Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQ

• Can I buy Mobile Apps license separately?
• Are version updates included?
• Is license fee only paid once?
• What are the limitations of the Free License?
• May I resell Dolphin license?
• May I use a license with a different domain name later?
• How many sites I am allowed to launch with one license?
• What are the limitations of the paid License?
• Can you make a custom modification for me?
• Do you provide hosting services?
• Would you consider launching a community in partnership with me?
• Can Dolphin do ---this and that---?
• Can Dolphin work with 1 billion members?
• Do I need many licenses for Dolphin to work with 18 gazillion members?

Installation FAQ

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Administration FAQ

• How do I edit the web pages About Us, Contact Us, Privacy, Terms, FAQ?
• How do I edit the Copyright © 2011 Your Company wording at the bottom?
• ​How can I manage my banners?
• ​I need to transfer my site to another folder on my server. What do I need to do?
• ​How can I change the time zone in Dolphin?
• ​How can I change admin username and/or password if I forgot it?

Development FAQ

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Boonex Market FAQ

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General FAQ

Pre-sale, billing, license registration and other general questions about Dolphin and Boonex. We recommend everyone to read General FAQ even if you don't have any particular questions. Some aspects of license registration and software rights ownership may be particularly important.

Can I buy Mobile Apps license separately?

We recommend ​getting Mobile Apps license with Prime. If you already have a Standard License and only need a Mobile License, use the following form to buy a Mobile License for $399. We will manually verify and process your order.

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Are version updates included?

Yes, paid licenses include free lifetime version updates.

Is license fee only paid once?

Yes, Dolphin paid licenses are permanent.

What are the limitations of the Free License?

You must display Boonex links on all pages of your site the way they are built-in to the Dolphin, without modifications.

May I resell Dolphin license?

No, licenses are not transferable. If you sell your site with Dolphin the buyer would have to obtain their own license.

May I use a license with a different domain name later?

Yes, you can re-register with another domain name. Only one domain name at a time may be using the license.

How many sites I am allowed to launch with one license?

Only one site/domain/instance per license.

What are the limitations of the paid License?

You must display Boonex copyrights in source code (not visible to site users) and you may only use one license for one site.

Can you make a custom modification for me?

We do not provide custom modification services. Look for available extensions in Boonex Market or submit a job offer at Boonex Jobs.

Do you provide hosting services?

We do not provide hosting services. Look for Recommended Hosting Providers.

Would you consider launching a community in partnership with me?

We stick to software development and only consider partnerships within this scope.

Can Dolphin do ---this and that---?

Dolphin can do a lot, and a lot can be modified. Check out the demo site, test drive it with the free license, browse Market and read Forums to see for yourself.

Can Dolphin work with 1 billion members?

Yes, provide it is properly configured and the server setup is optimised for the load.

Do I need many licenses for Dolphin to work with 18 gazillion members?

No, one license is enough for any number of members, web-servers or database-servers supporting the website. As long as it is still one website (one domain) one license is all you need.

Administration FAQ

Site settings, content moderation, members administration, using admin tools and other aspects of site management. Administration of a Dolphin-based site is, arguably, the most time-consuming part of the experience and getting it right is very important. Maintaining a proper site setup, high-quality content and healthy members community can make or brake your social network.

How do I edit the web pages About Us, Contact Us, Privacy, Terms, FAQ?

The titles and the contents of these pages can be edited in the language file:

Admin Panel -> Settings -> Language Settings -> Search for strings -> Look for here you should search for the corresponding language key and change its value:

• About Us:
  _ABOUT_US_H: About Us Page Title
  _ABOUT_US_H1: About Us Box Title
  _ABOUT_US: About Us Box Contents
  

• Contact Us:
  _CONTACT_H: Contact Us Page Title
  _CONTACT_H1: Contact Us Box Title
  

• Privacy:
  _PRIVACY_H: Privacy Page Title
  _PRIVACY_H1: Privacy Box Title
  _PRIVACY: Privacy Box Contents
  

• Terms:
  _TERMS_OF_USE_H: Terms Page Title
  _TERMS_OF_USE_H1: Terms Box Title
  _TERMS_OF_USE: Terms Box Contents
  

• FAQ:
  _FAQ_H: FAQ Page Title
  _FAQ_H1: FAQ Box Title
  _FAQ_INFO: FAQ Box COntents
  

How do I edit the Copyright © 2011 Your Company wording at the bottom?

This wording can be edited in the language file:

go to Admin Panel -> Settings -> Language Settings;

in the Manage Keys pane type the key name _copyright -> click the Apply checkbox;

in the appeared results click the Edit link next to the _copyright key;

in the appeared window find the field String text for English language and edit this string leaving the {0} variable intact because it will automatically show the current year;

if you have other languages installed, edit those fields too -> click the Save button.

How can I manage my banners?

Log into your Admin Panel and navigate to Tools -> Banners

On the top of the Banners Panel there is a list of your banners. Each banner in the list has the following controling buttons: Preview, Modify, and Delete.

Preview lets you see the banner as it will look on your site. Modify option lets you change the banner settings. They are stated further. Delete this deletes a banner.

Besides this, every line displays banner statistics, such as number of impressions (views) and number of clicks.

A new banner can be added by using a form at the bottom of the Banners panel. The settings are the same as when you're modifying a banner. Here they are:

1) Banner title - this can be any name you want to assign to your banner. This name won't be shown to members.

2) Banner URL - here you need to specify the link where your banner points to, for example http://www.boonex.com.

3) Banner Active - this checkbox should be checked if you wish to display your banner and unchecked if you want to hide the banner.

