Instructions for Installing and Using The Wall

*** Please read the LICENSE.HTML file in this directory. ***

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

You must have a Windows NT or Windows 95 based Web server which provides a CGI interface. This software has been tested with the Microsoft Information Server under Windows NT, and Microsoft FrontPage under Windows 95. It should theoretically work with any 32bit Microsoft Windows based Web server which supports a CGI interface.

A version for Linux is also available on request.

INSTALLATION

It is assumed that you have already unzipped the distribution into an appropriate directory.
  1. Create a subdirectory in your html source tree where you wish to put The Wall's Web pages.

  2. Copy the contents of the distribution's HTML directory to the directory created in step (1).

  3. Copy the contents of the distribution's CGI directory to your Web server's CGI-BIN directory or equivalent. If your server doesn't have a CGI-BIN directory or equivalent, you may copy the files into the directory created in step (1).

  4. Edit addwall.html. This file is found in the directory created in step (1).

    1. Change the 'value' tag in the 'WallConfig' hidden field to be the full path to 'thewall.cfg'. This file will either be found in the CGI-BIN directory (see step (3)) or the directory created in step (1).

    2. If you wish each user entry to be separated by a paragraph tag (<p>), then set the 'WallAutoParagraph' field's value to "on". If you set it to "off", each user's entry will immediately follow the previous entry unless the user includes appropriate HTML to prevent this.

    3. Change the rest of the file as you see fit. Be sure to specify the path to 'thewall.exe' correctly in the 'FORM ACTION' tag. If you have a CGI-BIN directory, this will usually be 'ACTION="CGI-BIN/thewall.exe"'. If instead you've used the directory created in step (1), it will simply be 'ACTION=thewall.exe'.

  5. Edit wallhead.html and walltail.html. The contents of these files will automatically be prepended or appended to the user's entries.

  6. If you wish, change the .GIF and .JPG files as you see fit.

  7. Edit The Wall configuration file called 'thewall.cfg'. This file is found in at the path specified in step (4.1). This file contains documentation, and should be self-explanatory.

  8. Edit the other HTML files as desired.

  9. Provide links as appropriate from your Web pages to the directory created in step (1).

USING THE WALL

Once set up, The Wall should require little or no further administrative interaction.

Each user entry causes the following actions:

  1. The entry is automatically appended to the WallSrc file specified in the configuration (see step (7)).

  2. The WallText file specified in the configuration is rebuilt from the WallHead, WallSrc, and WallTail files.

Because the user's entries exist in both the WallSrc and WallText files at any given time, if you need to alter the entries, you should either

TIPS

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR NEED SUPPORT

If you have questions or require assistance, please email dave@armchair.mb.ca. PLEASE SET THE 'Subject:' TO "The Wall Support", otherwise Dave Voorhis (the author) will probably lose your message among the several hundred others he receives every day.