OK - I've made my site on Winamp, established the domain name with a recommended host, created a database with users (one with the same username and password as the website, one with different username1 and password1) and given them full database rights.

On the install Silverstripe screen the settings are:
My SQLServer - localhost
My SQL username - username
My SQL password - password
My SQL database - database

This returns OK on all checks except "Can I create/access database' where I'm told that the database doesn't exist and username doesn't have CREATE DATABASE permissions.

If I substitute username1 and password1 I get a further error from Access Credentials.

So what step have I missed?

Looks like SS doesn't think the database exists. So 'database' is the name of the database you created in your host? Some hosts prepend user ids or usernames to the database name you create (so that it can't get conflicts) so you might want to double check your hosts documentation on how to connect to mysql. Apart from that making sure the database server is at localhost and that username has 'CREATE' rights (if you can)

Ah-ha. I have since found the same problem with Mischiefmaker on the forum.

I've rechecked the database on the host through phpAdmin to confirm that all privileges were OK.

I've finally found success by defining SQLuser as loginname_username with the relevant password and the SQLdatabase to locate as loginname_databasename.

thanks for the help.

Hooray! – It’s working. www.bluetopwalkers.org.nz

I had difficulty exporting the database but found it worked well if I used Firefox rather than IE. However although I got the message that the database was imported correctly it didn’t publish, even after flushing. I eventually opened up the local version and found that I could copy and paste the pages after I set up the structure in the hosted copy.

On going issues.

I have a number of pages of photos set in tables which are centre aligned. They display correctly in IE but Firefox left justifies them. ??

The body frame doesn’t always expand to contain the table in Firefox. OK in IE.

De-brief.

I have set up and taught the CAD programmes at secondary school for a number of years. Part of this has meant writing lesson notes for absolute beginners. I found that the documentation for Silverstripe as written assumes that everything will go along as it is meant to and that the users are conversant with the programming protocols. The forum contains a wealth of information, a lot of it repetitious because the same problems keep recurring.

A troubleshooting page related to these common issues could be of value. There were times when I looked enviously at the German publication of a Silverstripe book and wished I could get hold of an SS for Dummies.

The monitoring of the forum and responses by the development team is brilliant. Great to see that level of support, but I think that broader documentation could reduce the number of queries.

Once I had the localhost and the webhost sites running the operations using the CMS are a piece of cake. Well done to the guys at Silverstripe for their work here.

Part of my challenge in producing the site is that I had viewed another site constructed for an organization by a ‘professional’ which I found disappointing (polite terms). My objectives to have a site that reflected the client, was easy to use and maintain, and looked attractive have, I feel, been achieved. I look forward to trying some of the other modules available to make the site better.

My thanks to all who helped and contributed.

splinters, glad you got it setup. Well done! The first one is always the hardest. Fully agree with your points! We are currently rewriting the documentation and providing a much more structured approach which should hopefully make getting to grips with silverstripe much easier also upcoming improvements to the forum should make FAQ topics nicer to find :)