Note: For the following installation process we presume the configuration of the "system requirements" to be already successfully installed. We do not provide help for those steps, as all required information can be found on the internet.

Step 1: Unpack archive and set file permissions

Create a directory where you want to install ConfTool. This can be e.g.

"/usr/local/conftool" or "/home/conftool".

It is recommended to create a new user and use "~/conftool" as installation directory. Go to the directory of your choice and unpack the archive using the following command:

 > tar xvzf conftool-x.y.tgz

(Windows: Please use Winzip, Winrar or a similar tool to unpack.

          The home directory could be e.g. "C:\conftool\".)

Seven sub-directories will be created. These are:

 install/ directory with installation support files
 etc/     contains configuration files
 pages/   contains all Web pages
 htdocs/  contains files, directly accessible through the Web server
 lib/     contains libraries of ConfTool
 classes/ contains classes of ConfTool
 uploads/ used to save paper uploads

Please set the user privileges for the upload directory so that the Web server has full write access to that directory. This is necessary as uploaded documents will be stored here. Example: If the server (httpd) runs as user "nobody", please execute the following commands:

 > chown nobody uploads/
 > chmod u+rwx uploads/

(If you do not have root rights, you may instead set "chmod a+rwx uploads/")

Furthermore, the server needs read access to all these directories (except install/).

Step 2: Web Server Configuration

The configuration of the server has to be modified so that the "htdocs/" directory can be directly accessed through the Web server. Furthermore, the "etc/" directory has to be added to the PHP include path (php_include_path).

For the Apache server the following configuration commands realize the above enhancements (if "/conftool" is the URL and "/home/conftool/" is the directory, where ConfTool shall be located). These Apache configuration

file is usually called "httpd.conf" and can for instance be found in "/etc/apache2/httpd.conf", but this depends on your system setup.

Alias /conftool "/home/conftool/htdocs/"
<Directory "/home/conftool/htdocs">

    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
    Options Includes FollowSymLinks
    DirectoryIndex index.php
    php_value include_path ".:/home/conftool/etc"

# The following php parameters have to be set here or in php.ini (preferred!)
# php_value works only in Apache 2!

   # Values required to enable big uploads:
   # Up to 10MB - leave some extra space.
   php_value upload_max_filesize 11M

   # Files are sent by POST so the post_max_size has to be even bigger.
   php_value post_max_size 12M

   # PHP receives the files, so this value has to be even bigger
   php_value memory_limit 15M

   # 15min timeout is usually enough - otherwise uploads are 
   # cancelled by a timeout message...
   php_value max_execution_time 900

   # Set the session timeout to 2 hours (7200s).
   php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 7200

   # For security reasons:
   php_value register_globals off

   # If you have problems downloading files with IE and SSL, 
   # please try the following settings:
   php_value session.cache_limiter public
   php_value session.cache_expire 5

</Directory>

Windows: Instead of "/home/conftool/..." you have to enter sth. like "C:/conftool/...", e.g.

Alias /conftool "C:/conftool/htdocs/"

<Directory "C:/conftool/htdocs">
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
    Options Includes FollowSymLinks
    DirectoryIndex index.php
    php_value include_path ".;C:/conftool/etc/"
(... see above ...)

</Directory>

Last but not least the server has to be configured to parse all files with the extension ".php" by the PHP interpreter before sending them to the browser:

 AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

We recommend also to add the extensions .inc, .conf, .page, .lib and .ctcls for security reasons, but it is not really necessary. It is more important to to block the access to backup files like "*.bak", "*.BAK" and "*~".

Finally we recommend you modify the standard PHP configuration to allow big file uploads for the submission process. The default value depends on the installed PHP version, however, it is usually about 2MByte. The following parameter in the "php.ini"-file (usually located in "/usr/local/lib/php.ini", "/etc/php.ini" or "C:\windows\php.ini" ) is responsible for the maximum file size for uploads:

   upload_max_filesize 11M
   post_max_size 12M
   memory_limit 15M
   max_execution_time 900
   session.gc_maxlifetime 7200

This allows an maximum upload file size of 10MByte and 15 minutes and increase the session timeout to two hours.

We also recommend to enable the zlib compression:

    zlib.output_compression = On

Step 3: Testing the Setup

After restarting the server you should test if your settings worked. Please call the following address in your browser:

http://www.yourdomain.org/conftool/info.php

Important Remarks:

• For security reasons you have to rename the file "info.ph_" to "info.php" first. You find this file in "conftool/htdocs/").
• Please DELETE the file "htdocs/info.php" after finishing your installation for security reasons.
• "www.yourdomain.org" is the domain name of your server and "conftool" is the directory alias set in your httpd.conf file.

You will get an overview of the current php settings for ConfTool. If some parameters are not configured correctly (as you have no access to php.ini), you may also try to set them in the files "htdocs/.htaccess" and "htdocs/settings.php".

Step 4: Initialize Database

For the VSIS ConfTool a database is required to store all data. Additionally a database user has to be set up to enable write access to the tables in the database.

The standard configuration uses a database called "conference" and a database user "confuser". These names can be modified. However, if you choose to modify the names, you must adapt the ConfTool configuration files as well.

The following description is for a MySQL database system. To create the database and the database user, usually root rights are required.

Start with creating the new database and creating a new user. You also have to assign all rights for the new database to this user. In our example, Web server and MySQL database system reside on the same computer. If you require a distributed configuration, please adapt the commands and use the Web server's IP instead of "localhost". Please choose an appropriate "password". The appropriate commands for this can be found in the file install/createDBUser.sql

After editing this file you can invoke it by calling:

> mysql -u root -p < install/createDBUser.sql

(You will be asked for the password of the root user of the mysql database)

Now create the database tables by running the installation script on your database(you have to enter the new password):

> mysql conference -u confuser -pconfpass < install/initdb.sql

The next step is to store the default data in the database:

> mysql conference -u confuser -pconfpass < install/defaultdata.sql

Now the database should be installed.

Step 5: Main Configuration of ConfTool

The next step is configuring ConfTool. You need to modify some settings to make it work with your Web server and database. Also, some settings have to be customized to make ConfTool your conference system. All ConfTool settings are set in the file "etc/conftool.conf.php" and well documented.

You have to set your ConfTool installation path and other parameters.

The language and wordings of the system can also be modified. All textual output is defined in one language file that resides in the directory "etc/". The default language is German, so the corresponding file is "german.lang".

WARNING: Changes to the language file may be tricky and have to be tested carefully.

Step 6: Modify the Appearance of ConfTool

ConfTool has a site header and footer that can easily be modified to match the appearance of your conference. You can use simple HTML as well as PHP code in these files. The two files that should be modified reside in the directory "etc/" and are called "siteheader.inc" and "sitefooter.inc". You should modify these files to make the tool fit your conference site.

Furthermore, the image file "logo.gif" in the directory "htdocs/" should be replaced by a small logo of your conference. Recommended width: 50-150 pixel, height: 30-60 pixel. Finally, the file "logo-invoice.gif" should be replaced by a logo of the organizer. It is used on invoices in the upper right corner above the addressor.

The "htdocs/" directory also contains the cascading style sheet file for ConfTool. It is called "conftool.css" and contains all color and font definitions for the tool. It is possible to alter the color and fonts scheme of the system to match to your design requirements. However, these modifications are more complicated than they might seem.