Having trouble getting Sphyider started

[KadeM]

Hello.

I've uploaded Sphider, and ran the requirements check which looks good.

After running "install.php" (which gives me a "Sphider installation script." message - and that's all) the database I set up says "no tables found in database" for the one I set up for Sphider according to "phpMyAdmin" which seems odd to me.

When I run "admin.php" I can log in; but it returns a
"This page isn’t working is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500"

I read in another forum post (I really did try to troubleshoot this myself!) it was suggested to un-comment out error reporting (on auth.php and another) which I did; but this still the only error message I see.

I'm redesigning my website, and hoping to avoid having to use Google Personal search if possible; any advice or help will be appreciated!

Thank you for your consideration

[captquirk]

Did you edit settings/database.php and settings/my.cnf for database name, mysql_user, mysql_password, and mysql_server?

Just getting the "Sphider installation script" with nothing after than indicates a failure to connect to the database.

[KadeM]

Hello. I found an error (typo) with the database name... sorry and thank you for that tip.

Now I get a new error (progress still!)

Sphider installation script.
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'
Error: Table 'theatri_sphider_db.settings' doesn't exist
Creating tables failed. Consult the above error messages.

[captquirk]

Ahhh! Turns out that is a fairly new collation and your version of MySQL obviously does not have it.
Well, easy fix.
Edit install.php and replace all instances of of 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci' with 'utf8mb4_general_ci'. Then rerun install.php.

[KadeM]

Yay! Thank you so much. That did the trick.

The tables were created, admin is working - as are search features. I have some more questions, of course, but will try to look through the documentation before bothering the forum.

I deeply appreciate your time and willingness to share your expertise!

Kade