Rentara Quickstart, as shipped in the download

RENTARA — QUICKSTART
====================

Rent, leases and maintenance for a small landlord — self-hosted PHP + MySQL/SQLite.


REQUIREMENTS
------------
  - PHP 8.0+ with extensions: pdo, pdo_sqlite (or pdo_mysql), mbstring, openssl, curl, json
  - MySQL 5.7+ OR SQLite 3 (SQLite requires no extra setup — the default)
  - A web server (Apache with mod_rewrite — the shipped .htaccess does the routing — or Nginx with try_files)
  - No Composer packages, no Node, no build step, no external services.


SHARED HOSTING / CPANEL (RECOMMENDED FOR MOST BUYERS)
------------------------------------------------------
1. Upload the contents of the `app/` folder to your web root (e.g. public_html/)
   or a subdirectory (e.g. public_html/rentara/).

2. Make sure this directory is writable by PHP (it holds the SQLite file, uploads and backups):
     data/
     data/uploads/

   Via cPanel File Manager: right-click -> Permissions -> set to 755 or 775.
   (If data/ is missing, Rentara creates it on first run.)

3. Visit https://yourdomain.com/install/ in your browser.

4. Fill in the installer:
     - Database: choose MySQL (host, database name, user, password) or SQLite (no setup;
       the file is data/rentara.sqlite)
     - Organization name
     - Currency
     - Timezone
     - Your name, email and password (the first admin)

5. The installer writes config.php and sends you to the login page.


FIRST STEPS (what to do in the first ten minutes)
-------------------------------------------------
1. Properties and units first, then tenants, then a lease per unit (start, end, monthly rent, due day).
2. Generate the month's rent charges. Generation is idempotent: a lease that already has a charge that month is skipped, so re-running never doubles anything.
3. Record payments against charges; arrears means an unpaid charge past its due date. Late fees follow the rule in Settings.
4. Open the tenant portal link for one tenant (/t/{token}) — they see their charges and can report maintenance without an account.
5. Work maintenance tickets from the dashboard; upload photos (data/uploads/).

The manual (docs/MANUAL.md in this download, or the product page on the store) covers every
screen and every rule above, each with the line of source it comes from.


VPS / SELF-HOSTED
-----------------
Requirements same as above. Apache example:

  <VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/rentara/app
    <Directory /var/www/rentara/app>
      AllowOverride All
      Require all granted
    </Directory>
  </VirtualHost>

Run the web installer as above. Demo data on a FRESH install only (it wipes what is there):

  php bin/demo.php


DOCKER (QUICK TEST)
-------------------
  The app/ folder ships a Dockerfile (Apache + PHP 8.3, mod_rewrite on):

    docker build -t rentara .
    docker run --rm -p 8080:80 -v rentara-data:/var/www/html/data rentara

  Then visit http://localhost:8080/install/


POST-INSTALL SECURITY CHECKLIST
--------------------------------
  [ ] config.php, data/ and the *.sqlite file are blocked by the shipped .htaccess (Apache).
      On Nginx, deny /data/, /src/, /bin/, /tests/, /controllers/, /views/ and config.php yourself.
  [ ] Open https://yourdomain.com/data/ once — it must answer 403, never a listing.
  [ ] Use HTTPS in production.
  [ ] Keep PHP updated.
  [ ] If you ran bin/demo.php, change or delete the demo accounts before going live.
  [ ] Back up data/ (Settings -> Backups writes to data/backups/).


NOTES
-----
  * Money is integer cents; dates are YYYY-MM-DD, months YYYY-MM.
  * REST API + MCP endpoint for agents: see API.md.