Announcer

Installation v1.3

Upgrading from v1.x? Click here.

1. You can print this out an refer to it as needed.

Unzip the files to a location of your choice. 

After unzipping you should have the following to files.

  |- admin_script.pl
  |- announcer.pl
  |- readme.txt
  |- subs_1.pl
  |- template.htm
  |- Tracker_Read.pl
  |- vars_main.pl
  |
  | ---- Inc (Directory)
      |
      | ---- MIME (Directory)
      |   |- Lite.pm
      |
      | ---- Net (Directory)
          |- Cmd.pm
          |- Config.pm
          |- SMTP.pm

Set Perl Location if needed

For UNIX servers. You may need to change the location of your Perl in the admin_script, announcer.pl, and Tracker_Read.pl files.

By default, the location is set to:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

This Perl location is the first line of the file.

If your server allows you to run Perl scripts with the pl extension or you have other Perl scripts on your server that use the extension pl, you can skip this step. Most server will allow pl extensions. 

If your server only allows CGI extensions to be ran, at this point you must rename all the pl files to cgi files.

Example:

announcer.cgi
vars_main.cgi

Once you have renamed each of these files, you must edit the announcer.cgi and admin_script.pl files such that it refers to the use of the 'cgi' extensions.

To edit the file, open the file in a text editor. Find the line towards the tp that says:

$cgiext = 'pl';

This line must be changed so that it reads:

$cgiext = 'cgi';

1. Login to your ftp server. This can be done using any FTP client such as CuteFTP.
     
2. Create a directory such as announcer on your server in which the script will run.  This most likely will be located as a subdirectory of your  cgi-bin directory.
    
   Example: http://www.domain.com/cgi-bin/announcer
     
3. Using your ftp client, change to the directory which you created in step 2 above.
     
4. Upload all files to the new directory. When uploading, you must upload all files while maintaining the directory script from the zip file.
    
   When uploading the pl files, you should be sure to use ASCII mode transfer.

If NT server, you will want to give the IUSR_XXX (Internet Guest Account) account CHANGE (RWXD) (RWXD) permissions to the new directory you created as well as all files and directories.

Note: You may need to ask your system administrator to set the permissions for you.

For Unix servers, please refer to the chart below for the permissions on the files.

cgi-bin/announcer - 777
  |- admin_script.pl (755)
  |- announcer.pl (755)
  |- readme.txt (default)
  |- subs_1.pl (default)
  |- template.htm (default)
  |- Tracker_Read.pl (755)
  |- vars_main.pl (666)
  |
  | ---- Inc (Directory) (default)
      |
      | ---- MIME (Directory) (default)
      |   |- Lite.pm  (default)
      |
      | ---- Net (Directory)  (default)
          |- Cmd.pm  (default)
          |- Config.pm  (default)
          |- SMTP.pm  (default)

Note: Some servers may require 755 permissions on the announcer directory.  If you receive an error when you attempt to run the announcer.pl file, try using 755 permissions.

Default permissions are typically as follows:
  Directories - 755
  Files - 644

Edit your template file (template.htm)

This step is not a must at this moment. It can be done at any point down the line.

The template file is to make your script look as though it is part of your site.

For details on the use of template files, click here.

Note: When editing the template file, you must always include the $REPLACE variable.  This is to indicate where the script should insert the HTML which is generates.

1. Open the admin_script.pl  in a browser of your choice.
2. Upon first run, the admin screen will appear.
3. Choose the option to 'Edit Script Settings'. Leave the password blank and click the submit button.
4. Complete the script settings as they fit your needs and submit them.
5. Now you should define your new mailing lists using the Add/Edit Lists option.
   •  When doing this, please make sure you read all notes provided.
   • You will need to make sure you define filenames for all of your lists.  By default, Announcer will fill in the directory path but it does not define a list filename.
6. Your script is now setup.

Start Using Announcer

1. At this point you can start using Announcer.
2. We recommend you create a test list and test the script to ensure everything is setup and working properly.
3. For info on executing and calling the script, click here.