[ Mega Script
Archive ] [ Readme's
] [ WWWBoard
]
##############################################################################
# WWWBoard Version 2.0 ALPHA 2 #
# Copyright 1996 Matt Wright mattw@worldwidemart.com #
# Created 10/21/95 Last Modified 11/25/95 #
# Scripts Archive at: http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/ #
##############################################################################
# If you run into any problems while trying to configure this scripts, help #
# is available. The steps you should take to get the fastest results, are: #
# 1) Read this file thoroughly #
# 2) Consult the Matt's Script Archive Frequently Asked Questions: #
# http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/faq/ #
# 3) If you are still having difficulty installing this script, send #
# e-mail to: scripts-help@tahoenet.com #
# Include any error messages you are receiving and as much detail #
# as you can so we can spot your problem. Also include the variable#
# configuration block that is located at the top of the script. #
# #
# Hopefully we will be able to help you solve your problems. Thank you. #
##############################################################################
# COPYRIGHT NOTICE #
# Copyright 1996 Matthew M. Wright All Rights Reserved. #
# #
# WWWBoard may be used and modified free of charge by anyone so long as #
# this copyright notice and the comments above remain intact. By using this #
# code you agree to indemnify Matthew M. Wright from any liability that #
# might arise from it's use. #
# #
# Selling the code for this program without prior written consent is #
# expressly forbidden. In other words, please ask first before you try and #
# make money off of my program. #
# #
# Obtain permission before redistributing this software over the Internet or #
# in any other medium. In all cases copyright and header must remain intact.#
##############################################################################
- WWWBoard is the Version 2.0 of my Bulletin Board
Message System. I think that the name is much
better, and a lot fewer characters. Version 2.0
has many enhancements, which were never put into
version 1.0. MANY of the bugs in version 1.0 were
fixed, although I am sure you will probably find
more.
This version of the message system is a
complete re-write over the last one, and is not
at all backwards compatible. To use this new
version, you will just need to remove all past
messages and start again. I think it is
definitely worth it.
WWWBoard Version 2.0 has managed to reduce the
number of scripts required to run the bulletin
board from three down t one. This makes it much
more efficient.
The following files should have come with
WWWBoard Version 2.0 ALPHA 2:
- ALPHA-2 - READ THIS.
- README - The necessary Install
Instructions. This file.
- wwwboard.pl - The Perl CGI script that
runs everything.
- wwwboard.html - The HTML WWWBoard file
that users will see.
- faq.html - An FAQ file displayed for
users of wwwboard.
- data.txt - Where the file number is
stored.
- messages/ - Where the messages will be
created and stored.
- wwwadmin.pl - An Admin tool to delete
messages.
- passwd.txt - The encoded password and
username for WWWAdmin
- ADMIN_README - WWWAdmin README file.
You will need to edit by hand several of the
files that come with WWWBoard Version 2.0. Below
is a description of how to modify all of the
necessary files:
- This file must be placed in your server's
cgi-bin, or if your server has .cgi extensions
allowed, you can simply rename this file to
wwwboard.cgi, changing the $cgi_url variable
below to reflect this. The file must also be
chmoded 755. Ask your system administrator for
more information on either the cgi-bin or chmod
command.
This is the most complicated file you
will need to modify. It comes with a lot of
variables and many options. Below is a summary of
how to configure all of the variables and what
the options do:
- $basedir
= "/path/to/wwwboard";
- This variable should contain the
absolute system path to your
wwwboard directory. So if you
keep all of your files in
/home/yourname/public_html and
you make a directory under there
called 'wwwboard', then $basedir
would be set to:
/home/yourname/public_html/wwwboard.
- $baseurl
=
"http://your.host.xxx/wwwboard";
- This is the base URL to the
directory where wwwboard is kept.
So staying with the example
above, if your main directory is
called by:
http://your.host.xxx/~yourname/,
the $baseurl would be set to:
http://your.host.xxx/~yourname/wwwboard/.
- $cgi_url
=
"http://your.host.xxx/cgi-bin/wwwboard.pl";
- This is the URL that points to
wwwboard.pl. This will be used in
followup form responses, so this
must be correct.
- $mesgdir
= "messages";
- This is the name of your messages
directory which will be appended
to $basedir. All of the messages
for wwwboard will be created and
held in this directory.
- $datafile
= "data.txt";
- This is the name of the data file
which will also be appended to
$basedir. It will hold the
current filename count, and the
script will read this in and
determine the message filename
from this file.
- $mesgfile
= "wwwboard.html";
- This is the name of the
wwwboard.html file, which you
might want to rename to
index.html for the sake of a
shorter URL. It will be appended
to both $basedir and $baseurl to
determine the URL and the
absolute path to this file, both
for URL references by the script
and for editing of this file by
the script.
