Setting up your server

There are different settings you may set up within your server to improve the performance, the maximum file size upload limit, how to send the email notifications, etc.

There are some PHP configuration options available in the php.ini file that are relevant for Feng Office. To access this file, you need at least FTP access to the server Feng Office is running on (which is typically reserved for the webmaster).

PLEASE NOTE: There may be several php.ini files in different directories on a web server, which may interfere with each other. If changing the parameter values in your php.ini has no effect, then it's very likely that there is another php.ini on your server. Maybe your hosting provider offers a control panel where you can define these values globally.

There are two files you may have to change for this, other than the Apache server settings, by allowing overrides.

In the example below, it will limit the maximum file size to 100 MB. Use another value if you want to, of course.

Access (or create if it does not exist) the file named FENG_ROOT/.htaccess and add the following lines:

php_value post_max_size 100M
php_value upload_max_filesize 100M

Then, access (or create) the FENG_ROOT/php.ini file and add the following lines:

post_max_size = 100M
upload_max_filesize = 100M

Email notifications within Feng Office can be sent in two different ways:

1. SMTP Account
2. PHP Method

Here you will find more information on how to configure e-mail notifications.

SSL connections will provide you with a more secure connection, encrypting information so that you can avoid other people sniffing your sent/received packets.

If you are using a Feng Office Cloud installation, please contact your Account Executive or the Support Team to request SSL activation.

On the other hand, if you are using Feng Office within your server, you must do as following:

1. Install the SSL certificate on your server
2. Then go to FENG_ROOT/config/config.php file and edit the ROOT URL and add https there so that it looks like:

   define('ROOT_URL', 'https://myfengoffice.somewhere.com');

3. Lastly, you have to edit your .htaccess file and add the following lines:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

By default, the MySQL Server has some low settings for memory usage. Therefore, if you tune it up, your Feng Office installation performance can be greatly enhanced.

1. Access your MySQL configuration file (i.e., in Debian: /etc/mysql/my.cnf)
2. Edit its values to higher ones. We suggest the following ones, which are in yellow background:
3. Restart your MySQL Server (i.e., in Debian: /etc/init.d/mysql restart)

Sometimes, when you have lots of data, your Feng Office may misbehave due to not having enough memory. This usually leads to an Error 500, which can always be traced within the Apache Error Log.

Please make sure that you find a message saying something similar to the following:

PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2751248 bytes)

Should you find any, you ought to do as following:

• Edit the .htaccess file and increase the PHP memory by adding this line:

php_value memory_limit 512M

Note: You may add a different value.

• Edit the php.ini file, increasing the timeout limit by adding this line:

max_execution_time = 300

Note: You may add a different value.

Granular permissions are great! They let you manage users' access at will. However, in case you have hundreds of users and you manage thousands of projects, clients, or departments, you might notice some performance issues if your hardware is not strong enough.

For this very reason, we created a method to save permissions in the background, so that after you edit a user or a project's permissions, you can keep on working while the new changes are saved (in the background).

However, in order to enjoy this performance improvement, you need to have the “exec” in your php.ini available, but in many servers, especially in non-dedicated ones, this function is not available. Therefore, we applied changes for the 3.0 version onwards for whoever installs Feng Office outside our cloud: by default, permissions will not be saved in the background, as this used to cause certain confusion and misunderstandings due to the server settings.

That being said, if you would like to enable this option, which we recommend, you need to set up your server accordingly:

There is a directive called “disabled_functions” which can block some PHP functions, like the “exec”, which you need. So, you need to make sure that “exec” is NOT defined here, otherwise it will be blocked and the permissions will not run in the background.

On the other hand, there is a module called Suhosin, which is useful for security purposes among others, which has a similar function called “suhosin.executor.func.blacklist”. In case you have this module installed, make sure that “exec” is NOT defined here either.

After you made sure of the “exec” function being enabled, you need to set the following line in the config.php file, and that is it:

define('SAVE_PERMISSIONS_IN_BACKGROUND', true);

Last but not least, in case you have the following constant defined from versions before 3.0, do get rid of it by deleting the whole line, or otherwise the previous constant will be overridden, permissions will not be saved in the background:

define('DONT_SAVE_PERMISSIONS_IN_BACKGROUND', true);

Sets the magic_quotes state for GPC (Get/Post/Cookie) operations. When magic_quotes are on, all ' (single-quote), “ (double quote), \ (backslash), and NULs are escaped with a backslash automatically. Magic quotes can generate some JSON errors.

Access the file named FENG_ROOT/php.ini and add the following line:

magic_quotes_gpc=Off

Modifications on the .htaccess file:

AddDefaultCharset utf-8

This is the recommended encoding.

php_value max_execution_time 120

Maximum time for running a process. This is the recommended value.