Maian Weblog v4.0 Documentation
- HOME - - INSTALLATION - - UPGRADE - - F.A.Q - - SCRIPT INFO -
Please read the following installation instructions carefully:
• A server running PHP v4.3 or higher. Some of the syntax will NOT work on earlier versions.
• A MySQL database to hold the script tables.
GD Library with Freetype support for captcha code display. To find out how to check if you have this installed, see the F.A.Q page.
• Support for '.htaccess' if you wish to enable the search engine friendly urls.
• For Spaw Editor: IE5.5+, Opera 9+ or Gecko Browser with build date higher than 12th March 2003.
1 => Create a database to hold the script tables. If you are unsure of this procedure contact your web hosting company.

2 => Open up the 'inc/db_connection.inc.php' file in a text editor and edit it to point to the database you just created. DO NOT comment out the prefix function. If you don`t need to change it leave it as it is. You MUST also specify a cookie name and a secret key. DO NOT use the defaults!!

3 => Open up the 'admin/inc/password.inc.php' file in a text editor and set a username and password.

4 => Upload all the files/folders into a directory on your web server. Example: /weblog/ Don`t name the directory 'blog'.

5 => Chmod the following files and folders to make them world writeable. ie: 777 or 755

uploads/
uploads/flash/
uploads/images/

6 => Access the 'install/index.php' file in your browser and follow the set up instructions to complete installation.

7 => If the setup was successful log in to your admin area (see script usage below) and select 'Settings' from the drop down menu. Update the settings to your own preferences.

8 => If you enable the WYSIWYG editor and are using the system under IIS, you may need to make some changes to the config file for the Spaw Editor. For more information, view the 'admin/spaw/config/config.php' file. If you still have problems, disable the WYSIWYG editor.

9 => Thats it, all done. For script usage, see below.

SECURITY NOTE: For extra security you should rename your 'admin' folder to something unique!!
If the auto install failed, you should first delete any tables in your database that might have been created by the system before you proceed.

1 => Create a database to hold the script tables. If you are unsure of this procedure contact your web hosting company.

2 => Open up the 'inc/db_connection.inc.php' file in a text editor and edit it to point to the database you just created. DO NOT comment out the prefix function. If you don`t need to change it leave it as it is.

3 => Open up the 'admin/inc/password.inc.php' file in a text editor and set a username and password.

4 => Upload all the files/folders into a directory on your web server. Example: /weblog/ Don`t name the directory 'blog'.

5 => Chmod the following files and folders to make them world writeable. ie: 777 or 755

uploads/
uploads/flash/
uploads/images/

6 => Access the database you created earlier, then browse for and run the 'docs/schematic/tables.sql' file to set up the script tables.

7 => If the setup was successful log in to your admin area (see script usage below) and select 'Settings' from the drop down menu. Update the settings to your own preferences.

8 => If you enable the WYSIWYG editor and are using the system under IIS, you may need to make some changes to the config file for the Spaw Editor. For more information, view the 'admin/spaw/config/config.php' file. If you still have problems, disable the WYSIWYG editor.

9 => Thats it, all done. For script usage, see below.

SECURITY NOTE: For extra security you should rename your 'admin' folder to something unique!!
Once you have updated your settings, use the links to add new blogs. Enable the WYSIWYG editor for easier HTML editing if you aren`t very HTML savvy. HTML may be used in the blogs but note that some HTML may break the XHMTL validation.

Hopefully the system should be self explanatory.
The templates for the script are in 'themes/*theme' directory.

Edit using a text editor, then re-upload. You must be careful NOT to remove any of the code between the PHP tags in the .tpl.php files, as some of these are important to the script. Others simply display language data. Unless you are an advanced user it is recommended you leave them all in place.

PHP and/or HTML may be used in the .tpl.php templates.

The templates in the 'themes/*theme/tpl_files/' folder are .tpl templates and can only include HTML or the system tags. These templates are to make the system easier to edit. More info in the following file:

- themes/*theme/README.txt

The e-mail templates are in the 'themes/email/' directory. Edit using a text editor if necessary, then re-upload. For a list of user variables, see the following file:

- themes/email/README.txt

The blog system is controlled via a stylesheet. This controls all display elements. There are 4 stylesheets for the system. The admin CSS files will will probably not need changing. The RSS stylesheet may not actually do anything in newer browsers.

- admin/css/css.css (Admin display)
- admin/css/menu.css (Omni slide menu)
- themes/*theme/styles.css (Main public display control)
- themes/*theme/rss_style.css (RSS formatting. Not used by some browsers.)

