---------------------------------
-- P4A - PHP For Applications. --
---------------------------------

------------------
-- Installation --
------------------

Just extract the archive under your web server
DOCUMENT_ROOT (eg: /var/www).

You should rename the directory
"p4a-version" to "p4a".

If you want to test drive a sample application built on P4A
open your browser and type:

	http://localhost/p4a/applications/products_catalogue

products_catalogue is an example of a virtual catalogue
for shops. To have this application runnning take a look at
applications/products_catalogue/README

--------------------------
- ADVANCED INSTALLATION --
--------------------------

If you want to have p4a installed out of your document root, this will help
you. We use the debian standard way, extract the framework and put it in

/usr/share/p4a

edit your Apache's httpd.conf and add this lines:

Alias /p4a /usr/share/p4a
<Directory /usr/share/p4a>
 Order allow,deny
 Allow from all
</Directory>

-------------------
-- Documentation --
-------------------

You'll find P4A code reference under the "docs" folder.

All other documentation is available within P4A website:
http://p4a.sourceforge.net

------------------------------------
-- P4A compatibility: Server Side --
------------------------------------

Linux/Windows
Apache >= 1.3.0
IIS >= 6.0
php/mod_php >= 5.2.0

------------------------------------
-- P4A compatibility: Client Side --
------------------------------------

P4A works with all browsers that supports XHTML
and JavaScript.

The default theme instead uses CSS2 and some
more complex Javascript, so here you have the
tested browsers:

- Mozilla Firefox 2.x
- Internet Explorer 6.x, 7.x
- Safari 3.x
- Opera 9.25+ (has issues with P4A_DB_Navigator drag&drop)
- Google Chrome

-----------------------------------------
-- P4A compatibility: Database engines --
-----------------------------------------

P4A works with:
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Oracle
- SQLite
- Microsoft SQL Server

To make P4A connect to a database you need PDO extensions
(pdo_mysql, pdo_pgsql, pdo_oci, pdo_sqlite, pdo_mssql).

All connections' charsets are set to UTF-8.

If you're using Microsoft SQL Server beware that only nchar and nvarchar
data type is unicode, thus do not use char and varchar because they're
not UTF-8 safe. 

------------------
-- KNOWN ISSUES --
------------------

You can't switch between two application with the same
P4A_APPLICATION_NAME under the same virtual host
without closing the browser.

P4A can't handle database tables with numeric column names.

If you want to add calculated fields coming from a DB query
(such as DISTICT(example_field)) always use parenthesis and never
use the "DISTINCT example_field" syntax.

When creating a complex P4A_DB_Source, do not set an alias on the
primary key.

Oracle's "date" data field is not supported, you should use a char(10).
Within your application simply add:
	$p4a_field->setType("date");
	$p4a_field->data_field->setType("date");
	
If you set P4A_Table's width to 100% and anchor it in a frame/fieldset
this won't work cause all frame's cells are floating.

-------------
-- Authors --
-------------

Fabrizio Balliano <[email protected]>
Andrea Giardina <[email protected]>