Here,we will show you the ImpressCMS admin area and how to configure the mail settings of your site.When you first log in with your admin username and password, you will see the following page:

Click “Submit” to proceed.If you have not removed the install folder and changed the permissions of the mainfile.php file to 444, you will see some warnings.

Once you remove the install folder and change the permissions of mainfile.php, the only warning remaining will be about the Protector module.For more information on how to install a module in Impress CMS you can refer to the module installation page.Now let’s take a look at the general settings of your Impress CMS. You can access them from the admin area > Preferences > General Settings.From here you can change your site’s name, slogan, theme, the admin address, etc.

All options are self-explanatory and you should have no problem changing the general settings to your preference.Next let’s configure the mail settings of your Impress CMS.For the purpose of this tutorial we will configure Impress CMS to work with SMTP.

The important settings here are:Mail delivery method – choose SMTPAuth from the drop-down menuSMTP host(s) – here you should enter mail.yourdomainname.comSMTP username – here you should enter an existing mail account, e.g. john@yourdomainname.comSMTPAuth password – here you should type the password for john@yourdomainname.comClick the “Go” button to save the changes.

How to Transfer ImpressCMS From Another Host?

To transfer your ImpressCMS website from another server you will need to do several things. The first one would be to transfer your website files via FTP. You will need to transfer both your “trust” folder and your website files. You can perform the transfer via FTP. You can check our FTP video tutorials at:

https://tmdhosting.com/tutorials/video/ftp.html

The next thing you will need to do is export your ImpressCMS MySQL database using a database management tool like phpMyAdmin. You can check our video tutorial how to export a MySQL database via phpMyAdmin here:

https://www.tmdhosting.com/tutorials/video/phpmyadmin/phpma-export.html

The next thing you will need to do is create new MySQL database within your cPanel. You can easily do that via cPanel > MySQL Database Wizard. Simply follow the steps on the screen. After that import the MySQL backup copy that you have exported. You can import the database using phpMyAdmin. To import the database, you can follow the instructions provided in our video tutorial here:

https://www.tmdhosting.com/tutorials/video/phpmyadmin/phpma-import.html

As a final step, edit the configuration file that is located in your “trust” folder. The file should look something like:

53320bcbfd6389c4cd3765be6ff0d222.php

Edit the following lines:

define( ‘SDATA_DB_USER’, ‘DB_User’ );

define( ‘SDATA_DB_PASS’, ‘DB_pass’ );

define( ‘SDATA_DB_NAME’, ‘DB_name’ );

Replace DB_User, DB_Pass and DB_name with the actual database credentials that you created earlier. Save the changes. Your ImpressCMS has been successfully transferred.

Themes Installations in ImpressCMS

You can easily install new themes for your ImpressCMS website to change its outlook. You are going to learn how to install new themes in this tutorial. First choose the theme which you wish to use on your website. You can find free ImpressCMS themes here:https://addons.impresscms.org/modules/wfdownloads/viewcat.php?cid=29

Once you have selected your theme, download its archive. Extract the archive and upload the extracted folder in the themes folder of your CMS. You can upload the theme using FTP. You can find our FTP video tutorials here:

https://tmdhosting.com/tutorials/video/ftp.html

If you have installed ImpressCMS in public_html folder you must upload the new theme in:

/public_html/themes/

In case you have installed ImpressCMS in a subfolder of public_html, for example folder called “cms”, you must upload the new theme in:

/public_html/cms/themes/

Next thing you will need to do is login your ImpressCMS admin area. Click on “Preferences”:

Then click on “General Settings”

Now using the drop-down menus, you can change the “Default Theme”, “Admin Theme”:

Click the “Save” button to apply the changes.

Plugin Installations in ImpressCMS

ImpressCMS comes with a wide range of functionalities, but if you want to, you can add even more. This can be easily done by installing an ImpressCMS addon. You can do that from here:

http://addons.impresscms.org

Once you have downloaded the module which you wish to install, extract its folder in your ImpressCMS “modules” folder. If you have installed ImpressCMS in public_html folder, you should place the new module folder in:

/public_html/modules/

In case you have installed ImpressCMS in a subfolder of public_html folder for example “cms”, you should place the content in:

/public_html/cms/modules/

In both cases make sure that the module files are placed in their own folder. Once you have placed the module folder, access the admin area of your website and select “Admin Modules”:

On the next page scroll down and under “Uninstalled Modules” find the module you have just uploaded:

Under “Actions” click the install button to install the module. You should receive a message that the module has been successfully installed, similar to the one below:

Settings such as which menu is published or not, as well as the different menu and module positions, login form module, etc are managed from the Blocks Administration section in your ImpressCMS admin area.

