Installing Matt's Free-For-All Link Script

Preface

This script can be used to allow visitors to add a link to
their own web page. The links page displays each link by
category which makes finding a site of interest easier than
reviewing a single list. A database file is also maintained for
use with Matt's Random Link script.

Installation Procedure

1. Locate and download the following files from href="http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/">Matt's
   Script Archive:
   
   
   • links.pl - The Perl script that adds the links.
   
   
   • links.html - The HTML file containing the form
     and links.
   
   
   
   


2. Change the first line of the Perl script to reflect the
   official path to Perl on our server:

   #!/usr/local/bin/perl

   
   


3. There are a few more things that need to be changed in
   the Perl script:

   # Set Variables
   
   
   
   $filename - The system location of your links.html file
   
   $linksurl - The URL of your links.html file 
   
   $linkscgi - The URL to the CGI script 
   
   $linkstitle - The desired links page title
   
   $database - The system path to the database file

   
   

   The first and last variables call for a system path
   which is not the same as a URL. If your domain name was
   yourdomain.com the system path would be /u/web/yourdo
   where "yourdo" is the account userid.

   
   

   As such, the Set Variables section of the Links script
   would follow this format:

   
   

   # Set Variables
   
   
   
   $filename = "/u/web/<userid>/links.html";
   
   $linksurl = "http://www.yourdomain.com/links.html";
   
   $linkscgi = "http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-local/links.pl";
   
   $linkstitle = "Free For All Link Page";
   
   $database = "/u/web/<userid>/database.txt";

   
   

   Be sure to substitute your domain name and userid in
   the example above. Although Matt's code is accurate, we
   recommend using the Perl Script checker within your
   account Control Panel when installing any Perl script.

   
   


4. Upload the "links.pl" script to your cgi-local
   directory in ASCII transfer mode. Cgi-local will place
   the appropriate permissions on files uploaded to this
   directory so you do NOT need to chmod 755 the Perl
   script.


5. Modify the form ACTION attribute within
   "links.html" to reference the links script
   within cgi-local as shown below and upload to your root
   ("home") directory.

   <FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-local/links.pl">

   
   


6. Create an empty file named "database.txt" and
   upload to the root directory in ASCII transfer mode.


7. Select the File Manager option within your account
   Control Panel. Locate the file name links.html .
   Click the box marked "PW" to the left of the
   links.html file name to enable public write access. The
   same must be done for the database.txt file. This
   will allow the Perl script to append data to the file
   links.html .

You can test the script by referencing the links.html file via
the web.

Special Notes

• You can modify the links.html file to meet your own
  design standards, but do NOT remove the <--XXXX-->
  tags which tell the Perl script where to insert new
  entries.


• Some possible causes of a SERVER ERROR:
  
  
  • - Set Variables section within Perl script
    inaccurate
    
    - Perl script was not uploaded in ASCII transfer
    mode
    
    - Public-write permission not set for links.html
    (see #6 above)
  
  
  
  


• The database.txt file can be used in conjunction with href="matts-randlink.html">Matt's Random Link script.
  

Updated: 10/03/98