TimeZone Employee Management & Time Tracking

A. Pre-Installation

1. Unzip TimeZone and have a look around.

Unzip the TimeZone file and take a look at the file structure. You should see 8 folders and 2 files.

2. Create a Database.

First step is to create a MySQL database, and if you do not have a default one, a database user. This process is explained in great detail on many websites and web hosts. Once you have the database set-up, you will need:

• The hostname almost always "localhost"
• The database name ie. timezone
• The database username ie: database_user
• The database password ie: database_password.

3. Upload TimeZone

Upload all the files you unzipped to your webhost, keeping the file system intact.

You should now have the following folders/files on your host account:

B. Installation

Run the Online Setup Wizard

Installation is quite easy and only takes a few minutes.

Once TimeZone has finished uploading, simply go to http://www.yoursite.com/timezone/ (or wherever subfolder you uploaded it to) and follow the on-screen instructions.
Easy to do, just follow the defaults and plug in your specific information.

1. Database Configuration & Time Zone

• Hostname On most web hosts this usually defaults to "localhost"
• Database Username Your username to access the database
• Database Password Your database password
• Database Name The name of the database you plan to install TimeZone to
• Select Time Zone Select your Time Zone from the dropdown

Once you have input your database information, click on the "On to Step 2" button.
If you run into any errors here, simply delete the config.php file from the folder you uploaded TimeZone to, and try again.

If everything was configured correctly, you will see the following:

2. TimeZone Settings

Again, follow the defaults and plug in your site's specific information. You can set your Administrator password and Site name to be anything you would like. Once completed, be sure to hit "On to Step 3" to save your settings.

*If the Installation URL is not auto-filled, you will need to enter it manually.
This is needed for email notifications. Include any sub-folder TimeZone may be installed in. (ie. http://www.mydomain.com/timezone/)
Look at your browser's URL bar, and use that (remove the install/install.php from the end) as your Installation URL.

If you have any questions on this, please do not hesitate to email me via my Code Canyon Profile.

3. The Primary Admin Account

Complete the Primary Admin Account form. This is the main, "Superuser" for TimeZone. This Admin Account cannot be deleted through the web UI, only from within the database (ie. PHPMyAdmin).
Once you have filled in the information for the Primary Admin, click the "Complete Install" button to complete the installation.

Once installation is completed, you will need to go back into your FTP application, and either rename or delete the installation folder on your webhost before you can log in as Administrator.

C. Settings — Explained

1. Settings

Once TimeZone is installed, you can update the Site Settings after logging in as the Primary Admin. Go to Site Settings page from the Manage dropdown menu.

All Sensitive Employee data is encrypted in the database.
Personal Information Fields include Social Security Number (SSN) and Date of Birth (DOB) to be available for use by Managers & Admins Only.

• Global Site Settings
• Installation URL Used in all File Uploads & email notifications. Must include the trailing slash (ie. http://mysite.com/timezone/).
• Site Name ie. TimeZone (Appears at the top of the browser, the header logo, in the footer and in other headings throughout the site).
• Site Email Used in email notifications as the "from/reply to" email address.
• Avatar Upload Directory Where all Avatars upload to. Must include the trailing slash.
• Avatar File Types Allowed The file types you allow to be uploaded, NO spaces & each separated by a comma. (Format: jpg,jpeg,png)
• Localization Choose the Language file to use throughout TimeZone. All Localization files need to be translated from English.
• Use Personal Information Fields Set to No to hide all PII (Personally Identifiable Information) Fields.

D. Localization

TimeZone is translation ready. All Localization files are located in the folder named "language".
Any language files you may want to use will need to be translated from English.

You will also need to translate 2 class files — calendar.class.php & pagination.class.php located in the /includes folder. It is just a few lines of text that is hard-coded in these files.
If you have any questions on this, please do not hesitate to email me via my Code Canyon Profile.

E. Advanced — Custom Styling

1. Custom Styling

While TimeZone already has a modern flat interface based on Twitter's Bootstrap, many of you will want to integrate it into your own design. This is very easy, however, you will need to be able to write HTML/CSS code. For those that aren't versed, here is a quick overview. The easiest way to change the look is by editing the default CSS files named "timezone.css" and "custom.css". Next is to edit the page files, located in the "pages" folder.

2. Images

TimeZone does not use any images.
All icons are generated from an Icon Font: Font Awesome (version 3.2). Check out all of Font Awesome's icons & usage at:
http://fontawesome.io.

Icons & Images can be changed to your liking.

F. Help & Support

Please, if you have any questions, run into any issues or just need some help, do not hesitate to contact me.
I believe in providing the best support possible, and I monitor my email just about 24/7.

If you are thinking of giving TimeZone anything less then 5 Stars, please tell me what I can do to make it a 5 Star experience for you.
I love to hear feedback, and welcome any suggestions you may have to make TimeZone better.

G. A Note About FTP

If you are having problems with TimeZone after successfully installing and logging in the for the first time you should check your FTP software settings. I have found in many cases that numerous FTP programs are not uploading files correctly.

Check your FTP program to see if it is uploading files in ASCII - which is causing the file code to be uploaded in one long line.
Try changing it to Binary and uploading the files again. Upload everything except the install folder and the config file (or better yet, if you have not started using TimeZone, just wipe the install and the database and reinstall a fresh copy).
I use CuteFTP for my uploads and ran into this problem a few months ago when all of the sudden everything I was working on just seemed to stop working as expected.