Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are the most frequently asked questions with some quick answers.

Installation:

Operation and customizing:

General questions:


How do I create a support request?

Open a new support ticket on the sf-net pages or search the archive.

Note: When you change the Simple Groupware code base or add new code without publishing it, there can be no support for your code.

Note: In order to create a ticket on SourceForge.net, you'll need to register and login there first.

Note: If you post your problem on Google Groups without version numbers or information about your server, your issue might stay unresolved or take much longer to get resolved.


The setup stops with: Please give write access to ...

The Simple Groupware installer needs to write into current directory. Therefore, please make sure that the current directory is writable.
When using the Simple Groupware setup instead of the installer, there are several folders that require write permissions. The setup checks automatically all required permissions.
Write permission means that the user running the Apache web server has the permission to write. If you uploaded the Simple Groupware files with a FTP program, the owner of the directory may be different from the user running Apache. In that case it might be necessary to give write permissions to anonymous on a Linux/Unix system.

Directories with "write" permissions: <sgs-dir>/bin, <sgs-dir>/simple_cache, <sgs-dir>/simple_store, also <sgs-dir>/bin/index.php

Directories with "read" permissions: <sgs-dir>/src, <sgs-dir>/lang, <sgs-dir>/import


How do I change the language after the Simple Groupware installation?

Language files are not parsed by Simple Groupware for every page request. Instead they are compiled into the code in order to increase the performance.
If you want to change the language, empty the directory "<sgs-dir>/bin/" and delete the file "<sgs-dir>/simple_store/config.php". Then open your browser with "http://your_server/sgs_dir/src/index.php" to start the setup with the language selection again. If you enter the same parameters for the database connection, all your data will remain.

Note: Making a full backup before changing the system is never wrong.


Can I install Simple Groupware with more than one language?

No. During setup, all translations are directly compiled into the source code. That way, language files don't need to be parsed for every page request and the system has a much better performance.
When all users use the same user interface, there are fewer misunderstandings and less frustration regarding different labels, different sortings, folder names, etc.
Finally training, documentation and support is much easier if every user has the same unique user interface. All users in one organization should be able to read and write one common language in order to communicate with each other. Therefore, Simple Groupware can be installed only with one language.


How can I administrate users and set permissions?

Information about users, groups and permissions can be found here.


Can Simple Groupware be integrated with other software systems?

Yes. There are systems supported by default, see data handlers, authentication. Others can be integrated by using the SOAP server. All kinds of integrations require proper testing and in some cases coding, so it's up to you to hire the right programmers or software companies. Since Simple Groupware is completely open source, there are no limits.


How can I disable (or hide) some components like Personal folders, Personal projects, Bookmarks, Organization, Contacts...?

There are two simple ways:

1. Change the folder access rights so that your users can't see it: Select the folder, select Folder > "Rights: edit" (menu at top of page), remove "anonymous" from "read access" and "write access" panels (select "anonymous" and click X aside), click "Save and go back". Now only the admin user can see the folder.

2. Delete the folder and its subfolders: Select the folder, then select Folder > "Delete incl subfolders" (from the menu at the top of the page). It will be moved to the trash (System / Trash) which is accessible to admin only.

Note: If you hide the "Personal folders", you'll also need to make sure that the users are no longer directed to their personal folders when they log in. Select Organisation > Users in the folder tree at left, select all of the user account records (e.g. tick the box at the bottom left of the list of accounts), click the Edit tab, click the Account tab, enter a new "home folder id" number into each user account record (this is the id number of the folder the users will see when they log in), click "Save and go back". You can find the id number of a folder by moving the cursor over it - it is the last number in the destination URL, e.g. the "Workspace" folder is usually 101.


How can I disable (or hide) some modules for all users?

Modules and mountpoints can be disabled for all users in setup settings. Afterwards, modules can be re-enabled for certain users under "Workspace / Organization / Users -> Tab: Account -> Field: Allow disabled modules". (Feature added in release 0.655)


How can I give write permissions to a folder without allowing users to rename the folder or create subdirectories?

This can be done by giving read permissions to the folders and write permissions to the views "New", "Edit" and "Edit as new". Therefore, log in as super administrator or as another user with "admin" privileges on the desired folder.
Select the folder, select Folder > "Rights: edit" (menu at top of page), set "read access" for the desired user(s), make sure those users are not in the "write access" list and set "view access (users)" to: |new,edit,edit_as_new:write:<user1,user2,etc.>|
Finally click "Save" and you're done.

