installation / config

verify configuration

NB: I'm a newb.

I just want to clarify the correct config from the installation notes.
 

---

Some lines in the default PHP ini (/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini) file need changing:
upload_max_filesize = 2M → upload_max_filesize = 500M
post_max_size = 8M → post_max_size = 500M
;date.timezone = → date.timezone = "UTC" (to avoid errors on PHP startup)
; extension_dir = "./" → extension_dir = "usr/lib/php5/20121212"
;opcache.enable=0 → ;opcache.enable=1

---

In the above, line 3 & 4 stand out:

• line 3: there's no semicolon before the change (date.timezone = "UTC" (to avoid errors on PHP startup))
• line 4: there's a space after the semicolon and no semicolon shown in the change (
  extension_dir = "usr/lib/php5/20121212")

Questions:

• Should there be a semicolon with the change on line 3?
• Should there be a semicolon with the change on line 4?
• Should there be a space between the semicolon & "extension_dir =" on line 4?

Off-topic:

• What is comcode?

Thanks for any assistance.

The semi-colon is used to prevent lines in the .ini file from being processed. In the case of lines 3 and 4, PHP with the default php.ini would not process those lines because they have a semi-colon. We want to change those settings and remove the semi-colon to allow the PHP program to process those .ini settings. I don't believe it matters if there are any spaces before or after the semi-colon and I don't believe it matters if there are any spaces between the beginning of the line and the settings. Often times blank spaces are used to indent and group blocks of settings to make them easier to read. 

You may have inadvertantly caught an error though, on line 5 with the opcache.enable setting. The documentation says to change it from 0 to 1, but leaves the semi-colon there to keep it from being processed. That might be incorrect. It's not a make-or-break setting, but to enable it you would need to change the setting to 1 and remove the semi-colon. The setting you need will depend on your server configuration, but either way it won't prevent you from installing and using Composr.

For comcode, if you are familiar with any other popular message forum software then you may have heard of BBCode. Comcode is basically an extension of BBCode, which is just a type of markup language to allow the use common word processor type of styling like font type/size/color, bold/italic text, and left/right/centered text. BBCode is great for forum posts, but lacks some features that would be needed to create a well structured web page. Comcode has some extended capabilities that allow for well structured web pages. And because comcode is integrated with the WYSIWYG editor in Composr, you can simply create your content in a word processor-like environment and Composr translates it all to HTML behind-the-scenes for you. I would recommend checking out these tutorials:

Comcode help - Composr
Composr Tutorial: Comcode and the attachment system - Composr
Composr Tutorial: Advanced Comcode - Composr

Thank you very much Jason. I appreciate that you were able to answere everything, and with clearly comprehensible explanations.

I'm familiar with the concept of commenting out lines in config files or html - so, I understand what you're referring to with the semicolons, as well as the white space not being a consideration.

If we've exposed a minor bug then that's an added bonus to your insightful reply 

I'm generally familiar with bbcode, therefore I am, likewise, familiar with comcode.

Thanks, again.

You may have inadvertantly caught an error though, on line 5 with the opcache.enable setting. The documentation says to change it from 0 to 1, but leaves the semi-colon there to keep it from being processed. That might be incorrect.

Thanks, it was indeed a documentation bug.