Preparation

The following software is helpful or required for the installation:

• If the server is not running on the local computer, you will need an FTP program to transfer files to the server, e.g. FileZilla.
• For the maintenance of the database a frontend is helpful, e.g. HeidiSQL
• If you have not already done so, download the current installation package for SoSci Survey from the Download portal. For the download you need your license data (password).

If you are not thoroughly familiar with rights management on web servers, please refer to Processes and Users on a Web Server.

To ensure that the server works correctly with SoSci Survey, you must create a directory for SoSci Survey and possibly make other adjustments.

• Preparation Apache Webserver
• prepare2iis

In order for SoSci Survey to access the database, you will need a username and password for the database.

Important: A database user specifically for SoSci Survey increases the security of the server against attacks. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to set up a separate database and user for SoSci Survey.

If, contrary to the recommendation, you use the user account of the database administrator to access the database (e.g. “root”), SoSci Survey can create a database on its own – in this case you can skip this section.

• Create a database for SoSci Survey on the database server. SoSci Survey can alternatively be installed in an existing database (if e.g. only one database is available). Important: The name of the database must contain only lowercase letters (and characters allowed in MySQL)!
• If necessary, create a new user for SoSci Survey on the database server, who has all rights for the SoSci Survey database (create, delete, change tables, etc.), but no rights for other databases. This user should only be allowed to log into the database from the web server (usually this is “localhost”).