Installation Requirements

"Sign Me Up!" is a web-based application that requires Joomla, a content management system (CMS), and Zap Calendar, a Joomla application that provides the framework for managing events and calendars. Zap Calendar Basic, Standard and Pro versions are supported.  Zap Calendar Lite is not supported.

Version Requirements:

Joomla 3.3 or higher

Zap Calendar 4.2.0 or higher, Basic, Standard or Pro versions

Installation

1. Install and configure Joomla if this is a new site
2. Install and configure Zap Calendar or Zap Calendar with "Sign Me Up!".  Click here for installation instructions.
3. If you purchased "Sign Me Up!" separately, Install the add-on from the Joomla Administrator.  Select "Extensions | Extension Manager", select the "Upload Package File" tab and use the page to upload and install the add-on.
4. The "Sign Me Up!" add-on is disabled by default if installed separately. Enable it from the Joomla Administrator by selecting the "Extensions | Plugin Manager" item.  The add-on will appear in the "zapcalendar" filter type.
5. Optionally set the global settings for "Sign Me Up" from the plugin in the Joomla Plugin Manager.  These settings will affect sign-ups for all events. You can modify the following parameters:
   
   E-Mail Header Image, E-Mail Footer Image: These images will be included in  e-mails sent by "Sign Me Up!".
   E-Mail Header Color, E-Mail Footer Color: The background color of the e-mail header and footer.
   Maximum e-mails per job: If your hosting company limits your ability to to send e-mails from your webhost server, set this parameter to keep your hosting company happy. Recommended value: 50, for e-mail limiting hosts
   Sign-up Verification: Set to "Yes" to require users to verify their sign-up by e-mail.  This helps reduce sign-up SPAM.
   Verify within this # of hours: If verification is set to "Yes", enter the number of hours to allow a user to respond to the verification.  If not verified, the sign-up is cancelled and available to others.  Enter a value of zero "0" to not cancel the verification. Event owners can also verify sign-ups on behalf of a user.
   Allow Invites: If disabled, the invite friends feature will be disabled.
   Allow Public Sign-Ups: Public sign-ups are allowed by default.  If you wish to limit sign-ups to only those that have logged into the site, set this option to "No".
   
   
6. Go to the "Components | Zap Calendar | Panel" page and click the "Complete the "Sign Me Up" Installation" button.  This appears when the Sign Me Up add-on is installed for the first time and creates the SQL tables needed by the add-on.
7. Configure Zap Calendar with at least one category and calendar.  For new sites, create the category first, then create a new calendar or update an existing calendar. The calendar will need at least one category defined (under the category tab).  Select the Plugin tab to enable "Sign Me Up!" for the calendar.  The remainder of the "Sign Me Up!" settings are defined in each event.
   To include an iCalendar attachments of the event in the thank you e-mail, enable the "iCalendar Export" option, available in the calendar manager page.
8. Configure a cron job to handle maintenance tasks.  The cron job performs several housekeeping tasks: creating reminder e-mails, sending reminder and invite e-mails, purging unverified sign-ups and purging previously sent e-mails.  From the tools page, view the URL needed for the cron job in the "Sign Me Up! section.  You will also need to allow your host access to run the cron job.  Enter the host's IP address in allowed IP list in Zap Calendar's global settings.  Running the cron job at 5 or 10 minute intervals is recommended.  An example of the command to use in the cron job is below:
   wget -O /dev/null -q "http://yourdomain.com/index.php?option=com_zcalendar&view=plugin&name=signmeup&task=cron&tmpl=component" >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
9. You can manually run the cron job if the cron job is not configured from the tools page in the "Sign Me Up!" section.