Installation Guide - Helpdesk System Manager
============================================

These are just some simple guidelines with regards to installing the Helpdesk
Issue Manager on your own system. There are only two quite simple (ish) steps
to follow to get the system up and running on your own servers. The first is
database installation, and the other is script installation.
    For a much more detailed set of instructions please visit this release's
documentation. Those documents can be found in the docs/ directory of this
distribution. If there is a problem with these guidelines, please contact the
developer at [mark@mivok.net].


Database Installation
---------------------
The database definition script (the .sql file that can be downloaded with this
distribution) should be used to create the tables used by this system. If you
task your PostgreSQL database administrator with the following instructions,
you won't go far wrong:

 1. Create a database user with 'createdb' privileges. The default used with
    this distribution is a username of 'helpdesk' and a password of 'helpdesk'
    but you should choose your own username/password for security reasons. If
    so then make sure that you change that username and password in the DB
    connection script (found in system/opendb.php) before continuing with the
    installation.
 2. Using the newly created database account, create a new database called
    'helpdesk'. As above, you can use a different database name if you wish,
    but if you do, you will have to change the DB connection script to reflect
    this.
 3. Execute the sql script for the appropriate release to create all the
    system's tables using the same account as above. This will enter some
    initial values for some tables.


Script Installation
-------------------
To install the php scripts, simply unzip and untar the source archive into
the directory in your web server's document root that you have created for
your helpdesk system. This could simply be a directory called 'helpdesk' or
you could do more fancy things with virtual hosts but that is up to you.
    Depending on where you have placed your scripts, you may have to update
your PHP's configuration script in order to ensure that the include files
can be found by the interpreter.


INITIAL USE
===========
To log in as the 'Root' user for the helpdesk system, use the username 'root'
and the password 'root'. This is the default account that is set in the
database, and it is STRONGLY recommended that you change the password of that
account as soon as you log in (using the 'My Details' page).


I am aware that this is less than verbose, but for a quick stab to accomodate
those who are interested in trying the system out, it will do. A more in depth
set of instructions can be found in the docs/ directory of this distribution.

Have fun!
Mark Harrison

