Mewsoft Open Source
Products Installation Instructions
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These installation instructions assumes by now you have
the program on your computer either by download from the internet or on a
CD-ROM or on your hard drive. The program comes as compressed single zipped
.zip file. You can always download the latest version .zip file from our
website download page or from My Account if the product is not a free using
your license number if your license is still valid and active.
These installation instructions applies also for all
Mewsoft open source products (Auctionawy, Classifiedawy, Searchawy and
Boardawy).
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Quick Guide |
- Unzip the product file product.zip (for
example, boardawy.zip, auctionawy.zip, classifiedawy.zip, searchawy.zip).
- Configure your FTP program.
- Edit the first line of all *.cgi files to
point to location of Perl on your server if required.
- Rename *.cgi to *.pl if your server requires
the .pl extension for Perl scripts (or to any other extension).
- Transfer all files and directories with the
same directory structure on your computer.
- Change permissions on all files and
directories.
- Create MySQL (or MS SQL) database from your
website control panel.
- Run the Admin program from your web browser
and setup the program configuration.
- Run the main program from your browser.
- Register as a user and test the program
settings and features.
- If you have any problems contact go to
Mewsoft Support Forums.
- Important Notes.
- Congratulations.
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Details of the installation
instructions
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1. Unzip the product file product.zip (for
example, boardawy.zip, auctionawy.zip, classifiedawy.zip, searchawy.zip). |
Place the file "product.zip" in any directory
on your computer and then unzip it. The unzipped directory structure is the
same structure of the program as it should installed on your server. The
file unzip under two main directories as follows:
unzip directory/cgi-bin/forum
unzip directory/html/forums
The directory forum and all its subdirectories and
files should be transferred to your server CGI
directory which is normally your cgi-bin directory. On Sites that use
cPanel control panel, this directory normally under the main website folder
public_html/cgi-bin, so you should transfer the folder cgi-bin/forum to the
server folder /your root/public_html/cgi-bin/forum.
The directory forums and all its subdirectories
and files should be transferred to your server non
cgi directory (also called documents directory or html directory or root
directory) which is normally your httpdocs or public_html or
www directory.
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2. Configure your FTP program |
Configure your FTP program to transfer the files as following :
ASCII mode for the files: *.cgi, *.pm, *.ini, *.htm, *.html, *,shtml.
*.txt, *.js
Binary mode for all other files types: *.gif, *.jpg, *.dll. *.so,
*.wav, *.mov
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3. Edit the first line of all *.cgi files to
point to location of Perl on your server if required. |
If required only, Open all *.cgi files
only with any text editor like notepad prgram and change the first line only
in each file to point to Perl
location on your server. Normally it should be one of the following:
On *.nix servers (Linux, BSD, Solaries, Unix, etc):
#!/usr/bin/perl
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
On Windows servers:
#!C:\perl\bin\perl.exe
You can install and run the script testserver.cgi which comes with
the software and it will show you all your server configuration.
If you do not know where Perl is located, ask you system administrator or
hosting company, or if you have a Telnet on your Unix server, you may run
these commands to find where is Perl located as well as sendmail program
only if your are on a unix server:
which perl
whereis perl
also for the mail program location:
which sendmail
whereis sendmail
Remember to insert "#!" in front of the Perl location directory as
follows:
#!/usr/user/perl
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4. Rename *.cgi to
*.pl if your server requires the .pl extension for Perl scripts(or to any
other extension). |
The executable files comes with *.cgi extension
only. This is the extension required on most servers for
executable files. If your server still requires Perl programs to use
the ".pl" extension or any other extension,
you should rename *.cgi files to *.pl.
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5. Transfere all files and
directories with the same directory structure on your computer. |
These instructions assume that you have FTP access to the
server and that you have some basic knowledge of how to use an FTP program
to go to different directories on your site, create directories when
necessary, and to upload files to your server.
If you do not have this basic knowledge, we recommend getting an FTP program
such as this free one
http://www.filezilla-project.org/ and reading its documentation
thoroughly in order to learn how to use such programs.
When uploading all of the text files for the software, be sure to set your
FTP program to
transfer in ASCII mode (the graphics files, such as those ending in ".gif"
and ".jpg", should be transferred in Binary mode).
The scripts, Templates, ini files, JS files, Language files and setup
files will NOT work properly if you transfer it in binary mode.
If your FTP program allows you to transfer the directory and all its
subdirectories then you can in one step transfer all the /cgi-bin/forum
directory and all its subdirectories
and files to your CGI directory which is normally your cgi-bin
directory and also in one step transfer /html/forums and all its
subdirectories
and files to your html directory which is normally your httpdocs or
public_html directory.
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6. Change permissions on all files and
directories. |
Setting permissions is the very important for
the program to run correctly. Changing files permissions is different from
operating system to another.
If you are on a Unix server (Such as Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc), use your
FTP program to change files and directories permissions. Most FTP programs
allows setting permissions by selecting the files and right clicking the
mouse then selecting the option permissions or as your FTP program manual
says.
On Unix servers also you may set permissions
from your Telnet program, log into your server using "chmod" command.
