From B2evolution

b2evolution is a web application. Therefore it must be installed/hosted on a web server.

If you don't have a webserver yet, here is a list of recommended web hosting companies you can rent a webserver from. Most of these hosting providers will also provide automated installation of b2evolution on your new webserver.

If you already have a webserver, here is what you need to check to make sure it can support b2evolution:

Contents 1 Technical requirements 2 Hosting 3 PHP 3.1 PHP memory_limit 3.2 PHP version 3.3 PHP modules 3.4 PHP Info 3.5 PHP Related Dependencies 4 Browsers 5 Portability

[edit] Technical requirements

Though most people will run b2evolution on Linux with the Apache webserver, those are not requirements. It is possible, for example, to run b2evolution on Windows with the IIS web server. Additionally, b2evolution will also install and run on the OS/2 Warp Server for E-Business (WSEB), and the OS/2 Warp 4 client, aka Merlin, both with their respective fix pack updates applied and proper Apache2, MySQL, and PHP, stack in place.

In any situation though, you will need your webserver to feature:

• PHP version 4.3.2 or above download here (PHP 5 fully supported since b2evo version "1.6"). b2evolution 3.0 may require PHP 4.4. Version 5.x is recommended.

and

• MySQL version 3.23 or above download here (MySQL 4.x and 5.x fully supported since b2evo version "1.6") . b2evolution 3.0 will require at least MySQL v4.0, possibly v4.1. Version 5.x is recommended.

You can install b2evolution in an already existing database, and you can put several b2evolution's in one database.

[edit] Hosting

Please note some hosting providers act paranoid when hosting PHP applications. As a matter of fact, they may degrade PHP itself, removing essential features such as file access, sockets (for connection to external sites), uploading files, sending emails or other features.

Some features of b2evolution may not work on such hosts. b2evolution may not even be able to run at all.

If your hosting provider is paranoid, we suggest you switch to another one. Check our list of recommended hosting providers.

[edit] PHP

[edit] PHP memory_limit

Since version 1.8 b2evo often requires more than the default of 8MB of memory. To change it, set the "memory_limit" php.ini value to e.g. 16M. E.g. in /conf/_advanced.php add the following line:

ini_set('memory_limit', '16M');

[edit] PHP version

Version 4.3.2 is required for efficiency by using functions like file_get_contents() and htmlentities().

[edit] PHP modules

• XML-RPC related functions and XHTML validation require the PHP XML module.

[edit] PHP Info

Please be sure to run a PHP info command on your server or have your prospective hosting provider to do it and send you the out put. This will give you all sorts of useful information. It will give you the version of PHP that's installed on the server. You'll be able to see if you have the necessary PHP modules installed. You'll also be able to check for versions of software that you don't want.

Sample phpinfo.php file:

 <?php
 phpinfo();
 ?>

Create and upload this file to your web server. Once you have uploaded it to your server, you'll need to Browse to it with your web browser. Your prospective hosting provider can likely answer you as to which version of PHP, Zend, etc. they are using.

[edit] PHP Related Dependencies

Make sure that *if* (not all hosting providers use it) your PHP info says anything about a Zend Optimizer that the version is 2.6.2 or newer. That means that 2.6.3 is fine but 2.6.1 is not. You will also want to make sure that your Zend Engine is newer than 1.3. The reason for this is that the older versions have bugs in them which cause this software package not to behave properly in certain circumstances.

As of today, January 14, 2008, Zend Core 2.5, Zend Framework 1.0.3 and Zend Optimizer 3.3 are current. Zend Engine is now at version 2 in PHP 5. PHP's current version is 5.2.5. Development and support for PHP 4 have been discontinued; the last release of PHP 4 is 4.4.9. If given a choice, take PHP 5.

[edit] Browsers

The back-office uses CSS (style sheets) for layout and display. Older and experimental browsers that do not handle CSS correctly will have display problems.

b2evolution is tested with these browsers:

• Firefox 1.0+
• Internet Explorer 6.0
• Konqueror 3.5+

Browsers that are known to have display issues:

• Safari (probably fixed by now)
• Mozilla 1.2
• Netscape 4

Most of the time these issues can be solved by hacking the CSS file(s). If you come up with such solutions, please contribute them to the project.

[edit] Portability

• b2evolution uses a DB abstraction class which will make it easier to port to another DBMS.
• More info on DB abstraction and portability.