webtrees: Web based Family History software
* Copyright (C) 2010 webtrees development team.
*
* Derived from PhpGedView
Copyright (C) 2002 to 2010 PGV Development Team. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
See the file GPL.txt included with this software for more detailed licensing information.
webtrees is based on the popular PhpGedView on line genealogy application ("PGV"). Whereas PGV aimed to do everything for everyone,webtrees aims to be more efficient and effective by using the right combination of third-party tools, design techniques and open standards.webtrees allows you to view and edit your genealogy on your website. It has full editing capabilities, full privacy functions, and supports multimedia like photos and document images. As an on line program, it fosters extended family participation and good ancestral recording habits, as it simplifies the process of collaborating with others working on your family lines. Your latest information is always on your web site and available for others to see, defined by viewing rules you set. For more information and to see working demos, visit http://webtrees.net/
webtrees is Open Source software that has been produced by people from many countries freely donating their time and talents to the project. All service, support, and future development is dependent on the time developers are willing to donate to the project, often at the expense of work, recreation, and family. Beyond the few donations received from users, developers receive no compensation for the time they spend working on the project. There is also no outside source of revenue to support the project. Please consider these circumstances when making support requests and consider volunteering your own time and skills to make the project even stronger and better.
The following instructions will guide you through a basic installation of webtrees. Initially, we recommend this approach, and that on completion of your new webtrees installation, you confirm your site is working correctly before considering the many advanced configuration options available.
A webserver. Apache and IIS are the most common types. There are no requirements to use a specific type or version.
Approximately 65MB of disk space for the application files, plus whatever is needed for your multi-media files, gedcom files and database.
PHP 5.2.3 or later. Note that many web hosts offer *both* PHP4 and PHP5, typically with PHP4 as the default. If this is the case, you can usually switch between the two using a control panel or a configuration file. Refer to your web host's support documentation for details.
The PHP/PDO library for MySQL. This is a server configuration option. It is enabled by default on most hosts. See http://php.net/pdo
PHP should be configured to allow sufficient server resources (memory and execution time) for the size of your system. Typical requirements are:
Small systems (500 individuals): 16-32MB, 10-20 seconds
Medium systems (5000 individuals): 32-64MB, 20-40 seconds
Large systems (50000 individuals): 64-128MB, 40-80 seconds
MySQL 5.0.13 or later. webtrees can share a single database with other applications, by choosing a unique table prefix during configuration.
The following instructions will guide you through a basic installation of webtrees . We recommend this approach initially, and that on completion you check your site is working correctly before looking at the more advanced configuration options available.
Download the latest version of webtrees available from http://launchpad.net/webtrees
Unzip the files and upload them to an empty directory on your web server.
Open your web browser and type the URL for your webtrees site (for example, http://www.yourserver.com/webtrees) into the address bar.
The webtrees setup wizard will start automatically. Follow the steps described there, reading all notes, and any red warning messages you receive carefully as you proceed through each step.
On successful completion of all steps you will be taken to the GEDCOM (family tree) administration page where you can:
UPLOAD a GEDCOM file from your local machine, or
IMPORT a GEDCOM file from your server, if you have previously uploaded it to the webtrees/data folder, or
CREATE a new, empty GEDCOM file.
Once all these steps are completed you can check that everything is in place, then consider looking at more advanced configuration options.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following instructions do NOT apply to beta versions of webtrees. If you are testing beta versions they will have specific, usually more complex upgrade instructions, often requiring a completely fresh installation. Please read the latest Release Notes for any beta version.
webtrees has been designed to make upgrading to a new version of the software as straightforward as possible. Just follow these simple steps:
Ensure you first have a good backup of your entire system, including all files and the database.
Download the latest version of webtrees available from http://launchpad.net/webtrees
Upload the files to your web server, copying all the new files directly over the existing ones.
