Requirements

Language

HelpSpot requires PHP 4.3.9 or higher. PHP 5 is recommended as is Register Globals OFF. The free Zend Optimizer* is required.

Operating System

HelpSpot has been tested with:

• Windows 2008
• Windows 2003 (recommended for Windows installations until 2008 matures)
• Windows 2000
• Linux
• Unix
• Mac OSX

Web Server

• Apache 1.3.X
• Apache 2
• IIS 6 ISAPI
• IIS 6 CGI
• Lighttpd

Database

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 / 2005 / 2008
• MySQL 4.1.2+, 5
• PostgreSQL 8

Spellchecking

Requires the open source Aspell program. Installation instructions.

Mobile Access

Requires an HTML compliant mobile browser. Currently tested with Internet Explorer Mobile, Opera and the Blackberry Browser.

More Details

Databases supported by HelpSpot include MySQL 4.1.2, MySQL 5.x, PostgreSQL 8, Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005/2008. Each database has its own strengths and weaknesses, which you should weigh when deciding which one to choose, however all are high quality production level database systems.

The primary difference in regards to HelpSpot is that MySQL supports full text indexing which allows for superior searching but does not support transactions. This has not been a factor during our testing, however, if you plan to run HelpSpot on a heavily loaded or unstable server then this may be something to consider. PostgreSQL does support transactions, but HelpSpot does not support full text indexing with PostgreSQL so searching will be somewhat limited. Microsoft SQL Server supports both transactions and full text indexing.

*HelpSpot requires the Zend Optimizer to be installed, version 3.0 or higher. If you're on a hosted server it should already be installed for you. If you're running your own server and need it the downloads are available on the installation page.