Hi, I am a bit of a beginner.
Have only the faintest grasp of PHP concepts at the moment but willing to self teach as I go.

I am hoping to add a star rating system to an existing webpage with 25 items to rate on a single overall rating category for each,

But I am not entirely sure how to go about starting this off after downloading the software.

I currently edit my pages using a plain text editor (I dislike wysiwyg) and usually do it direct on the host server so I don't have any of the pages on my computer.

Sorry if I sound really thick, I'm not but I just haven't really done this before.
I let myself in for this when I started a group to help unsigned bands get more attention and six thousand people joined in three weeks.
I'm not getting paid for it but I feel obliged to finish what I started.

In case anyon wants to know the website it is intended to go into the URL is http://www.french4tots.co.uk/unsignedbands/clips_1 .html
I presume the .html will have to change to .php if I am to collect usable data and I also assume I will need a database for this which I am not totally sure how to do.
Is that something to do with mySQL ?
I did something with databases before but have forgotten everything I learned already.

Sorry, I just saw the email with all the helpful URLs.
I might be alright for now then. lol
trouble with using more than one computer at a time.

Sorry, I am still having trouble.
Not even made second base.
I uploaded the zip file to my public_html directory
opened up mydomain/star-rate/installer/index.php
and got the set up screen as shown in the video.
at the check list page (step three) I got
Warning, config file already exists! Be sure that you do a clean install. Delete if is a clean install or follow the upgrade documentation.

So I deleted the config.inc.php file which seemed a bit daft as why would it be there if it needs to be deleted straight away?
It seemed to work although there were three other settings that were in red.

Server API CGI mode is likely to have problems

Register Globals = OFF? There are security risks with this turned ON
Session AutoStart = ON? Try setting to ON if you are experiencing a WhiteScreenOfDeath

I think these are all issues that I would need to take up with the host, is that correct?

So then I moved on and got to the database config bit, did all that as far as I could understand and hit the write config button.
and got this
"Please check your config.inc.php. If everything seems OK there, please ask your server administrator about your server configuration. On many shared hostings, define(DB_HOST, "localhost"); is not LOCALHOST but a domain name that could look something like db5.domain.com.

Usually this problem is caused by the mistyping of the Db's username, password or name. Username and Name are usually the caracters you choose and your account's username. I.e. grafx_john, grafx_cwbdb"

the host told me that localhost is correct but what does check the config.inc.php file mean??
I deleted that to start with.
It has been recreated but there is nothing in it when I open it in the text editor.

So what should it look like? I kept the text from the original config.inc.php file but have no clue what to do with that.

We suggest to do the installer manually, in free version only need to dump the database into phpMyAdmin annd setup config.inc.php (PATH)

Really not at all sure what set up config.inc.php means
is there somewhere you can point me to with step by step instructions.
preferably idiot proof ones.
:)

I have realised I missed something before.
I didn't create a database first.
So I just did this (I have a mySQL databse wizard so that part was easy)
and it still tells me the same thing.

The config.inc.php file is completely empty.
Surely there should be something in it??
What is supposed to go there?

How to install:
Unzip this file into your directory. Edit config.inc.php and setup database URL, and path informations.
Create/Setup database using database.sql file. You need to use phpMyAdmin for dumping SQL file in database, most of control panels have this.

I am still missing something pretty major.
I have no idea how to edit config.inc.php
I have set up a databse but not sure what you mean by set up DB URL and path info.
I have phpMyAdmin but don't understand what is meant by dumping SQL file in DB
I also have DB wizard on my host

I only found out by reading someone else's query who had a similar problem about the CHMOD 777 thing.
Had absolutely no idea what that meant and I haven't seen any mention of it in the instructions I have seen so far.
Did a bit of research and sussed it out but WHAT files I am supposed to change?
apart from the config.inc.php which I then have to delete anyway so what is the point?

I would just like a step by step basic instruction sheet in plain text would do.

Unfortunatelly the only software from us, Star Rate System is not an autoinstaller. You need to know how to handle a database in control panel, how to edit a config file. If you cannot handle, cause you do not know how, better to try for a paid service from us, for 15USD we can install the free rating system and is free for the PRO version.