Classroombookings.com - installation help

[dloudon96]

Hi,

 

I'm wanting to create a Room Booking System, I've found the following website, Classroombookings - the open source hassle-free room booking system for schools. however, I'm struggling to get it working, I'm new to Ubuntu and PHP etc, so any help you can give me would be excellent.

 

I've managed to install Ubuntu so far, and followed the user guide about setting up MySql etc and Apache2, but I'm getting stuck.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

Hi Dan! Craig, author of Classroombookings here. Glad you found it and are keen to get it installed.

 

Setting up an Ubuntu server from scratch can be quite involved, and is a bit beyond what I can manage to help you with - but there are a few guides I'd recommend going through that cover this sort of thing:

 

How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack on Ubuntu 18.04

How to Install a LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04

 

Those guides are published by providers of virutal private servers - but are generally applicable to an Ubuntu server running anywhere. If they mention anything specific to DigitalOcean or Linode, you can probably skip that, or there could be an equivalent action relevant to your network or server envrionment.

 

It would also be a good idea to check everything on your server setup is working as it should do before starting to install scripts or other software. For example, check you can create MySQL databases and manage users; ensure the Apache can serve a static page; and that PHP is working. The above linked guides have some good suggestions on how to do some of those.

 

I think it's also worth mentioning now, that the current 1.x version of Classroombookings linked to from the website, unfortunately only works on PHP 5 - it has problems running on PHP 7. So if you have PHP 7, any problems you have probably aren't of your own making!

 

It's not all bad news though! I am currently close to finishing a round of updates for Classroombookings so that it works on newer versions of PHP - as well as squashing a load of bugs and adding a few improvements.

 

After all of that... if you're still stuck, please include some details about what step you've reached, any errors or blank pages you're getting, and we can take it from there!

 

Craig.

[dloudon96]

Morning Craig,

 

I've done the steps in the links you posted above, and managed to get the Apache2 web page to show up (like I did yesterday), created the database, copied the files from the classroombookings.com website extracted them to the folder after running the following:

 

$ mkdir classroombookings

$cd classroombookings

however, I can't seem to run the $ tar zxvf classroombookings-version.tar.gz command, I've changed the 'version' to the version that I download, but it won't run that command.

 

Any more help you can give me would be great.

I have also renamed the files database.default.php to database.php and also renamed config.default.php to config.php.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

Edited November 29, 2018 by dloudon96

[webman]

Hi Dan! That's great

 

I think there's a bit of a mistake in the documentation, it hasn't been updated for a while! If you've already extracted the files to the web server path, you don't need to run the 'tar...' command.

 

As you've renamed the config and database files as well, you can continue with the next steps.

 

 

Craig.

[dloudon96]

 

Hi Craig, attached is all I’m getting when I load the IP of the server. I’ve tried 10.31.97.222/classroombookings/index.php but I’m just getting the site cannot be found.

 

I’ve spent all day today looking at it, re-installing Ubuntu etc, but to no avail.

 

What goes after 10.31.97.222/

 

I’ve created the folder in /var/www/ called classroombookings and extracted the content to that folder.

 

Anymore help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

Hi Dan! It looks like the 'document root' for Apache is at /var/www/html/ - this is the folder that should contain the files it will respond with.

 

To get 'http://10.31.97.222/classroombookings/index.php', the classroombookings folder should be in /var/www/html. Is it definitely at that location?

[dloudon96]

Hi Dan! It looks like the 'document root' for Apache is at /var/www/html/ - this is the folder that should contain the files it will respond with.

 

To get 'http://10.31.97.222/classroombookings/index.php', the classroombookings folder should be in /var/www/html. Is it definitely at that location?

 

Hi,

 

Yep, I’ve just re created the environment at home, the same as I have done at work....

 

All I’m getting now is a white screen - which is further than I got at work... see below images...

 

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

That mostly looks good in terms of configuration! A blank page usually signifies an error though, but it's just not being shown.

 

1) In config.php, update the "base_url" line to replace 'localhost' with the IP address.

2) In config.php, update the "log_threshold" line to replace 0 with 4.

3) In database.php, change 'db_debug' to TRUE instead of FALSE.