Here are the required permissions on each directory and file:
on Unix server:
chmod -R 755 /cgi-bin/forum/*
chmod -R 755 /html/forums/*
on Windows server
On Windows servers setting permissions is
different than Unix servers and complicated, you have to go to your website
control panel on see how you can set files permissions.
/cgi-bin/forum/* should be read /execute
/cgi-bin/forum/data/* should be write/read
/html/forums/* should be write execute
Of course you can set the permissions according to your server security.
Some subdirectories are empty at the installation time, these directories
will be used later by the program.
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7. Create MySQL (or MS SQL) database from your
website control panel. |
You need to create a MySQL or (MS SQL for supported products)
database. You create the MySQL database from your website control panel (for
example for sites that use cPanel or Plesk). Login to your website control
panel, create a MySQL database, then create a mysql user, then add the mysql
user that you created to the mysql database you just created and make sure
to give that user all the privileges to that database.
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8. Run the Admin program from your web browser
and setup the program configuration. |
Now before you go further, you need to know if the
required Perl modules installed on your server or not.
If not installed, you will need to contact your hosting company or server
administrator and ask them to install these Perl modules.
Please do not contact Mewsoft or ask our support for
installing Perl modules, Perl modules has to be installed by the hosting
company or the server administrator as it needs server root access unless
you have your own dedicated server and you have root user login access to
that server, then you can hire Mewsoft to install Perl modules or hire
anyone else.
These modules are almost required by all Mewsoft products
that uses SQL database like Auctionawy, Classifiedawy, Searchawy, and
Boardawy:
Required Modules:
DBI
DBD::Mysql
Archive::Zip
Crypt::SSLeay
GD
Optional modules:
Business::OnlinePayment
Finance::Quote
Mail::POP3Cleint
Finance::QuoteHist
To help you determine if these modules installed or not, run the program "testserver.cgi"
from your web browser,
this file is available with the software package in the same cgi
files directory. You can access this file from the browser as:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/forum/testserver.cgi
Now you have done a great gob. If you have carefully followed all of the
instructions above, you are now ready
to start the admin program to complete the program configuration and
installation. Please point your browser
to the URL of the "admin.cgi" file as follows:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/forum/admin.cgi
where "www.yourdomain.com" would be replaced by your actual domain name or
IP address. Please note that if you renamed
the "admin.cgi" file to "admin.pl" or to any other name, you
would need to adjust this URL accordingly.
Only each time you run the admin program you need to login as the system
admin, the default login "User ID"
is "admin", and the default password is "admin" if any default but normally
you will be able to login without User ID and password.
Please change these login information once you login for
your system security.
If the "admin" program runs now, then great gob, the remaining part
is very easy. You should see now the admin
program main menu.
From the admin menu click on the "Configuration" menu option.
Change all path's and URL's
to point to your server and all other information. These information are
very important to run all the software. You can click on the "Tip" link to
help you know your paths and URLs.
The next step is to create a mysql database (of course you must have mysql
server installed and running on your
server) and put its information in the admin->Configuration.
Next, create the SQL database tables from the admin->Setup Wizard,
click on "Create SQL Tables".
Finally, load the default program settings and the default database, this is
very important, to do so, click on "Database & SQL Manager", then
click on the link "Restore SQL Database From The Text Files Backup".
The last step is from the admin menu also to set the default language
for the program to start properly.
To do so, click on "Language Manager" from the admin main menu, then
click on "Prepare All Available Languages
" and also set the default language to "English" by selecting the
"English" language.
Now if everything done as it should be you have finished the installation.
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8. Run the forum program from your browser |
If you finished all the previous installation
steps correctly, you will be able to run the main program from
your browser. To to so, please point your browser to the main program on
your server as follows:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/forum/forum.cgi
where "www.yourdomain.com" would be replaced by your actual domain name.
Please note that if you renamed
the "forum.cgi" file to "forum.pl" or to any other name, you would need to
adjust this URL accordingly.
If the program run and you see the main page, then congratulations, and
thanks for this great gob.
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9. Register as a user and test the program
settings and features. |
Now the program is running, but to make sure that all the
installation process completed correctly, you need to test
all the program functions. To do so, please register as a user and test
every single function as it requires the user
to do. For example, edit your registration information, check the emails
sent out.
This will help you detect any problems with the program installation, for
example, files not transferred in the correct
mode, permissions not set, directories not created, missing Perl module.
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11. If you have any problems contact go to
Mewsoft Support Forums. |
In case you were unable to complete the installation
process successfully, please go to our site and search the user forum and
post your questions and you will get immediate answers and help. of course
you can order our installation service and avoid any headache.
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12. Important Notes |
The products are packed as zip file on a Windows computer. If you
unzipped the product.zip file on a Unix computer or server, then you need to
use the unix utility dos2unix on all cgi and text and templates files to
convert the text files line endings from Windows to unix or the program will
not work.
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13.
Congratulations. |
Congratulations for using our software products and
thank you for your business with us. Please check our sites for more
products and offers.
Best regards,
Dr. Elsheshtawy, Ahmed Aamin
Ph.D. Physics
Mewsoft President
Mewsoft Corporation
sales@mewsoft.com
http://www.mewsoft.com |