Before You Begin...
The items you need to know before you install
a CGI script.
- Ability to run CGI
scripts
- Software Requirements
- PERL Requirement
- Other Requirements
Ability to run CGI
scripts:
Your hosting account needs to have CGI access
and the ability to change file permissions (755 minimum; rwx-rx-rx) in order to
run any of our CGI scripts. If you do not know if your account supports CGI
scripts, you will need to contact your server administrators for a list of
their server's CGI requirements.
If you do not have CGI access for your account,
there are several companies that offer CGI space-only to you for a fee,
withough having to change your web host. You can try a search on any search
engine for "remotely hosted scripts".
Software
Requirements:
You will need a dedicated FTP program like
WS_FTP, Cute FTP, etc. in order to install our CGI scripts. If you use
FrontPage to create your website, do not use it to edit, access or transfer
your CGI script files. FrontPage frequently breaks the script and requires you
to start over again with a fresh copy of the files. Always perform all CGI
script file transfers with a dedicated FTP program in ASCII mode (never
binary).
You should edit your script files (including
any associated HTML forms) in Windows Notepad or Wordpad or in a similar basic
text editor. This is the environment we design our scripts in and, in
conjunction with the FTP requirements listed above, guarantees that your script
files do not become corrupted and unusable.
PERL
Requirement:
In order to run our CGI scripts successfully,
you need to have PERL5 installed on your web server with a common range of
library support. Older versions of PERL will not support our scripts properly
and they may not function correctly. When you contact your host for information
on their server requirements, common paths for scripts, etc. you should verify
with them that their server is running PERL5.
Other
Requirements:
All of our scripts require a basic
understanding of CGI scripts and the methods used to install them. If you do
not have prior CGI knowledge, please read this entire FAQ before you attempt to
install a CGI script. It will answer most of your questions. If you do not know
how to use FTP, your hosting account, etc. please consult with your server
administrator, your FTP client's distributor, etc. and familiarize yourself
with these things before you attempt to install a CGI script.
Once you are familiar with the process of
installing CGI scripts, you will need to know some basic server information.
This information must be obtained from your server's hosting documentation or
from your server administrator and is necessary to install all of our shareware
scripts. Some of our scripts have additional requirements listed in their
seperate readme files and/or tutorials that you will also need to follow. The
basic items required by all of our scripts are:
- Your full server side directory path.
This path (frequently referred to by hosts as a "domain path") must
begin in your host's root directory, proceed to your hosting account's root
directory and end in the script installation directory that you have chosen.
Under a UNIX environment, these paths often look similar to
"/www/youraccount/scriptname". Under Windows NT, these paths will
always start with a drive letter. You should never use trailing slashes (i.e.
"/www/youraccount/script/") in your directory paths and paths that
are relative only to your account (i.e. "/scriptname") are not
adequate for our scripts. It should be noted that most NT servers use single
forward slashes in their Perl paths and not the single backslash that you may
be used to seeing.
- Your server's mail path. All of our
shareware scripts require a path to your server's mail program and the ability
to use it. Under UNIX, this will be a path to sendmail and may look like
"/usr/bin/sendmail". Under NT, this will be a path to Blat! mail and
will start with a drive letter and end with "blat.exe".
- A domain name. All of our scripts are
"web-based" CGI scripts. This means that they must be used from the
internet with a web browser, may not function correctly on a typical home
computer and require a named URL (i.e. a domain name). An IP address will
frequently not suffice for this purpose.
- A path to Perl5 as noted in section 3.
This path will usually look something like "/usr/bin/perl" under
UNIX. They are often not required on NT servers.
- Your server's preferred CGI script file
extension. CGI scripts can use file extensions of .pl and .cgi but not all
servers use or allow both. If you use the incorrect file extension for your
server, your script will not function until you rename the file. It is ok to
rename "scriptname.pl" to "scriptname.cgi" if this is what
your server requires. There is no difference in the actual files.
All of the above must be obtained directly from
your host. Unfortunately, no two internet web servers are ever identical and
there is no way to "guess" at these things with any real degree of
accuracy. If you aren't positive of these paths, you will need to check them
with your host's documentation or your server administrator.
©2000, CGI Script
Center