 

Try viewing the page again. If you still don't see any errors, it should log them to a file in system/application/logs/. Open the latest file (with today's date) in a text editor to see what it has logged.

Edited November 30, 2018 by webman

[dloudon96]

That mostly looks good in terms of configuration! A blank page usually signifies an error though, but it's just not being shown.

 

1) In config.php, update the "base_url" line to replace 'localhost' with the IP address.

2) In config.php, update the "log_threshold" line to replace 0 with 4.

3) In database.php, change 'db_debug' to TRUE instead of FALSE.

 

Try viewing the page again. If you still don't see any errors, it should log them to a file in system/application/logs/. Open the latest file (with today's date) in a text editor to see what it has logged.

 

Hi,

 

I’ve changed those as you said. But still getting a blank screen.

 

 

I can’t find the logs folder in the applications folder?

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

Sorry, my mistake! Is there a 'logs' folder within 'system'? Try that instead.

[dloudon96]

Sorry, my mistake! Is there a 'logs' folder within 'system'? Try that instead.

 

 

I’ve done what you said above, but still getting the white screen

 

I’m back at home now, so can have a look on my setup at home. I’m at the same point as I am at work.

 

Any more help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

OK! Still not good!

 

Could you create a new file called 'info.php' in the classroombookings folder? Using a text editor, put this in it:

 

 

And then visit http://localhost/classroombookings/info.php. Does that give you anything other than a blank screen?

[dloudon96]

OK! Still not good!

 

Could you create a new file called 'info.php' in the classroombookings folder? Using a text editor, put this in it:

 

 

And then visit http://localhost/classroombookings/info.php. Does that give you anything other than a blank screen?

 

Hi,

 

Sorry for not responding sooner... see below;

 

 

That’s what I’m getting when visiting the link above.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

It looks like the first line has the < the wrong way round? Please check that the contents is exactly

and let me know what that shows

[dloudon96]

It looks like the first line has the < the wrong way round? Please check that the contents is exactly

and let me know what that shows

 

Morning Craig,

 

Oops, just corrected that, I’m back at work today...

 

Please see the attached photo...

 

 

Many thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

Thanks Dan, that's great!

 

Unfortunately the currently available version of classroombookings only works on PHP 5; there are known issues using it on PHP 7.x

 

I am working on updates to it - and they're nearly complete! - but it's not ready at the moment!

 

Craig.

[dloudon96]

Thanks Dan, that's great!

 

Unfortunately the currently available version of classroombookings only works on PHP 5; there are known issues using it on PHP 7.x

 

I am working on updates to it - and they're nearly complete! - but it's not ready at the moment!

 

Craig.

 

Dohhh, sorry, I do remember you mentioning that...

 

How do I downgrade back to PHP5?

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[webman]

PHP 5 is coming to the end of its support life in a few weeks, and won't receive security updates, so it's not really recommended to use it! One of the reasons I'm in the process of updating the project

 

If you're OK with that, just testing it, and/or plan to use PHP 7 in the near future, then it should be possible. I haven't done it, but there's a thread here about it: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1048581/install-php5-on-ubuntu-18-04. However, as you already have PHP 7 - I'm not sure if both versions are going to coexist happily, or fight with each other. And you will probably need to update the Apache configuration to tell it which PHP version to use.

[dloudon96]

Hi,

 

Do you know how long it will be until this will be released by yourself?

 

I'm not the best with Ubuntu and Apache to be honest... How do I update the Apache configuration to tell it which PHP version to use?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[webman]

It's going to be in the next 1-2 weeks

 

I haven't done this myself, but there's some more guidance in a link on the thread: https://askubuntu.com/questions/761713/how-can-i-downgrade-from-php-7-to-php-5-6-on-ubuntu-16-04/762161#762161

 

Look at the section 'From php7.0 to php5.6' - but you will probably need to replace php7.0 with php7.2, as that's what you've got

[dloudon96]

No problem at all. I'll try in the morning and let you know how I get on.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[dloudon96]

Morning Craig,

 

not having much look with this whole thing, I'm afraid. I'm going to re-install Ubuntu 14.04LTS again.

 

Are you OK to talk me through the steps again from scratch of exactly what I need to do, I've tried to follow the guide on the classroombookings.com website, but can't seem to get it working at all.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan