Differences between SVN and release version

Compared to the latest release version, which may be downloaded from the SourceForge download page, the refbase SVN (Subversion) version control repository currently mostly contains changes related to PHP & MySQL compatibility.

About refbase SVN

refbase's SVN repository has three root-level directories:

  • branches (for bleeding-edge development)
  • tags (for releases)
  • trunk (which features well-tested changes from the bleeding-edge branch & is newer than any of the tags)

If you are testing or deploying from Subversion, you are encouraged to checkout the trunk:

svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/refbase/code/trunk refbase

If you are a developer who is adding new features to refbase, you are encouraged to check them into the bleeding-edge branch:

svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/refbase/code/branches/bleeding-edge refbase

If checked out from Subversion via one of the above methods, refbase will need no other reorganization third-party PHP files to work. (You may still need to make changes to the database, customize your initialization files, and/or have executables such as Bibutils installed.)

Deploying refbase from SVN

You can follow the general installation (or update) process, except that you checkout the refbase scripts from SVN. In short, perform following steps to install or update refbase from SVN:

Installing refbase from SVN

  • Checkout the refbase SVN trunk into a local working directory (see above).
  • Copy all refbase scripts from your local working directory to your server's web directory.
  • Configure files db.inc.php and ini.inc.php.
  • Execute install.php in your browser to install the refbase MySQL database.
  • Remove install.php & update.php from your server's web directory.

Updating an existing refbase installation to the SVN version

  • Backup your existing refbase scripts (especially those in initialize/) as well as your refbase database.
  • Checkout the refbase SVN trunk into a local working directory (see above).
  • Replace all your old refbase scripts with the updated ones from the SVN trunk.
  • Re-enter your custom settings in files db.inc.php and ini.inc.php.
  • Execute update.php in your browser to update your refbase MySQL database.
  • Remove install.php & update.php from your server's web directory.


Let us know, if you run into any problems!