How to install?
---------------
- You'll need a web server and an existing PHP and MySQL installation.
  If you require help on installation of these packages please visit
  <http://httpd.apache.org>, <http://php.net> and <http://mysql.com>.

- Move all refbase-0.9.7 files to your web directory.

- Open the file 'initialize/db.inc.php' in a text editor and edit the values
  of the variables '$databaseName', '$username' and '$password' to fit your
  needs.
  (Note that you might be able to use the refbase package without modifying
   these variables, but we highly recommend not to use the default values!)

- Now, open a web browser and access the 'install.php' script by typing:

    <http://SERVER_ADDRESS/PATH_ON_SERVER/install.php>

  (where the string 'SERVER_ADDRESS' is replaced by your server name and
   'PATH_ON_SERVER' is the actual path to your refbase-0.9.7 web directory)

  This should bring up the install form. Edit the contents of all text entry
  fields to match your server setup and supply the MySQL admin password, then
  click the 'Install' button to complete the installation process.

  WIN32: Be sure to set a password for the MySQL root user. The path to MySQL
         is probably '/Program Files/MySQL/bin/mysql.exe' or
         '/wamp/mysql/bin/mysql.exe', or wherever you've installed MySQL.

- Please delete 'install.php' and 'update.php' from your webserver.

Solutions for known problems and general troubleshooting tips are given at:
  <http://troubleshooting.refbase.net>

See also:
  <http://requirements.refbase.net>
  <http://install.refbase.net>



How to setup your own admin user?
---------------------------------
- After you've successfully installed the database (see above), open the main
  page ('index.php') and login with:

    Email     =  user@refbase.net
    Password  =  start

  You should now see a welcome message at the top right corner of the page
  confirming your successful login.

- Click on 'Add User' which should bring up an empty form. At a minimum, you
  have to specify the admin's first name & last name, his institutional
  abbreviation as well as his email address and password. Then click the 'Add
  User' button. You will be shown a receipt page with the account details you
  just entered.

- Now open the file 'initialize/ini.inc.php' in a text editor and change the
  value of the '$adminLoginEmail' variable to the email address you've
  specified for your new admin user.

- Log out from the database, then login again using the email address and
  password of your newly created admin account.

- You can now delete the initial user by choosing 'Manage Users' and clicking
  the appropriate trash icon. (However, we recommend to keep this user until
  you've explored the example records that come with the database)

See also:
  <http://adduser.refbase.net>



How to configure the database?
------------------------------
In order to properly configure your database you'll need to edit the global
configuration file:

- Open the file 'initialize/ini.inc.php' & edit all values of the contained
  variables to fit your needs. Please see the comments within the file for
  further guidance.

  Especially note that if you've chosen 'utf8' (Unicode) as default character
  set on installation, you must re-save the file 'ini.inc.php' with Unicode
  encoding (UTF-8, no BOM) and set variable '$contentTypeCharset' to 'UTF-8'.

See also:
  <http://configure.refbase.net>



Import Options
--------------
refbase offers batch import of records via the web interface ('import.php') or
the command line ('contrib/command_line/refbase_import'). These scripts allow
to import records from various common bibliographic formats (BibTeX, Copac,
Endnote (tagged text & XML), MODS XML, RefWorks, RIS or SciFinder) as well as
from online databases (CSA Illumina, ISI Web of Science or PubMed (MEDLINE & XML)).

If you're coming from Endnote you may want to try out the Endnote style file
and PHP script that's included with refbase. This style file and PHP script
allows Endnote users to transfer data into refbase at the command line (see
the README file in the 'contrib/endnote' directory for further information).

In addition, refbase allows PHP developers to write their own import parsers
and use the provided templates to import their records into the refbase
database (see the 'contrib/import_templates' directory for available
templates).

If you can't use any of the above mentioned import options, you might be able
to convert your data into a tab-delimited text format that can be imported
directly into the MySQL database. Here are some notes how to prepare
tab-delimited data for direct upload into your newly created MySQL tables:

- Fields are separated by tabs, records are separated by returns
  (if not specified otherwise within the LOAD DATA statement).

- The order of fields must resemble the field order specified in the MySQL
  table 'refs'. Field information for table 'refs' is given at:
    <http://wiki.refbase.net/index.php/Table_refs>

- DATE format must be YYYY-MM-DD and TIME format must be HH:MM:SS.

- Carriage returns *within* fields must be represented by a newline character
  ('\n', ASCII character 10).

- Empty fields must be indicated by \N.

- Character encoding: if you've chose 'latin1' as default character set upon
  installation, higher ASCII chars must be encoded as ISO-8859-1 aka 'Western
  (ISO Latin 1)', otherwise data should be encoded as Unicode (UTF-8, no BOM).

- File encoding must be UNIX.

- Assuming your data file is named 'refs.txt', you should be able to upload
  your data via use of the 'mysql' command line interpreter:

    LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE "/PATH/TO/FILE/refs.txt" INTO TABLE refs;

  or, alternatively, use something like the following from your shell:

    mysqlimport --local -u root -p YOUR_DB_NAME "/PATH/TO/FILE/refs.txt"

  Note that if you're going to use the mysqlimport data import program the
  data file *must* be named 'refs.txt'.

See also:
  <http://import.refbase.net>



Skins
-----
refbase ships with alternative skins to change the appearance of the program.
These are in the 'contrib/skins' directory. You can replace your
'includes/header.inc.php', 'includes/footer.inc.php' with these. You may also
need to copy files to the 'css' directory.

Please contribute other skins to <info@refbase.net>.



Extensions for other software
-----------------------------
In 'contribs/mediawiki', there is an extension for MediaWiki to more easily
include reference information from refbase in a wiki page. This will also
allow you to use Wikipedia's citation templates, which may have an appearance
that you like or might be easier for you (and the other users of your wiki) to
customize.

