How to Install ARK

The current ARK release is v1.1, hosted on Sourceforge. Download Now

Downloading and installing the latest release of ARK is easier than ever. Detailed installation instructions can be found on the ARK wiki. Here are the basic steps to follow:

1. Download the source

The latest stable release of ARK is available at our Sourceforge pages and from the download link at the top.

2. Check and install the dependencies

First, be sure you have installed all the dependencies needed for the latest ARK release. As a minimum you need Apache/PHP/MySQL installed and running.

3. Unpack ARK

Unpack the code and put it into your webserver.

4. Create a user and a database on MySQL

You need to add a new user and a new database on your MySQL server and then import the ARK SQL package into this new database.

5. Update the settings

A few easy tweaks to the setting files are needed so that you can tell ARK what kind of server you are using and create a custom name for your ARK install.

6. Preflight Checks

As of v1.1 ARK ships with a simple pre-flight checks script to make sure you’ve got everything in order. If you’ve passed the tests, then we are ready to…

7. Log in!

Log in to you new system and do some final tidying up. You can now add your new users and start using ARK!

Obviously you’ll want to customise your ARK to suit your project needs. You can also check out some of our pre-configured ARKS to get you started.

PLEASE NOTE that ARK is NOT optimised for Internet Explorer browsers, particularly deprecated versions (IE6, IE7). If you want to get the most out of your ARK experience we’d strongly recommend using a browser compliant with all CSS3 directives (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc).

  • How to Install ARK

    Downloading and installing the latest release of ARK is easier than ever… Read More


  • How to Upgrade

    We have compiled a guide for upgrading from previous versions of ARK to the latest code… Read More

  • ARK Examples

    To help get you started, we’ve created two complete configurations for archaeological recording based on some of our existing projects. Read More

  • Resources

    In addition to basic installation and upgrade instructions and our detailed wiki pages, the ARK team have also developed some… Read More