F.A.Q.

This happens, so it's no problem. Go to the tools page and download the admin reset script. It will set the username and password back to the default, so you can logon again and change it. Don't forget to remove this little tool after you've used it!

I can't login. I'm using "admin" and no password, but nothing happens.

Go to the tools page and download the login help script. Run the script in the root of your fanlisting. It will give you your diagnosis.

I'm on a free server, will I be able to run phpFanlist?

Probably not. Most free servers don't offer PHP and MySQL. Without these, phpFanlist won't work.

I'm on a free server that supports PHP and MySQL, will I be able to run phpFanlist?

Again, probably not. Free servers that offer PHP and MySQL support, usually don't give you full access. Currently the known problems on free servers are: not being able to login to the admin; not being able to send mails from the admin.

List of known free servers that don't allow phpFanlist to function.

free.fr
awardspace.com

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Join problems

When someone joins, they get the error: No e-mail address is valid.

When phpFanList keeps saying that your e-mail address is invalid when someone joins, even when it actually is valid, you need to set the advanced e-mail check to normal instead of advanced. This will use a local check instead of an advanced remote check.
If that option is not available, try setting the Mode option to Expert first and save the settings. The advanced e-mail check should then be available. If you like you can set the Mode option back to Beginner.

When I try to join, nothing happens. My join page is located at index.php?join. .

You can't use index.php?join. This goes for any other pages. When you work like that, the script can't function. If you want to customize your join page, you can do so by customizing the header.inc.php and footer.inc.php.

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Admin/approve problems

Do I loose member IDs when declining members?

No! You don't loose any member IDs if you decline an update or a join request. You only loose IDs when you delete an already existing member.

I cannot approve someone if the e-mail address already exists.

Make sure you have the 'allow double e-mails' setting in the admin set to yes.

I want to use the mass approve tool, but it doesn't work.

Unfortunately this tool does not work in all browsers. It's guaranteed to work in Firefox 1.0+ and Internet Explorer 6.0+.

When I go to the admin.php page or any page I get this here: Security Error - Invalid Directory.

Check that your g_includes and includes directory are in the root of your fanlisting. This means, in the same folder as your admin.php, join.php etc.

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Members page problems

Some links in the members list are not working correctly.

Make sure the member's URL is valid. This means starting with 'http://' (without the ' '). As of version 2.0.x phpFanList prepends the url with http:// automatically, which should solve the problem. It it still good practice to check the URL, though.

I have a list of members and what to insert them in phpFanList.

Go to the tools page and download the batch script. With batch.php, you can easily import from a static page or other program. Just export your members in the batch format (howto is explained in batch.php, when you open it in your browser) and batch.php will do the rest for you.

I want to import my members from my phpFanBase table.

Go to the tools page and download the convert from phpfanbase script. It will guide you through the convert process.

I want to import my members from my Enthusiast table.

Unfortunately we currently don't have a tool to convert your Enthusiast table to phpFanlist. Try using batch.php

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Stats questions

I want to put the number of members on an other page.

You can include different calculated values on other pages: fanlisting's start date, number of members, number of members pending, the number of members pending an update, the date when you last updated your list, the date you last checked your fanlisting, the last members added, ...

Have a look at our How to build a fanlisting using phpFanList? page. There it's explained how you need to alter your pages to allow for those values to work.

How do I get the stats on my index page?

The easiest way is to rename phpfanlist_stats.php to index.php. You can also copy the values from phpfanlist_stats.php to your own index page. (mind that this page has to be in the root of your fanlisting!)

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Script questions

Are the scripts free?

phpFanList is under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license. This means you're free to use them, but you must provide a link back to http://www.phpfanlist.com, you can't commercially sell this product and if you edit and redistribute it, it must be under the same license.

What version of phpFanList am I running?

phpFanList only shows the 2 first parts of your phpFanList version on your public pages anymore. This is for security reasons. The full version number can be found at the bottom right of your admin pages, where you'll see "powered by phpFanList v. x.x.x.". Where x.x.x. is your complete phpFanList version number you're running.

What are those quick updates?

The quick updates are for those phpFanList users that want the latest version, but don't like to download the complete package or want to have to change all the files they changed, again. The quick update .zip files contain only those files that were changed since the previous version and a quickupdate.php files that updates the database (file can be removed after updating). Note that not all versions have a quickupdate available (only when there are smaller changes).

Why 3 include directories?

The 'includes' directory is the normal include directory, the files in the 'g_includes' include directory can be reused for all your fanlistings. This doesn't matter if you only have one or two fanlists, but when you're a collective owner, this can save you quite some space, because you use the same files over and over again. Read here how. Since version 3.0.0. there is a third include directory: 'web_includes'. This works almost the same way as the 'g_includes' directory, only that it's for the admin only and that you need to specify a relative URL instead of a path.

Is phpFanList secure?

phpFanList has been tested on security. So far there has only been 1 security bug on january 5th 2006, which had a temporary fix 30 minutes after we were notified and a new fixed version within 5 days. So yes phpFanList is secure, much more so than our competition.