These scripts and files are licensed under the bsd license. Please see
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
for more information.
This set of scripts was developed for use in keeping track of our
seminar listings. We had a problem in that every department kept track
of their own listings separately, and it was difficult to find
information about what was going on. These scripts make it easier to
keep track of events by keeping everything at one site.
Unfortunately, I originally wrote the script with the idea of just
using it at our site. This means that I did not think about
documenting the installation until the end. I also did not think about
making scripts to help automate the installation. A minimal set of
guidelines for installation can be found in the file named
"INSTALLATION."
Installation Instructions:
- The scripts make use of perl. You will need to install perl as well
as some modules. The scripts assume that perl can be found at /usr/bin/perl.
- You need to install the following modules:
DBI
HTML::Template
Date::Calc
CGI::Cookie
CGI
MIME::Entity
Mail::Mailer
The correct way to install the modules depends on what system your are
using. For example, to install Date::Calc on FreeBSD you should change
to the /usr/ports/devel/p5-Date-Calc directory and type in the following
command:
make install clean
On some other systems you might use the following command:
perl -MCPAN -e "install Date::Calc"
- You will also have to install mysql. Again, the way to install mysql
will depend on what system you are using.
- You will also have to install apache.
You will have to decide on a directory to install these files. The directory
will be used by apache and the files should be treated as cgi scripts.
For example, if you want to put the files in your home cgi-bin directory,
you need something like this in one of your apache configuration files:
<IfModule mod_perl.c>
<Directory /home/*/public_html/perl>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::PerlRun
Options -Indexes ExecCGI
PerlSendHeader On
</Directory>
</IfModule>
You will need to restart your web server after you make changes to the
conf files.
Untar the set of scripts into your chosen directory:
cd the/directory/youve/chosen
tar -xzf /location/of/seminar-1.0.tar.gz
Note that this will include three important subdirectories:
mysql
template
image
These subdirectories are used by the scripts and are assumed to be subdirectories
of the directory where you choose to put the scripts. You will
need to create a database that will be used by the scripts. To do this
change to the "mysql" subdirectory. Edit the file createDB.sql. Everywhere
you see the string "[USER]" replace it with the user that you want to
use to access the database. Everywhere you see the string "[PASSWORD]"
replace it with the password that you want to use.
Once you change the file start up mysql and execute the file:
source createDB.sql;
quit;
This will create a database called "Seminar" with the given username and
password. This database will be accessed by the scripts. You should not
see any error messages when you run the script. You now have
to configure the database. In the "mysql" directory there is a file called
create.sql. Edit the file and make any changes that you think are appropriate
for your installation. In particular search for the string "[PRIMARY USER]"
and replace it with your email address. The initial password is "bubba"
which you should remember. You can change it later from the web pages
once it is all set up and working correctly.
Pay particualr attention to the section defining the genericVariables
table. It contains the default variables that are used throughout the
pages. You should change the URL's defined in that section to reflect
your local situation. (Pay particular attention to the location of your
sendmail script which is defined in this section.)
Be careful about being too cavalier changing other parts of the file.
You could accidentally break something!
When you have the file set up you need to start up mysql using the database
that you created in the previous step using the username and password
you defined in createDB.sql:
mysql --user=[USER] --password=[PASSWORD] Seminar
At the prompt enter the command:
source create.sql;
quit;
You should not see any error messages.
- You will need to edit the file Seminar.pm in the main driectory. You
will have to specify the username and password for the database. Near
the top of the file in a subroutine called "new" there is a variable
called $user and $pw. Change these variables to match the values you
defined in the file createDB.sql.
- At this point everything should be set. Try running display.cgi from
the command line. It should work without any problems. If you see an
error then it could be
- The perl program is not where it thinks it might be, /usr/bin/perl.
If not, either change the first line in the file or try creating
a symbolic link from the actual location to /usr/bin/perl.
- Your mysql database may not be running. Make sure that it has
been started.
- It cannot connect to the database. Check that mysql is configured
to allow a connection. Make sure that the database name, the username,
and the passwords are all correct. Make sure that you have the necessary
modules.
Next, try to access the web page. If you are having trouble bringing
your web pages up then you could be having trouble with your apache
configuration. Check your error log to see what it says. Keep in mind
that apache has strict requirements for cgi files user and group ownerships.
(See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/suexec.html for more information.)
If you are having difficulties then I am sorry about that. I know how
frustrating this can be. You can try to contact me, but this is not
my highest priority so you may not get prompt, accurate information
from me. Again, I know that is not what you want to hear, but I did
not originally plan on making this available.
- If everything looks okay it is time to customize your site. The files
that are displayed all come from the template directory. The best thing
to do is to view the source in your web browser. Each of the files includes
comments that indicate the name of the file being used.
For example, the file used to generate the top of each page is called
header.template. It has a comment at the very top of the file:
<!-- Start template/header.template -->
and another comment at the bottom:
<!-- end template/header.template -->
This way you know the name of the file where the text you are interested
in can be found. I tried to keep the html as simple as possible so hopefully
this is not too much of a hurdle. Also be aware that I use the HTML::Template
module so you should be familiar with it when editing the file. The
man pages with HTML::Template are very good, in my opinion of course.
The only exception to this is the style.css file. It is located in the
same place as the scripts. You can edit this file to get the colors
and overall feel more to your liking, but I prefer the scarlet and white
of dear old Union College!
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