DCForum Installation guide for NON-windows servers 
Version 6 Release 2.5
© 1997-2003, DCScripts
Release Date 9-12-2003
YOU MUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTION EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING INSTALLATION PROCEDURE! DO NOT SKIP A STEP. 
Installing and setting up DCForum consists of following steps:
Installation overview 
Recommended Setup 
Check perl location 
Edit dcboard.cgi and dcadmin.cgi 
Edit dcforum.setup 
Upload files to your web server 
Start dcadmin.cgi and register as admin 
Create Conferences and Forums 
Customize dcforum.htmlt, the template file 
An important last step
1. Installation Overview
In the following installation procedure, we assume that you have already downloaded DCForum zip file to a window-based PC and that you will be using an FTP program to install it on your web server. 
If you downloaded DCForum tar.gz file directly onto your web server, then copy the files to appropriate directories instead of uploading them. 
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT "chmod" FUNCTION IS OR DO NOT KNOW HOW TO CHANGE FILE AND DIRECTORY PERMISSIONS, PLEASE READ about_chmod.txt BEFORE YOU CONTINUE WITH THE INSTALLATION. 
2. Recommended Setup
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU USE ASCII MODE FOR UPLOADING SCRIPTS FILES (EXCEPT IMAGE FILES, USE BINARY MODE) 
Directory vs URL - Please recognize the difference between a "directory" and an "URL". By directory we mean the physical location of a folder on your server. For example, "/usr/home/http". On the other hand, by URL we mean the WWW address of your website. For example, "http://www.yoursite.com" 
There are more than one way to setup DCForum system. The following setup what we recommend. 
   /cgi-bin (your cgi-bin directory)
      |---/dcforum (755)
              |---dcboard.cgi (755)
              |---dcadmin.cgi (755)
              |---dcforum.htmlt (644)
              |---dcforum.setup (644)
              |---/private_forums (777)
                      |----index.html
              |---User_info (777)
                      |---index.html (to hide the directory)
              |---Lib (755)
                      |--- *.pl files (644)
              |---User_lib (755)
                      |--- future use

   /htdocs directory
        |----/dcforum (777)
               |--- index.html (to hide the directory)
               |--- admin.html
               |--- dcf.js (javascript functions)
               |---/Images (directory)
                      |----index.html (to hide the directory) 
                      |---- gif files 
                      |---/Avatars (directory)
                             |--- gif and jpg files 

Installation Steps
Change directory to your root html directory. By root html directory we mean the directory corresponding to your home site URL. 
Create a subdirectory called "dcforum" and chmod this directory to 777. This is where the public and protected forums will be saved. 
Upload dcf.js, admin.html and index.html to this directory. Use ASCII mode. 
Create a subdirectory called "Images" in the "dcforum" directory. 
Change directory to "Images". Create a directory named "Avatars" 
Upload /Images/*.gif files to /Images directory REMEMBER TO USE BINARY MODE WHEN YOU UPLOAD IMAGE FILES. 
Change directory to "/Images/Avatars". 
Upload /Images/Avatars/*.gif files to /Images/Avatars directory REMEMBER TO USE BINARY MODE WHEN YOU UPLOAD IMAGE FILES. 
Change directory to your root cgi-bin directory. By root cgi-bin directory we mean the directory corresponding to your cgi-bin URL. 
In your cgi-bin directory, create a subdirectory named "dcforum". 
Change directory to "dcforum". 
Create a subdirectory called "private_forums" and chmod this directory to 777. This is where the restricted and private forums will be saved. 
Create a subdirectory named "User_info" in "dcforum" and chmod this directory to 777. 
Upload index.html file to "User_info" directory - this will hide this directory 
Create a subdirectory named "Lib" in /cgi-bin/dcforum directory 
Upload all *.pl files in /cgi-bin/dcforum/Lib directory of the unzipped package to the server's "/cgi-bin/dcforum/Lib" directory. BE SURE TO USE ASCII MODE. 
Create a subdirectory named "User_lib" in /cgi-bin/dcforum directory. This directory is for future use only 
Change directory to your /cgi-bin/dcforum directory
3. Check perl location 
By default, the perl location is set to /usr/bin/perl. To see if this is the case, do the following: 
Upload install_help.cgi (found in Utilities directory) to /cgi-bin/dcforum directory. 
chmod this file to 755 
Point your browser to this file. For example, 
   http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/install_help.cgi
If there is an error, check and make sure that you used ASCII mode to upload it to your server. 
If problem persists, then /usr/bin/perl is not the correct location of perl on your server. You can try /usr/sbin/perl or /usr/lib/perl, but the best thing to do is ask your ISP support or refer to your ISP's help on line. 
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE install_help.cgi FROM YOUR SERVER.
4. Edit dcboard.cgi and dcadmin.cgi
If /usr/bin/perl is the correct location of perl on your server, skip this section and goto section 4. Otherwise, 
Open both dcboard.cgi and dcadmin.cgi in a plain text editor. 
If you determined that /usr/bin/perl is not the correct path to Perl on your server, then edit the first line "#!/usr/bin/perl" and replace with the correct value. Otherwise, skip to the next step. 
5. Edit dcforum.setup
This file contains parameters that DCForum requires to run. You won't need to edit most of them. Just to get it started, you'll only need to define the following variables in dcforum.setup. 
   $platform - Set to "FREEBSD" if your server is FREEBSD.  Otherwise, set it
               to "UNIX".
   $maindir - Full directory path to your /htdocs/dcforum directory
              For example, "/www/htdocs/yourdomain.com"
   $mainurl - URL of $maindir
   $cgiurl - URL of /cgi-bin/dcforum directory.  For example,
             "http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/dcforum".
Open dcforum.setup file in your text editor and define these variables. 
6. Upload files to your web server
Upload following files to your /cgi-bin/dcforum directory. Please make sure you use ASCII mode. 
           dcboard.cgi
           dcadmin.cgi
           dcforum.htmlt
           dcforum.setup
Chmod dcboard.cgi and dcadmin.cgi to 755. 
7. Start dcadmin.cgi and register yourself.
Start dcadmin.cgi by opening this page using your browser. The URL should be something like, 
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcadmin.cgi. 
The firsttime you run this program, it will ask you to read the DCForum End-User Licensing Agreement. Click ok to continue with installation. 
Follow the instruction as provided until you have registered and login page appears. Proceed with login and this will bring you to the main page of the forum. Look for the "admin" menu icon. Clicking on this icon will bring up the administrator's program. 
If you get any errors during above steps, please go back and check to make sure that all path variables and permissions are set correctly. Also, check and make sure that you didn't use BINARY mode when you transfer the files. If you're still stuck, use our support forum at 
   http://www.dcscripts.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
Or email us at [email protected]. 
8. Create Forums and other good stuff
The basic step to creating your forum is as follows: 
Log on as administrator 
Choose forum setting and set your preference - lots of stuff here. See section 2 of the administrator user's guide. 
Create conferences and forums - See section 3 of the administrator user's guide 
Please refer to the administrator user's guide 
9. Customize dcforum.htmlt, the template file
DCForum script uses one template file for all its output. dcforum.htmlt is just an HTML file that you can easily modify to customize the look and feel of the board. The only restriction is that you do not remove following script tags: 
$TITLE
$HTTPHEADER
$HTMLOUTPUT
10. An important last step
YOU MUST READ THE FOLLOWING SECURITY CHECK FILE. This file contains an important security information should your web server allow browsing of files within cgi-bin. 

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