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<h2>EasyForum! 2.x README</h2><ul>
<li><a href="http://hot-things.net" target="_blank">Homepage: http://hot-things.net</a></li>
<li><a href="#a">Description and features</a></li>
<li><a href="#b">License</a><br /><br /></li>
<li><a href="#1">How to install EasyForum! 2.x</a></li>
<li><a href="#2">How to upgrade from a previous version</a></li>
<li><a href="#3">How to set your own colors and settings</a></li>
<li><a href="#4">How to create a lang file in your native language</a></li>
</ul><hr size="1" class="k" />
<br /><a name="a"></a>
<h3>Description and features</h3>
Easy Forum! 2.x is a Bulletin Board System written in PHP.
The output produced by Easy Forum! 2.x is very small, 100% XHTML1.1 compliant
and also looks fine with any modern browser which supports HTML4+ and JavaScript.
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fast processing and low web traffic</li>
<li>Easy to install. No MySQL database required</li>
<li>100% XHTML 1.1 and CSS2 compliant output</li>
<li>Full PHP3/PHP4/PHP5 compatibility</li>
<li>Best viewed with any browser - MSIE 4+, Netscape 4+, Opera 4+, Mozilla (any)</li>
<li>Text formatting - bold, italic and colored text</li>
<li>10 pretty color schemes at choice or a custom scheme</li>
<li>Different icons at choice, smilies, 'http' and 'mailto' links</li>
<li>Up to 99 forums</li>
<li>HTML and other filters</li>
<li>Two valid RDF/RSS feeds in different format</li>
<li>Supports cell phones and PDA via WAP</li>
<li>User registration</li>
<li>Search features</li>
<li>Images in the posts</li>
<li>Administration mode</li>
<li>Backup/Restore</li>
<li>IP banning and flood prevention</li>
<li>Custom time settings</li>
<li>Translated in different languages</li>
</ul>
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<br /><a name="b"></a><h3>License</h3>
Easy Forum! 2.x is distributed under a GNU General Public License (GPL):
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html</a>
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<br /><a name="1"></a>
<h3>How to install EasyForum! 2.x</h3>
<ol>
<li>Extract all files in an empty directory keeping the directory structure</li>
<li>Upload that directory (and all files/subdirectories in it) by an FTP program</li>
<li>CHMOD:
<pre>
the subdirectory: /data to 777
the subdirectory: /backup to 777
the file: -members.php to 777
</pre>
<div class="l">------------------------------<br /><br />CHMOD means to change permissions/attributes of a file or a directory on a Linux/Unix system usually by an FTP program.<br /> If you are running a Windows server this can be done from the admin panel (in most cases).<br /><br />------------------------------</div><br /></li>
<li>Run a browser, type the URL: <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/index.php</a> and post a test topic</li>
<li>Enter the admin panel to setup an ADMIN password: <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/admin.php</a></li>
<li>Add a second (third) forum: create two new subdirectories (data2 and backup2), CHMOD them to 777 and register these changes in config.php</li>
</ol>
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<br /><a name="2"></a>
<h3>How to upgrade from a previous version</h3>
* <i>OVERWRITE ALL FILES</i> means to replace the files from the main directory and <i>ALL SUBDIRECTORIES</i> with the new ones!<br />
If you have an FTP client which is able to compare files, you can keep those which are the same.<br />
For best result first delete all files <b>except</b> the ones from the subdirectories <i>/data</i>, <i>/backup</i> and <i>-members.php</i> and then upload the new files!<br />
Note that <i>upgrade1.php</i> and <i>upgrade2.php</i> are zipped in <i>upgrade.zip</i> and should be extracted separately if necessary.
<br /><br />
* Upgrading from version 1.x to version 2.x is not recommended! The forum will work fine but won't be XHTML compatible!
<br /><br /><br /><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 2.1/2.2/2.3/2.4:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones -> <i>REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR PREVIOUS "-members.php" FILE AND ALL 'DATA' FILES</i></li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 2.0:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones -> <i>REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR PREVIOUS "-members.php" FILE AND ALL 'DATA' FILES</i></li>
<li>Delete the file <i>data/psss</i> and enter the admin panel to setup a password</li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 1.6:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones -> <i>REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR PREVIOUS "-members.php" FILE AND ALL 'DATA' FILES</i></li>
<li>Delete the file <i>data/psss</i> and enter the admin panel to setup a password</li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 1.4 or 1.5:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones -> <i>REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR PREVIOUS "-members.php" FILE AND ALL 'DATA' FILES</i></li>
<li>Convert <i>-members.php</i> by running the file <i>upgrade2.php</i> ONCE (and then delete <i>upgrade2.php</i>)
<br />e.g. <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/upgrade2.php</a><br />
<i class="l">If you run <i>upgrade2.php</i> more than once you'll lose your 'members' file!</i></li>
<li>Enter the admin panel to setup a password</li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 1.3:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones</li>
<li>CHMOD <i>-members.php</i> to 777</li>
<li>Enter the admin panel once to setup a password</li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 1.2:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones</li>
<li>CHMOD <i>-members.php</i> to 777</li>
<li>Create a new directory <i>backup</i> and CHMOD it to 777</li>
<li>Enter the admin panel once to setup a password</li>
</ol><br />
<b class="l">If you are going to upgrade from EasyForum! 1.0 or 1.1:</b><ol>
<li>OVERWRITE all files with the new ones</li>
<li>CHMOD <i>-members.php</i> to 777</li>
<li>Create a new directory <i>backup</i> and CHMOD it to 777</li>
<li>Convert the contents of your <i>data</i> directory by running the file <i>upgrade1.php</i> ONCE...
