GrimForum Version 5.0 Build 187.

IMPORTANT: THIS SOFTWARE IS COVERED BY THE GNU PUBLIC LICENCE: SEE THE FILE licence.txt FOR INFORMATION.

Hi.
First, thanks for downloading GrimForum 5.
I suppose you want some instructions, right?
Well, first, we'd like to make a few things clear.

If you use the forum, you must not remove or change any of the copyright information, including but not limited to:
(a)The file inc_footer.php
(b)The file inc_head.php

If you modify the forum and make a modification available for download, we request that you:
(a)Only include the files you have modified in the download
(b)Inform HSMX of your modification, either by E-mail (gf5@hsmx.com) or by posting on the forum (http://www.hsmx.com/gf5)
(c)Do not remove the copyright information in the file inc_footer.php (although you can add to it)
(d)Do not sell or in any way charge for the download of your modified files


If you do modify the project, we'd love to hear about what you've done and why you've done it, either in the community at www.hsmx.com/gf5 or by mail (matt.squirrell@hsmx.com). If we include your ideas and / or code in the next release of GrimForum then you'll get full credit for it.

Remember, by using the forum, you are agreeing to the GNU Public Licence which includes, amongst others, the above clauses.


If you install and use GrimForum online, we'd appreciate it if you could let us know where you are using it, so we can include it on our list of links. Once again, contact us either in the community at http://www.hsmx.com/gf5/topic.php?topicid=69&groupid=4 or by mail (gf5@hsmx.com).


Right, some installation instructions, then!

Well, first, unzip the file ' GfFullV5.0.zip ' file to a folder on your PC.
If you have any plugins, unzip those to the same folder as well.

Now open up inc_connect.php (in the 'inc' folder) in your favourite text editor. Change the variables to match the username, password and database name of the database where GrimForum is going to be held. If you need to, you can also change the table names. The only reason to do this is to stop duplicates being created - so if another application of yours uses 'tblgf5user' you could change the name to, say, 'tblgf5user2'. You can also have more than one GrimForum if you do this.

That's all the editing of the forum you need to do.

Now fire up your FTP program, and upload everything in the folder to your webspace. When this is done run the page setup.php (in the setup folder (http://yourspace.com/grimforumfolder/setup/setup.php).

Fill in the boxes on that page with your details, and hit the setup button.
GrimForum will install itself, creating all the tables you need, and adding some standard values into them.
If you have any trouble with the setup page, try using a page setup_errorfix.php which will add less values but is more likely to work with all database values.
If you want to add the information yourself, the relevent SQL query is in the file 'SQLQuery.txt'.

If you used to have GrimForum 4.1, you can copy the users across by following the link at the bottom of the setup page. You can also use the file upgrade_forums.php (http://yourspace.com/grimforumfolder/setup/upgrade_forums.php) to upgrade the posts and sub-forum information from the old forum to your new one. Otherwise, you can go to the login page.


If you want to use the spelling checker, you'll need to add some words to the word list. To do this go to the words.php page (http://yourspace.com/grimforumfolder/setup/words.php). This will start adding words to your database.
There are approximately 117,000 words to be added, so this is split into three parts to stop your database timing out. Keep clicking through until the system tells you it is done - don't press the refresh button if it seems to be taking a long time - it is doing things, honest!

Once this is complete (and any instructions from plug-ins are complete), we recommend that you use your FTP program to delete the setup folder.

That's it! Visit the forum and click on 'Login'. Login with the username and password you entered. Go to Edit Profile and fill in the rest of your details.
Click on Admin Area (in the top left of the page) to set up the forums, change some of the graphics (if you need to), and start inviting people in!

Enjoy!

If you need any help with GrimForum 5, or if you find a bug, please post on http://www.hsmx.com/gf5 (in the help / bugs area) or e-mail info@hsmx.com (it may take some time for you to get a reply from e-mail - it is normally much faster to post on the forum).

Please note that GF5 is constantly being updated - if you find you have a problem please check back to http://www.hsmx.com/gf5 and see if it has been reported, or, more importantly, fixed.

Thank you for using GrimForum.
Please, if you have the time, could you post the URL of your site here: http://www.hsmx.com/gf5/topic.php?topicid=69&groupid=4 so we can see how GF is being used.

Bye,
Matt Squirrell
Nocturnal Programmer
HSMX Web Design

PLEASE NOTE: If you are having problems with the gallery function of your forum, check that the images/user folder and the images/user/thumbs folder have their permissions set to 777 (right click on them in your ftp browser to change them, or contact your web host).
If you are still having problems, take a look here:
http://www.hsmx.com/gf5/topic.php?topicid=273#post11892
If this doesn't help, post your query on the forum, and we'll sort you out as quickly as we can.