Re: [MacPerl-Forum] Newbie needs help with cgi

On Mon, Aug 19, 2002 at 10:20:58AM -0700, Support wrote:
> I am trying to install a cgi on our server.  Currently we are running 
> OS 9.2.2, webstar 3.0.2 and filemaker 4.1 to serve our files and meet 
> our database needs.  The purpose of the cgi script I am installing is 
> to track the activity of our ads that we may publish on the web. It 
> is called adtrackz.  It was obviously written for a regular *nix 
> server but I am trying to get it to work on our mac server using 
> macperl.  Here are his instructions for setting it up along with what 
> I did (my notes are preceded by "%%%%%":

Looking at the installation instructions, this system appears to have been
designed for Unix and Windows machines.  It may be that it will not work on
a Mac without some extra porting work.


Here are some simple things to do that will get you closer:


> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%<CONFIG.CGI>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> #Enter the required values for each variable below.
> #Be careful not to change anything else,
> #just what's in between the quotes.
> 
> #The server path to the data directory, must end with a /
> $datapath =  "/WebServer/WebSTAR/cgi-bin/a/data/";
> 
> #The server path to your home directory, must end with a /
> $home = "/WebServer/WebSTAR/";

You may need to specify these paths in Mac format, e.g.:

$datapath = "WebServer:WebSTAR:cgi-bin:a:data:";

$home = "WebServer:WebSTAR:";

However, other parts of the program may assume that '/' is the path
separator.  Those would have to be rewritten to be portable to the Mac.


> Ok, now all you have to do is upload all 3 cgi files to your a
> directory (or whatever you called it).  Make sure to chmod them
> to 755.
> 
> Run adtrackz.cgi. It should prompt you for your password.
> 
> %%%%%I have no Idea what "chmod" is or what I'm supposed to do with it.

chmod is a Unix utility that sets the permissions on a file or directory.
All the scripts need to be executable by all users.  You probably don't
need to do anything for this step.



> As for the troubleshooting section, still no idea what chmoding is 
> and there is nothing in the "data" directory and only the 3 cgi's in 
> the "a" folder.  So after I set all this up like this I try to load 
> adtrackz.cgi from the web with the address 
> http://investorsleague.com/cgi-bin/a/adtrackz.cgi and I get this in 
> my web browser:
> 
> Diagnostic Output
> # config.cgi did not return a true value.
> File 'WebServer:WebSTAR:cgi-bin:a:adtrackz.cgi'; Line 30
> # BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.
> File 'WebServer:WebSTAR:cgi-bin:a:adtrackz.cgi'; Line 30

On a Mac, this error usually means that the module was saved with Windows
newlines.  You need to convert the three CGI files to have Macintosh
newlines.  Here's a Perl script that does it:

#!perl -pi

tr/\012/\015/;


Before you put too much work into this, you may want to make sure that the
adtrackz system is intended to work on the Mac as written.


Ronald