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Installing VCalendar - part 1

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VCalendar
3.5-Apollo

How to install VCalendar from UltraApps on 3.5-Apollo.

VCalendar (Virtual Calendar) is a free open source Web calendar for posting and maintaining events and schedules online. It is written in multiple programming languages: PHP, ASP and ASP.NET (C# and VB.NET). There are many online users I chose this one at random http://www4.unm.edu/caps/cal/ it provides some idea of its capability. For personal use, home web server or intranet makes an ideal personal or family diary.

Vested Interest

I do have a vested interested, not because I am trying sell or convince you to use this excellent product but because of various events that occurred after downloading the program. It all started when I answered a question over on the forum you can view a blow-by-blow account on this page.

To cut a long story short the events when something like this:

  • Q) does 3.5-Apollo support mb extensions. A) yes
  • For fun downloaded the program – Failed on 3.5
  • Corrected the undefined field problem – thinking this was his real problem
  • His real problem was that day view and day events displayed “There is no data related to this day/event.” However it worked fine on 3.3
  • A quick check confirmed this, I down graded 3.5 to use MySQL from 3.3 and it worked fine.
  • I sent a support request off to UltraApps who said they would test on the latest MySQL version.
  • A wet Sunday (good old British weather) I had nothing better to do hence upgraded UniServer to the latest version of MySQL and VCalendar failed
  • I sent this additional information to UltraApps support so as not to waste their valuable time.
  • The following day I received a solution, this I duly tested on the three versions of MySQL and the product worked flawlessly.

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Logic

I am not a software engineer hence take the hardware approach and rip things apart to isolate the problem area. With the 3.3 MySQL installed on 3.5 to a certain extent could point a finger to the 3.5 version of MySQL. I done a little research and that version does have a few bugs hence the upgrade to the latest version. Now VCalendar did not fail as badly. Now I am faced with a problem I know both MySQL and VCalendar work, VCalendar has not changed in these tests so it must be due to subtle changes in MySQL that are responsible the problem. I sent an update of my information to UltraApps and started a long slog to see what differences were implemented between the versions of MySQL. Thankfully this was cut short by UltraApps support response.

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Service

Well it’s one of those facts of life you pay for the service you get. I have not paid for this application hence expected either a long response time or no response at all. Thought I would show their support case history makes interesting reading:

  • Support case #****
  • Date posted 9/30/2007 3:27:40 AM – Initial request support
  • Response 9/30/2007 1:40:48 PM – Will get a designer to look at it
  • Response 10/1/2007 5:25:13 AM – My Update with all the info
  • Response 10/2/2007 2:26:42 PM – Their solution -- (see pre-installation step 7)
  • Response 10/2/2007 5:19:28 PM – After testing my thanks

Now the 30th was a Sunday, the poor chap I assume (George) has a workload and I get a solution within two days.

Well Robert (support) and George (Software engineer) many thanks, I have no idea who you are but the support was first class.

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Ramble

Yep, I do that very well, just thought the above would be of interest. The remainder of this write-up really consolidates what was on the forum. Before I dive in, read the LICENSE.txt file (OK I sometimes do that and it promptly gets ignored) this is not even a one pager, I know what and what I cannot do with this program. I can hack it around for my own needs and even publish it so long as I include the LICENSE.txt file. Well I do just that, to see how small it can be made, further it makes an ideal quick testing program for UniServer.

Before diving into the quick testing thing I will assume you want to use this program as designed.

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Download

Download the latest version of VCalendar from UltraApps use this link will take you to their down load page. On this page you will find a list of Application variants, for UniServer you require the PHP + MySQL variant.

It currently lists the main program (1.1.5) and a patch (1.1.5.3) you need to download both these files. Save them to a temporary folder for example c:\vcalendar_temp.

c:\vcalendar_temp

  • vcalendar_php_1.1.5.zip ---(About 965 KB) Main program
  • patch_PHP_1.1.5.3.zip ---( About 16.6 KB) Patch/update files

Extract each of these files to the current folder (right click on a file to be extracted and select Extract All... click Next and Next again).

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Pre-Installation

Download files and and copy to their correct location some modifications are required I have shown the complete steps below:


  1. To begin, I have assumed you have downloaded Uniform Server 3.5-Apollo from Sourceforge and unzipped it to your computer. If you intend going live check out this page first security check list.
    Note: You will need the database user name (root) and password that you set for MySQL. I use the Uniform default password (root) in this tutorial.
  2. Next you need to download and extract VCalendar files as shown in the previous section.
  3. A) Copy all the files in folder patch_PHP_1.1.5.3 to folder vcalendar allow the existing files to be overwritten.
  4. B) Copy the folder vcalendar to folder www.
  5. C) From folder www copy the file .htaccess to folder vcalendar.
  6. D) Open the file .htaccess (which was copied to folder vcalendar) and delete all it's content. Add this line:
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
  7. E) Still in folder vcalendar open the file Common.php locate line (32):
    Looks like this:
    "DateFormat" => array("yyyy", "-", "mm", "-", "dd", " ", "HH", ":", "nn", ":", "ss"),
    Change it to this:
    "DateFormat" => array("yyyy", "-", "mm", "-", "dd"),

 

Note 1: Step 6 VCalendar requires index pages to be looked at in a specific order. The first extension found overrides the other in the list. It is possible to change the main Apache configuration file however ISP's (Internet service providers) will only allow modification via an .htaccess file.

Note2: Step 7 Resolves subtle differences between MySQL releases without the mod you will receive this message for day events displayed “There is no data related to this day/event.”

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Installation

Installation really is easy, VCalendar automatically creates the database and populates it with the required tables. The following takes you through the installation steps:

  1. Start Uniform Server using Server_Start.bat
  2. Type the following into your browser address bar:
    http://localhost/vcalendar/
  3. A) The page displayed confirms various parameters. All OK means you can continue with installation.
  4. B) Click on Start Installation.

 

  1. C) Leave the defaults as localhost
  2. D) Database name that will be created change this as required or leave the default as vcalendar
  3. E) Check this box, forces VCalendar to create a new database, also opens the additional text fields as shown..
  4. F) Use root as the UserName. If you have created a new user in the MySQL server using phpMyAdmin use that.
  5. G) Use the password you set for the MySQL server (if you have not set this use root) If you created a new user in the MySQL server use the password you set for this user (see step 8)
  6. H) Use root as the user name. (see 8)
  7. I) Use the password you set for the MySQL server (if you have not set this use root) (see 8)
  8. J), k) and L) Is the set-up for Vcalendar's admin account.
  9. J) You can change this to whatever name you want for VCalendar administrator or leave the default as admin.
  10. K) and L) set the admin password. Do not use the one you set for the MySQL server (see8).
  11. Click on Submit

 

  1. M) Well that's a good sign, you can now use your VCalendar. Before going online make sure you remove the installation files.
    Go into folder www/vcalendar and delete the folder install that removes all the installation files.
  2. N) You can click on Start before deleting the above folder to check if everything works.

 

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Summary

The above explains how to install an online secure version if all you want is to experiment with this program then the next page is for you.

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  Ric
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