Installation Instructions

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 in many formats which may be as a single executable file, compressed single file (.zp, .tar, .gz,...) or else.

These installation instructions applies also for all Mewsoft open source products.
 

1. Unzip the file "auctionawy.zip".
2. Configure your FTP program
3. Edit the first line of all *.cgi files to point to location of Perl on your server.
4. Rename *.cgi to *.pl if your server requires the .pl extension for Perl scripts(or to any other extension).
5. Transfer all files and directories with the same directory structure on your computer.
6. Change permissions on all files and directories.
7. Run the Admin program from your web browser and setup the program configuration.
8. Load the default program settings
9. Run the auction program from your browser.
10. Register as a user and test the program settings.
11. If you have any problems contact Mewsoft Support.
12. Congratulations.
     

1. Unzip the file auctionawy.zip

Place the file "auctionawy.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/auction

The directory /auction 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.

so if you want to install the software on your http://www.yourdomain.com/auction, then you need to upload the unziped folder to your server folder public_html/auction.

Open all *.cgi files only with any text editor like notepad program 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:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#!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 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

The executable files comes with *.cgi extension only. This is the extension required on most servers for
executable files. If your server requires Perl programs to use the ".pl" extension or any other extension,
you should rename *.cgi files to *.pl.

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 WS_FTP (http://www.ipswitch.com/), CuteFTP (http://www.cuteftp.com/), BulletProof FTP
(http://www.bpftp.com/), or FTP Voyager (http://ftpvoyager.com/ , the best) 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, 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 (such as FTP Voyager,
BulletProof FTP) then you can in one step transfer all the unzip folder/auction directory and all its subdirectories
and files to your and files to your html directory which is normally your httpdocs or public_html directory.
 

Setting permissions is the very important for the program to run correctly. Changing files permissions is
different from operating system to anther.

If you are on a Unix server (Such as Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc), use your FTP program to change files and directories permissions.
You may also 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 auction/*.cgi
chmod -R 755 auction/*.pm

on Windows server

auction/* should be read /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.

Now before you go further, you need to know if the following Perl modules installed on your server or not.
If not installed, you need to install first these Perl modules

DBI
DBD::mysql

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.

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/auction/admin

OR

http://www.yourdomain.com/auction/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 the "auction.cgi"
program and 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".

Now if everything done as it should be you have finished the installation.

If you finished all the previous installation steps correctly, you will be able to run the auction program from
your browser. To to so, please point your browser to the "auction.cgi" program on your server as follows:

http://www.yourdomain.com/auction/

OR

http://www.yourdomain.com/auction/index.cgi

where "www.yourdomain.com" would be replaced by your actual domain name. Please note that if you renamed
the "index.cgi" file to "index.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.

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, post new topic, post a reply, 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.

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.

Congratulations for using the Auctionawy software and thank you for your business with us. Please check our sites for more products and offers.

Best regards,
Dr. Ahmed Amin Elsheshtawy
Mewsoft President/CEO
Mewsoft Corporation
http://www.mewsoft.com