ZBKB

Download

IMPORTANT: I've added a bugfix, so if you downloaded prior to 18:42GMT on 14/10/04 - please re-download the tarball

Download the Source Tarball. Be sure to read the information below first!

You can also view the README and USERGUIDE - these are both included in the tarball.

Introduction

ZBKB (ZazzyBob Knowledge Base) is a fully featured Knowledge Base application written using PHP for it's frontend. It is designed to run on an Apache webserver, with at least PHP 4.0 loaded. ZBKB uses PostgreSQL for its database backend.

Features

Even in this early version, ZBKB is a feature rich and reliable platform suitable for situations where a fast server-based knowledge base is required.

Current functionality includes:

User Accounts - Each user has their own login account used to access the knowledge base, which can be tailored as required by the use of various permissions.
- Write/Read/Admin permissions currently implemented
- Other permissions are planned

Administrative Functionality - The administrative users have full control over the database. They can add and remove users, categories and sub-categories, as well as change passwords, etc.

User Functionality - Users can be set up read-only, whereby they can only search and query the knowledge base, or with write permission they can contribute to the knowledge base.

Security - Uses encrypted passwords and PHP sessions for increased security. All attempted user logins are logged.

These features, and many more, give ZBKB a good deal of functionality in even this early release.

Pre-requisites

ZBKB requires that you have the following software installed (and running) on your machine:

* Apache (Tested with version 1.3.27)

* PHP (Tested with PHP 4 -loaded into Apache as module)

* PostgreSQL (Tested with version 7.3.2)

Installation

1. Unpack the tarball to a temporary location, e.g.

    $ cd /tmp
    $ zcat zbkb-0.1.tar.gz | tar xvf -

2. Edit the "setup_db" script to suit your needs.

* _DB_NAME specifies the database name. The default of "zbkb" should be used - do not change this!

* A variable that you'll almost certainly need to change is _WWW_ROOT. This should be set to wherever you store your php files. If PHP has been configured on a SuSE 8.2 system, for example, the files can be dropped straight into /srv/www/htdocs

3. Execute the following command as a user with admin rights to PostgreSQL

    $ createdb zbkb

4. Add the "wwwrun" user (Linux) or "nobody" user (Windows). This is the user that the httpd process runs as. Again, execute as a user with admin rights to PostgreSQL

    $ createuser wwwrun

NOTE: You *must* answer yes to both questions - wwwrun must be a PostgreSQL "superuser".

5. Execute the following as a PostgreSQL admin

    $ psql -c "GRANT ALL ON DATABASE zbkb TO wwwrun;" zbkb

6. Run the setup_db script (make executable if necessary). May need running as root (i.e. whoever has write access to the _WWW_ROOT directory).

    # chmod u+x ./setup_db
    # ./setup_db

7. All tables will be created, and files will be copied to the directory specified.

8. If the files are in your usual DocumentRoot, you can now just browse to "http://localhost/login.php" and log in as root. The credentials are:

	Username:	root
	Password:	password

All credentials are case sensitive. As soon as you log in as root, change your password! Instructions on how to do this are contained within the user guide.

9. If you have any problems, contact me (e-mail address below) You can now delete the temporary files, if that's what floats your boat.

Postamble

This software is UNDER DEVELOPMENT. Please feel free to send comments, suggestions, code tweaks and feedback to me!

I am also looking for other developers to get involved in this and other open source projects, so if you'd like to contribute, get in touch.

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