mod_php note: The following instructions apply to the CGI version of PHP as well as to the module version. If you are working with mod_php, you must restart your web server to force a reload of the php3.ini file, though.
If you are using mod_php, you have additional configuration options: See the section below on using PHPlib with mod_php.
Create a directory php parallel to your cgi:
/home/www/servers/www.example.com/pages <- document root
cgi <- php binary
php <- includes and prependsMake this php directory your php include directory: Put include_path = /home/www/servers/www.example.com/php into cgi/php3.ini. If you already have an include path defined in your setup, add the PHPlib include path to the existing include path using the separator character applicable for your operating system (":" on UNIX, ";" on Windows). Defining an include path will not actually include code on your pages; it only tells the PHP interpreter in which directories to look for files referenced in require() and include() statements.
Into the php directory go all the files from the /php directory of the distribution. Into documentroot, put all the files and directories from the /pages directory of the distribution.
Have documentation handy and read it.
The following information applies to MySQL only. No information is provided for other database servers as of now. You are encouraged to copy this section, adapt it for your database server and submit it to the authors. It will be included in further releases of PHPlib.
Edit prepend.php3. Change the first require() statement to require("db_mysql.inc");. This will include the MySQL database interface (Interfaces for other databases are provided in db_<databasename>.inc. The require() statement has to be adapted to reflect this).
Assuming your database server is named database.example.com and your CGI user is webuser and you are accessing the database myapp, do
mysql -h database -u webuser myapp
If it does not work, connect your database as administrator and create the proper mysql access permissions. Adapt and run create_database.mysql from the /stuff subdirectory of the distribution to create the databases active_sessions and auth_user as well as the sample user kris with password test. Try again to connect like shown above. Can you do select * from active_sessions? and insert into active_sessions values ("1", "2", "3", "") as well as delete from active_sessions? Can you select * from auth_user
Note: Additional database creation scripts are provided for several different databases in the /stuff directory of the distribution.
Decide if you want to use include or auto_prepend_file. We do use auto_prepend_file here and we add the statement auto_prepend_file = /home/www/servers/www.example.com/php/prepend.php3 to our php3.ini.
Not all classes are included/required by prepend.php3, only core functionality files are: db_xxx.inc, ct_sql.inc, session.inc, auth.inc, perm.inc, user.inc, local.inc and page.inc. The library provides other, less essential classes that can be included manually on a page-by-page basis. Some classes make themselves persistent, if used. These classes require that you include their definitions in the prepend.php3 file where indicated to function correctly. See the usage instructions for these classes for details.
Having done this, access index.php3. The counter should increment when that page is being reloaded. Also, checking active_sessions in the database should reflect that session.