Startpage - Homepage

What this site hopes to cover

What is "Startpage"
Why use the "Startpage"
How to install + setup the startpage
How to use the startpage
Some screen shots

What is "Startpage"?
The "Startpage" is a project i have been working on for several years. It was orginally written in Delphi CGI code, but from there i ported it to PHP. What the startpage is ment to do is be the first page you visit when you open a browser, it is ment to be more useful than the bookmarking system that browsers use. It is also ment to be easier to edit than the browser created system. Although it does mimc the bookmarking system in several ways.

Why use the Startpage?
Well there is no real reason to use the startpage. You could simply use your bookmark system that your webbrowser provides. But one of the reasons I use startpage is because I have multiple computers and multiple browsers and there seems to be no way i can intergreate my bookmark system between them. It also allows me to go to anypublic computer and use my bookmarks.
There is also the benefit of using the browsers bookmarks for tempoary stuff with out having to worry about organization.

How to install + setup the startpage
Currently I can only tell you how to install and setup the script on a UNIX machine (Gentoo linux specifically).
Step 1 - roots job!
Make sure all dependencies have been installed:

Apache (or other httpd)
PHP
MySQL (sorry no alternitive possible

Make sure PHP works with mysql. And Apache has been setup to use PHP correctly.
With MySQL make sure you have set a root password for all hosts, and create the approperate database/username/passwords with these mysql commands:

CREATE DATABASE {databasename};
USE {databasename};
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, CREATE, DROP ON {databasename}.* TO {username} IDENTIFIED BY '{password}';

Of course where {databasename}, {username}, and {password} you enter what username, password, and database name that you would like startpage to use. What ever you change them to, remember what it was, because you are going to have to make the same changes to config.inc.php.
Step 2
To install startpage:
As root: download the contents, and extract it in your Apache root directory. Should be some path under /var/www under most linux distro's. Undergentoo it is /var/www/localhost/htdoc. It would be a good idea to create a subdirectory and call it Something simular to "startpage". As a normal user: Find out from your administartor (or distro provider) has enabled public_html in your home directories. If not ask him/her to. If He or She has, then make sure the directory ~/public_html exists, then create the directory ~/public_html/startpage . Change directory in to the newly created directory. Once there, extract the startpage compressed file.
List of commands:

$ mkdir ~/public_html
$ mkdir ~/public_html/startpage
$ cd ~/public_html/startpage
Get the compressed startpage file here $ tar -xvjf startpage*.tar.bz2

Step 3
Configuring startpage.
Configuring startpage should be easy, you have to edit a few lines of "config.inc.php" to get it working.
To get startpage working with your database edit these lines:

$mysqlhost="localhost";
$mysqluser="username";
$mysqlpass="password";
$mysqldatabase="database";

The values should be evident, basicly change what is inbetween the speach marks to what they should be. (hint, remember the information in stage 1 that was entered in to mysql, this information corosponds with that. Most likly if you followed the instructions here, you shouldn't need to edit the $mysqlhost option.

How to use the startpage!
Well it is rather simple, after registering and logging in, you will be presented with a page of many links. (lol). From there you click on "Catogrys". At the bottom of the page you will be able to enter catogry names. Ignore the NICE value at the moment, that is used when you want to change the order of catogries, (lowest to highest). Some commom catogries:

"search engines"
"web comics"
"personal"

Once you have added some catorgies you can then add Url's, go to the bottom of the catogry page, and click the "here" link to return back to the index, when you are at the index, click the "URL" link. That will take you to the URL edit page, from there you can add URL's to catogries you created.
Once you are done fliddiling around with it, you can make it default page, by going back to the main page. Then clicking "Display page". Then using your webrowser to set the current page as your default page.

Screenshots
Sorry no screen shots at the moment, it is a webbased project.. Although you could install it and give it a go. I will get an example server up here, for people to play around with. (but hopefully not use) when I put a bit more work in to the webpage. Until then enjoy what you have here. :)