TABLE OF CONTENTS
- ABOUT POWERBOOK 1.20 [ Top ]
Thank you for your interest in PowerBook 1.20, a guestbook-system based on PHP3/4 and MySQL. My name is Axel "Expandable" Habermaier and I wrote the entire script. It was fun to write PowerBook and I hope you'll enjoy using it. If you encounter any bugs, if you have any suggestions or recommendations, please email me and tell me your opinion! I want to enhance and improve PowerBook, but I can only do so with your help!
Please keep in mind that PHP is my hobby and I am no professional! It is highly likely that there are bugs in the script, although it ran through extensive betatesting. What I want to say is, that I am glad to be informed about bugs, but if you are starting to insult me, I can become very angry, too. I don't get paid for my work so fixing those bugs and improving the entire system is on a voluntary basis!
PowerBook is a member of a great family of free and powerful PHP-Scripts. You as a webmaster can easily install and use those without having to spent hours, days, weeks and months to learn PHP and develop your own good scripts. There are, for example, PowerNews (a news-script with categories and comments), PowerDownload (a download-manager), PowerClan (a script which helps clans to administrate their "wars") and even more (PowerAccess, PowerCounter). Furthermore we are developing our own messageboard (PowerPHPBoard).
- VERSION-HISTORY [ Top ]
This is the version-history and shows how PowerBook improved during the months. Please note that Version 1.10 has never been released!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION 1.20 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- External code almost entirely rewritten
- Added:
- "Thank You"-eMail (can be deactivated, title and text entered online, using Templates & MySQL)
- Search-functions for entries
- Statements (one per entry)
- Possibility to switch between leafing through the pages and displaying each page number
- Made date more individual by splitting date and time
- AdminCenter entirely rewritten with great changes:
- Cookie-login no longer required, but still possible
- Reduced authorizations to four
- Removed "Entry edited by ..."-message
- Admins can now write a statement to each entry by using a comfortable online-form
- Configuration of PowerBook now entirely online, using Templates & MySQL
- Added help-section
- Passwords are saved in an encrypted form
- PowerBook released under the terms of the GNU License
- Improved security when visitors write entries (checks if eMail-adress is valid, removes HTML-code in all fields)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION 1.10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Solved problem with entry-preview (previously only a standard design was used)
- AdminCenter rewritten with fixed design, more comfortable to work with
- Passwords are no longer encrypted
- Introduced multilanguage-support (included: Ger1 (Du-Form), Ger2 (Sie-Form) and English)
- Added possibility to install an infinite number of PowerBooks using only one database
- Changed entry-design to use templates (configured online, using MySQL)
- Some less important bugfixes and smaller changes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION 1.05 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- New security rules in Adminarea:
- The Admin added during the installation is undeleteable
- Saving passwords in an encrypted format
- Five authorizations for admins replaced "moderators" and "administrators"
- When editing entry, an "Entry edited by ..."-message was added
- Installed by file, not by using phpMyAdmin
- Configuration online using MySQL
- eMail no longer needed to add entry
- Added:
- Support for ICQ#
- Support for smilies
- Support for icons
- [small] to text-format-functions
- Possibility to deactivate Smilies, Icons, ICQ#s and text-format-functions
- Only showed a specific number of entries, then displayed a link to leaf through the pages
- Several bugfixes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION 1.00 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Initial Release!
- System Requirements [ Top ]
In order to run PowerBook 1.20 correctly, your webserver must support PHP 3/4 and MySQL.
- New Installation [ Top ]
The installation of the script is pretty easy. Just upload all files and subfolders in the pb_inc directory included in this .zip file onto your server. Furthermore, upload the install_eng.php onto your server, which must be on the same level as the pb_inc folder (as in the .zip file).
Now, edit the mysql.inc.php in your pb_inc directory. Your host should be able to give you your MySQL data. PowerBook 1.20 also allows you to specify the names of the tables in the database, so it is possible to have more than one version of this script installed if you only have one database.
Upload the edited file and run the install.php which creates all needed tables. If the script says that it can't establish a connection to the database, please check the values you've entered in the mysql.inc.php.
If everything goes fine, delete the install_eng.php and go into the AdminCenter and edit your admin profile, by standard your name is PowerBook and your password is powerbook. Please note that you are the SuperAdmin, which means you can neither be deleted, nor can your permissions be restricted. Moreover you should check the configuration of the script, as there are some values missing.
Now, take an empty page with your site's design. Put the following line at the point, where the different contents of your pages usually start:
<?PHP include("pb_inc/guestbook.inc.php"); ?>
Save this file and upload it. Remember to tell PowerBook this file's name in the configuration area of the AdminCenter!
- Upgrade Installation [ Top ]
Note: If you are running PowerBook 1.00, it is not possible to upgrade to 1.05 or 1.20 - sorry.
First of all, delete all PowerBook 1.05 files on your server (however, I suggest you save your entry design for later use). Then proceed as explained above (New Installation), but instead of the install_eng.php you must upload and run a file called update_eng.php.
If the upgrade was successful, all configuration and admin data got lost - nevertheless. However, the guestbook entries should still be there (if not, there is a backup of the old table in your database called "pb_old_entries"), although there might be problems with smilies and icons not displayed correctly or not at all.
Delete the update_eng.php and go into the AdminCenter and edit your admin profile, by standard your name is PowerBook and your password is powerbook. Please note that you are the SuperAdmin, which means you can neither be deleted, nor can your permissions be restricted. Moreover you should check the configuration of the script, as there are some settings missing.
Now, take an empty page with your site's design. Put the following line at the point, where the different contents of your pages usually start:
<?PHP include("pb_inc/guestbook.inc.php"); ?>
Save this file and upload it. Remember to tell PowerBook this file's name in the configuration area of the AdminCenter!
- FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions [ Top ]
Q: There's only a white page saying something about "Failed to establish MySQL connection" or "Failed to find database". What's wrong?
A: The script cannot communicate with your MySQL database. In the first case, the server address, username and/or password is wrong. If the database cannot be found, there's a problem with the database name you entered.
Q: I don't understand this PHP include stuff. Can you please help me?
A: Read the description (see above) again and look at the included example file (pbook.php). Also, try to experiment a bit!
Q: It's not possible to get my old entries to version 1.20!
A: In this case, please contact Expandable with a detailed description of your problem.
Q: Is this script also available in other languages?
A: Yes, there's a German version over at www.powerscripts.org. If you want to translate the script into another language, please inform Expandable.
Q: I've found a bug! What shall I do now?
A: Please send a detailed description of your problem to Expandable. He will then help you to solve the problem and fix the bug for any possible future releases.
- Support & Disclaimer & Copyright [ Top ]
This script is officially supported by PowerScripts. If you encounter any bugs or problems, you can get support by using the support form or the forums. You can also write an eMail to Expandable. Please describe your problem as detailed as possible to get it solved quickly. Moreover, please read the FAQ and search the forums before creating a new thread or writing an eMail! It is possible that another user has already found the problem you have, so we don't have to answer twice on the same question. Thank you!
Neither PowerScripts nor the author of this script are responsible for any damage the installation and/or the use of the script might cause. The poster of an entry or statement is fully responsible for all links and contents he/she posted.
The design and code of all pages enclosed in this .zip-file are copyright 2002 by Axel Habermaier. Within the limitations of the license you are allowed to modify the script, but you are not allowed to delete the copyright notes at the bottom of the pages. Furthermore you may not publish the modified version of the script.
- GNU License [ Top ]
You must agree to the enclosed GNU License if you want to install PowerBook 1.20.
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