Home Tutorial Mods Configurator Bookstore Links Email JPDeni

It has been my experience, both in my own use of DBMan and in answering questions of others, that some of the procedures may not be perfectly clear as to how to create and customize an application of DBMan. So I have put together a little tutorial on how to work with it. I am not going to pretend that everything here will be perfectly clear either. But I'll give it a shot.

I have tried to make the instructions as basic as I could, with the absolute beginner in mind. If you understand something already, it still won't hurt you to read it. There may be some nuance within a paragraph that you didn't already know.

If you follow all the steps outlined here, you will be able to come up with a very good workable version of DBMan for your website. You can go further than this, but start with the basics and do one thing at a time. Do not try to make a whole lot of modifications to the scripts and then upload them. If there is a problem with the scripts, it is much easier to figure out where the problems are if you make just one change at a time.

Along those same lines, do not go on to the next step until you are sure everything is working correctly. Each step builds on the previous one and if you go on, the problem will become progressively worse.

Please do not expect to have a completely custom database in a day or two. It is possible that you can have something workable in a few days, but if you want to do anything fancy, give yourself some time. And it would be a really bad idea to open the database up to the public before you are finished with your modifications.

	The basic tools	Some basics of Perl
	Install the demo	Create your own forms and displays
	Create your own configuration	Fancier formatting
	Set permissions	How to install a mod
	If you need help