Installation

Installation of website software can be easy or difficult. With GiantIsland.com software, installation is easy! The following is an outline of the steps needed to install our products on your website and server and get your website installation up and running fast:

First, verify your website and server meets all server installation requirements.
Download the software to your computer and uncompress to a single folder.
FTP the product folder to your website and server.
Verify that ASP 3 and ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, are enabled on your site.
After installing all scripts, make sure all folders have the correct read/write user permissions.
Test the product live on the Web by typing your url, plus the product folder name.

If everything has been uploaded correctly, installation is complete, and your server has all the required settings, then you should be able to begin uploading media and using the product. Be sure to read the Help pages in each section for more detailed information on installing and using your product.

Detailed Website Installation Instructions

To install our products, your server must meet the following requirements below. (Note: Please see our Requirements section for more detailed information).

Windows Computer - Once you purchase and download our software, you will need to uncompress the ZIP so that you end up with an extracted web product folder of scripting pages. Because the ZIP was compressed with Windows XP or Vista, we recommend you extract the file using a Windows XP computer. If you have an older Windows operating system, you may get a copy of WinZip Software online and use that to extract the web product folder of pages to your computer. Mac versions of our compressed software are not supported at this time. (If you are requesting a freeware version of our software, and are using a Macintosh computer, you may email us to see if we can offer access to that file uncompressed over FTP.)
Website - You will need a website, and that website must be hosted on a Windows web server.
Windows Web Server (IIs) - Your website above must be hosted on a Windows Web Server (IIS).

Once you met the requirements above, to install the web product, simply download the compressed ZIP to your Windows PC. Extract or uncompress the ZIP by double-clicking the file on your desktop and dragging the web product folder to your desktop. You should see a single folder of files. That folder is the complete web product that you will now upload to your website!

To upload this folder and all its web pages, you must have access to your website using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software or other upload process. We recommmend you have FTP access using either FTP Software (which is free and can be downloaded here: www.download.com) or your web browser. Your ISP or Host Provider will have information on how to upload to your website. In most cases they will have sent you information on how to connect to your website and their servers using FTP.

Once you have connected to your website using FTP, find a suitable web folder under the web root of your website. Our web Products are designed to work under any folder or subfolder foound in your website. The software will intellgently figure out where its at and set its paths and other variables the first time you surf to the product using your browser. Once you have found the folder inside your website where you want to upload the product, begin uploading its folder to that location. The size of our products is relatively small, and in some cases less that 500 kilobytes. But because some folders, like skins, have so many items, it may take a while to upload. Please be patient and let your FTP software upload all pages under the web product root folder.

That's it! Once the complete web product folder of scripts has been uploaded into your website domain, simply link to the product folder. That would be wherever you uploaded your folder. (example: http://yourwebsitedomain.com/yoursubfolder/imageisland/). When you link to the root product folder the first time, you may have a short wait (few seconds) while it builds variables needed to run. Once thats complete, and assuming you have set up all the permissions and requirements, you should see the web product homepage. You will know its an "Island" product as you will always see the two major dropdown menus at the top left of the interface.
(*Note: If you have any problems viewing your software at this stage, please go back and read our "Requirements" area above and make sure you have set up all the features and services required. If your site is hosted and controlled by an ISP or Host Provider company, email them and request that all requirements listed in our FAQ section are fulfilled. We also will be adding a "Support" section soon to our site and troubleshooting details area as well to assist you!)

Additional Installation Website Information

Did you know that GoDaddy.com, our hosting partner, offers Windows-based website hosting that is compatible with our products? You may get a very affordable website for your Island product at GoDaddy.com by clicking the link image to the left! Be sure to follow our GoDaddy setup instructions here, once you are setup with your new site. It will help you setup our product on your new site quickly. It's that easy!

How do I setup a site on GoDaddy.com with the correct read/write permissions?

You can purchase both a domain and a Windows Server website for your GiantIsland.com web software at www.GoDaddy.com. They also offer a very easy way to setup all the necessary permissions needed to run our web products out of the box! To do so, simply follow the instructions below to create the read/write permission folder for your software.

*Note: Before installing, make sure you did not already create or upload your web product folder to your GoDaddy.com website before running the above process. If you did, just delete your web product folder and all web pages under it on your server before using the instructions below. Also, make sure you don't upload your ImageIsland folder and write over this one created on the server when uploading, else you will have to delete it again and start over.

Go to www.GoDaddy.com after purchasing your website and domain.
Login to the login area for customers in upper right corner of the homepage.
Use your username/password to login to your account.
Click "My Account" under the login form in the upper right corner.
At the new screen, at the top, click "Hosting and Email" icon, and choose "Web Hosting and Databases" in the dropdown menu.
In the new screen, you will see a list of your websites. Find the one you created and to the right of its name, click the "open" link in the page view list. This opens the "Tools" area that allows you to manage your website.
A new window should popup with the website management area inside. Click "Settings" in upper left corner of this new "Hosting Manager".
Scroll down and click "Directory Manager", or choose this from the list under "Settings".
At the bottom of this Directory Manager page click "Create Directory". This will create a directory for your website product under the root of your website. If you want to create this directory somewhere else in a subdirectory, drill down until you come to the directory you want to add your website product directory in and do "Create Directory" there.
On this next page, after creating your directory, under "Step One", enter the name of your folder by typing "ImageIsland" (or the name of your website product), and in the "Step Two" area check "Read", "Web","Write", and "SetRoot" only. Click "Continue" or "Ok", when you are done, and click Add or Update on the next screen. This process creates a parent directory for your website product that has all the necessary permissions to run both ASP and ASP.NET with read/write permissions under this folder.
Go back to the Directory Manager area and make sure the "Content" area shows you are running ASP.NET, version 1.1 or later, for your websites. You can set that as well under the settings area. ASP.NET 1.1 is needed to run many processes in the website apps, such as creating thumbnails and rotating images in ImageIsland, for example.
It takes the GoDaddy server some time to build this folder. You may see the word "processing" when you return to the Directory Management area. I would wait a few minutes and log in under FTP and check if the folder is there.
Once you see this folder on your site on GoDaddy, simply upload all the pages inside your website product folder (ie "ImageIsland") into this same folder on your server. Once thats complete, you are ready to go. *Note: Again, make sure you don't upload your web product folder and write over this same one created on the server when uploading. Otherwise, you will have to delete it and all its contents on the server and run the same process above again.