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    Message to send a potential Host to check if Actinic Compatible

    Hi Everyone,

    If you check the installation Directory C:\Program Files\Actinic v8 ( same for any version of Actinic) you will find a 5Kb text file called 'Mail2hst.txt'. If you copy the contents of this file into an email and send it to your host, based on their resposes you will be able to decide if they can or cannot support Actinic.

    The contens of the file are as below....
    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]

    a) What is the full hostname or IP address of the SMTP mail server?
    (e.g. www.mysite.com)

    b) Does the SMTP server require authentication (YES/NO)
    ( if YES please provide Username and Password )

    c) Can 'localhost' be used as the SMTP server (YES/NO)

    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
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Kind regards,
    Bruce King
    SellerDeck

    #2
    Hi Bruce,

    Much as I like to see this kind of thing being shorter rather than longer, I would probably add something to the SMTP configuration asking whether a) Localhost can be used and b) is authentication required.

    Mike
    -----------------------------------------

    First Tackle - Fly Fishing and Game Angling

    -----------------------------------------

    Comment


      #3
      Mike,

      Those are useful suggestions and I will add them in.

      This is now done.

      Kind regards,
      Last edited by Bruce; 29-Jun-2007, 11:16 AM. Reason: changes made to original thread
      Bruce King
      SellerDeck

      Comment

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