Requirements

One of the design goals of formVista is that it be usable in a wide range of commodity hosting environments. An effort has been made to keep the requirements to a minimum.

Where possible the formVista setup program will check for all the requirements that it needs.

formVista requires:

1. a server running a Unix-like operating system such Linux, Solaris, or MacOSX.
   
   Note: At one point we had formVista running on MS Windows and it may still work but at the present moment it's not supported. If you want to use MS Windows please post to the forumand let us know.
   

2. the Apache web server version 2.0 or later with

   1. mod_rewrite enabled.

   2. .htaccess file overrides allowed for "allow, deny, follow-symlinks and rewrite".  
      
      Note: Primarily, formVista relies on mod_rewrite for the content manager and Apache style .htaccess files to secure various sensitive directories.
      
      You will need to know

      1. what user your Apache server is running as so that you can set the file ownership accordingly.
         
      2. how to use the Unix/Linux tar, chown and chmod commands.
      3. where your web page files are located on the server so you know where to unpack the distribution (i.e. DOCUMENT_ROOT).  
      4. what your URL of your website is. (e.g. www.somedomain.com)
3. the MySQL database server version 5.0 or later.
   
   You will need a MySQL user id  that has sufficient access to create tables, indexes, temporary tables, alter tables, etc. If you get Mysql errors during setup, chances are the user you have chosen does not have sufficient grants to run formVista.

4. PHP version 5.0.5 or later, compiled as an Apache module.
   
   Apache must be configured to parse .php files. See the AddType directive.
   
   It is strongly recommended to disable parsing of .phps files for security reasons. To support the widest range of hosting environments, formVista secures configfiles, datafiles, logfiles, session files,  and FVML source files inside specially formatted .php files. Being able to view the source defeats that level of protection.
   
   PHP must be configured with the following extensions:

   1. Mysql
      Note: formVista uses the original PHP MySQL API.
   2. GD needed for such things as resizing uploaded photos.
   3. POSIX needed in cronjobs for background task management. (optional)
   4. XML needed to parse FVML files.
   5. HASH needed to generate digest authentication strings.
   6. IMAP needed for bounce processor. (optional)
   7. OPENSSL needed for PayPal integration. (optional)

To support resizing of large JPEG images, the php.ini settings upload_max_filesize, memory_limit and max_execution time should be reviewed.

Note: If while uploading images or photos, you get blank pages chances are your memory_limit setting is too low.

To install the formVista distribution, you will also need shell access to the webserver to:

1. unpack the distribution in the right directory.
2. change ownership of the distribution files.
3. set up cronjobs for background processing (optional).

You will need to be comfortable using a text editor and the "chown -R" command.

Note: Your host may provide other ways for you to install software onto your website, set file ownerships and/or configure timed background tasks. Each hosting providers that does not offer shell access has a different method for providing this access. As a result, it is beyond the scope of this document. If you have such a hosting provider and would like to install formVista onto your website, please post to the forum.