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If you do not have an earlier version of Grouper installed, skip this paragraph: You may upgrade an earlier installation by overwriting the old files with the files from this archive. PHPFTP.php, PHPTelnet.php, groupersetup.php and groupersetupinc.php are used only during installation, and need not be uploaded when upgrading. As of verion 1.5, because Google News and Yahoo! news now offer search results in RSS format, Grouper no longer scrapes those sites, but instead accesses the official feeds and handles them as it has always handled Feedster and Daypop results. If you are upgrading from a version prior to 1.5 and wish to retain the scraping capabilities, please install this version in a new location. Note that the scraping of Google News and Yahoo! News is no longer officially supported. If they change their output formatting, older versions of Grouper may cease to work.

For a fresh installation of Grouper, please do the following:

1. Decide where you want to put the Grouper scripts on your webserver, and create a new folder for them if necessary.
   Recommendations:
   • We recommend that the folder be named "grouper". This will make it more likely that the setup assistant will be able to locate it automatically. If you are going to name it "grouper", you may create it by simply uploading the "grouper" folder from the installation archive and its contents (see next step).
   • It is good security practice to install scripts like Grouper in a location that cannot be accessed directly by a web browser. For example, if your web folder is located at "/home/joe/public_html", a good location to install Grouper would be "/home/joe/grouper" rather than "/home/joe/public_html/grouper". However, if you see an error message about "safe mode", you may need to install Grouper inside your web directory.
   
   
2. Upload all of the contents of the "grouper" folder from the installation archive to the location chosen in the previous step.
    
3. Upload groupersetup.php to your webserver (in a location where you'll be able to load it in your web browser).
   Recommendation: For simplicity, we recommend uploading groupersetup.php to the web server root directory. For example, if your web directory is located at "/home/joe/public_html", upload it to there.
    
4. Load groupersetup.php in your web browser. For example, if you uploaded it to "/home/joe/public_html/groupersetup.php" and your website address is http://www.webhost.com/~joe/, load http://www.webhost.com/~joe/groupersetup.php in your web browser.
    
5. Follow the directions that are shown in that page. If you see a message about unsupported functions, that means that your web host has turned off support for functions which are necessary for Grouper to function. In that case, you will either need to contact your web host to see if they will re-enable those functions for you or install Grouper on a different server.
    
6. Once you have successfully completed setup, delete groupersetup.php and groupersetupinc.php from your server.
    
7. You may also delete PHPFTP.php and PHPTelnet.php--they are not used by Grouper. However, if you are a PHP programmer, you may find them useful. See the PHP FTP and PHP Telnet homepages for more information.
    
8. If you have purchased Grouper Evolution, make any necessary changes to the CONFIGURATION sections of any of the contents of the "helpers" directory that you wish to use, and upload them to a location where you'll be able to load them in your web browser (see the step where "groupersetup.php" was uploaded for an example)
    
9. If you are using any of the "helpers" scripts and wish to use CaRP to display them on your webpages, make any necessary changes to the CONFIGURATION section carp-example.php, and upload it to a location where you'll be able to load it in your web browser.

Occasionally when using the XML plugin, Grouper will display an message indicating an XML parsing error. If the source document is an Atom or RSS feed, go to Feed Validator.org and submit the URL of the feed. If the feed validator tells you that the feed is invalid, then there's probably nothing Grouper can do about it. In that case, the only thing to do is to notify the publisher that their feed is broken (and point them to the Feed Validator so they can see for themself) and hope that they'll fix it. If the Feed Validator says it is valid and Grouper does not output an error saying that iconv failed if you have the "groupererrors" configuration setting set to 1 or 2 (the default), please send me the URL of the feed, and I'll take a look at it.

If you are looking for a web host, or your current host does not meet the requirements for running Grouper, Gecko Tribe recommends iPowerWeb. We have verifed that Grouper installs easily and works properly with iPowerWeb's "Web Hosting" service. (NOTE: we have not verified it on their "Windows Hosting" option, but it may work there too). iPowerWeb is a top-notch provider offering full-featured web and email hosting with excellent prices. I personally selected iPowerWeb for another business of which I am a part owner, and I continue to recommend them without reservation. In fact, if you have any difficulty installing Grouper on iPowerWeb's "Web Hosting" service, I will personally complete the installation** at no charge, even if you are using the free version of Grouper. Request installation on iPowerWeb

** Offer includes completion of the installation script, but not additional configuration (for which technical support is available in the Grouper User Forum or by email).