Installation Guide - mattimaier/bnote GitHub Wiki

To install the software you need to fullfil the following requirements:

  • Apache HTTPd 2 Webserver with at least 200mb disc space
  • PHP 8 installed on the webserver
  • .htaccess usage activated, i.e. mod_rewrite on
  • File access to the webserver, e.g. using FTP
  • HTTP(s) access to the webserver
  • MySQL 5.6+ or MariaDB 10.4+ database server (note: issues with MySQL 8 are known)

Get BNote Running

This is how you get BNote to run on your webserver:

  1. Download the latest release zip
  2. Extract the zip
  3. Upload the files to your server.
  4. Open your browser and navigate to the address where you uploaded the files.
  5. In case you were successful installing the software, you should see the installation wizzard. Just go through.
  6. After finishing the installation guide, make sure to delete the install.php file.
  7. Login to BNote as the admin user and click on the cogs symbol on the top right. Then open the configuration and add the Google Maps Key if you want to use this feature.

Google Maps API Key

This key is needed to display locations on a map, e.g. in the locations and start module.

  1. Go to https://console.developers.google.com and login with your Google Account (or create one if you don't have one)
  2. Create a new project to receive a fresh API Key
  3. Enable the "Google Static Maps API" and the "Google Maps JavaScript API"
  4. Copy your API Key into the configuration of BNote.

File and folder permissions on Linux / MacOS

If you are using Mac OS, Linux or alike make sure the permissions on the files are correct. Here is an overview of how it should be:

  • 770 config/ with the group being the apache runtime user-group
  • 755 data/ with the group being the apache runtime user-group
  • 775 data/members with the group being the apache runtime user-group
  • 775 data/programs with the group being the apache runtime user-group
  • 775 data/share with the group being the apache runtime user-group

In addition, make sure your web server does not allow to execute script files like PHP or CGI within the data/ directory.

Development Setup

For local installations of the software on your computer (e.g. for development purposes) please install the components mentioned above separately or use XAMPP or similar software.

Once you have set up your server system, clone the repository. Then you need to remove the BNote/config files and you can remove whatever unnecessary data is in BNote/data/*.

Note on Database Installation

If the database.xml configuration file is present, the database will not be initialized. Therefore remove the file and enter the configuration parameters manually in the form to activate the installation.

Patch, Hotfix, Update, Addons Installation

In the releases folder of this repository you can find a set of updates, addons, patches, hotfixes and more. To install them, download the zip file and read the instructions in the readme.txt file. There it's described how to install the update/patch/fix/addon.

In general you can follow these steps:

  • Check which version you have! Make sure you upgrade only step-by-step, i.e. from version 3.2.0 to 3.2.1, then to 3.2.2, then to 3.3.0 not directly from 3.2.0 to 3.3.0
  • Unzip the update package, upload its content on your server
  • If a update_db.php script is present in the patch folder, execute it after copying the files.