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aflog Documentation This is the complete aflog documentation covering all version that are NOT obsolete (check the Development Status page for more info). This Documentation is subject to change at anytime, so don't rely on it staying the same.
Contents 1. Getting Started a) System Requirements b) Choosing a version c) Downloading and using the archives 2. Installation a) Pre-Installation steps b) The Install Process c) Information Input 3. Admin Control Panel a) Blog b) Categories c) Members d) RSS Feeds e) Posts/Index f) Bad Word Filter g) aflog 4. Posting a) About Posting i) How to post ii) Editing and Deleting b) Smilies c) BB Code d) Comments e) Rating 5. Extra a) RSS Feeds + Sitemaps b) Member Control Panel c) Who's Online? d) Skins e) Plugins f) Updating aflog 6. DIY (Do it yourself) a) Skin making guide b) Basic modification guide c) Plugins making guide d) Translations e) Submission guide 1. Getting Started [Top] a) System Requirements To install aflog you will need several things. Some are VITAL some will just help you out a bit. First of all, you are going to need a place to put your aflog. This can normally be a server. Whether it be a home server, a rented server or a free server, you will need some space. As aflog is a PHP + MySQL based script it will of course need at least PHP 5 (aflog v1.01) and ONE aflog MySQL database. Preferrably this will be an empty one entirely for aflog becuase the tables it creates dont have prefixes, so may clash with other software using the database. The server you use must also have enough space to hold your aflog files as well as any additional files such as skins and an avatar. If you want a rough idea, anything above 10MB will be plenty of space. Also the aflog scripts MUST have the correct file permissions to write to your aflog root folder, otherwise installation will fail. Although not vital, it is recommended you view aflog in a browser with png transparency capabilites (IE7+, Mozilla Firefox 2+). b) Choosing a version Choosing the version of aflog is normally a straight forward deal, but if you are a little confused, go for the lastest active version. You can check which are active etc under the development status page. If you are a little more experienced in aflog, you may want to try any β (beta) versions available to help make it safe for users (again, information on status found on the development status page). Happy choosing! c) Downloading and using the archives To get aflog, you must first download it. The best place is this site. Some other sites also redistribute it, but you never know what has been added to them, as the packages on this site (aflog.org) come directly from the maker (me). Ok so now you have chosen your aflog version (for help see section 1b), you are faced with the archive type. The types used by myself are as follows: .tar.bz2/.bz2, .rar and .zip. Under WINDOWS, you can use winrar to uncompress the .bz2 and the .rar and use either windows itself or winzip to uncompress the .zip files. Winrar and Winzip are NOT free software but a free trial version can be downloaded (all mentioned programs are under the recommended links page). Under LINUX the standard archive manager can handle both .bz2 and .zip. For .rar support you will need the KDE application 'ark' and the corresponding rar libraries. 2. Installation [Top] a) Pre-Installation steps Follow these instructions of what to do BEFORE you install aflog. Make sure you extract your selected version into a folder on your local computer. Use an FTP client such as Filezilla to upload to your site (if using your own server place it in the correct folder for http files, example: apache2 on linux: /var/www/). Make sure that all included directories are also uploaded (sk, sm and img). ALL files included in the archive are required to be uploaded (except things like readme.txt and update log.txt). Once this is complete, you are ready to install aflog! b) The Install Process The aflog installation consists of the following steps: License agreement, Information Input, Install and Done! The license agreement is basically what you can and cant do with your aflog package. You MUST agree to these in order to install aflog. The next is the input page, where you put in the information needed for aflog to install (more information in section 2c). The next step is the automated installation of your aflog blog. If all was ok then your done! c) Information Input This 'Information Input' page is where you input all needed data so that aflog can install. Here's a brief description of each field: Database Host: The hostname for mysql on the server. May be something like: localhost, mysql or sqlx.site.com. Your host should tell you this. Database Name: The name of the database you want aflog to use. Database Username: The username for the above database. Database Password: The password for the above database. Username: The username you will sign in as in your blog. Password: The password for the above user. Email Address: Your email address. Don't worry, we dont collect this information and it is only used in the case if you were to lose your password and other stuff like that. Display Name: The name your user will be referred to on your blog. Your Name: Obviously your name. Does not have to be your real name, it is the name used under your avatar. Blog Title: The title of your blog. Blog Phrase: Kind of like a moto or slogan. Is not required for the install. If left blank aflog will set 'aflog vX.XX'. Install: Click to install. All fields EXCEPT 'blog phrase' are REQUIRED for the installer to continue. 