Install FormBoss on a GoDaddy Windows Hosting Account.
This guide will help you install FormBoss on a GoDaddy/Window IIS Hosting Account.

Background:
GoDaddy's Windows hosting with PHP is a strong platform, unfortuantlly out of the box it is not properly configured to run FormBoss. This is becuase the default PHP build doesn't include the PHP_PDO extension FormBoss needs for database connectivity. This guide will show you how to configure your GoDaddy Windows Hosting account.

Prerequisites
You must be running PHP 5 and using IIS7!

Database Setup
Check out this page for specifics on setting the FormBoss installer database values with your GoDaddy hosting account.

Back One Page


 

First, create a file called php5.ini on the root of your web directory:

interface

Now open that file and paste the following text into it:

display_errors = off;
extension_dir = "c:\php5\ext";

[PHP_CURL]
extension=php_curl.dll
[PHP_GD2]
extension=php_gd2.dll
[PHP_MYSQL]
extension=php_mysql.dll
[PHP_MYSQLI]
extension=php_mysqli.dll
[PHP_PDO]
extension=php_pdo.dll
[PHP_PDO_MYSQL]
extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll
[PHP_SOAP]
extension=php_soap.dll
[PHP_XSL]
extension=php_xsl.dll
[SQL Server - Not yet Supported]
extension=php_sqlsrv.dll

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = relay-hosting.secureserver.net
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = webmaster@secureserver.net

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Session ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
session.save_path="D:\TEMP\PHP"

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; File Uploads ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Whether to allow HTTP file uploads.
file_uploads = On

; Temporary directory for HTTP uploaded files (will use system default if not
; specified).
upload_tmp_dir="D:\Temp\php"

; Maximum allowed size for uploaded files.
upload_max_filesize = 8M

; Maximum size of POST data that PHP will accept.
post_max_size = 8M

Save this file and upload it to the live server. Remember, its php5.ini saved to the root of the web server! Also, this sample will work fine for FormBoss, but you can add any extensions you want, so long as they are supported by GoDaddy.

In the control panel, open the IIS Management tab:

Restart Server

And then click the Recycle App Pool Button:

Step 3

 

This will take several minutes, and like my account, may error out. Not a problem. When the server starts back up you should have this in a phpinfo() file:

Step 4

 

Now we need to set file permissions for the installer. This is done in two steps:

 

First, find the folder: formboss/output/

Step 5

Uncheck Inherit and Check the bottom 3 items, then click ok:

Step 6

We also need to make the config files writable. Unfortunately it doesn't appear we can change file permissions individually, so we’ll need to change the entire /app directory during install:

Step 7

Again, same thing:

Step 8

When done with the install, you will want to select the /app directory again and make sure to remove Write permissions.

 

Also, with GoDaddy shared plans we need to use a host that is not typical. We get our host from the phpMyAdmin manager for the database we'll be using with FormBoss, at the top:

Step 9

Now try the install.

For reference,  here is what I used to do a successful install:

Step 10

 

Post Installation

FormBoss allows you to use several Captcha Methods to protect your forms. Just as with the install process, being on a Windows server in a shared environment means you'll need to do one extra step to make sure everything works fine.

Specifically, we need to uncomment a line in the file:

\formboss\app\movefiles\security\Captcha\CaptchaSecurityImages.php

As shown below:

Step 11

Doing this step will ensure the font file is loaded when we export the form. It should be noted that you have a choice with the font you want to enable. The one with the arrow is the recommended font, as it is easiest to read. However, the font on line 70 may also be a good choice. Please keep in mind you can only have 1 font selected, so be sure to only have 1 uncommented at a time!

 

In short, FormBoss completely eliminates the tedious process of php web form creation. From complex graphical layouts, SQL result delivery, simple email forms, and so much more, FormBoss Pro saves you time and money!