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Smooth QSL

Smooth QSL is a simple QSL manager designed for amateur radio clubs in mind. The primary design consideration is a simple, effective way for hams of all computer skill levels to be able to upload ADIF logs and to provide a quick and easy way for hams to download their QSLs for the club. Designed originally to support the Silvercreek Amateur Radio Association's 40th Anniversary Special Event.

Installation

Prerequisites

  • A websever running PHP 8.0 or better with the mysqli native client library This code should work with earlier versions of PHP but it is not supported.
  • A database running MariaDB 10.0+ (or MySQL 5.6+)
  • ImageMagick 6.x or better with the ImageMagick PHP library (imagick) installed
  • Basic ability to use an xxMP stack (e.g. LAMP, WAMP, etc.)

Installation

  1. Download the latest stable release.
  2. Edit qslconf.php and change the configuration parameters as necessary.
  3. Copy or upload all of the files to your webserver directory or hosting account.
  4. Ensure the cards subdirectory is writable by the webserver. If this is being installed in a hosting provider than this is likely the default.
  5. Load the qsl.sql into your MySQL server

Upgrading

  1. Backup your existing data and database
  2. Download the latest stable release.
  3. Edit the new qslconf.php and merge the configuration from the old installation into the new file.
  4. Copy or upload all of the files to your webserver directory or hosting account overwriting the old files. It's also fine to delete and reupload as all permanent data is stored in the database.
  5. Ensure the cards subdirectory is writable by the webserver. If this is being installed in a hosting provider than this is likely the default.
  6. Load the qsl.sql into your MySQL server. It will NOT delete existing data although errors about existing tables will appears. Errors about the existing tables is okay. The qsl.sql file will also adjust the database tables to support newer updates. If sourcing the file from the shell using the mysql command you must include -f to ignore errors.

Basic Coniderations

The application is designed to have simple, user-friendly URLs. For example, putting the base files in a subdirectory /qsl resultes in the URL https://example.com/qsl for the main application and https://example.com/qsl/load for the ADIF loader. All references to includes, configs, images, etc. are all relative pathed so the application should be installable virtually anywhere.

In order to make this as platform agnostic as possible, all temporary information is stored in the MySQL database. In order to accomodate large ADIF imports, the staging column type for the pre-commit data is a MySQL LONGTEXT field. This will create a tremendous amount of empty-but-used space in MySQL when using InnoDB. Ensure that the qslmaint.php script is being executed periodically as one of its tasks is to run an OPTIMIZE TABLE on the transaction commit log. The qslmaint.php script is run randomly on an index.php page with a 1 in 4 randomized chance by default.

Using Smooth QSL

For those uploading ADIFs, all the ham needs is the "load key" set in qslconf.php. SmoothQSL operates on a semi-trust basis in that hams are relied upon to use their legitimate call signs as is expected throughout amateur radio. Set a strong "load key" as that is the only protection against mischef such as loading bogus QSOs or malicious actors attempting to DoS the database by filling it up or overworking the system.

The load process uses the following workflow:

  1. Navigate to https://example.com/qsl/load
  2. Enter the callsign of the station operator, the load key, and select the ADIF file. Upload the ADIF file.
  3. Review the ADIF checkload on the next screen. Click Commit
  4. A "receipt" page will appear.

The QSL retrieval process is straight forward:

  1. A ham navigates to https://example.com/qsl
  2. Enters their callsign
  3. Selects the QSO(s) they want to print on the card or certificate
  4. Requests the print
  5. QSL card is displayed. Save or print as desired.

Printing QSOs on the template

Smooth QSO uses ImageMagick to "draw" text on top of the QSL template file. qslconf.php contains a series of positioning configuration directives that details how the QSL records are printed on the card. This allows for maximum flexibilty in designing a card in regards to layout and size. However keep the following in mind:

  • The callsign for the QSO is printed once and is independent of the other QSO information.
  • The QSO record is always printed as a line of information with relative or absolute offsets moving from the left to the page.
  • The fields are in the order DATE, TIME, FREQ, RST, MODE, OPERATOR, COUNTY
  • Multiline fields are printed one after another ordered by DATE, TIME in ascending order

Embedding SmoothQSL in another Site

It is possible to embed SmoothQSL in another site via an <iframe> tag. For example, one user of SmoothQSL is embedding it in their QRZ.com page. To embed the application, it's imperative to use the sandbox="allow-downloads" attributes on the <iframe> object or in-browser security will not permit the download of the file. For example:

<iframe sandbox="allow-downloads" frameborder="1" height="700px"
  name="myiFrame"scrolling="no" src="https://example.com/qsl/"
  style="border:0px #ffffff none;" width="1000px"></iframe>

Contibuting and Support

All code contributions will be considered if you send me a pull request on GitHub. However I have certain design and simplicity goals for this system and may not accept pulls that I deem to be too complex or contrevenes one of my design goals.

I'll do my best to answer questions or fix bug as you find them but this is a part-part-part time project for me. I will help as I can with installation-related questions insofar as they deal with unclear directions or bugs on particular platforms but I will not help with general installation and configuration of a webserver, PHP, MySQL, etc.