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VForum

1. Introduction
2. Installing VForum
3. Installing in an alternate directory
4. Description and modification of files
5. Technical notes
6. VForum User Guide

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Introduction

VForum is a simple discussion area which works much like forum software. It is not a chat program in the sense of real time chatting (like IRC). The intention is that people post messages (post is a forum/email term for sending a message) at most a few times per day, and maybe only a couple of times per week. Normally, you would want to use a majordomo mail list for this purpose. Majordomo is recommended since it is more robust and better supported than VForum.

You don't need to do any programming to install or use VForum.

Installing VForum

Before installing VForum, you will need a Web site at U.Va. Click here for more information about setting up Web sites at U.Va.

Please note that even though we have greatly simplified the process, any Web site using CGI scripts and forms is potentially complex and frustrating.

Getting VForum working is basically a 3 step process: 1) Log in to your UNIX account. 2)Install VForum. 3) Post a first message in each message area.

1. Log in to your UNIX account

   If you have UMenu, choose the option "Go to UNIX". You will see prompt similar to the following:

   node4: /home/mst3k $

2. Install VForum

   Enter the following command:

   /contrib/bin/vfsetup

   You will see output similar to the following:

Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vforum.pl Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/home.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vfwriter Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vf_newreply1.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vftemplate1.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/VF_newreply2.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vftemplate2.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/VF_newreply3.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vftemplate3.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/VF_newreply4.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/vftemplate4.html Installing /home/mst3k/public_html/Readme All done. The URL of your VForum home page is: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mst3k/ Documentation is at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/web/vfdoc.html

Before logging out of your UNIX account, write down the URL of your VForum home page that appear on your screen for later reference.

You may now log out of your UNIX account.

3. Post a first message in each message area

   Use Netscape (or your favorite browser) to go to your VForum home page. Post a beginning message in each topic area. The topic area files do not exist until you post the first message. You are now ready to use VForum.

Installing in an alternate directory

The VForum package can be installed in any directory, although in general you must install the VForum package in your public_html directory, or in a subdirectory of public_html. Contact your system administrator (or write to web-consult@virginia.edu) for detailed information. To install VForum in an existing directory other than the default, use the following command format at the UNIX prompt:

/contrib/bin/vfsetup -d <directory-name>

where <directory-name> is the full path to the installation directory. VForum will be installed in the directory you name.

Here is an explicit example:

/contrib/bin/vfsetup -d /home/mst3k/public_html/survey/

You must use the full directory path, partial paths will not work. VForum will should work fine when installed in departmental directories.

Description and modification of files

These files are installed by vfsetup:

vforum.pl
a perl script to take HTML form data and append it to the appropriate message area file.

home.html
lists the 4 VForum posting forms and the four message areas. You can customize this file, but do not change the link destinations.

VF_newreply1.html, VF_newreply2.html VF_newreply3.html, VF_newreply4.html
HTML forms for entering messages (replies) in the corresponding forum areas. You may customize these files, but you must not change the form field names, the subject_id, or the action attribute of the form tag.

vftemplate1.html, vftemplate2.html, vftemplate3.html, vftemplate4.html
these templates are used the very first time a message is entered into a message area. The resulting files are vforum1.html through vforum4.html. You may customize the templates.

vforum1.html, vforum2.html, vforum3.html, vforum4.html
the message area files. The messages posted are in these HTML files. New messages are appended to the end of the file (inserted before the closing </body> tag). These files are created the first time a message is posted to the area. Please modify the templates instead of modifying the message area files.

vfwriter
a program which serves to append data to the message area files (vforum1.html, etc.).

Readme
this text file

Technical notes

Instructions for anything not explained below (like forwarding mail) can be found at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/

You can have several copies of VForum installed on your Web site, each handling a separate form. If you need a second copy of VForum, you must install it into a new directory. Do not copy the files since the installer configures them for a particular directory. If you must move VForum to another directory, you'll have to reinstall it, and copy only certain files, and you may have to edit these files. Write to web-consult@virginia.edu if you have questions.

To archive messages, copy the appropriate message area html file (vforum1.html through vforum4.html) to a new file name, then delete only the old messages from the message file. You can edit home.html to add links to the archive files if you wish.