- $faqfile
= "faq.html";
- This is the path to the faq.html
file which will be appended to
$baseurl so users can find their
way to the Frequently Asked
Questions file about WWWBoard.
- $ext =
"html";
- This is the ext with which all
individual files will be created
with. Most of the time it should
be left as html, but on the
occasion when you may be suing
this on a dos based platform you
can switch it to 'htm'.
- $date_command
= "/bin/date";
- This needs to be the path to your
'date' command. This script uses
the date command to time stamp
the messages individually with
along date and to place a short
'added' date on the wwwboard.html
page.
- $title =
"WWWBoard Version 2.0
Test";
- This is the title of your
WWWBoard, which will be used on
the individual message pages.
Call your message board whatever
you like, but I do recommend
changing the above to something a
little more catchy. :-)
- $show_faq
= 1;
- This option allows you to choose
whether or not you want to
display a link to the FAQ on
every individual message page or
not. It defaults to 1 and the
link will be put in at the top of
the message along with links to
Followups, Post Followup and Back
to $title. Setting this to 0 will
turn it off, and keeping it at 1
will keep the link.
- $allow_html
= 1;
- This option lets you choose
whether or not you want to allow
HTML mark-up in your posts. If
you do not want to allow it, then
everything that a user submits
that has <>'s around it will be cut
out of the message. Setting this
option to '1' will allow HTML in
the posts and you can turn this
option off by setting it to '0'.
- $quote_text
= 1;
- By keeping this option set to 1,
the previous message will be
quoted in the followup text input
box. The quoted text will have a
':' placed in front of it so you
can distinguish what had been
said in the previous posts from
what the current poster is trying
to get across. Setting this
option to '0' will leave the
followup text box empty for the
new poster.
- $subject_line
= 0;
- There are three options for the
way that you can display the
subject line for the user posting
a followup. Leaving this option
at '0' which is the default
value, will put the previous
subject line into the followup
form and allow users to edit the
subject however they like.
Setting this option to '1',
however, will quote the subject,
but simply display it to the
user, not allowing him or her to
edit the subject line. The third
and final option can be achieved
by setting the $subject_line
variable to '2'. If it is set to
'2' the subject will not be
quoted and instead the user will
be prompted with an empty subject
block in their followup subject
line.
- $use_time
= 1;
- This option allows you to choose
whether or not you want to use
the hour:minute:second time with
the day/month/year time on the
main page. Day/Month/Year will
automatically be placed on the
main wwwboard.html page when a
new entry is added, but if you
leave this variable at '1' the
hour:minute:second time will also
be put there. This is very useful
for message boards that get a lot
of posts, but if you would like
to save space on your main page,
you can set this to '0' causing
the hour:minute:second display
not to be added.
WOW! You made it through all that. That was the
hardest file to edit.
- wwwboard.html must be placed in the directory
that you defined in $basedir of your wwwboard.pl
file. It must be chmoded 777 so that your web
server's uid (User ID) has permission to write to
this file.
This file needs much less editing
than the wwwboard.pl script. There are three
things that you will want to edit in this file.
The first two are simply the title of your
WWWBoard. Currently the two lines look like:
<title>WWWBoard Version 2.0!</title>
<h1>WWWBoard Version 2.0!</h1>
You will want to change the title and header
"WWWBoard Version 2.0!" to whatever you
want to call your WWWBoard. This should probably
be the same as the variable $title that you
defined in wwwboard.pl.
The third line in this file that you will need
to edit is the one that looks like:
<form method=POST action="http://your.host.xxx/cgi-bin/wwwboard.pl">
You need to change the URL that is in
action="" to the same URL that you
defined in wwwboard.pl as $cgi_url.
Once you have made these changes you can exit
this file and save it.
- This file does not need to be edited, unless you
want to change the heading or title or add a link
back to your wwwboard page.
It should be placed
in the $basedir directory and its name should
reflect that of the $faq_file variable defined in
wwwboard.pl
It should be chmoded 744, so that it is
readable by all.
- This is a directory that should also be placed in
$basedir as defined in wwwboard.pl. This
directory must be chmoded 777 so that messages
can be written into it by the server's UID.
- Simply place this file into $basedir as defined
in wwwboard.pl and chmod it 777 so that the web
server can write an incremented number to it.
This is where the file name number will be kept.
- HTML does not mess up postings like the last
version did.
- There are many more options to allow flexibility
in design.
- One CGI program instead of three. Makes
everything smoother and more efficient.
- File names are derived from an incremented number
up to 99999 so that messages won't overlap, like
they could have with the old pid numbers that
were used.
- Many more things I can't even begin to list.
Version 2.0: - Complete Re-Write of Version 1.0
11/04/95 - ALPHA 1 Version Released because many people were
writing asking if they could get a copy of it.
[ Mega
Script Archive
]
|
