User GuideKnowledge Levels
system requirements

To install and use kiwitrees the system requirements you need are:

Webserver

  • Apache and IIS are the most common types. There are no requirements to use a specific type or version.
  • Approximately 65MB of disk space for the application files, plus whatever is needed for your multi-media files, GEDCOM files and database.

PHP

  • PHP 7.3 or later. Kiwitrees 3.3.12 has been tested up to PHP 8.2 (as at 31 Aug 2023). PHP 8.2.0 is being tested, but may still produce some bugs. All issues reported since the previous version (3.3.11) are fixed, and no new ones have been reported for some time now.
  • PHP must be configured with the following libraries:
    • PDO and pdo_mysql to enable access to MySQL. These are enabled by default on most hosts. See http://php.net/pdo,
    • php_gd(v2) for images
  • PHP should be configured to allow sufficient server resources (memory and execution time) for the size of your system. Typical requirements are:
    • Small systems (500 individuals): 16-32MB, 10-20 seconds
    • Medium systems (5000 individuals): 32-64MB, 20-40 seconds
    • Large systems (50000 individuals): 64-128MB, 40-80 seconds

SQL database

  • MySQL 5.0.13 or later. Kiwitrees 3.3.10 and above has been tested up to MySQL 8 (as at 25 Jan. 2022).
    • Note that kiwitrees can share a single database with other applications by choosing a unique table prefix during configuration. If the number of databases is not restricted, you can set up a database purely for use by kiwitrees and create a separate user and password for only your genealogy.
  • Maria DB, to at least version 10.1.21, has been thoroughly tested with the latest versions of kiwitrees. This is an excellent alternative to MySQL.

A compatible internet browser.

  • Kiwitrees supports the use of most current versions of open-source browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. We will do our best to support others such as Opera and Internet Explorer, though not their earlier versions.
  • Kiwitrees does NOT support Internet Explorer versions older than IE10, and even that receives no active development effort. We strongly recommend anyone using these obsolete browsers upgrade as soon as possible. We are also aware that IE and Opera browsers provide poor RTL language support generally, so cannot recommend those for sites requiring RTL languages.
  • To view sites that contain both left-to-right and right-to-left text (e.g. English data on Hebrew pages), you will need to use a browser that provides support for the HTML5 dir=”auto” attribute. At present, only browsers based on the WebKit engine (Chrome and Safari) have this. The Gecko (Firefox) and Presto (Opera) engines promise to provide this soon.
  • Kiwitrees makes extensive use of javascript in its core code. Therefore ensure your browser has javascript enabled, or if you use any javascript blocking add-on that your kiwitrees site is excluded from that blocking. If you need help enabling javascript in your browser this website should help: http://www.enable-javascript.com (Note: Javascript is NOT the same thing as “Java”. Kiwitrees does not use Java.)
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