The prerequisites for MRBS are as follows:

- PHP 4/5
- MySQL or PostgreSQL
- A web server (such as Apache) that supports PHP
- PHP-LDAP Modules (optional for LDAP authentication)

Luckily enough I already had an Ubuntu Linux production server in place with these prerequisites installed so I was ready to go. The install process is as follows:

1. Extract the contents of the MRBS.tar.gz file to your web servers storage folder (ie: Apache – htdocs, IIS -inetpub)
2. Create a mrbs database in MySQL
   CREATE DATABASE `mrbs` ;
3. Create the database table structure using the supplied tables.my.sql script
   (Optional: Add sample data to the database using the supplied sample-data.sql script)
4. You must enter a timezone into the config.inc.php file before the system will function (ie: $timezone = “Sydney/Australia;)

At this point the system is ready to use. However, I recommend a few extra steps for ease of use in a school environment:

Enable period view and define school periods:

The default view for MRBS is time slots. Generally schools work to periods not time slots so a period view has been included in MRBS.
To enable the period view:

1. Include the following line of code in your config.inc.php file:
   $enable_periods = TRUE;
2. Define the periods in the config.inc.php file. Example:
3. $periods[] = “Before School”;
   $periods[] = “Mentor”;
   $periods[] = “Period 1″;
   $periods[] = “Period 2″;
   $periods[] = “Recess”;

   And so on…

Activate LDAP authentication:

We endeavor to provide a single-sign-on environment for our staff and students which means that LDAP authentication is a must have for any system that we implement into our network. This process was by far the hardest part of the MRBS install and took my colleague and I sometime to complete mainly due to the PHP-LDAP modules.
To enable LDAP authentication:

1. Install PHP-LDAP modules
   I am not going to go into installing these modules in this post but am happy to lend a hand if you need help getting these working.
2. Define LDAP authentication commands in the config.inc.php file. Example:
   $auth['only_admin_can_book_repeat'] = TRUE;$auth["type"] = “ldap”;

   $ldap_host = “yourdomain.com.au”;
   $ldap_port = 389;
   $ldap_v3 = true;
   $ldap_tls = false;
   $ldap_base_dn = “ou=Users,dc=yourdomain,dc=com,dc=au”;
   $ldap_user_attrib = “sAMAccountName”;
   $ldap_dn_search_dn = “cn=Admin,ou=Users,dc=yourdomain,dc=com,dc=au”;
   $ldap_dn_search_attrib = “sAMAccountName”;
   $ldap_dn_search_password = “Admin_Password”;

3. Define admin users from LDAP in the config.inc.php file
   $auth["admin"] = “Admin”;

Being open source the opportunities to endless for you to critique this system to your individual needs. We have edited various files within the system to do the following:

• Only allow admins to create repeat bookings
• Change field labels by editing the language file (lang.en)
• Apply the users username to the end of the displayed booking so staff can easily see who has made the booking
• Add an “Override Creator” field for admins only so that they can make a booking on a staff members behalf
• Edit the Help page to be more school specific help

I thought that I would start the new file association section with playing compressed RAR files that contain video files. I recently downloaded a video file from a source that had compressed and split the video file into a number of RAR part files. I wanted to make sure that the file was in fact the video that I was after without having to download all the RAR parts to be able to do so. I came across Dziobas RAR Player that allowed me to do just that and the following is how this is achieved:

1. Download and install Dziobas RAR Player
2. Open Dziobas RAR Player and from the File menu, select Streaming from unrar… (no rewind)
   
3. Select the RAR file containing the video file and click Open
   Note: You can select any number part file (ie: video.part3.rar) as long as you have the parts proceeding this file in the same folder. You must also make sure that you have part1 before you will be able to play any of the file.

4. The software will now ask you for the RAR files password. If the file is not password protected simply click OK. if the file is password protected, enter the password then press OK.
   
5. A command prompt window will now be displayed letting you know what the player is doing. Do not close this window as the process of attempting to decompress and play the video file will stop if you are to do so. If successful, the video should start playing in a new window.
   Note: If you are using Windows Vista and 7 your colour scheme will be changed to basic whilst the video is playing. Once the video has completed or is closed, your colour scheme settings will return to normal.
   

I have found that some video files allow you to fast forward using the mouse scroll wheel or keyboard arrow keys. From my limited use of the software, I have achieved this with RAR files containing MPG files but majority of AVI files do not allow for fast forwarding.