OK. I have been working on this today and yesterday, and still have quite a lot to add.

Basically what this program will do is CHMOD all of the files on your server to the correct values, and also the folders. This is one of the biggest problems that people come accross, so hopefully this will help a lot of people

The URL of this program is http://www.ace-installer.com/...to/links2/links2.cgi (http://216.29.246.8/...to/links2/links2.cgi for those of you who can't gewt to the domain name yet).

I am planning new features, which include;

# Working with F2s.com servers.... this is down to the different CHMOD values that are needed for f2s.com sites. Not much of an addon, so it should be ready tomorrow.

# Automatic upload of my acepassword.cgi script to help you set up .htpasswd files on your server.

# A links.cfg generator to help you get the right paths for links.cfg.

And hopefully more....

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Obviously this script is still in beta stages, so anyone that knows about Links 2 and wants to give it a go is very welcome. Please note, the files must be in their normal directory structure for it to be able to CHMOD them correctly.

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Doesn't work andy.

I just entered any old rubbish and it said "Done".

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Also not everyone uses the default structure.

Is it really worth all the effort when people can just read the readme and follow the instructions. You will have all sort of problems such as differing directory structures, different server setups etc...

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Yeah, like I said, it is only a beta version. Error checking and stuff were not on the top of the list. Now I have it working I will try and add some error checking to make it a bit more user friendly

Also, the directory structure can be changed. It doesn't have to be /cgi-bin/links, it could be cgi-bin/resources or cgi-bin/somefolder/stuff for all it matters. The only folders that will be default are;

admin
admin -> templates
admin -> data
admin -> data -> hits
admin -> data -> rates
admin -> backup

As for another thing I will be adding is another bit where you can specify where your pages are to be built. It will then also CHMOD those files and that directory for you too

What can I say, I'm board!

Andy



webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

OK. I have now made it so an error comes up if something can't be done on the server (e.g. logging in, CHMODing files or directories etc).

Is it only Paul that has anything to say about this script? Does no one else want to see some other features? I need some feedback!

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Still doesn't work for me - also it doesn't check for dodgy characters that may be submitted like ` ' " etc...

"Step 2" just keeps reloading when you press submit.

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Now I get:

Software error:
Execution of /home/ace-inst/public_html/cgi-bin/auto/links2/links2.cgi aborted due to compilation errors.
For help, please send mail to the webmaster (webmaster@ace-installer.com), giving this error message and the time and date of the error.


Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Doesn't work for me either...HTML codes simply print out when I click on Accept Terms button.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

Haven't tested it but you might be better to instead make an install script which they upload onto their server and perhaps grabs the files from yours... If I was using it I don't think I'd like to give my ftp details via an unsecure online form like that.

Glenn

Links 2 Mods Site:
http://cgi-resource.co.uk/pages/links2mods.shtml

You may also want to use a "password" field for the password, not a "text" field.

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Mmm....weird. What browser are you using? It all works fine for me. As for the password field, I will do that now. I was thinking about maybe putting the script on a secure server, but I will need to investigate this a bit more...

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

In reply to;

That was a bug in the program. There was a stray ; somewhere, i must have not removed it when adding the error subs. That should be fixed now! If not, then please tell me and I will have another look.

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Uh...Netscape 4.73 and Netscape 4.6 and Netscape 6.0.

Your cute little "Accept Terms" javascript button does not work in Netscape. Either replace the codes with DOM codes or simply use a regular submit button.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

It isn't JavaScript (just a normal button with the Style tags)

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Well, still not interoperatable codes! Thus, not an effective application tying it to ONE type of web browser.

So, you miss my point...your loss.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

No, I didn't miss your point. The code should still work. The problem was actually down to me missing a couple o fprint "Content-type: text/html \n\n"; tags. This has now been fixed, so hopefully it will work for you now

As for the comment, the button should now appear as either a transparent submit button, or for the browsers that don't support it, just a normal button!

Thanks for the comment though.

Just a note to say that one of my paying customers has now taken priority over this, so additions may not be made for a day or so. It all depends on how fast I get his job done.

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Andy, it sounds like this "script" has many bugs and basic errors such as failing to print the headers, therefore I would not suggest making it public until you either check it thoroughly or brush up your perl skills because it isn't fair on anyone if they get into even more of a mess using your script which may end up chmodding things incorrectly etc...


Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

I agree with Paul....This "tool" is not effective in addressing permission and installation problems, it may contribute to more problems.

I would suggest taking it off-line and then thoroughly testing the script (between at least Netscape and Internet Explorer) and also test variances of inputs before making it public.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

Just a quick suggestion... I wouldn't use a transparent submit button. As when I went to the page it's not that clear where to click to submit. Ie. where the submit is it just looks like normal text, (no hint of a link or button is there...). Ie. it's not only transparent but there's no borders so it won't be that clear what it is for some people.

Glenn

Links 2 Mods Site:
http://cgi-resource.co.uk/pages/links2mods.shtml

Yeah I agree - I had the same problem - it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to get to the next step. Using css for the sake of it is not a good idea.

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Yes Paul, but as I am sure you know there are always bugs. The whole point in this post was for people to point out bugs in the script so I could fix them. And Paul, I don't appreciate the sarcasm!

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com

Andy - there are bugs and simple mistakes. Not printing headers is a simple mistake.

I don't remeber being sarcastic anywhere in my posts, I was expressing my opinion.

Installations:http://www.wiredon.net/gt/
Favicon:http://www.wiredon.net/favicon/

Mmm, lemme see. There was 1 bug, and that was an extra ; somewhere. As for 'all'the other bugs, do you mind telling me what they are? The other stuff talked about in this post was just to do with cross-browser viewing, with NS etc. As for leaving out the Content type headers, that is a simple mistake when IE does not show up any errors if you miss out them

Well, I won't bother replying any more to this thread otherwise it will probably turn into an argument! So, I'm gonna close this thread. I will create a new thread when the final version has been tested etc.

Andy

webmaster@ace-installer.com
http://www.ace-installer.com