Notes on my efforts to use scripts on my HALnet
Webpages. Help was given by Marilyn Gore, ex
Webmaster HAL-PC. www.spinneret.com by email.

The 1st thing I did was to read this CGI-FAQ.pdf..   I found it on the HALPC website
It is dated. It was created on 1997, and last modified 1999.
See this to see the changes I had to make [with Marilyn's help].

My 1st attempt to use a search engine [from BigNoseBird Perl scripts] failed.
I tried several times to get this to work. I then contacted Marilyn Gore,
who was only too glad to help with a few suggestions.

Here is an excerpt from her replies [in red] to me:

"Attached are the files necessary to install and run the simple site search
from Matt's Script Archive.  [files from Matt's Simple Search Script Link ]

README.txt tells you how to configure the script.

You'll want to fix up the html code.

Here's how I defined the variables for my own directories - script ran fine:

------------
$basedir = '/usr/home/marilyn/public_html/SIG/';
$baseurl = 'http://www.hal-pc.org/~marilyn/';
@files = ('*.html');
$title = "Site Search";
$title_url = 'http://www.hal-pc.org/~marilyn/';
$search_url = 'http://www.hal-pc.org/~marilyn/search.html';
-------------

NOTE: your $basedir should be /usr/users/toner27/public_html/ (my home
directory is set up differently from yours).  You can append a subdirectory
(as I did) if that is what you want searched, or leave as is to search your
whole public_html tree.

Note the trailing '/' after all directory specifications.

Note the $baseurl and $basedir must match"

My Comments:

The script zipfile should include a readme which you should follow, but the
tricky part is determining the suitability of their "recipe" for your application.
As a beginner in script use, I had to learn several things :

• Unix on our HAL server is case sensitive. I learned this the hard
  way even thought I had seen the warnings in the html guides. You must
  spell your links exactly the same way the files are named. This will use a lot
  of your time on your 1st attempts. Its best to only use lower case to
  avoid confusion. [Its hard to remember to do this, take note!]
  
• The directory arrangement of our Unix system is not at all obvious
  [ to the new user ] and I could not find any web pages except CGI-FAQ.pdf.
  outlining its arrangement. I know this is customary for many ISPs as an
  aid to page developers. I found some of them by searching for this on
  the web.  I had to deduce the directory structure from what Marilyn
  showed me from above.
  
• The [downloaded] scripts will include the instructions on what the individual
  user should add. This is the biggest difficulty for the new user of scripts.
  Determining how to specify the locations for your personalized settings,
  and making certain that the necessary resources are in place. Examples:
  javascript is enabled in your browser if that's what you're using, is Perl5
  on the ISP server if you're using that. Server Side includes must be in place
  if you're using them.
  
• /toner27/ is not the same as /~toner27/ !!    I made this mistake also.
  /~toner27/   is the same thing as /usr/users/toner27/   !!  
  Very easy mistake to make.
  

Created on ... Oct 9, 2003

Last Modified Sunday, 11-Dec-2005 19:58:24 CST