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Windows NT/2000 Installation Instructions
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NOTICE: These instructions are for a NT installation. If you are installing the software on an Unix server,
please see the install.html documentation file included with AutoRank.
- At this point it is assumed you have extracted the archive containing AutoRank. If you have not yet done so
you should do that now.
- You will now need to login to your server and create some directories for AutoRank. First off, decide where you
want the .cgi files installed. Generally it is a good idea to keep them in a cgi-bin (or equivalent) directory. Once
you have decided where you want the .cgi files, change into that directory. Inside that directory you will need to create
2 subdirectories, one named templates and one named data.
Now, you need to decide where you want the HTML files written to. This will need to be outside of the cgi-bin directory.
Once you have decided where you want them to go, record that information as you will need it later.
Example Directory Structure:
| c:/home/username/cgi-bin/autorank |
location of .cgi and .pm files |
| c:/home/username/cgi-bin/autorank/data |
location of script data files |
| c:/home/username/cgi-bin/autorank/templates |
location of all template files |
| c:/home/username/public_html/autorank |
where the main HTML files will be generated |
- Next, you need to edit a few of the .cgi and .pm files to reflect your server configuration. In each of the files
listed below, you will need to set the full path to certain directories. Each is explained.
cgiworks.pm
$DDIR = './data';
Change this to the full path to your data directory
$TDIR = './templates';
Change this to the full path to your templates directory
$OPSYS = 'UNIX';
Change this to NT
out.cgi
$DDIR = './data';
Change this to the full path to your data directory
rankem.cgi
$DDIR = './data';
Change this to the full path to your data directory
accounts.cgi, setup.cgi, ar.cgi
use lib '.';
Change this (the .) to the full path to where cgiworks.pm is located
In each of the above, you should only change the value inside the quotes. Also, you should ALWAYS use / in your
directory paths, and not \ as Windows normally does. Using \ will NOT work. As an example, if your data directory
is located at d:\web\yoursite\cgi-bin\data, then in cgiworks.pm you would have:
$DDIR = 'd:/web/yoursite/cgi-bin/data';
In most cases, these are all the changes you will need to make to the scripts. However, some server configurations will
require one additional change to each script. If you cannot get the scripts to run, and they complain about not being
able to find a file in @INC, then you will need to uncomment the following line in ALL of the .pm and .cgi files:
push(@INC, 'c:/full/path/to/cgi/scripts');
Just remove the # in front of that, then change the c:/full/path/to/cgi/scripts to the full path on your server to where
you will be uploading the .cgi and .pm files.
- Now you are ready to begin uploading the files to your server. VERY IMPORTANT: You must upload ALL of
the AutoRank files in ASCII mode, or it will not function properly. If you are not sure how to do this, consult the
documentation for your FTP client.
Place all of the .cgi and .pm files in the base directory you decided to install the script to. Next, place all of the
.htmlt files in the templates directory you created. Finally, upload errors.dat, header.txt and footer.txt to the
data directory you created.
- You are now ready to begin the WWW based portion of the setup. In your browser, type in
the full URL to the setup.cgi file on your server. This will bring up the portion of the script where
you will set all of the variables. Details and examples for each variable are given, so follow along
through that to get all of the variables set properly.
After you have set all of the variables, enter the default password admin and click the button.
If everything went well, you will be presented with a page telling you that the variables have been
recorded, and some self tests will be done by the script. If all the tests pass, you are ready to go
on. If any of them fail, you will need to check file permissions and directory settings.
- You should now be ready to begin using the scripts. The first thing you will want to do is
create the ranking page on your server. This should be done by using the rerank.cgi script.
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After Installation Is Complete
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Once you have completed the installation you will want to get the list setup and ready
to accept new members. Here we will outline the steps you will want to take immediately
following the installation.
The first thing you will want to do is setup the HTML for your list
page. This is done by editing the header and footer files in the data directory.
Editing the header/footer
Editing the header and footer for each of your list pages will setup the HTML that appears
above and below the rankings. All HTML entered in header.txt will appear above the list; all
HTML entered the footer.txt will appear below the list. Any HTML you want can be entered here.
Typically your header will contain the opening html, title, and body tags, as well as links to
accounts.cgi so that webmasters can add their sites to your list.
Make sure you look over the sample header.txt and footer.txt included with the software before
you begin making changes. This will give you an idea of what you will need to have in the header
and footer files for your list to function.
The next thing you will probably want to do is edit the templates for the accounts.cgi
script. These are all located in the templates directory, and can be edited with any HTML editor.
Each of the files contains normal HTML, and special items that the script recognizes. The special
values that the script understands are surrounded by #%%#. You should never edit those values; you
can move them around all you want, but don't change anything between the #%%#. Complete descriptions
of each of the templates can be found on templates.html which is included
with the software distribution.
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