3. Admin Control Panel [Top] a) Blog Under this heading you can control the basic blog settings. These include the title of your blog, the blog phrase your avatar, your name, the timezone offset and skins (more on skins in section 5d). Yes, before complaining, the timezone offset does work in a complicated way, but until I make another method this will do. Basically the DEFAULT BLOG TIME is set in the admin control panel. This is a NUMERIC value giving the number of hours difference between your local time and the SERVER time. The members timezone is taken from the blog default (more on that in section 5b). You avatar can EITHER be uploaded from your computer via the browser (max of 100KB) or you can manually upload and use 'from URL' option (both relative and full work). b) Categories Under this heading you can modify your categories. You can add, delete and rename categories. You will not be allowed to delete any if you only have one left. You can also toggle the 'Miscellaneous' category. It will (when ON) dislay all the posts that dont belong to a category. (see section 4a ii for editing posts categories). c) Members Under this heading is where you can change the type of a member (between admin and normal), Go Invisible or Visible and remove members. Going 'Invisible' means that you will no longer be tracked on the site (as long as the cookie remains), ie. you wont show up on the Who's Online? page and you wont increase the page views. d) RSS Feeds Under this heading is where you can change the settings for the RSS Feed on your blog. The build option rebuilds the RSS Feeds to their latest state (for information on the types of RSS Feeds, see section 5a). Optionally you can also disable the RSS feed from this menu. The option 'Max number of items' sets how many new updates will appear on the feed. Use the validate link to check that the RSS is still got correct syntax. If not, contact me. e) Posts/Index Under this heading is where you can: create a new post (see section 4a) or change the number of posts on index. This number is how many posts will appear under 'latest posts'. Anything older will go into the archive. f) Bad Word Filter This BWF (Bad Word Filter) can be found in your admin control panel. Lets say someone decides to come and sign up to your blog... 'Hi my name is jeff, I want to post about my sex life!' So you (the admin) don't want people saying the word 'sex'... So all you have to do is go into the Bad Word Filter, and click 'Add a Bad Word'. You fill in both feild and lets say you want to make 'sex' say 'happy time'? There you can use that example I don't care.... Lets go back to jeff's story. Before it was: 'Hi my name is jeff, I want to post about my sex life!' Well now he is going to say: 'Hi my name is jeff, I want to post about my happy time life! Remember, if you want to use it you MUST TURN IT ON: Control Panel (admin) > Bad Word Filter [off] (subheading) > Turn Off/On g) aflog This is where you will find links to relevant and useful services such as updates etc. 4. Posting [Top] a) About Posting i) How to post You can post in two ways. Either way you must sign in as an admin member first. If you are lazy and want to do it the easy way a 'New Post' link will appear on the index page at the bottom of the recent posts. Click there. OR you can get to this option through: Control Panel (admin) > Posts/Index (subheading) > New Post. Now you are faced with the New Post screen. Insert a subject and your message/text. Then select the category you wish it to go under then its permissions. The options for permissions are: Publc (where anyone can view the post), Members Only (only members can view the post) and Closed (no one can view this post). Hit 'Post' to post. ii) Editing and Deleting To perform any delete or edit processes you first must get the post to the edit screen. Once you are signed in as an admin member an 'Edit' link will appear below each post on the index. For older posts you can find them in the archive and click the name. Then there will be the same 'Edit' link beneath them. This screen is where you can edit the text, category and permissions. Just change the options and hit save. To delete, click the delete link (you will not be able to un-delete a deleted post). b) Smilies Smilies are a fun way to emphasise emotions and feelings. When commenting or posting click the 'Smilies' button to see them and then click the smiley you wish to insert. Also you can