<br />e.g. <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/upgrade1.php</a></li>
<li>Enter the admin panel once to setup a password</li>
</ol>
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<br /><a name="3"></a>
<h3>How to set your own colors and settings</h3>
First of all, open <i>config.php</i> by a text editor and go through the settings!
<br /><br />
-------------------------
<br /><br />
If you'd like to involve some parts of your site in the forum, you can do it
using the files <i>incl/cust-top.inc</i> (header) and <i>incl/cust-bot.inc</i> (footer). <br />
Everything in both files will appear at the top and respectively at the bottom of the forum pages.<br /><br />
Take a note that you mustn't put there any starting and ending HTML tags such as
<i><html></html></i>, <i><head></head></i>, <i><body></body></i>.
<pre>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<i>--- any data from 'incl/cust-top.inc' goes here ---</i>
... forum goes here ...
<i>--- any data from 'incl/cust-bot.inc' goes here ---</i>
</body>
</html>
</pre>
The file <i>incl/cust-top.inc</i> currently contains two different multi-forum navigation bars and links to the wap version and the RSS feeds.
<br /><br />
You can replace the title <i>EasyForum! 2.x</i> appearing at the top of the forum
with any other title you wish or just insert an image tag: (<i>lang-xx.inc</i>, line #6).
<br /><br />
If you do not expect visitors from other countries you can make the forum show your local time, the months in your language etc.
<br />Replace the function <i>time_offset(){...}</i> (<i>config.php</i>) with the following lines:
<pre>---
function time_offset($s){
setlocale (LC_TIME, '<b>xx_XX</b>');
$time_format="%d %b %Y, %H:%M";
return strftime($time_format, $s);}
---</pre>
where <b>xx_XX</b> is your country code:
<pre>
NETHERLANDS = <b>nl_NL</b> (on Win systems: <b>nld_nld</b>)
FRANCE = <b>fr_FR</b> (on Win systems: <b>fra_fra</b>)
UNITED KINGDOM = <b>gb_GB</b> (on Win systems: <b>gbr_gbr</b>)
SWEDEN = <b>se_SE</b> (on Win systems: <b>swe_swe</b>)
SOLOMON ISLANDS = <b>sb_SB</b> (on Win systems: <b>slb_slb</b>)
etc etc etc</pre>
more country codes: <a href="http://www.unicode.org/onlinedat/countries.html" target="_blank">http://www.unicode.org/onlinedat/countries.html</a>
<br />arguments for <i>$time_format</i>: <a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strftime.php" target="_blank">http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strftime.php</a>
<br />Finally, replace <i>$show_time=gmdate('H:i', $current_time+$user_time*3600);</i> (config.php) with: <i>$show_time='';</i>
<br /><br /><br />
It is recommended to hide the IP addresses of your users by using a <i>.htaccess</i> files
in all <i>data</i> and <i>backup</i> directories (an example can be found in <i>/data</i>).<br />
For best results (an <i>obligation</i> on systems that do not support .htaccess)
we recommend changing the names of all <i>data</i> and <i>backup</i> directories.
<br />(<i>Do not forget to register these changes in config.php</i>)
<br /><br />
It is possible to remove color changing and set custom colors. <br />
Just set <i>$color_changing</i> to 0 (<i>config.php</i>), edit any of the CSS files in the subdirectory <i>/css</i> and set it as a default CSS file.
<div class="l">/* Use a simple text editor or a CSS editor such as TopStyle (TopStyleLite) - <a href="http://www.bradsoft.com/topstyle/tslite/" target="_blank">http://www.bradsoft.com/topstyle/tslite</a> */</div>
<br /><br />
The URL of the WAP version you should enter in your cell phone or PDA browser is <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/wap.php</a>.<br />
<br /><br />
The URLs of the RSS/RDF feeds are:<br /><br />
<a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/rdf.php?f=<b>ID</b></a> (RSS/RDF 1.0)<br />
<a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/forum/rss.php?f=<b>ID</b></a> (RSS 2.0)
<br /><br />
where ID is the serial number of the forum (not set = 0).
<br />
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<br /><a name="4"></a>
<h3>How to create a lang file in your native language</h3>
Translating Easy Forum! into any language is very easy.
All language files are simple ASCII text files - <i>lang-en.inc</i>, <i>lang-bg.inc</i> etc.
Create your own file or/and set Easy Forum! which one to load: (<i>config.php</i>).
If you are going to use a non-English alphabet it is strongly recommended to
change the encoding in your language file to the proper one: (incl/lang-xx.inc file, line #5).
It would decrease the loading time and prevent some browsers from displaying incorrect letters.<br />
<br />examples:
<br /><b>$lang[1]='ISO-8859-1:en';</b> where <i>ISO-8859-1</i> is the proper charset for English and <i>en</i> is 2-letters language code.
<br /><b>$lang[1]='euc-jp:jp';</b> where <i>euc-jp</i> is the proper charset for Japanese and <i>jp</i> is 2-letters language code.
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