| FAQ Wizard |
| ---------- |
| |
| Author: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> |
| Version: 0.6 |
| Date: 12 July 1997 |
| |
| |
| This is a CGI program that maintains a user-editable FAQ. It uses RCS |
| to keep track of changes to individual FAQ entries. It is fully |
| configurable; everything you might want to change when using this |
| program to maintain some other FAQ than the Python FAQ is contained in |
| the configuration module, faqconf.py. |
| |
| Note that the bulk of the code is not an executable script; it's an |
| importable module. The actual script in cgi-bin is minimal. |
| |
| Files: |
| |
| faqw.py executable script to be edited and installed in cgi-bin |
| faqwin.py main module, lives in same directory as FAQ entry files |
| faqconf.py main configuration module |
| faqcust.py additional local customization module (optional) |
| |
| Setup Information |
| ----------------- |
| |
| This assumes you are familiar with Python, with your http server, and |
| with running CGI scripts under your http server. You need Python 1.4 |
| or better. |
| |
| Create a dedicated working directory, preferably one that's not |
| directly reachable from your http server. Drop the Python modules |
| mentioned above in the working directory. Create a subdirectory named |
| RCS. Make both the working directory and the RCS subdirectory |
| wrld-writable. (This is essential, since the FAQ wizard runs as use |
| nobody, and needs to create additional files here!) |
| |
| Edit faqconf.py to reflect your setup. You only need to edit the top |
| part, up till the line of all dashes. The comments should guide you |
| in your edits. You can also choose to make your changes to faqcust.py |
| and leave faqconf.py alone. |
| |
| Don't forget to edit the SECTION_TITLES variables to reflect the set |
| of section titles for your FAQ! |
| |
| Next, edit faqw.py to reflect the pathname of your Python interpreter |
| and the directory you just created. Then install in in your cgi-bin |
| directory. Make sure that it is world-executable. You should now be |
| able to connect to the FAQ wizard by entering the following URL in |
| your web client (subsituting the appropriate host and port for |
| "your.web.server", and perhaps specifying a different directory for |
| "cgi-bin" if local conventions so dictate): |
| |
| http://your.web.server/cgi-bin/faqw.py |
| |
| If you are unable to get this working, check your server's error_log |
| file. The documentation for Python's cgi module in the Python Library |
| Reference Manual gives plentyu additional information about installing |
| and debugging CGI scripts, including setup debugging. This |
| documentation is repeated in the doc string in the cgi module; try |
| ``import cgi; print cgi.__doc__''. |
| |
| Assuming this woks, you should now be able to add the first entry to |
| your FAQ using the FAQ wizard interface. This creates a file |
| faq01.001.htp in your working directory and an RCS revision history |
| file faq01.001.htp,v in the RCS subdirectory. You can now exercise |
| the other FAQ wizard features (search, index, whole FAQ, what's new, |
| and roulette). |
| |
| --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) |