Guido van Rossum | 132e189 | 1997-05-26 20:15:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | FAQ Wizard |
| 2 | ---------- |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Author: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> |
Guido van Rossum | dafce6d | 1997-06-02 23:10:06 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 5 | Version: 0.5 |
| 6 | Date: 2 June 1997 |
Guido van Rossum | 132e189 | 1997-05-26 20:15:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | This is a CGI program that maintains a user-editable FAQ. It uses RCS |
| 10 | to keep track of changes to individual FAQ entries. It is fully |
| 11 | configurable; everything you might want to change when using this |
| 12 | program to maintain some other FAQ than the Python FAQ is contained in |
| 13 | the configuration module, faqconf.py. |
| 14 | |
Guido van Rossum | dafce6d | 1997-06-02 23:10:06 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 15 | Note that the bulk of the code is not an executable script; it's an |
| 16 | importable module. The actual script in cgi-bin is minimal. |
Guido van Rossum | 132e189 | 1997-05-26 20:15:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | |
| 18 | Files: |
| 19 | |
| 20 | faqw.py executable script to be edited and installed in cgi-bin |
| 21 | faqwin.py main module, lives in same directory as FAQ entry files |
| 22 | faqconf.py main configuration module |
| 23 | faqcust.py additional local customization module (optional) |
| 24 | |
Guido van Rossum | dafce6d | 1997-06-02 23:10:06 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 25 | Setup Information |
| 26 | ----------------- |
| 27 | |
| 28 | This assumes you are familiar with Python, with your http server, and |
| 29 | with running CGI scripts under your http server. You need Python 1.4 |
| 30 | or better. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Create a dedicated working directory, preferably one that's not |
| 33 | directly reachable from your http server. Drop the Python modules |
| 34 | mentioned above in the working directory. Create a subdirectory named |
| 35 | RCS. Make both the working directory and the RCS subdirectory |
| 36 | wrld-writable. (This is essential, since the FAQ wizard runs as use |
| 37 | nobody, and needs to create additional files here!) |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Edit faqconf.py to reflect your setup. You only need to edit the top |
| 40 | part, up till the line of all dashes. The comments should guide you |
| 41 | in your edits. You can also choose to make your changes to faqcust.py |
| 42 | and leave faqconf.py alone. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Don't forget to edit the SECTION_TITLES variables to reflect the set |
| 45 | of section titles for your FAQ! |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Next, edit faqw.py to reflect the pathname of your Python interpreter |
| 48 | and the directory you just created. Then install in in your cgi-bin |
| 49 | directory. Make sure that it is world-executable. You should now be |
| 50 | able to connect to the FAQ wizard by entering the following URL in |
| 51 | your web client (subsituting the appropriate host and port for |
| 52 | "your.web.server", and perhaps specifying a different directory for |
| 53 | "cgi-bin" if local conventions so dictate): |
| 54 | |
| 55 | http://your.web.server/cgi-bin/faqw.py |
| 56 | |
| 57 | If you are unable to get this working, check your server's error_log |
| 58 | file. The documentation for Python's cgi module in the Python Library |
| 59 | Reference Manual gives plentyu additional information about installing |
| 60 | and debugging CGI scripts, including setup debugging. This |
| 61 | documentation is repeated in the doc string in the cgi module; try |
| 62 | ``import cgi; print cgi.__doc__''. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | Assuming this woks, you should now be able to add the first entry to |
| 65 | your FAQ using the FAQ wizard interface. This creates a file |
| 66 | faq01.001.htp in your working directory and an RCS revision history |
| 67 | file faq01.001.htp,v in the RCS subdirectory. You can now exercise |
| 68 | the other FAQ wizard features (search, index, whole FAQ, what's new, |
| 69 | and roulette). |
Guido van Rossum | d7918fb | 1997-05-30 12:01:24 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 70 | |
Guido van Rossum | 132e189 | 1997-05-26 20:15:09 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 71 | --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) |