PHPRecipeBook Users Manual

Getting Started

To install and configure PHPRecipeBook please see the Installation document (INSTALL.WIN32 or INSTALL.UNIX) for directions. After installing PHPRecipeBook you need need to login for the first time and change the password.

When you load PHPRecipeBook in your browser you will see the following box on the screen:

In the Login field type 'admin', and in the password field type 'passwd'. Click login and you will now be logged in as the administrative user. To change your password use the menu on the top of the page to go to Settings->Account Settings. When you select this link the following page will appear:

You should now enter a new password in the 'Password' and confirm in the 'Confirm Password' field. You should also change the email address at this time to match an account that you currently use. When you are done click update. Now you can create additional users and set their access levels.

1.1 Create New Users

From the top menu select Settings->Administration->Users. You will now see a new page that has a list of users that currently exist in the system. Select the link to “Register a new user” and fill in all the user information. The default access level when creating a new user is set in the configuration file but can be overridden when the Administrative user creates a new user. The Reader access level only allows a user to read recipes and post reviews and ratings, not create new recipes or delete old ones. The Author access level allows a user to create new recipes but not edit other users recipes. The Editor access level allows a user to edit and delete any recipe in the system regardless of the user, but not do any user/group administration. The highest level, Administrator has all of the access privileges as the lower levels plus access to edit users and groups, and set system wide settings.

Groups

Groups can be edited by the Administrative user by using the menu option Settings->Administration->Groups. A user can be added to or removed from a group by either selecting to edit a group or selecting to edit a user and changing the groups and users selected. The purpose of groups is to give users in a group common access to a set of recipes. If a user in a group selects to make a recipe private then only users in their group group view the recipe. The Editor or higher access level bypasses this restriction.

Adding New Ingredients

Before a new Recipe can be added to the system first ingredients must be added for the recipe to reference. Select the menu option Ingredients->Add Ingredient, then fill in the fields that are present on the screen and press submit.

The name of the ingredient must be unique (it cannot be the same as any other ingredient). The price per unit for ingredients is a required field, but you can enter 0.00 if you do not know the price information when entering the ingredient. The Liquid/Solid drop down box is for you to specify if the ingredient is a liquid or solid (needed for conversion). The last field for location of Ingredient in store should be selected so that the shopping list is filled out correctly. If you need a new section that is not listed you can edit them in Settings->Administration->Customize, and selecting the table Store sections to edit. You must be an administrator to perform this action though.

Adding New Recipes

Once you have added new ingredients for a recipe you can then create a new recipe. Select the menu option Recipes->Add Recipes and fill in the fields. If you need help select the [?] link next to each field for additional information.

Searching

The RecipeBook can be searched for Ingredients or recipes and then these results can be added to the shopping list or edited if desired. To search for a recipe select the menu option Search->Recipes. Fill in all of the information that you wish to search by and submit. You can also use the shortcuts on the left hand side of the page at any time to get a listing by category.

Meal Planner

The meal planner can be used by any user that has logged into the system (Reader or higher access required). To access the meal planner select the Meals->Meal Planner menu link. This will bring up an interface similar to the following page:

The cell that is highlighted in light blue is the current day according to the system. The day that the week starts on can be set in config_inc.php to be any day of the week. The default is Friday. If you wish to add items to the meal planner pick which day you wish to edit and select the [Edit] link next to the day. This will bring up the following page:

You can add up to four meals per time when editing a day. If you wish to add additional meals fill in at least one field and then select 'Update Meal Plan' and then edit the same day again, additional fields will be displayed.

Shopping Lists

There are several ways to add items to the shopping list. First of all both recipes and ingredients can be added to the shopping list. So viewing or searching for either a recipe or ingredient will give an option to add them to the shopping list. Another way to add items to the shopping list is to create a meal plan for a week and then add the week the the shopping list. You can also add a given day to the shopping list.

If a recipe is already in the shopping list it will be incremented by the number of servings you wish to add to the shopping list. For example if you have 4 servings of Orange Juice and wish to add 4 more servings the list will increment Orange Juice to be 8 servings. Ingredients cannot be incremented this way and must have their quantity edited in the shopping list.

A shopping list can also be saved for later retrieval. When a shopping list is saved the ingredients and recipes are saved to the database for the user that is currently logged in. When the user selects to load a shopping list the currently set list is cleared and the values that have been saved are loaded. The user can also just use the meal planner to keep the information that would be used to construct a shopping list. Because a meal plan can be used at any time to construct a shopping list the user does not have to save this information to a saved shopping list as well.

2003-04-27T14:36:14