Installing the WWWBoard Script

WWWBoard is an interactive message board which allows visitors to read, post, and respond to messages in an interactive newsgroup type format. The site webmaster will have password protected access to an administrative interface to maintain board content.

To install the WWWBoard script within your web site, simply access your account Control Panel and select the WWWBoard Installer option.

Special Notes

• The WWWBoard Installer will overwrite previously installed WWWBoard scripts.
• You can modify the wwwboard.html file to meet your own design standards, but do NOT remove the <!--begin--> tag which tells the Perl script where to insert new entries.
• Admin script URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-local/wwwadmin.pl

WWWBoard Installation Notes

First time users should use the WWWBoard Installer within the respective account Control Panel to install the WWWBoard program. The instruction contained herein is being provided for those whom wish to modify the scripts installed by the WWWBoard Installer or to install multiple versions of this application.

Installation Procedure

1. Locate and download the following files from Matt's Script Archive:
   1. wwwboard.pl - The main WWWBoard Perl script.
   2. wwwadmin.pl - Admin tool to keep board content under control.
   3. wwwboard.html - The web page containing message board and posting form.
   4. data.txt - The data file contains an incremented log of numbers for messages.
   5. passwd.txt - File containing password for wwwadmin.pl.
2. Change the first line of each Perl script to reflect the official path to Perl on our server:

   #!/usr/local/bin/perl (edit numbers 1 & 2 above)

3. There are a few more things that need to be changed in each Perl script:

   # Define Variables (wwwboard.pl)
   
   $basedir - The system location of your WWWBoard directory
   $baseurl - The URL to the WWWBoard directory
   $cgi_url - The URL to the WWWBoard script

   The first variable calls for a system path which is not the same as a URL. If your domain name was yourdomain.com the system path would be "/u/web/yourdo" where "yourdo" is the account UserID.

   As such, the Define Variables section of the wwwboard script would follow this format:

   # Define Variables (wwwboard.pl)
   
   $basedir - "/u/web/<userid>/wwwboard";
   $baseurl - "http://www.yourdomain.com/wwwboard";
   $cgi_url - "http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-local/wwwboard.pl";

   Be sure to substitute your domain name and userID in the example above. Although Matt's code is accurate, we recommend using the Perl Script checker within your account Control Panel when installing any Perl script.

4. The Define Variables section of the wwwadmin script must also be set. Note the only difference is that the $cgi_url variable reflects the URL to the wwwadmin script instead.

   # Define Variables (wwwadmin.pl)
   
   $basedir - "/u/web/<userid>/wwwboard";
   $baseurl - "http://www.yourdomain.com/wwwboard";
   $cgi_url - "http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-local/wwwadmin.pl";

5. Upload the "wwwboard.pl" and "wwwadmin.pl" scripts to your cgi-local directory in ASCII transfer mode. Cgi-local will place the appropriate permissions on files uploaded to this directory so you do NOT need to chmod 755 either Perl script.

6. Modify the form ACTION attribute within "wwwboard.html" to reference the wwwboard script within cgi-local as shown below and upload to your root ("home") directory.

   <FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-local/wwwboard.pl">

7. Create a subdirectory named "wwwboard" off the root directory of your web site and upload "wwwboard.html", "data.txt", and "passwd.txt" to this directory in ASCII transfer mode.

8. Create a directory named "messages" under the newly made directory "wwwboard".

   e.g.  /wwwboard/messages

9. Select the File Manager option within your account Control Panel. Locate the directory named wwwboard . Click the box marked "PW" to the left of the wwwboard directory name to enable public write access.

   Next, click the directory name to display files within the wwwboard directory. Set public write access for both the wwwboard.html and data.txt files as well as the messages directory. This will allow the Perl script to append data to both wwwboard.html file and data file.

You can test the script by referencing the wwwboard.html file via the web.

Special Notes

• You can modify the wwwboard.html file to meet your own design standards, but do NOT remove the <!--begin--> tag which tells the Perl script where to insert new entries.
• Some possible causes of a SERVER ERROR:
  • Set Variables section within either Perl script is inaccurate
  • A Perl script was not uploaded in ASCII transfer mode
  • Public-write permission not set for one or more of the following:
    • messages directory
    • wwwboard.html
    • data.txt
• To run the admin script, merely reference it via URL.
• Matt wrote this when he was learning Perl and as such, the script may not be as secure as possible.
• CHANGE your Administration password located in the passwd.txt file!! There have been people in the Perl newsgroups that have been complaining lately that a "hacker" modified/deleted/abused their WWWboard. It does not take a hacker to know the default Admin password for such a widely used script.