New to Actinic

[johnnyc313]

Hi,

I am very new to actinic though I have some experience in web design.

My server currently does not have a CGI-BIN directory, and I am hosted on a Windows based system.

Do I need to change hosting companies or get them to enable CGI features?

Or is there some other way around it.

Thanks in advance...

Johnny C

[garyhay]

Sometimes you can create a cgi-bin folder or sometines its called something else ie. scripts

Who is your host and which package do you have.

You can send your host the file mail2host.txt found in the Actinic folder. Here is what it says


Subject : Actinic Catalog installation

I recently purchased the software product Actinic Catalog to enable me
to sell over the web. In order for Catalog to install the web site
properly I need some information. I would be grateful if you could
answer my questions below. If any of these are unclear, please
could you email support@actinic.co.uk who can clarify any points, and
let you know how you can easily support or supply Catalog.

The easiest thing for me would be if you quote each question and then
fill in your answer to that question underneath it. I can then copy
your response into the correct place in the Actinic Catalog
configuration preferences.

First I need to know if my site will be able to run Catalog :

a) Do I have CGI script capabilities? (Yes/No)

b) Do I have access to Perl 5.002 or higher at my site? (Yes/No)

c) Do I have the ability to update my site using FTP? (Yes/No)

d) Do I have the ability to POST data to my CGI scripts? (Yes/No)

If the answer to any of the above is "No", please let me know what
would be the cost, if it's possible, of upgrading my site for
FTP/CGI/Perl. (There is no need to answer the remaining questions).

e) Do the http server host and ftp server host each see a different map
of the directory structure? (The answer is usually "No" but please see
note (i) below). (Yes/No)

f) Is the CGI script directory for my site shared with anyone else?
(Please see note (ii) below). (Yes/No)

If the answer to either e) or f) is "Yes", then please could you
contact support@actinic.com for instructions on how to use Catalog on
this site.

Otherwise, please can you help with the following detailed questions :

1) [Configuration : CGI Script ID Number] 1
Not normally changed (see note (ii) below)

2) [Configuration : Mail (SMTP) Server]
What is the full hostname or IP address of the SMTP mail server?
(e.g. www.mysite.com)

3) [Configuration : CGI-BIN URL]
What is the complete URL of the place where I must place CGI scripts for
my site?
(e.g. http://www.mycompany.com/cgi-bin)

4) [Configuration : Path from CGI-BIN to catalog directory]
The Catalog CGI script needs to know where my web site directory is.
What is the path from the directory in which the cgi-bin executes to my
web site directory?
(e.g. ../catalog/, ..\mysite\)

5) [Configuration : Path to the Perl shell (For Unix servers only)]
What is the absolute path of the perl interpreter?
(e.g. /usr/bin/perl)

6) [Configuration : Perl extension]
What extension should I use for my Perl scripts?
(e.g. .pl, .cgi)

7) [Installation : FTP Server Host]
What is the full hostname or IP address of the FTP server that has
access to the CGI script directory and my web pages?
(e.g. www.mycompany.co.uk)

8) [Installation : Username / Password]
Will my standard login username and password work with this FTP
server? If not, what username and password do I need to use?
(e.g. Login: Joe, Password: qr001)

9) [Installation : Path to CGI-BIN]
Once I am logged into the FTP session, what is the path to the CGI
script directory? (e.g. cgi-bin, ..\cgi-bin, /www/server/cgi-bin, etc.)

10) [Installation : Path from FTP server to Catalog]
What is the path from the cgi directory to the Catalog directory as seen
by the FTP server (see note (i) below and leave blank if FTP sees things
as CGI does)


Technical Notes for information only

(i) Problems may be encountered if the map of the directory structure
differs between the http server and the ftp server due to network disk
mounting. For example, if the web page directory is
/usr/people/todd/web, the ftp server might view this as same directory
as /ragtime/usr/people/todd/web and the http server might view this as
/stimpy/usr/people/todd/web. This is the case where fields [Configuration
: Path from CGI-BIN to catalog directory] and [Installation : Path from
FTP server to Catalog] will differ.

(ii) Actinic Catalog creates two CGI scripts and names them nqXXXXXX.pl
and caXXXXXX.pl where XXXXXX is a number padded with leading 0's (e.g.
nq000012.pl).
This feature allows catalog to work in a shared CGI-BIN directory
although its script must have a number that is unique in the CGI
script directory, and some aspects of installation and running must be
performed manually. The web hosting company must check the cgi-bin
to find if there are any Catalog scripts already there. If there are,
what is the lowest number not currently being used? (e.g. 000002).


Regards,

Your customer
----------------------------------------------------------------------