Explanation of cPanel : Part one

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about cPanel in details. So let’s start:

Most essential part of any web hosting account in Control  Panel. The most widely used control panel is cPanel, Parallels Plesk, and Direct Admin. There are some control panel which runs on Linux while some runs on Windows. There are control panels which run on both the types of Operating Systems: Linux as well as Windows.

cPanel is a program which runs on Linux based web hosting server. Nowadays it is used in most of the businesses and also in most of the web hosting companies. It is designed in such a way that it helps you in managing your web hosting account most easily.

cPanel is built with WHM which manages server and reseller part and without  WHM, the functions provided by cPanel would not be utilized fully. cPanel is most popular as well as a stable control panel.

You will first need to login to your control panel for that you will require a domain name. If you don’t have any domain name pointing to any hosting server then you can use server IP address. You can also use Port number for logging into cPanel.

It offers various features from adding an email to managing domain as well as sub domain names. Also, you can manage the FTP accounts. There are various sections under tools and categories on the right-hand side of the dashboard which is divided into various sections like File section, SEO and Marketing tools, Domain section, Database Section, Mail section, Metrics, Security, Software, Preferences, Softaculous App Installer section, Applications and Advanced section.

Once you log into your cPanel you will see the following screen :

These various Tools, categories and the stats will help you in managing your web hosting account. Even if you are not professional then also you can easily set your websites through cPanel.

The Dashboard of cPanel is divided into two 2 parts. The left-hand panel shows Stats and the right-hand panel shows various tools and categories.

With the help of each of these sections, anyone can manage his/ her website easily.

Let’s learn each of these sections in detail:

• FILES:-

This section offers various tools like File Manager, Images, Directory Privacy, Disk Usage, Web Disk, FTP Accounts, FTP Connections, Backup, Backup Wizard, Git Version Control, File, and Directory Restoration.

Now we are going to discuss File Manager section in details:

1. File Manager: –

This tool is used for managing websites files. Using this tool you can create a file, create a folder, Copy a file, Move a file, Upload a file, Download a file, Restore a file, Rename a file, Edit a file, Give permissions to a file, View a file, Extract and compress an archive.

Let’s learn how to use all these tools in detail:

Creating a new File:-

Using this tool you can create new files which can be a text file, HTML file or PHP file. The new file will get created at the specified location as shown below:

You are required to enter the New File Name and check the path, if it is correct then click on “Create New File” button.

Creating a new Folder:-

This tool is used for creating a new Folder at the specified path. Enter the name of New Folder and it will get created in the given path. Then click “Create New Folder” button.

Copy a File / Files:-

Usually, this option is disabled, but once you select a file for copying then this option gets enabled. When you select Copy option following window will appear:

Here you will see the File path of the file which you are trying to copy. Then you are required to enter the path that you want to copy this file to. After click “Copy File(s)” option. Thus your selected file or files will get copied to the given path.

 Move a File /Files:-

If you want to move a specific file to the desired path then this tool is used. The window looks like this :

Here you can see the current file path and you are required to enter the path to which you want to move this file to. Then click on “Move File(S)” button, your file or files will be moved to the specific location.

Upload a File:-

This tool is used for uploading a file to a given path. In our case, we are trying to load a file to “/home/democpanel”. You can directly Drop files to start uploading or you can select a particular file which you want to upload. You will also get an option to ‘Overwrite existing files’ for overwriting the existing files. Maximum file size allowed for upload is 9.35MB. If you want to go back to the file path or to the home page of File Manager, then click on Go Back to ‘file path’ option.

Download a File: –

Most of the times this option is disabled. Once you select a file for Download then this option gets enabled. Click on the Download option

Delete a File:-

This tool is used for deleting a file. When you select this option then following window will appear:

Here you can see a prompt asking for whether you are sure about sending the selected file to the trash. You will also get an option “Skip the trash and permanently delete the files”. If you select this option then that file will be permanently deleted. If you are sure, then only click the “Confirm” button otherwise this tool will send the file to the Trash.

Rename a File:-

This tool is used for Renaming a file. The following window will appear when you choose the Rename tool. Here you will see Old File name which you want to rename. In the option “New file name:” you have to enter the new name which you want to give to your file. Then select ” Rename File” option and thus your file will be renamed.

Edit File : –

This tool is used for Editing a file.

Precaution: Before editing any file it is always best to take the back up of the original file. Because editing can produce unexpected results.

In this window, you will see the name of the file which you want to edit. Also, you can see an option for Disabling the Encoding Check i.e. if encodings are not important to you as you are working with English and other western languages, then you can disable this dialog by clicking on the “Disable Encoding Check” button.

Once you are ready for editing then click the “Edit” button.

HTML Editor:-

This tool is used for editing HTML files. If the file which you want to edit is not HTML file or if the size of the file is more than 1MB then you will get following error message

Permissions:-  

This tool is used for setting various permissions like Read, Write and Execute to the particular file. It is also used for changing the file permissions. You can change the permissions of User or Group or World. As shown in the following window you can select and deselect the permissions as per your requirement.

View:-

This tool is used for either viewing the contents of the specific file or saving that file. Once you select a file, this option gets enabled. When you select a specific file for viewing the following message appears. It shows the name of the file which you have selected for viewing, it also gives the details about which type of file it is, from where it came and also asks you to decide about what should Firefox do with this file? Whether you want to Open it or save it. By default “Save File” option is selected.

You can also tick the option which is for doing this (i.e. Open with or Save File) automatically for files like this now on.

Extract:-

You can extract an archive by left-clicking its name and then clicking on the “Extract” button.

Compress: –

You can also create your own archives. Select the files and folders which you want to include in the archive, as shown in the following window:

Or you can also click the “Compress” button and then the following pop will appear: Here you can see Compression Type, Files to compress. You will need to enter the name of the archive and click “Compress File(s)” option.