Get AssetMan!

Download the current version of AssetMan. (~2.1 MB)

Beginning with version 2.5b, AssetMan is distributed in a single archive file. In previous releases, the required components and the optional forms overlay components were split into two archive files. Since just about everyone seemed to download the optional components as well as the required components, I decided it was just easier to include the whole application in one archive.

assetman-2.5b.tar.gz -OR- assetman-2.5b.zip

Requirements:

• You need a webserver. Any webserver, any platform will do.
• PHP 4.3 or better installed and tested with support for a database server built in. PHP 5 or better is recomended, particularly if SQLite will be your database of choice.
• ADODB Library for PHP 4.00 or better. A minimum runtime copy of ADODB is included with AssetMan.
• Access to a database server supported by ADODB. In theory, AssetMan will work with most database servers supported by ADODB but I've only tested it with MySQL and PostgreSQL and SQLite. (Don't even think about MS Access!)

  If you want to make use of the forms overlay and PDF capabilities of AssetMan, then there are more specific requirements.

• A webserver running on Linux or Windows NT/2000/XP.
• PHP 4.3 or better with database, GD 2 and Freetype 2 (for rendering TrueType fonts) support built-in.
  • Windows users simply need to make sure the php_gd2.dll extension is loaded. Check your php.ini file.
  • Linux users will need to ensure that GD 2 and Freetype 2 support is enabled in their PHP installation. (The GD 2 library is bundled with PHP 4.3 and better. I've tested it and it works just fine as long as it is linked with the Freetype 2 library.)
• If you want AssetMan to generate and print your PO's and invoices to a physical printer, then you will need a Postscript or HP PCL-XL (LaserJet 5 or newer) printer, either local or remote, configured on the webserver.
• If you want AssetMan to generate PO's and invoices as PDF documents, you will also need Ghostscript installed. Virtually every Linux distribution installs Ghostscript by default but you'll have to install it yourself on Windows platforms. More recent versions of Ghostscript produce PDF documents of MUCH better quality. In testing I have found that GNU Ghostscript 7.07 produces reasonable quality documents while GPL Ghostscript 8.15 produces very good quality documents. Ghostscript versions lower than this produce poor quality PDF documents.

Most of this stuff is installed by default on your average Linux distribution but you might have to build a new PHP to take advantage of it.

Installation Summary:

• Unzip or untar the AssetMan archive file somewhere into the public directory structure of your webserver. Make sure the directory structure is preserved; you should end up with a subdirectory named "assetman" containing several files and other subdirectories.
• Create a database named "asset"
  • For MySQL, create the "asset" database and load the dump file "asset_mysql.sql". Next, either create a new database user or grant an existing database user SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE access privileges to the "asset" database.
  • For PostgreSQL, login as the "postgres" superuser and create the "asset" database. Next, create an ordinary database user named "assetman". Finally, load the dump file "asset_pgsql.sql". This will initialize the "asset" database and give the "assetman" user the correct access privileges to the tables and sequences. If your PostgreSQL superuser is not named "postgres" or if you want to use an ordinary database user other than "assetman" then you will have to manually edit the dump file as required.
  • For SQLite, this command; "sqlite asset.db < asset_sqlite.sql" will create and initialize the "asset" database. Make sure you put the database file outside of your webservers filesystem and that your webserver has read/write access to it. If you choose to use SQLite as your database engine, you should know that AssetMan currently uses the SQLite version 2 functionality in PHP. SQLite version 3 is not supported (yet!).
  • For other database servers, you will have to manually configure the "asset" database. Refer to the MySQL and PostgreSQL dumps as a guide.
• Edit the config.inc.php file. At a minimum, you must set the database connection parameters. You should also set the tax, currency and date format parameters to match your local requirements. The file should be fairly self explanatory. If you are upgrading from a previous version of AssetMan please be sure to carefully review the config.inc.php file for new configuration parameters. In some cases, new configuration parameters may have default values that are not compatible with your existing data.
• There are 4 built-in user acounts already set up if you used the provided SQL dump file. The usernames are read, write, super and admin and the passwords are the same as the username. Only the admin user can create and delete users. The other users are provided to demonstrate the various user privilege levels and for testing purposes. Obviously you should delete these users and create your own when you're done testing.

Additional Steps for Forms Overlay Printing and PDF Documents.

• For Linux, ensure the var directory permissions are set read/write/scan everyone. (chmod 777 var)
• For Linux, make sure all the files in the unixbin directory are executable. (chmod 755 unixbin/*)
• For Linux, configure a local or remote Postscript or PCL-XL printer and test it. If you're using CUPS, it should be configured as a RAW printer. If you don't want to configure a printer on your webserver, that's fine but you'll be limited to creating PDF documents which you may print from your client workstation.
• For Windows, there is no need to actually configure a printer on the webserver, but the webserver must have sufficient access rights to a network printer somewhere on your network. This printer should be a standard Microsoft networking shared printer resource (\\printserver\printername). You can test this printer by simply copying a printable file to the network resource. From the command line type; "copy file.txt \\printserver\printername". As with Linux, you don't have to set up a printer on the webserver if you are happy with creating PDF documents.
• For Windows, you must ensure that the Ghostscript bin and lib directories are in your system PATH environment variable if you want AssetMan to generate PDF documents. Linux platforms will almost certainly have Ghostscript installed already although you may want to install the latest version for the best quality PDF documents.
• Edit config.inc.php to correctly reflect your printer/PDF configuration. Forms overlay is disabled by default. See details in the file.

Forms overlay is a tricky thing to get right. See if you can get it going with the supplied test form templates and then move on to creating your own custom forms. It takes some work to get the forms set up and working properly but the results are worth it!

IMPORTANT! AssetMan has user authentication and PO/Invoice approval mechanisms in place. However, AssetMan is intended to be an Intranet application run on a trusted private network. You shouldn't install it on a public webserver. If you really must run AssetMan on a public webserver then be sure it's a secure server.

Credits / License:

AssetMan was written by John Frank with valuable input from Mike Schwarz and Cory Drinkwater. AssetMan is copyright © 2007 by John Frank and B.C. Tree Fruits Limited. You are free to use / modify / distribute AssetMan according to the terms of the Free Software Foundation General Public License. The ADODB Library for PHP is copyright © 2007 by John Lim.