If any other requirements exist for the specific upgrade you are doing, you will be advised on screen as soon as you go to your site URL. This may occasionally include a requirement to re-import your GEDCOM (family tree) file.
When you IMPORT or UPLOAD a GEDCOM (family tree) file in webtrees the data from the file is all transferred to the database tables. The file itself is no longer used or required by webtrees
If you use IMPORT, your file remains in the webtrees/data folder you first copied it to, and will not be changed by any subsequent editing of the webtrees data.
If you use UPLOAD, the file is left in its original location, and again remains untouched.
When or if you change your genealogy data outside of webtrees, it is not necessary to delete your GEDCOM file or database from webtrees and start over. Follow these steps to update a GEDCOM that has already been imported:
Decide if you want to IMPORT or UPLOAD your new GEDCOM file.
Use UPLOAD if your GEDCOM file is smaller than your server's PHP file upload limit (often 2MB).The new file can have any name you choose.
Use IMPORT for larger files. In this case you need to use FTP to first copy your file to the webtrees/data folder. Either copy over the existing file, or use a different name.
Go to your webtrees GEDCOM configuration page. On the line relating to this GEDCOM file click either IMPORT or UPLOAD.
Take careful note of the media items option ("If you have created media objects in webtrees, and have edited your gedcom off-line using a program that deletes media objects, then tick this box to merge the current media objects with the new GEDCOM.") In most cases you should leave this box UNCHECKED.
Click "SAVE". webtrees will validate the GEDCOM again before importing.
You can use a ZIP file to upload the GEDCOM, but only if you use the UPLOAD option. The file name can be anything you choose.
Security in webtrees means ensuring your site is safe from unwanted intrusions, hacking, or access to data and configuration files. The developers of webtrees regard security as an extremely important part of its development and have made every attempt to ensure your data is safe.
The area most at risk of intrusion would be the /data folder that contains your config.ini.php, GEDCOM configuration (xxxx.ged_conf.php), and privacy setting (xxxx.ged_priv.php) files. If you are concerned there may be a risk there is a very simple test you can do: try to fetch config.ini.php by typing http:// url to your site /data/config.ini.php in your web browser.
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /data/xxxx.ged on this server.
This indicates that the protection built into webtrees is working, and no further action is required.
In the unlikely event you do fetch the file (you will just see a semicolon), then that protection is not working on your site and you should take some further action.
If your server runs PHP in CGI mode, then change the permission of the /data directory to 700 instead of 777. This will block access to the httpd process, while still allowing access to PHP scripts.
This will work for perhaps 99% of all users. Only the remaining 1% should consider the most complex solution, moving the /data/ directory out of accessible web space. (Note: In many shared hosting environments this is not an option anyway.
If you do find it necessary, following is an example of the process required:
If your home directory is something like /home/username,
and the root directory for your web site is /home/username/public_html,
and you have installed webtrees in the public_html/webtrees directory,
then you would create a new data folder in your home directory at the same level as your public_html directory, such as /home/username/private/data, and place your GEDCOM (family tree) file there.
Then change the Data file directory setting on the Admin --> Site Administration page from the default data/ to the new location /home/username/private/data
You will have two data directories:
[path to webtrees]/data - just needs to contain config.ini.php
It is always important to keep backups of your data away from your web server environment.
Doing this has been made very straightforward in webtrees by its use of database tables for storing all information.
We therefore recommend that you REGULARLY use a database backup tool, such as the export/import options from phpMyAdmin most people have as part of their web server account.
This will safeguard "ALL" your information, not just your family history data, including user profiles and settings, news blocks, favorites, module configurations.
The only things NOT included are any media items you uploaded to the server. You should also always keep copies of these, by using FTP to download copies of the media folders from your web server.
[NOTE: for beta versions of webtrees there are two files in the webtrees/data folder (yourGEDCOM.ged_conf.php and yourGEDCOM.ged_priv.php) that you should also backup using FTP. These will be transferred to the database in released versions]