The “Side” column of the Blocks Administration section defines at which side of your pages a given menu/module will appear.

From the “Visible” column you can publish/unpublish blocks (green represents published and red represents unpublished blog).

From the “Action” column you can “Clone” (copy), “Edit” and “Delete” a block.

Let’s take a look at the Edit options for a block, for example the Login block.

Here you have basically the same options as the ones on the main Blocks Administration page, as well as two additional options – “Content” and “Cache lifetime”.

The “Content” option allows you to edit the template (code) of the block. We don’t recommend changing anything here unless you know what you are doing.

The “Cache lifetime” option allows you to set the cache lifetime of the block. You can disable caching for the block (No Cache), or choose cache lifetime from 30 seconds to 1 month.To save any changes, use the “Submit” button.

Block Positions Management in ImpressCMS

The content of the pages in ImpressCMS is managed by different blocks placed in different positions. In this tutorial we are going to show you how to rearrange these blocks so that you can customize your site per your needs.First, you will need to login to your website’s admin area. Do this by going to:

https://yourdomain.com/admin.php

If you have installed ImpressCMS in a subdirectory of your public_html folder for example: /public_html/cms/ you should access the admin area of the site using:

https://yourdomain.com/cms/admin.php

When you login to the admin area click on the “Blocks” icon as shown on the picture:

You will see a list of blocks already present on the site:

We will provide a brief description of each of the columns that you can have better understanding of the blocks table:

Visible – using this column you can select if the block will be visible or not

Name – name of the block

Title – Title of the block

Module – the module that enables the block

Side – the side on which the block will be placed. Use the dropdown menu to select sides

Weight – the order in which the block will appear. 0 (zero) comes first

Actions – you can perform the following actions on the blocks – move up, move down, clone, edit

You can use these settings to rearrange the blocks on the website.

Comments Management in ImpressCMS

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to manage the comment posted on your website. The first thing you would need to do is login to your website’s admin area. If you have installed ImpressCMS in the public_html folder of your account, you can access the admin area using:

https://yourdomain.com/admin.php

If you have installed ImpressCMS in a subfolder of public_html, for example in /public_html/cms/, you should access the admin area using:

https://yourdomain.com/cms/admin.php

Once you login to the admin area, click on the “Comments” icon:

You will see a list of comments posted on pages of your website:

The table provides information about:

Title of the page where the post has been posted

Date on which the comment has been posted

Name of the comment poster

IP address of the poster

Module that was used to create the page

Status of the comment

Actions you can perform

Using the actions settings you can choose to delete or edit the comment.

Users Management in ImpressCMS

When using ImpressCMS you can give your users different types of permissions. That way, for example, you can assign authors and moderators for your site. Each group of users will have different permissions. We are about to show you how to manage your users. The first thing you would need to do is login to your website’s admin area. If you have installed ImpressCMS in the public_html folder of your account, you can access the admin area using:

https://yourdomain.com/admin.php

If you have installed ImpressCMS in a subfolder of public_html, for example in /public_html/cms/, you should access the admin area using:

https://yourdomain.com/cms/admin.php

Once you are logged in click on the “Groups” icon as shown in the picture:

You will see the list of existing groups. You can edit those by clicking the “Modify” button next to each group.

On the same page you can create new groups and assign them the permission that you would like them to have. Simply check the boxes for the permissions that you wish to assign:

When you are done, save the changes to create the group.

To edit a user, go back to your administration control panel’s home page. In there click on “Edit Users”:

From the drop down menu select the user which you will be editing and click the “Edit” button:

On the next page you can edit the following information for your user:

Login Name

Display Name

Email

Password

User Level

Groups

Click the “Save Changes” button when you are done.