Installation
FAQ

A network-hosted site is an autonomies install managed by us at autonomies.net. Your site lives at yourname.autonomies.net. We handle the server, SSL, backups, and software updates. You manage your content through the same admin interface as a self-hosted install.

Fill in the site request form. You'll need to provide your name, the subdomain you'd like (e.g. phoenix for phoenix.autonomies.net), and a way to contact you. We'll review your request and get back to you.

Once we approve your request and create the database, provisioning takes a few minutes. We'll contact you with your admin login credentials and your site URL. You can be publishing the same day in most cases.

Not currently. Network-hosted sites are served from yourname.autonomies.net. Custom domain support is planned for a future version.

Everything a self-hosted install includes — open publishing, event calendar, moderation queue, user roles, site settings, dark mode, and more. Network-hosted sites also get the World Events Wire sidebar block, showing upcoming events from across the entire autonomies network.

You do. Your database is separate from every other site on the network. We cannot read, edit, or delete your content. We can only access the server at the infrastructure level in the event of a critical security issue.

A self-installed site runs on your own web hosting — any shared host, VPS, or dedicated server that supports PHP and MySQL. You download the autonomies package, upload it to your server, and run the web-based installer. You are responsible for your own server, backups, and updates.

Download the latest release from autonomies.net/download/autonomies-v1.2.zip. Always use the latest version.

Any shared host that provides PHP 7.4 or higher and MySQL/MariaDB will work. Hostinger, SiteGround, DreamHost, and most cPanel-based hosts are all compatible. Managed WordPress hosts may not work since they often restrict PHP file execution.

No. The web installer walks you through setup with no command line or code required. You will need to be comfortable with basic hosting tasks — uploading files via FTP or a file manager, and creating a MySQL database through your host's control panel.

• PHP 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.x recommended)
• MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3+
• PDO and PDO_MySQL PHP extensions
• GD extension (for image uploads and favicon resizing)
• Fileinfo extension
• Apache with mod_rewrite enabled, or Nginx with equivalent rewrite rules

No. Everything is done through your host's control panel and the web-based installer. SSH access is helpful but not required.

Create one MySQL database through your host's control panel (usually under Databases → MySQL Databases or phpMyAdmin). Note down the database name, username, and password — you'll enter these in the installer. The installer creates all tables automatically; you do not need to import any SQL files manually.

1. Download autonomies-v1.2.zip and extract it on your computer.
2. Upload all extracted files to your server's public_html folder via FTP or your host's File Manager. Make sure .htaccess is included — it's a hidden file so you may need to enable "show hidden files".
3. Create a MySQL database and user in your host's control panel.
4. Visit https://yoursite.com/install.php in your browser.
5. Follow the five installer steps — requirements check, database credentials, site setup, installation, and confirmation.
6. Delete install.php from your server when the installer prompts you to. This is a security requirement.

Double-check the following:

• The database name, username, and password are entered exactly as shown in your host's control panel — copy and paste rather than typing.
• The database user has been assigned to the database. On cPanel hosts you must explicitly add the user to the database after creating both.
• The database host is localhost for most shared hosts. Only change this if your host specifies a different hostname.

The installer offers a dropdown for the PHP handler used in .htaccess. For most shared hosts, leave it on the default application/x-httpd-php. If the site shows a blank page or download prompt after installation, try switching to one of the other options — application/x-httpd-php8 or application/x-httpd-php80 are common alternatives on newer hosts.

This is almost always a PHP handler mismatch. The .htaccess file tells Apache how to execute .html files as PHP, and different hosts use different handler names. Log back in to your hosting control panel and check your PHP version settings, then re-run the installer with the correct handler selected — or edit .htaccess directly and change the AddHandler line.

Yes — upload all files to the subdirectory (e.g. public_html/community/) and visit yoursite.com/community/install.php. Internal links between pages use relative paths so subdirectory installs work without any configuration changes.

1. Delete install.php if you haven't already — the site will show a security warning in the admin bar until you do.
2. Log in at yoursite.com/azindyadmin.html with the admin credentials you set during installation.
3. Set your site identity — go to Site Settings and update the logo name, tagline, and page descriptions.
4. Edit the About and Contact pages — use the ✎ Edit Site button in the admin bar to update placeholder text with your real content.
5. Upload a favicon — in Site Settings → Favicon, upload a square image. The platform resizes it automatically.
6. Publish your first post — visit the Publish page and submit an article. As admin it will be approved automatically.

Anyone can submit a post via the Publish page without an account — their submission goes into the moderation queue for you to approve or reject. If you want trusted contributors who can submit posts without moderation, create them a Group account via Site Settings → Users. Commenters can register themselves and comment on approved posts.

All anonymous submissions land in the moderation queue. Your admin bar shows a badge with the pending count. Go to Moderation to review each submission — you can approve it (makes it live on the site), reject it (removes it), or edit it before approving. Approved posts by Group users skip the queue and go live immediately.

Submit a post and select Event as the topic. Fill in the event date, time, and location fields that appear. Once approved, the post appears in the event calendar automatically. Events with a future date also appear in the upcoming events sidebar block.

Log in as admin, click ✎ Edit Site in the admin bar, then click the Edit button on the Links sidebar block. You can add, reorder, and remove links from there. Changes save immediately.

1. Download the update package for your version from autonomies.net.
2. Upload all files to your public_html folder, overwriting existing files. Do not overwrite config.php or anything inside uploads/ — these contain your database credentials and uploaded media.
3. Visit yoursite.com/update.php and log in with your admin credentials.
4. Review the version shown and click Run Update. The updater applies any database migrations automatically.
5. Delete update.php from the server when prompted.

The update notification checks autonomies.net/version.json once per day. Click View changelog to see what changed, then follow the update steps above when you're ready. Updates are never applied automatically on self-hosted sites.

No. The update process only replaces PHP and HTML files. Your database (which holds all posts, comments, users, and settings) and your uploads/ folder are never touched by an update. config.php is also excluded from all update packages.

Yes. The updater chains migrations — if you're on v1.0 and update to v1.2, it will run the 1.0→1.1 migration followed by the 1.1→1.2 migration in sequence. You don't need to update through each version individually.

Make sure style.css was uploaded and is in the same folder as index.html. Also check that .htaccess uploaded correctly — it's a hidden file and some FTP clients skip it by default. Enable "show hidden files" in your FTP client settings and re-upload if needed.

Check that the uploads/ folder exists on your server and that it's writable. Most hosts set folder permissions to 755 by default which should work. If uploads still fail, set the uploads/ folder permissions to 775 via your host's File Manager. Also confirm the GD extension is enabled in your PHP settings.

There is no email-based password reset. To reset your password, go to phpMyAdmin (available in most hosting control panels), find your database, open the bm_users table, find your admin user, and update the password column with a new bcrypt hash. You can generate a bcrypt hash at bcrypt-generator.com — use cost factor 10.

UPDATE bm_users SET password = 'YOUR_BCRYPT_HASH' WHERE username = 'yourusername';

Delete the file from your server immediately. These files give anyone with the URL the ability to reconfigure or reinstall your site. Connect via FTP or use your host's File Manager, navigate to public_html, and delete install.php and/or update.php. The warning disappears automatically once the file is gone.

Use the contact form to send us a message. Describe what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. Include your PHP version and hosting provider if you know them. We'll get back to you via the contact details you provide.