Hi, is there a manual for ISPConf 3.2 available? I only can see version 3.1 for download, which is 5.5 years old.
Subscribed members may download or print the latest tutorials here as PDF but others may access and read those pages anytime without that PDF and non-ad privileges.
I got a bit stuck with Sphynx trying to add versioning, but this is the current state: https://git.ispconfig.org/ispconfig/documentation/ When the "skeleton" is done, it'd be great if you could work on porting the old manual texts to the new structure, and update where necessary. Or if you have experience with versioned docs in Sphynx, send me a message
No problem dude... I am happy to be part of the team. ISPConfig has literally changed my life. Whatever I can give back, I will. I found it frustrating the way everything is set up at first, but I have come to realize that it gives me so much more control than what cPanel ever did. Plus it uses a tonne less system resources and costs a tonne less money. Just tell me what to do next. You can send me a PM and I will give you all my details.
just an idea, but couldn't it be incorporated into the control panel? you could still have the manual has it is now, with install instructions etc, details about installing single server / multi-server / cluster etc, more technical info etc. so the admin / tech still has a reason to buy the manual. but if you're letting clients into the panel, they're not likely to buy, see, or even know about the manual. you could have a ? icon in one corner, when the panel user clicks on that, and then clicks on something on the page, it displays, within the control panel, the section from the user manual, relevant to whatever they clicked on. each control panel install, would effectively be the user manual for itself. any little section would only need updating if anything had changed, and the person making that change to the code/gui would, i assume, be the best person to update that section of the user manual anyway, so the change to user manual / help section would just be part of their code change / git submission anyway. would keep the user manual / help info constantly up-to-date with the install source. would provide more help / support to client end users. would reduce demands on the tech admin. eg in the control panel, websites tab, viewing the web-domain -> domain tab, click on the ? and then on eg, documentroot, then underneath there, it would display the details about document root from section 4.6.1.1 of the user manual. if they clicked on the ? and then on eg, php, then underneath there it would display the details about the different php handlers from section 4.6.1.1 of the user manual. win/win all around, well, apart from you developers, it'll be more work for you lot.. i would offer to help, but i'm crap at coding...
You forgot that the ISPConfig manual is not free, it's a paid ebook to fund the ISPConfig development and server costs, so it can't be part of the ISPConfig source code as every user would be able to access it then. And install instructions are always available for free, so nobody would pay for them when they can be accessed for free already.
Here is an idea? What if the is an optional add-on. Pay a once-off fee, that allows you to download the add-on. Then a subsequent subscription. Maybe do 5 euros and then 1 euro per month per server? It could be modeled many ways, but it would also mean more revenue as I do know a lot of commercial hosting providers are switching to ISPConfig. cPanel has pulled a Cisco on the industry and in the last 3 years we are now paying more than 3x more than what we used to and yet another price hike is looming. I chatted to a lot of my colleagues in the industry and they are all jumping ship with cPanel, and almost all of them recommended ISPConfig to me. So you could say that ISPConfig is to cPanel what Mikrotik is to Cisco, taking over their market share very quickly. So a lot of hosting providers may very well go for a subscription model for the manual to be integrated into the site, especially if that integration allows the person logged in to only see the documentation that pertains to their access level on the server. An email user has no need to see the admin documentation. This sort of solution is not unheard of, many open source projects earn their income in support solutions. What a lot of people coming into the world of open source do not realize, is that it costs money to run these projects. It's not just a bunch of guys who sit at home and "volunteer" their code. With time, most soon realize that these projects require revenue in order to survive. Revenue means that the project can survive, and as it grows, key coders can afford to quit their jobs and be employed full time by the project. My company, for example, is wanting to pledge a portion of each of our paid hosting packages to the project. But once we have finished our migration and got everything sorted and rolled out or new better pricing model, then we will contact the team about it. But this attitude comes from using open source software for nearly 2 decades.
I like the idea of including manual in the panel source code. I also understand the need for revenue aspect. Would it necessarily reduce puchases of the manual if the manual text was included in the panel? I want to read the manual from cover to cover, and reading it one item at a time clicking panel elements one by one would be no fun. My users do nothing with their ISPConfig account, I have to do every setup for them. Including the manual text to be easily available in the panel might convince some users to try doing maintenance themselves. Could the manual text be translated to local languages?
Translation is easy to do if it is integrated as an add-on. A small bit of PHP code and that's it. Can also be done with any other server side language, as long as you can call an API.
that's more of what i was thinking.. not to take away the manual sales in any way. still have much needed info in the full technical manual and in a very readable / searchable format. but i guess we buy it for the more technical / configurable aspects. not explanations of this is dns, this is what an A records looks like, this is how you add a SRV record. but have the actual usage / explanations of the control panel bits and examples integrated into it, so it's helpful for client end users. let's say i have 100 clients, each with at least 1 website, and most of them with multiple mailboxes, mailforwards, and dns. none of them would ever consider buying the ispconfig manual, why would they? if something isn't obvious enough for them do themselves, they'll just call or email for help, or ask me to do it for them. same as if someone bought a hosting package from godaddy, or hetzner or similar. that person is never going to buy a user manual for plesk or cpanel so they can work out how to use it. if they can't work it out they'll call the hosting company or create a help ticket. most aren't willing to pay for phone / email support these days, since the big hosting companies don't charge them, so the small independents can't get away with doing so. it this stopped even a few 10 / 15 minute client help calls each month. that's worth at least a £5/month subscription to enable such a feature.
