Installation

Downloads

Download the latest releases of Pressbooks, McLuhan, and Aldine, as well as the latest releases of any other book themes you wish to install.

Installation (Manual)

::: danger IMPORTANT!

Part 1: WordPress

  1. Install WordPress using the Famous 5-Minute Install.

  2. Create a Network of WordPress sites, i.e.:

  3. Edit the wp-config.php file and add the following:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

  1. Login to the WordPress admin area. Navigate to Tools → Network Setup, click Install.

  2. Complete the steps printed on the screen (i.e. edit your wp-config.php and .htaccess files with the information provided).

Part 2: Pressbooks

  1. Copy the Pressbooks plugin folder to: /path/to/your/site/wp-content/plugins/*.

  2. Copy Pressbooks' autoloader file from /path/to/your/site/wp-content/plugins/pressbooks/hm-autoloader.php to /path/to/your/site/wp-content/mu-plugins/hm-autoloader.php. You may need to create the wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory if it doesn't yet exist.

  3. Copy the Pressbooks Book, Pressbooks Aldine and other theme folders to: /path/to/your/site/wp-content/themes/* (NOTE: theme folders must not have version numbers on the end. GOOD: pressbooks-aldine. BAD: pressbooks-aldine-3.1.0. Make sure that you rename the folders appropriately.)

  4. Log out, log in, navigate to: My Sites → Network Admin → Dashboard.

  5. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.

  6. Network Enable "Pressbooks".

  7. Navigate to Themes → Installed Themes.

  8. Network Enable "Aldine", "McLuhan", and any other Pressbooks theme you want to use.

  9. Navigate to Settings → Network Settings.

  10. Pick the most appropriate Registration setting:

    • User accounts may be registered. (We recommend that you avoid this setting, as users will not be able to create new books!)
    • Logged in users may register new sites. (If you are a publisher using Pressbooks as a production tool, this is the recommended setting: it allows network administrators to add new users, who can then create books/sites. However, registration is not available to the public.)
    • Both sites and user accounts can be registered. (Be careful about selecting this option, as it allows both public account registration and book creation. You will likely need to have good account and content moderation practices to avoid your network being flooded with spam.)

  11. Navigate to Your Network Title → Dashboard → Appearance and activate "Aldine".

  12. Navigate to My Catalog → Your Site → Dashboard

  13. Navigate to My Catalog → Add A New Book (this will be your first book).

  14. Navigate to My Catalog → Your First Book → Dashboard.

  15. Navigate to Book Info. Make sure to fill out Title, Author and Publication Date.

  16. Navigate to Text → Organize. Make sure some content is selected for export.

Part 3: Pressbooks Dependencies

Pressbooks requires some third-party libraries to be installed on your server to enable export capabilities.

Unlisted versions are not supported. Upgrade/downgrade accordingly.

Once installed, define the following wp-config.php variables (make sure to update the paths to correspond to your specific installation). The defaults are:

define( 'PB_PRINCE_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/prince' ); // Only required if you are using Prince on your server
define( 'PB_EPUBCHECK_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/epubcheck/epubcheck.jar' );
define( 'PB_XMLLINT_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/xmllint' );
define( 'PB_SAXON_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/saxon-he/saxon-he.jar' );
define( 'PB_MATHJAX_URL', 'http://localhost:3000/' );

Example config files for a dev site hosted at http://localhost/~example/textopress/

wp-config.php file [snippet]:

/**
 * For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
 *
 * Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
 * It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
 * in their development environments.
 */
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);

/**
 * Multi-site support, Part 1
 */
define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

/**
 * Multi-site support, Part 2
 */
define('MULTISITE', true);
define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false);
$base = '/~example/textopress/';
define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'localhost');
define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/~example/textopress/');
define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);
define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);

/**
 * Pressbooks
 */
define( 'PB_PRINCE_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/prince' );
define( 'PB_EPUBCHECK_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/java -jar /home/example/bin/epubcheck/epubcheck.jar' );
define( 'PB_XMLLINT_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/xmllint' );
define( 'PB_SAXON_COMMAND', '/usr/bin/java -jar home/example/bin/saxon-he/saxon-he.jar' );
define( 'PB_MATHJAX_URL', 'http://localhost:3000/' );

/**
 * Optional definitions
 */
// define( 'AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 60 ); // Autosave every N seconds
// define( 'WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5 ); // Limit post revisions: int or false
// define( 'EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 1 ); // Purge trash interval. PB default is after 30 days.

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

.htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /~example/textopress/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $1 [L]
RewriteRule  ^[_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/(.*.php)$ $1 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

::: tip Need a wp-cli deploy? Start here: https://github.com/pressbooks/snippets/blob/master/deploying/wp-cli-example.md :::