AnyBoard Installation Guide

Installation is easy, all you need to do is to edit 4 lines of the anyboard.cgi file.
Estimated time: 5 minutes.
Important Note!!: The anyboard.cgi is a big file and slow to load. After installation, you must split the script (split command available on master admin panel) after installation, and AFTER running the split command, you must replace the original big anyboard.cgi file with the newly created small anyboard.cgi_split (or anyboard_auto.cgi) file. See the readme.txt file come with AnyBoard package.

 

Quick Install Guide For The Impatient: Install anyboard.cgi to your cgi-bin, then access the script with the URL http://your-host/your-cgi-dir/anyboard.cgi?cmd=init

Detailed Instructions for new AnyBoard users

If you have installed AnyBoard before, everything in the old installation guide still applies.



System requirements

AnyBoard can be installed on web servers which supports CGI, including UNIX, Linux and Windows NT/2000. The basic requirements for AnyBoard are

• CGI access. Your server must allow you to install your own CGI scripts. Normally, the CGI scripts are installed under a directory named cgi-bin/, cgi-local/, cgibin/, scripts/, etc. Consult your ISP on this.
• PERL 5.004 and up.

Your ISP should have a FAQ page answer questions such as CGI access and perl scripts. Always consult your ISP if not sure.

Look at the questions at the installation request page for information you need for an install. You should also try the AnyBoard online installer at http://anyboard.net/cgi-bin/abinstall.cgi first.

Download AnyBoard Free Version (links directly to AnyBoard.zip file), unzips it, you will find a script file named anyboard.cgi, which is the AnyBoard program.

Installation procedures

 

1 Install anyboard.cgi to your cgi-bin and run the sinfo command (trivial)

Follow your ISP's instructions for installing PERL cgi scripts and install the single script anyboard.cgi to your CGI-BIN directory. On UNIX, change anyboard.cgi's permission to 755 (i.e, chmod 755 anyboard.cgi )

After installing anyboard.cgi to your cgi-bin/, run a diagnosis with the sinfo command by accessing the script via the URL:
http://your-domain/your-cgi-dir/anyboard.cgi?cmd=sinfo

The above URL should return a page with information about your AnyBoard installation. If the URL is not working, ask your ISP on how to install CGI programs. Do not contact Netbula.

 

2 Follow the online setup wizard (Pay attention now)

Now, pay attention to the comments area of the sinfo command. Click on the "Guide me.." link.

First, we must fix the Master CFG entry.

The anyboard.zip distribution file includes a directory named abmasterd/, this directory contains sample forum configuration files, such as the one used by AnyBoard support forum. You must upload this directory to your web server, and then set the $abmain::master_cfg_dir variable in the anyboard.cgi script to point to the absolute path of abmasterd. You must make sure that abmasterd/ is writable by the CGI program, because AnyBoard will need to create a password file there for the master admin. On UNIX, the permission can be set by "chmod 777 abmasterd" .

If you have FTP only access, the output from pwd command may not the be real absolute path, in this case, you should ask your ISP about the full path. You may also use relative path (relative to the working directory of anyboard.cgi). You can get hints on the paths by looking at the path for anyboard.cgi.

After master_cfg_dir is set correctly, AnyBoard will prompt you to create a master administrator, who has control of all AnyBoard forums.

After creating the master admin, AnyBoard will prompt you to login as the master. Once logged in, you enter the master admin panel. At this point, AnyBoard will create one forum automatically, the forum is listed as Master Forum on the admin panel. But this is a special forum resides in the master_cfg_dir and may not be under the web tree.

 

To create new forums, click on the create new forum link in the master admin panel. You will be prompted to set the following three variables in the script:

$fix_top_dir: the web directory which will contain all forums, must be writable
$fix_top_url: the URL of the $fix_top_dir
$fix_cgi_url: the URL of the AnyBoard script itself

$abmain::no_pathinfo is set to 1.

Configuration	What it is	Examples
$master_cfg_dir	Where site configuration information is stored. Must be writable.	UNIX: $master_cfg_dir="/home/anyboard/abmasterd"; Windows: $master_cfg_dir="D:/inetpub/abmasterd";
$fix_top_url	Top URL of the directory which contains all forums..	$fix_top_url="http://anyboard.net/anyboard/";
$fix_top_dir	Directory for the top url above. Must be writable.	UNIX: $fix_top_dir = "/home/netbula/www/anyboard/"; Windows: $fix_top_dir="D:/inetpub/www/anyboard/";
$fix_cgi_url	Full url of the AnyBoard CGI script.	$Fix_cgi_url= "http://anyboard.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi"; $fix_cgi_url= "http://251.222.123.234/scripts/anyboard.pl";

A correctly configured script's sinfo page looks like the following:

Once these variables are configured correctly, you will see the Create new forum page. Just fill in the relevant information, and your forum will be created.

You will be then directed to the new forum's admin panel:

The very first thing you need to do is to set a admin password:

3 Congratulations

If you do the above, you have a forum running, you should start configuring the forum, such as changing admin login and password. AnyBoard has over 300 configuration parameters, see the AnyBoard manual for details.

Optional

If you want to use email validation and email notification features, set the $smtp_server variable to the SMTP server hostname. SMTP server is the one through which email is SENT. If your web server is www.yourname.com, the SMTP server is usually yourname.com. Only your ISP can help if the SMTP server returns relaying error.

4 Additional help needed?

If you can get the step 1) to display the sinfo page and can't go beyond that, please submit an installation request, and we will have a look. If your system requires special treatment, we may install AnyBoard on your site for free (you need to provide login/password to your site), otherwise, you may order the installation service from us.