use the replace text, to find them out, hover over the smiley you want. c) BB Code BB Code is the name given to some simple and easy code used to make your posts a little more stylish. Use the BB UI (User interface) above the text area on the new post and edit post pages to insert some bb code. Supported Tags: Bold [b], Underline [u], Italics [i], Image [img], Superscript [sup], Subscript [sub], Big text [big], Small text [small], Link [url] and Email [mail]. d) Comments Comments is a way for your members to let you know what they think of your post. A member can comment on a post by clicking the link underneath the post, 'x Comments'. Then click the add comment button and a text area will appear. Comments must be at least 25 characters long and any bbcode is accepted, even though there is only a smiley button. You must also be signed in to post a comment, and there is no limit to comments posted on a blog post. e) Rating Ratings are a way for your members to visually rate your posts. They can rate anywhere between 0 and 5. The average rating appears underneath a post as 5 boxes. Click these boxes to make a post and to view each individuals rating. You must be signed in to rate a post and you may only rate a post once. 5. Extra [Top] a) RSS Feeds + Sitemaps When you click Build under RSS Feeds in the control panel (see section 3d) it tells you that updates.xml has been built. This is not entirely true, it has actually built THREE files. They are: updates.xml: Public RSS feed showing the latest updates SEO.xml: An RSS with ALL updates recorded in the history url.txt: A list of ALL the url's accessed on your site All three of these can be good as a sitemap to submit to search engines! b) Member Control Panel This is like the admin control panel but on a much more restricted level. It allows users to change their basic details like username, display name, password and profile (viewable on members.php). Also this is where you can set your local timezone. It will display to you the blog default time and you must enter the number of hours between your local time and the blog default, its confusing, yes, but you will get used to it. *grins*. Optionally you may also cancel your aflog account from this control panel. (Note: Original member cannot cancel their own account). c) Who's Online? This page is handy because it lets users know who has been active in the last 5 minutes. It also tells you their name and what page they last viewed. If you are an admin member you can also see their ISP Domain and their IP Address (for security measures ONLY). d) Skins A 'skin' is another name for a style. There are quite a few different skins you can use on your aflog. This section will only tell you how to install new ones, for setting a skin see section 3a. So you have your downloaded skin and you've unzipped it to a folder. Take note of the EXACT name of the folder and upload it to your /sk/ folder in the aflog root. Next you will need to edit the file sk.ini and add the name of the folder you just uploaded and it IS case SENSITIVE. And thats it! You should now be able to set your skin! For information on creating a skin see section 6a. e) Plugins A 'plugin' is a way of saying added functionality. You can use plugins to add additional things to your aflog that arent available by default. Plugins are available on this site for download. To install, follow the instructions inside the plugin archive, as each plugin is unique f) Updating aflog From time to time a new aflog version will be released and you may want to update/upgrade your current version. Simply download the NEWER version you want and follow the instructions within. DOWNGRADING your aflog installation is NOT recommended and should not be attempted at the risk of loosing all your aflog data. 6. DIY (Do it yourself) [Top]
a) Skin making guide As of this time, this documentation does not have this information, however a similar post can be found on the forum here. b) Basic modification guide As of this time, this documentation does not have this information, if anyone would like to have a crack at writing some information here, email me and make sure you include the section number (6b). c) Plugins making guide As of this time, this documentation does not have this information, however a similar post can be found on the forum here. d) Translations Currently aflog is only being produced in ENGLISH. If you are both fluent in ENGLISH AND another language, you can translate the aflog files and compress them and send them to me (include the name of your language too). Please do not edit any code that will change the way aflog is, JUST the strings containing english text (do not translate filenames either). Thanks! e) Submission guide If you have absoutely ANYTHING you wish to submit for aflog, send me an email with the files and an explanation of what it does, how to use it and more importantly how to set it up, and i will consider adding it to aflog. Thanks! ** End of Documentation **
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