Deployment Guide – Memorial Tribute Site

Overview

This guide walks you through buying a domain, linking it to your Collnetwork.net hosting, and deploying the Flask memorial site — step by step. No VPS or command-line server skills required.

Item	Detail
Your existing host	Collnetwork.net (cPanel shared hosting)
Recommended new domain	tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
App type	Python 3 / Flask (via Passenger WSGI)
Database	SQLite (file-based, no MySQL setup needed)

Phase 1 — Buy & Point the Domain

STEP 1

Buy the domain

Go to Namecheap.com (recommended — cheapest, clean interface) and search for:

tributeformonicaonyegbado.com

If taken, try monicaonyegbado.com or ladymonicaonyegbado.com. Complete the purchase (~$10–12/year for .com).

Note: You do NOT need hosting from Namecheap — you already have Collnetwork. Just buy the domain name only.

STEP 2

Find your Collnetwork.net nameservers

Log in to your Collnetwork.net client area, go to your hosting account details, and look for the Nameservers. They will look like:

ns1.collnetwork.net
ns2.collnetwork.net

Write these down exactly.

STEP 3

Point the new domain to Collnetwork nameservers

In your Namecheap account, go to Domain List → Manage → Nameservers. Change from "Namecheap Default DNS" to "Custom DNS" and enter the two nameservers from Step 2.

Note: DNS propagation takes 2 – 24 hours. During this time the domain may not work — this is normal.

STEP 4

Add domain as Addon Domain in cPanel

Field	Value
New Domain Name	tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
Subdomain / FTP Username	tributemonica (auto-filled)
Document Root	public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com

Click Add Domain. cPanel will create that folder automatically.

Phase 2 — Set Up Python in cPanel

STEP 5

Create a Python application in cPanel

In cPanel, find "Setup Python App" (sometimes under "Software"). Click Create Application:

Field	Value
Python version	3.11 (or highest available)
Application root	tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
Application URL	tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
Application startup file	passenger_wsgi.py
Application Entry point	application

Click Create. cPanel will create a virtual environment automatically and show you the path — copy it. It will look like:

/home/YOUR_USERNAME/virtualenv/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/3.11/bin/python3

STEP 6

Install Flask via cPanel Python app manager

Still in the Python app manager, find the "Install packages" section (or a pip input box). Install these one by one:

flask
flask-cors
werkzeug

Or paste all three and click Install. cPanel will pip-install them into your virtual environment.

Phase 3 — Upload the Site Files

STEP 7

Edit passenger_wsgi.py before uploading

Open passenger_wsgi.py in any text editor and replace YOUR_CPANEL_USERNAME with your actual cPanel username:

# Change this line:
INTERP = os.path.expanduser("~/virtualenv/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/3.11/bin/python3")

# If ~ doesn't work, use the full path copied from Step 5:
INTERP = "/home/john123/virtualenv/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/3.11/bin/python3"

Also open .htaccess and replace YOUR_CPANEL_USERNAME:

PassengerAppRoot /home/john123/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
PassengerPython  /home/john123/virtualenv/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/3.11/bin/python3

STEP 8

Upload files via cPanel File Manager

In cPanel, go to File Manager → navigate to public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/

Upload the entire contents of the memorial/ folder (not the folder itself — its contents):

public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/
├── passenger_wsgi.py ← required by cPanel
├── .htaccess ← required by cPanel
├── app.py ← your Flask app
├── requirements.txt
├── templates/
│ └── index.html
└── static/
    ├── css/ → style.css
    ├── js/ → app.js
    └── uploads/ ← upload deceased.jpg here

Important: The uploads/ folder must exist and be writable. Right-click it in File Manager → Permissions → set to 755.

STEP 9

Upload the portrait photo

Upload Lady Monica's photo to:

public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/static/uploads/deceased.jpg

Rename your photo file to exactly deceased.jpg before uploading. The site will display it automatically in the hero section.

Phase 4 — Go Live

STEP 10

Restart the Python application

Go back to cPanel → Setup Python App, find your app, and click the Restart button (or the circular arrow icon). This tells Passenger to reload passenger_wsgi.py.

STEP 11

Test the site

Open your browser and go to:

http://tributeformonicaonyegbado.com

You should see the memorial site with the candle and portrait. Submit a test tribute to confirm everything works.

If you see a blank page or 500 error: Go to cPanel → Error Logs and look for the most recent Python error. The most common cause is a wrong path in passenger_wsgi.py.

STEP 12

Enable SSL (HTTPS) — Free

In cPanel, go to SSL/TLS → AutoSSL or Let's Encrypt SSL. Click to issue a free certificate for your domain. This makes your site use https:// which looks professional and is trusted by browsers.

Backing Up Tributes

All submitted tributes are stored in a single file:

public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/memorial.db

Periodically download this file via File Manager as a backup. To view its contents you can use DB Browser for SQLite (free desktop app — sqlitebrowser.org).

Uploaded photos are in static/uploads/ — download that folder too when backing up.

Quick Checklist

Bought domain tributeformonicaonyegbado.com
Set custom nameservers at Namecheap → pointing to Collnetwork
Added domain as Addon Domain in cPanel
Created Python 3.11 app in cPanel Setup Python App
Installed flask, flask-cors, werkzeug via cPanel pip
Edited passenger_wsgi.py with correct cPanel username / path
Edited .htaccess with correct cPanel username / path
Uploaded all site files to public_html/tributeformonicaonyegbado.com/
Uploaded deceased.jpg to static/uploads/
Set uploads/ folder permissions to 755
Restarted Python app in cPanel
Tested the live URL — site loads correctly
Enabled SSL (HTTPS) via AutoSSL / Let's Encrypt
Submitted a test tribute and downloaded a test tribute file

✅ You're live! Share the link https://tributeformonicaonyegbado.com with family and friends. Submissions will automatically close on July 31st. The download button on the tributes wall lets anyone save all tributes as a printable file.

Guide prepared for the memorial of Lady Monica Egowure Onyegbado 🕯

🕯 Deployment Guide