VTCalendar

Installing Release Candidate 2.3.0

System Requirements

• A Web server (Apache, IIS, etc.)
• PHP 4.2 or higher
• MySQL 3.23 or higher or PostgreSQL

Important Considerations:

• A release candidate is considered free of all known bugs. While it is considered ready for production, it should not be used in mission-critical environments.
• PostgreSQL 8.3 has only been moderately tested with version 2.3.0. Versions prior to 8.3 have not been tested. (Assistance from PHP/PostgreSQL developers is appreciated).
• The color settings for all calendars will be reset.
• The url column from the vtcal_event and vtcal_event_public tables has now been merged into the description column. If the url column exists and contains data in your database, the database upgrade script will merge the data automatically.
• Most "text" fields in the database are now varchar. If you have not modified the max length constraints in 2.2.2 or earlier, you will not need to worry about this change.
• Report all bugs in the SourceForge tracker.

Installation Instructions:

If you have not done so already:

1. Install the Web server software (e.g. Apache, Microsoft IIS).
2. Install PHP 4.2 or higher. Use the latest release if possible.
3. Install PEAR.
4. Install the PEAR DB package.
5. Install MySQL 4.1 or higher, or PostgreSQL. Use the latest release if possible.

If you are doing a fresh install of VTCalendar:

1. In your database, create a new database/schema for vtcalendar.
2. Create a new account in your database that has SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE privileges to the new vtcalendar database/schema.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of VTCalendar:

The 2.3.0 files are not a one-to-one match to the earlier versions. Several files have been created, renamed, or split into smaller files. With this in mind, the best way to upgrade is by installing the new version of VTCalendar in a temporary location on your Web server, copying over any custom files you've added to your old installation, and then switching the old and new folders.

While the old calendar should be able to use the upgraded VTCalendar database without any problems, it is recommend that you plan a date/time when you know that user traffic is at its lowest, disable your old calendar, and perform the upgrade steps below.

1. Backup your old VTCalendar folder.
2. Backup your VTCalendar database/schema.
   • With MySQL you can use mysqldump (command line) or the MySQL Administrator (GUI).
   • With PostgreSQL you can use pgAdmin III or pg_dump.
3. Perform the steps in the next section, but in step 2 leave the folder name as-is.
4. Rename the old VTCalendar folder to something like "vtcalendar-old".
5. Rename the newly installed VTCalendar folder to the old folder's name.

Installing the VTCalendar 2.3.0 Release Candidate:

1.  Download the release candidate of VTCalendar.
2. Unzip/untar the VTCalendar files into your Web server's public folder. The folder name, "vtcalendar-rc-revNNN", can be renamed if you like.
3. Optionally grant write access to your Web server to the VTCalendar folder. This will make step 6 easier, but it is not required.
4. Point your Web browser to your Web server. The URL must include the folder name which vtcalendar is in.
   Example: http://www.myserver.edu/vtcalendar-rc-revNNN/
5. Click the link to go to the installer page. If you do not see this link, add "install/" to the end of the URL in step 4.
   Example: http://www.myserver.edu/vtcalendar-rc-revNNN/install/
6. Complete all three installation wizards which will 1) configure VTCalendar, 2) create/upgrade the database, and 3) create a main admin account.
   Note: PostgreSQL databases prior to version 8 will not be able to upgrade their existing VTCalendar database (fresh installs are OK).
   Instead, you will need to do the following:
   1. Use an empty schema (e.g. public or vtcal).
   2. Download the manual PostgreSQL install script and modify the schema name if necessary.
   3. Execute the script on the database to create empty tables.
   4. If necessary, import the data from your previous VTCalendar installation.
7. Remove, rename or secure the install folder.
8. For security, you may change the permissions on the VTCalendar folder to read-only.
9. Access your calendar at the same URL used in step 4. Login to the calendar by using the "Update" link in the upper right.

If you encountered during the install process, please see the "Getting Help" section on the Documentation page.