Basic System Requirements for Hosting ReadingRecord

The following is a list of basic system requirements for hosing ReadingRecord, whether just for your own library or hosting for multiple libraries. ReadingRecord uses the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL & PHP) stack, which is available on a number of Linux distributions. Officially supported versions are listed below. If you are running ReadingRecord using a different Linux distribution / release, please email me and I will add it to the list of unsupported versions.

• CentOS Linux 5.9
• Apache webserver 2.2.x (part of CentOS 5.9)
• MySQL 5.0.x (part of CentOS 5.9)
• PHP 5.1.x (part of CentOS 5.9)
• phpMyAdmin 2.11.x
• HTTP_Download 1.1.4
• HTML_QuickForm 3.2.13

• No unsupported versions have been reported.

In addition to a Linux server running the LAMP stack, ReadingRecord also requires valid DNS records to function. The URL used to access ReadingRecord must be a full host & domain name rather than an IP address. ReadingRecord was designed to be a hosted solution sharing a single copy of the software, it distinguishes each individual library site via URL.

For libraries hosting only their own site, you will need the following:

• An internal DNS record.
• An external DNS record if you want patrons to be able to self-register from outside the library.

For libraries hosting multiple sites (libraries), you will need the following:

• An internal DNS record for each site, used for setup, testing & administration.
• An external DNS record for each site, for access by the client library & patrons.

To protect patron data while in transit, encryption via SSL/TLS (https) is recommended. A single-host certificate may be sufficient for libraries hosting only their own site. A wildcard certificate can be used when hosting multiple sites if all share the same domain name. Both are available from RapidSSL, around $50/year for the single-host certificate and around $200/year for the wildcard certificate.

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