So that you can revert back to the default template, we recommend you create a new theme when editing. This will enable you to refer to the original for reference. Please see below for info on creating themes.

All language for the script is in the following files:

- lang/english.php (Blog System)
- admin/spaw/plugins/core/lib/lang/en.lang.inc.php (Spaw Editor)

To change the language for the Spaw Editor, see below.
v4+ of Maian Weblog introduces a theme based layout. Themes are in the '/themes/' directory. When editing the system we recommend you create a new theme and edit the new theme only. If you have problems you can always revert back to the default 'standard' theme or use this theme as a reference when editing.

How to create a new theme:

The easiest way to create a new theme is to first make a copy of the standard theme. So, create a new directory in the 'themes' directory (ie: 'theme2') and then copy and paste the contents of the 'standard' theme into this new dir. When you have done this go to your settings and select your new theme from the list. New themes automatically appear in the drop down list when you add new directories to the 'themes' folder. After you have selected the new theme, edit the files in a text editor. You may find that creating a mock layout first makes for easier editing. Once you have your design, you can integrate it into Maian Weblog.

Please read the 'themes/*theme/README.txt' file for important path information.

For a list of required templates, see the 'docs/templates_list.txt' file.

To enable template checking, enable the following variable (set to 1) in the 'index.php' file:

define('CHECK_TEMPLATES', 0);

This should be set back to 0 when you are happy with your edits. Note that if you disable template checking you might see errors if the templates are missing. It is recommended you keep this enabled while creating your theme.

Note that if you do not require any of the templates, create a blank file. This will act as a placeholder and prevent the system from displaying a template rendering error. The system checks all templates are in place when it loads.

If you would like to submit your theme to me for inclusion in the system for other people to use, please contact me through the website. Thank you.
For spam prevention, this script utilises a Captcha class to generate a random image on the tell a friend,contact & comments pages.

For most people the default options will be fine. however if you wish, you can adjust the captcha settings. To alter the captcha settings, please open the following file in your text editor:

- classes/php-captcha.inc.php

Descriptions of each option are shown. Once you have made any changes, save and re-upload this file. Here are a couple of examples:

Changing how many coloured lines are displayed:

Open the captcha class in a text editor. Find the following line in the config options:

define('CAPTCHA_NUM_LINES', 40);

Increase the 40 for more lines, decrease for less. 0 would be a blank background. Save and re-upload captcha class.

Adding new fonts

Fonts MUST be True-Type Fonts (.ttf). Upload new fonts into the 'classes/fonts/' directory.

Open the captcha class and find the following:

$aFonts = array('classes/fonts/arial.ttf','classes/fonts/verdana.ttf'),

Add new fonts to array:

$aFonts = array('classes/fonts/helvetica.ttf','classes/fonts/arial.ttf','classes/fonts/verdana.ttf'),

Save and re-upload captcha class.
If enabled in your settings, the WYSIWYG editor will enable you to easily add certain kinds of formatting to your blog. ie, text underlining, bold text, italics etc

To get a better idea of how this works, view the small tutorials in your admin area by clicking the links on the 'Add New Blog' page. If you still don`t understand how it works, it might be best to revert to a standard text area for adding/editing blogs until you get more familiar with the system.

Maian Weblog uses the Spaw Editor v2.

Spaw Editor supports a number of different languages. To change your language, firstly, see if your language is available in the following directory:

- admin/spaw/plugins/core/lib/lang/

If it is, specify this language file in the Spaw Editor config file.

- admin/spaw/config/config.php

Add the language to the following variable, save and re-upload:

SpawConfig::setStaticConfigItem('default_lang','en');

NOTE that you only need specify the code before .lang.inc.php So, for example, to set the language file for French (fr.lang.inc.php), you would use:

SpawConfig::setStaticConfigItem('default_lang','fr');
If you are using an Apache server, you can enable the option in your settings for the search engine friendly urls.

Standard Url Examples

index.php?cmd=blog&blog=1
index.php?cmd=archive&month=03&year=

Search Engine Friendly Url Examples

blog/1/this-is-my-blog.html
blog/03/2007/archive.html

IMPORTANT!: Your server MUST support .htaccess for this function to work. If it doesn`t, you may see '500 Internal Server Error' messages.

To enable this feature rename the 'htaccess_COPY.txt' file to .htaccess. You can do this in your control panel or ftp program. Then enable the option in your settings.
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