I followed JPDeni's tutorial, loaded the demo to my server, but for the life of me cannot get to the log in form. I just get a 404 when I type */db.cgi into the address bar.

I have read the posts in the DBMan Installation support forum, I've read the ReadMe, I've read the CGI FAQs from my hosting company, and I've called their support. Nada.

Here is what I do know:

I have web hosting on Best. My site URL is http://www.best.com/~lboyd (though there's nothing there now). I created a dbman directory under there:

http://www.best.com/~lboyd/dbman. I know that directory is OK because I can get to */dbman/db.cgi.txt from a browser. However, trying to get to */dbman/db.cgi gets me the 404.

So here's one question. The actual path to this directory is shell4.ba.best.com/home/lboyd/public_html/dbman. Is this what I should put for $db_dir_url in the default.cfg file? (Even though if you type that into a browser, you get a DNS error?)

ie: Should it be:
$db_dir_url = "http://www.best.com/~lboyd/dbman";
or
$db_dir_url = "http://shell4.ba.best.com/home/lboyd/public_html/dbman";
or
$db_dir_url = "http://shell4.ba.best.com/home/lboyd/dbman";
I have tried all 3; none of them works. The browser gives me a 404 for each of them.

Other things:
* I did upload in ASCII
* I did check permissions
* I have the correct path to Perl (*/perl5)
* Best uses Perl 5.004_04
* shell4 is a Unix system. JPDeni's tutorial says Unix systems usually require you to put CGI scripts in a cgi-bin directory. Best's FAQ says it doesn't matter what directory they are in -- except that you can't use "cgi-bin" because that's reserved for them. Could this be a source of the problem? Their CGI FAQs are at:
http://www.best.com/faq/faq0013.html, if you want to take a look.
* Best FAQ also says to use /home/username/public_html to refer to the website. Does that mean I should use that somehow in the $db_dir_url?
* Both my db.cgi and default.cfg files are online as txt files, in case someone wants to take a look. (see, i really did read those other posts. :-) )
http://www.best.com/~lboyd/db.cgi.txt and http://www.best.com/~lboyd/default.cfg.txt
* I am a newbie to CGI scripts (in case that wasn't painfully apparent)

I apologize if this is too much information. Thank you for your help. And thank you to JPDeni for your tutoral -- these problems notwithstanding, it's been a *great* help.

Liza

try this in db.cfg change:


# File and URL's
# --------------------------------------------------------
# URL of the directory dbman resides in. No Trailing Slash Please.
$db_dir_url = "http://shell4.ba.best.com/home/lboyd/public_html/dbman";

to:



# File and URL's
# --------------------------------------------------------
# URL of the directory dbman resides in. No Trailing Slash Please.
$db_dir_url = "http://www.best.com/~lboyd/cgi-bin/dbman";


then re-upload all your files into your cgi-bin and redo the permissions.

IF you don't have a cgi-bin create one through your ftp program (should be something like make new directory) .... I think you give the cgi-bin 777 permissions ... a guru might say I'm wrong here, but try it anyway, if not then use 755 for your cgi-bin.


then erase all the dbman files from your public_html directory.


Most servers require you to run cgi programs from a cgi-bin.



Good luck


**************************************
on the pages in between ...

Thanks for taking a look at this.

This is actually a quirk of Best hosting. You are *not* allowed to create a "cgi-bin" directory. They say you can put your scripts in a directory with any name, except "cgi-bin" or "icons", which -- they say -- are reserved and cannot be used by individual users. There's a short note about that in their FAQ (#4) at http://www.best.com/faq/faq0013.html.

Can you see any way to resolve that problem?

Thanks,
Liza

Just create another directory for you dbman files .. they do not have to be run from within a cgi-bin directory.

Then just note the url in your .cfg file to open the database.

Unoffical DBMan FAQ
http://webmagic.hypermart.net/dbman/