Thanks for downloading phpProfiles! I hope you will enjoy the script and that it will provide valuable content for your visitors so they will come back regularly and hopefully click one of your ads occasionally! This directory contains installation and use information. It is recommended that you leave this folder on your PC and not upload it to your server.
Your visitors and members can click on the help link in the main menu for assistance. These pages are for you, the Administrator! What would you like to know?
How does the program work?
How
do I administer my phpProfiles site?
How do I change the wording on pages?
What are the terms of my license?
How do I install or uninstall the program?
Why
do I get a validation error when I have filled in the field correctly?
Support
Forums
The program is a script package written in php for web servers using UNIX-variant operating systems. It was not written for Windows servers, but might be modified to work on Windows with some alteration. The program is intended to run a site that allows visitors to register as a Member and then create a web page with their own web URL. For example, if your domain name is mysite.com and you set your user directory to be called users, a Member called joe would have his own web URL in the form of: http://mysite.com/users/joe !
Your registered Members can define a variety of information on their page such as a paragraph about themselves, a paragraph describing their hobbies & interest and their age, location and so forth. Their page is searchable from the main search page. The Member can edit their color scheme and content as often as they like. Members also have their own Blog that appears on their Profile Page and on the site's main Blog Page. Each Member can create Bookmarks on their page that they think will be of interest to their visitors!
Members interact with each other by creating friend relationships, joining Communities that you create and by sending each other messages via an on-site message system! Aside from having fun running your profile site, the program is designed to keep Members coming back & to spread the word so you can benefit from your advertising affiliations!
The installation script creates the user's directory that holds their profile pages. The install process copies a source directory to the user's directory. When a Member creates their profile, the Profile Editor creates their directory and copies a very small index page from the source directory. The index page gets its content from included files and from database queries. The files and directories in the user's directory are owned by the server so they are as secure, if not more so, as any other pages on your site!
phpProfiles has a comprehensive Control Center for you to administer every aspect of your site. When you log in as admin you will see a Control Center link with a red bullet in your menu. There you will find tools to change the site's configuration, manage members and their content, send a Newsletter, manage advertisements, control registration and much more! The functions are easy to learn and there are help tips throughout. Look for the book icon and click it for a pop-up help window. We also suggest you visit the Support Forum to share your ideas and experiences!
Almost every page has its content included from the include directory. For example, if you open the file register.php you will see that $content is in include/register.inc.php. Edit the wording in the included file to suit you. Be very careful around the php coding! Some files have more files included. For example, if you open index.php in the main directory you will see that $content is in include/index.inc.php. Now when you open index.inc.php you will see that there are two options: If the is an authentication error (in other words the visitor isn't logged in) the wording is in include/messages/index_unverified.inc.php. Otherwise, the wording is in include/messages/index_verified.inc.php.
This version of phpProfiles is released under the GNU General Public License. You are free to use and modify the script as you like. You may not remove the visible copyright tags or redistribute the script package without the Developer's express written permission. By using the script you agree to accept all risk and/or liabilities that may arise from its use and to hold the Developer harmless from all such risk or liability. Your donation will aid in further development! All persons donating to further the development of phpProfiles are herein granted permission to remove visible copyright tags!
Some servers do not allow validation of form fields the way the script does it. The script attempts to validate form fields to be sure they aren't empty and in the case of fields like an email address that they are formatted correctly. If you get these errors, you can put the script on a server that doesn't get these validation errors such as Linux Server Host. Otherwise, you can comment out the validation routines. Validation starts in the install script located in: install/install.inc.php. Once the script is installed, various other places use this validation routine. For example: /include/do_reg.inc.php. To comment out the validation routine, open the file in your text editor and look for the following near the top of the file:
if(empty($scriptpath)) {echo "<center>You didn't
enter the server path. Please try again.<br><br><input type=button
value=\"Back\" onClick=\"history.go(-1)\"></center>";
exit;}
What you need to do to comment out these routines is make a new line just above the first if(empty()) and put a start comment tag like this: /* then at the end of the validation routine place an end comment tag on a new line like this */. Do not comment out the if($action == "do_something") { line. Start just below that.
Most of the validations are "if(empty))" but there are also checks like "if(ereg())". Hopefully, its fairly obvious where the validation routine ends. The validation routine was written this way because the development servers allow it to work. We never saw the error that does apparently occur on some servers. In a future release we will rewrite the routines so they are more universally!