# BookStack
-A platform to create documentation/wiki content.
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+A platform to create documentation/wiki content. General information about BookStack can be found at https://www.bookstackapp.com/
+
+**BookStack is currently in rapid development so use now is heavily cautioned as future updates my break existing installations.**
+
+## Requirements
+
+BookStack has the similar requirements to Laravel. On top of those are some front-end build tools which the requirement of will be removed once out of beta release.
+
+* PHP >= 5.5.9
+* OpenSSL PHP Extension
+* PDO PHP Extension
+* Mbstring PHP Extension
+* Tokenizer PHP Extension
+* MySQL >= 5.6
+* [Composer](https://getcomposer.org/)
+* [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/) **To be removed in future**
+* [Bower](http://bower.io/) **To be removed in future**
+* [Gulp](http://gulpjs.com/) **To be removed in future**
+
+
+## Installation
+
+Ensure the requirements are met before installing.
+
+The installation is currently somewhat complicated. Some PHP/Laravel experience will benefit. This will be streamlined in the future.
+
+1. Clone the repository into a folder.
+2. `cd` into folder and run `composer install` followed by `npm install` and `bower install`.
+3. Run `gulp --production` to compile the JavaScript and css files.
+4. Copy the `.env.example` file to `.env` and fill with your own database and mail details.
+5. Ensure the `storage` & `bootstrap/cache` folders are writable by the web server.
+5. In the application root, Run `php artisan key:generate` to generate a unique application key.
+6. If not using apache or `.htaccess` files are disable you will have to create some URL rewrite rules as shown below.
+7. Run `php migrate` to update the database.
+8. Done! You can now login using the default admin details `
[email protected]` with a password of `password`. It is recommended to change these details directly after first logging in.
+
+#### URL Rewrite rules
+
+**Apache**
+```
+Options +FollowSymLinks
+RewriteEngine On
+
+RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
+RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
+RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
+```
+
+**Nginx**
+```
+location / {
+ try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
+}
+```
+
+
+## License
+
+BookStack is provided under the MIT License.