4) Banner Text (HTML Only) - this must be the code generating your banner, should it be a picture, a text or an object. For example, the following code will show a BoonEx banner on your site:

<img src="http://www.boonex.com/img/boonex_cse2.gif" />

You can also upload banner images in the media/images/banners folder on your site using an FTP client and specify their code this way:

<img src="http://my_site/media/images/banners/my_banner_name" />

5) Start Date and End Date are the starting and ending periods of your banner's impression. You can use the Choose and Clear buttons to insert a date and delete it respectively.

6) Position on the page has four checkboxes Top, Left, Bottom and Right to display the banner in the respective areas of your site.

7) HShift and VShift let you specify for what number of pixels you want to shift your Left or Right banners Horizontally or Vertically respectively.

8) Submit button allows you to submit your changes and the Insert as new checkbox lets you submit the modified banner as a new one.

I need to transfer my site to another folder on my server. What do I need to do?

1) First of all, you need to move the whole structure of the Dolphin installation directory to the folder you like. You can use the "move" command in your FTP client or run this command

cd DOLPHIN_FOLDER
mv * DESTINATION_FOLDER

in your SSH account, where DOLPHIN_FOLDER is the folder where Dolphin is installed and DESTINATION_FOLDER is the folder where it needs to be placed.

2) Then you need to edit the paths in the file inc/header.inc.php: change the values of the following variables according to your current settings: $site['url'] and $dir['root']

3) Then change the path to dolphin directory in your crons. You can do that in your host's control panel account (for example, CPanel or Plesk) or in your SSH client by running this command:

crontab -e

4) And the last step is to clean /cache/ and /cache_public/ folders.

How can I change the time zone in Dolphin?

You may know that all actions in Dolphin have their date/time specifications, such as Spy events, Blog and Forum posts, Chat messages, etc. All these events are stored in a MySQL database which by default uses the server time zone for them. But your web server may be located in a different country, so it may be necessary to adjust Dolphin time according to your (admin) location.

You will also need to change the default time zone for PHP so it could correspond to MySQL time zone. So here's how you can do it:

For PHP

Edit the file inc/header.inc.php.
Input this line:

date_default_timezone_set( timezone_identifier );

after

mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

There are a plenty of timezone_identifiers, but to make it simple, I will show only those that use GMT offsets.

It's strange but it's true that PHP uses these offsets in a different way: a negative offset becomes positive and on the contrary.

For example, if you live in the US/Central time zone, your GMT offset is supposed to be "-6", but you need to specify "Etc/GMT+6" as the timezone_identifier, and if you live in Europe/Berlin timezone, your GMT offset is supposed to be "+1" but you need to specify "Etc/GMT-1". Those who live in London, should specify "Etc/GMT" (please mind the quotation marks).

Those who live in time zones with fractional GMT offsets, will need to use their areas timezones in this format: "Asia/Rangoon", "Australia/Adelaide", etc.

The list of supported time zones can be found ​here.

For MySQL

You will need to change the time zone offsets in 3 files: for Dolphin itself, for Orca and for Ray.

The offset parameter should specify your time zone offset in comparison to GMT time, for example: +6:00, -7:30. And these offsets are already the ones we got used to.

Here are these files:
1) For Dolphin:
edit /inc/classes/BxDolDb.php
find the line:

mysql_query("SET sql_mode = ''", $this->link);

and put this line right after it:

mysql_query("SET @@local.time_zone='offset';", $this->link);

2) For Ray:
edit flash/modules/global/inc/db.inc.php and put this line

mysql_query("SET @@local.time_zone='offset';", $this->rLink);

after

mysql_query("SET @@local.connect_timeout=9000;", $this->rLink);

3) For Orca:
edit modules/boonex/forum/classes/BxDb.php and put this line

mysql_query("SET @@local.time_zone='offset';", $this->link);

after

mysql_query ("SET NAMES 'utf8'", $this->link);

Then you need to recompile Orca languages in Admin Dashboard -> Modules -> Orca Forum -> Manage Forum and also clear the site cache in Admin Dashboard -> Quick Overview -> Clear Cache

This is it. Now the time on all pages and in all widgets should correspond to admin's local time.

How can I change admin username and/or password if I forgot it?

If you forgot your admin access or somehow can't access your admin account, you can create a new admin account or change the password of the existing account if you remember its name (admin by default).

1) Log into your phpMyAdmin page (should be accessible in Cpanel or Plesk).

2) Choose the database where Dolphin is installed.

3) Click the "SQL" tab at the top.

4) Enter one of these queries:

a) For admin account creation:

INSERT INTO `Profiles` SET `NickName`='ADMIN_NICK', `Status`='Active', `Role`='3';
UPDATE `Profiles` SET `Salt` = 'SALT_SEQUENCE' WHERE ID = last_insert_id();
UPDATE `Profiles` SET `Password` = SHA1(CONCAT(MD5('ADMIN_PASSWORD'), `Salt`)) WHERE ID = last_insert_id();

Note: ADMIN_NICK should be replaced with the desired admin account name, ADMIN_PASSWORD should be replaced with the desired password, SALT_SEQUENCE should be replaced with any sequence of alphanumeric characters)

b) For admin password change:

UPDATE `Profiles` SET `Salt` = 'SALT_SEQUENCE' WHERE `NickName`='ADMIN_NICK';
UPDATE `Profiles` SET `Password` = SHA1(CONCAT(MD5('ADMIN_PASSWORD'), `Salt`)), `Role` = '3' WHERE `NickName`='ADMIN_NICK';
UPDATE `Profiles` SET `Role` = '3' WHERE `NickName`='ADMIN_NICK';

Note: ADMIN_NICK should be replaced with the desired admin account name, ADMIN_PASSWORD should be replaced with the desired password, SALT_SEQUENCE should be replaced with any sequence of alphanumeric characters)

5) Clear the cache in your admin account or clear the contents of the folders cache and cache_public (except for the .htaccess file) through FTP.