posted by Fox3

Not to put words in your mouth striddy, but I gather that you meant that .tpl files can be opened in any html editor.

Spot on.

Originally Posted by Fox3

I could not open it from Finder (there assumed it unrecognized) but I was able to open it from Dreamweaver where I was sucessfully able to customize with ease.

Perhaps this is "basic knowledge" for most of you guys but thank you for making this a beginner-friendly enviornment and resource for us newbies.

Thanks!

Glad to help. We were all beginners at some point, however we are ALL learning things every day.

[naushad]

hey! it is a wonderful step by step guide to install whmcs. But one thing that troubles me is about missing information on how to shift / transfer / import accounts if you already had another billing or client management system.
Well, in my case I have WHMAutoPilot and that is still up and running. Now I have installed whmcs. I want to know two things:
1. What should I do to the previous whmautopilot installation? should i delete or anything like uninstall option available?
2. I do not remember the password of the client created for whmautopilot database that is required for whmapimport script to pull all records from whmautopilot. is there any way to remember it or should i go to manual way of doing same?

thanks in advance

[justMe]

i've not seen the whmautopilot files layout, but they should (probably) include a config file somewhere that you could read to recover the db pass word whmautopilot is using...

[TJGSU]

Originally Posted by striddy

Also, in WHCMS admin, clicking Help > Documentation takes you to the WHMCS wiki

http://wiki.whmcs.com

Cant' locate announement fille in folder.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by TJGSU

Cant' locate announement fille in folder.

I don't understand your question, please restate.

[TJGSU]

Originally Posted by TJGSU

Cant' locate announement fille in folder.

Dismiss the above quote.

However, how many steps does it take to install whmcs. Reason, after I created the database and user name, entered license #, etc., I was taken to Step 4. The only thing showing on the screen is INSTALL/UPGRADE WHMCS and of course the header. And thats because I enter the information in quotes. If I don't I get a database error. I checked the configuration file and the database information seems to be correct. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by TJGSU

how many steps does it take to install whmcs.

Try following this link.

http://forums.hostgator.com/showpost...18&postcount=5

[jeds]

Hope this isn't cross-posting, (I replied also to thread on php accelerator), you can check for installed components using a php info script.
Found one here: www.htmlite.com/php003.php

Running it on my server part I get:
"Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Zend Technologies
with the ionCube PHP Loader v3.1.34, Copyright (c) 2002-2009..."

The ioncube loader is also listed further down as an installed module

So I am assuming the part of the instructions regarding ioncube can be ignored??

[striddy]

Originally Posted by jeds

So I am assuming the part of the instructions regarding ioncube can be ignored??

That's correct.

[jeds]

Thanks, Striddy, here's another question,

The install says to rename the admin folder, then go to your whmcs login and get your key re-issued. However there is no re-issue button.

So I sent a contact email via the support form to whmcs. To top it off, my browser got an error and closed, so
1. I don't know if the email got sent
2. I didn't get the cron job set up, and my install folder is gone now, which I need for the instructions- but I can login to my renamed admin folder.

So do I upload just the install folder??? I have not seen anyplace else that has the cron job instructions, and I do not know what further instructions there are after that.

Thanks

[striddy]

Originally Posted by jeds

The install says to rename the admin folder, then go to your whmcs login and get your key re-issued. However there is no re-issue button.

If you rename the admin folder for extra security (good move) and you got your WHMCS license with your reseller or dedi package here at HG, then you will need to open a support ticket at whmcs.com. They will make the license change for you. Once done, if any issues post back here.

[jeds]

Can I go back to editing the client area template files? My question is 2-fold.
First in regards to footer.tpl, it only has the language dropdown in it, yet the footer contains my company name. I am not sure how to add links to say my tos, privacy etc.

The second part of the question is that after I did add one link just to see what happenned, then uploaded my renamed folder and then selected it from the whmcs control panel, it uses default for the client area files.
ideas?

(forgot to say that I am using portal and like the look, just want to edit footer.tpl)