Downloading and Starting the App

Zingoolarity is available as so-called "release bundles".

Release bundles are TAR files, which (when untarred) produce a directory called "zingoolarity" containing the source files, the compiled executable, the configuration file and a couple of supplementary directories (containing icons and other assets).

Having a look at the README.txt file in the "zingoolarity" directory contains more information.

Before you start the Zingoolarity executable, you need to setup a MariaDB or MySQL database, which will be used to store your data.

This can be a local MariaDB or MySQL engine or a remote SaaS offering.

Assuming you have a local engine installation, open your command line, become "root" (with e.g. "sudo bash") and start the "mysql" command line client.

Then enter the following SQL engine commands:

create database zingoolarity;
use zingoolarity;
create user 'melaniebush'@'localhost' identified by 'Test123!';
grant all privileges on zingoolarity.* to 'melaniebush'@'localhost';
flush privileges;

The example user "melaniebush", the database name "zingoolarity" and (naturally) the password can be changed to something different for your own installation.

They need to be matched by the entries in your "zingoolarity.ini" configuration file.

Open "zingoolarity.ini" with your favorite text editor and make the necessary changes.

Now start Zingoolarity interactively by entering:

./zingoolarity

You will receive some startup messages and everything should be fine.

A typical error at this point is that the default web server port 8080 is already in use on your computer.

If this is the case, make the necessary changes in the "zingoolarity.ini" file.

Now open your favorite web browser and enter the following URL:

http://localhost:8080/ascabera

This is the default database initialization URL configured in the "zingoolarity.ini" file (the default is named after a magic spell from a video game).

Click on "yes" and Zingoolarity will automatically create the necessary tables and indexes in your newly created database.

Be careful if you already have data in your Zingoolarity tables.
Everything will be deleted!

Now check the command line.
There should be some error messages related to "drop table" statements.
These messages are perfectly normal during the first run against an empty database, as Zingoolarity tries to drop the tables before creating them and in an empty database they do not exist yet. If you receive any other error message, check it carefully.
It usually means that you cannot connect to your database or you do not have granted the necessary access rights (as described further above).
Correct the error by either editing the "zingoolarity.ini" file and adapting the database configuration parameters or grant the necessary rights in the mysql command line client.

Very important final step:
Now stop the running Zingoolarity process by pressing CTRL-C, open the "zingoolarity.ini" file with your favorite text editor and search for the "initactive" configuration parameter.
Uncomment it and set it to false.
This disables the database initialization URL we used above.
If you miss this step, everybody who knows the database initialization URL of your installation can invoke it and thereby delete your entire data by recreating the database!
Spare you this grief by following above instructions!

Another important note about security for production use:
Either proxy your Zingoolarity service with a web proxy (e.g. Apache of Nginx) with a valid SSL certificate+key or obtain a valid SSL certificate+key (e.g. from Lets Encrypt) and configure it correctly in your "zingoolarity.ini" file.
Your production URL should begin with https://.
Do not use http:// (unencrypted) for production installations, as traffic can easily be intercepted and secret information (e.g. personal secret certificates) can be obtained!

Now you can start using Zingoolarity from your web browser.