Requirements INSTALL
Web server and an FTP client (such as) to upload the files to your account and them on the server. Also, you should be modestly comfortable with editing HTML to customize the templates, and thus make your Weblog, journal, or photolog truly your own. Upgrading From a Previous Version of Users of a previous version of should download the 1.21c UpdatePak from and then upload the new files to your server. The UpdatePak will not over-write your templates, entries, or anything else; it simply provides new functionality and bug-fixes to . If you have patched your installation, you may want to read the changelog on the to see what has been added. New versions of patches will be available as soon as possible for Version 1.21c. Before uploding the UpdatePak files, make sure you have the Perl pointer in correctly edited for your server. It's also wise to make a backup, just in case something goes wrong. After uploading the files, check to everything's okay, log in and make sure that everything's a-okay. We hope that you'll like the UpdatePak as a way to upgrade without the chance of accidentally over-writing anything on your current installation. Before You Start During the process of installing , you will need to know some things about your account on your Web server and how you want your site to work. It would be helpful if you wrote them down or had them stored electronically, so you could have them as a reference. Yes, it's time to take some notes. :)
Once you've made these notes, you're ready to roll. Installing For The First Time
Configuring Your Paths We'll use the following example site structure to explain the paths setup; this is where a sizable group of new users have gotten confused before, so we'll work with this example and use it to explain all six paths. Our example comes from the site structure of Geof Morris, one of the authors of this set of installation instructions. [Though it's about to be re-designed, it will still be clear for you.] Geof's site is /, and he hosts a log on the front page. His entries and archives folder is , so it's found at . His server requires CGI files to be in the / directory, so his installation is found at /gm.cgi . Now, the first time you look at your paths, they'll be wrong. That's okay! For an example, here's what Geof saw the first time he installed : Next, he'd created in the main directory of his site, and that's where he wanted his archives and entries to be. So the Entries/Archives paths were going to have to change. Here's what they became: What about the CGI files? Well, that's what gets correct every time. There's no need to change the two CGI paths, unless you want in a subdirectory of your Diagnostics and Repair, Author Configuration Return to Configuration and click "Diagnostics & Repair". This routine checks to see that all your files and paths are working correctly. If you aren't able to run it successfully, your paths are probably incorrect; check the Troubleshooting section of the manual. Once you've run it successfully, you'll be able to post your first entry. Click "Edit Authors", create a new account for yourself with the name and password you'd like to use, and delete Alice. (You could keep Alice around, but for obvious security reasons, it's not recommended.) Since you're still logged on as Alice, you'll need to re-enter under the new name and password. All done! You should now be able to post entries and get your Weblog, journal, or photolog going. (It's a good idea to set up a private test log first, and try creating and editing a few test entries, simply so you can get the hang of before doing it "for real".) uses an extensive template system to allow you total control over every aspect of your Weblog and all the pages & elements it'll comprise. The default templates included with are quite plain-jane, but they should be enough to provide a starting point and, hopefully, to give you a basic idea of 's template & variable usage. Change the templates as much as you like (and just reupload the gm-templates.cgi file if you mess things up too much and want to start over) to suit your own design and style; refer to the manual for full information about all the template variables. And that's that! Hopefully by now you're up and running in some form--after you add your first entry, open another window in your browser and load up your log's intended location. You can alter your templates anytime to change any aspect of your log's design and layout (be sure to "Rebuild Files" after changing the templates for to automatically update your site accordingly). Enjoy doing your log, and thanks for using . =) |