Note: To allow users only to create assets, you can set the view permissions to: |new,edit_as_new:write:<user1,user2,etc.>|


How can I set individual permissions for every user or group on each contact, bookmark, etc.?

The answer can be found in the Customization FAQs.


After deleting a dataset it appears again in select boxes for the super administrator / How can I restore a deleted dataset?

All deleted datasets are moved to "/Workspace/System/Trash/". From there you can delete them forever or make a restore. Since the super administrator has access to the trash folder, these datasets will be still available as long as they are not deleted forever.


How can I restore a deleted folder?

All deleted folders are moved to "/Workspace/System/Trash/" and all access rights for the folders (and the subfolders) are removed. From the Trash folder, you can delete them forever or make a restore by using Folder->Cut/Paste in the top menu. The restore also requires to set the folder permissions again. Since only the super administrator has access to the trash folder by default, normal users can't restore deleted folders.


When sending mail, I get: trigger::sendmail SMTP not configured

Creating users, groups and mail accounts is described here.


How can I create a shared calendar that is available for a group of persons?

New calendars are created with the "new folder" function.
Login as super administrator and navigate to the folder that should contain the new calendar. Then click "Options" below the tree, enter a name for the new folder and select "Calendar" as module. Then confirm with "Ok". Now the new folder is created and you can you set the rights for it. Select the folder, select Folder > "Rights: edit" (menu at top of page), add the desired users to "read access" and "write access" panels, click "Save". In order to get access to a folder, a user also needs to have at least read access to the parent folders.
Instead of the super administrator, you can also use another user who has the right "admin access" on the folder that should contain the new folder. By default, users are not allowed to specify rights on their personal folders.


How can I integrate Simple Groupware into my LDAP / Active Directory infrastructure?

This is part of the administration documentation, go here.


Is it possible to turn off the creation of a "home" folder?

Yes, you can edit "<sgs-dir>/bin/modules/schema_sys/users.xml", remove:
trigger_new="runxml:modules/core/users.xml:home|createuser" trigger_delete="deleteuser"


The setup stops with: Please modify your php.ini or add an .htaccess file changing the setting "register_globals" to "0"

Older versions of Simple Groupware require to disable "Register globals" in php.ini. Therefore, it is recommended to install the latest version.


I forgot the super administrator password, how can I reset it?

You can delete the file "<sgs-dir>/simple_store/config.php" to start the setup again. More information about passwords and creating users can be found here.


How do I customize Simple Groupware?

The customization tutorial can be found here.


Are there any limitations or charges for the deployment?

No. There are no charges or limitations (e.g. maximum number of seats, servers, users) for the deployment of Simple Groupware. All features are available in the open source package, there is no commercial edition or restriction on professional use. Also support and documentation are available for free. Simple Groupware is Free Software, released under the GNU GPLv2 License.


How many companies use Simple Groupware?

Using Simple Groupware is totally anonymous. There is no activation procedure, no registration, etc. So nobody can say how many users or companies have it running in production or testing.
The download statistics from sourceforge.net are available here.


Is there a date planned when Simple Groupware development stops?

No.


Are there any commercial support services?

No. The support is also for free.


Is there an online demo version of Simple Groupware?

No. Running a demo takes a lot of resources.
You need a dedicated server, install security updates every week, control the logfiles, control the hardware, monitor the services, do an update for every release of Simple Groupware, etc. Also you can't give every user administrative rights. With administrative rights, you can do rather everything with the server and the database.

In order to avoid misuse (spammers, defamation), every user would need to register to the demo and I would need to confirm the registration, create and remove accounts/mail addresses every day. That means people would have to wait some hours until I activate their account. Doing an installation on Windows with XAMPP and Simple Groupware normally takes 10 minutes and you can test all features. Also it would be very difficult to simulate a bigger environment with a LDAP / Active directory servers, IMAP servers, SyncML server, etc.

Therefore, running a public demo wouldn't be a good solution for completely testing and evaluating Simple Groupware.


Is there a virtual machine (VM) of Simple Groupware?

No. Installing Simple Groupware directly on your favorite system is much faster (normally 10 minutes) than downloading a big VM that does not fit into your environment.


What is the best configuration for a MySQL server with 16 GB of RAM?

Percona has created the MySQL Configuration Wizard which gives you examples for your specific hardware. Please note: Simple Groupware currently uses MyISAM as MySQL storage engine with 80-160 tables.


Why is the version number less than 1?

Open source projects normally start with 0.1 and every major package of features gets +0.1. Simple Groupware is currently >158 releases old, so you can also see it as "Simple Groupware 158.0".