WillMaster > Products > Useful Information

Installing Our Perl CGI Software, an Overview

Free installation is included with the purchase of our single-domain software titles, so if you don't want to install it yourself, just contact us and we'll get the process started.

Note:
Each software title comes with it's own instructions specific to the software itself. Any variation of instructions for specific software should be followed in lieu of what's found here.

There are 3 steps to this process:

• Editing
• Uploading
• Setting Permissions

Editing

Before editing, make a backup copy.

Editing might consist of specifying certain values to customize the script. You might not need to edit the script, (most Master Series Software requires no editing) but if you do, follow this hard and fast rule:

>>> When editing a Perl script, use a plain text word processor.

Plain text word processors are those that can not change fonts or type styles. NotePad and TextWrangler are examples.

If the word process is able to format the text or design a page, it is not a plain text word processor. Examples are Word and FrontPage. Even if the text is formatted as plain text with such software, the software could still put invisible formatting codes into the file.

Be safe, use a plain text word processor.

Uploading

Use an FTP program to upload the script files, an FTP program that lets you specify whether to transfer the file as plain text or as binary.

Then make sure the scripts are transferred as plain text files.

Why plain text? Because of invisible line ending characters.

Therefore, this rule:

>>> When uploading or downloading scripts, use an FTP program and transfer the files as plain text.

Please be advised: if you use FrontPage to upload Perl programs to a server, you probably will corrupt the code, rendering your program inoperable (ie useless). Instead of FrontPage, use an FTP program to upload your software.

Permissions

This makes some people's eyes lose focus. But it's not that hard.

In fact, you don't even need to understand permissions to work with it.

When a script is uploaded to a server, give it 755 permissions. Your FTP program should have a help file to show you how to do this. With most FTP programs I'm familiar with, you highlight the uploaded file name and then either make a menu choice at the top of the window or screen, or right click and to make the menu choice.

Once you've made the menu choice, some FTP programs allow you to type in the permissions number. Others have you select radio buttons or use checkboxes to specify your permissions.

If you can type in the permissions number, type 755 (or 0755 if it won't accept 3 digits).

If radio buttons or checkboxes, select these:

• For owner or self, you need read, write, and execute permissions.

• For group, you need read and execute permissions.

• For other or world, you need read and execute permissions.

Click the button that updates the permissions and you're good to go.

If you wish to use telnet or SSH instead of FTP to change permissions, navigate to the directory where the script file is at. Then type

chmod 0755 filename

(replacing filename with the file or directory name whose permissions are to be changed).

A note about directory permissions --

When a directory is created with an FTP program, it is created with 755 permissions. That is exactly the permissions you want for virtually all Perl CGI scripts. Some scripts require 777 directory permissions, but those are in the minority.

To change directory permissions, use the above procedure, highlighting the directory name instead of a file name.

Back to General Guidelines
for Installation of WillMaster Software