CGI-bin Applications

Where to Put CGI-bin Scripts

Paths to Date, Mail, Perl, etc...

Setting Permissions

Troubleshooting CGI-bin Problems

 

Preconfigured CGI-bin Scripts we Provide

Formmail.cgi

Cgiemail

Secure Server Order Forms

Guestbook

Free-for-All Links Page

Random Text Generator

WWW Board

Search.cgi

Page Counters

Quick notes on SSI's

 

That'sAnOrder_LE Setup Instructions

Introduction to That's An Order LE Shopping Cart

Step 1 - Set Tax Rate

Step 2 - Set Shipping Rates

Step 3 - Upload Header File

Step 4 - Upload Footer File

Step 5 - Product Information

Step 6 - Server Information

Step 7 - Upload Email Text for Customer Email

Step 8 - Admin Information

That’s An Order LE Administrative Functions

Viewing Your Online Store

CGI stands for "Common Gateway Interface," a fancy name meaning computer programs running on the webserver that can be invoked from a www page at the browser. The "bin" part alludes to the binary executables that result from compiled or assembled programs. It is a bit misleading because cgi's can also be Unix shell scripts or interpreted languages like Perl. CGI scripts need to be saved in ASCII format and uploaded to your server's cgi-bin in ASCII or text format. This is very important.

We don't provide free support for CGI scripts which we did not install on our server. So if you are not already familiar with CGI scripting, you can read a book on the subject or find places on the Internet with CGI scripting information. There are many good resources for CGI scripts found on the web. If you are not an expert, look for scripts that are very well documented and come with step-by-step instructions.

The CGI Scripts that we provide you are basically self-contained. There is little, if anything, that needs to be done to them to make them operate.  The complicated part for most users trying to add their own cgi scripts, are the file paths and permissions.  Even experienced programmers and webmasters struggle at times to properly configure cgi programs. If you are a Novice User with limited knowledge in this area, it is strongly recommended that you first become highly proficient with HTML and web page creation before attempting to do this yourself. 

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We provide many CGI scripts with your account which you will find in a directory called cgi-bin.   We do not provide free support for CGI scripts which we do not install on your server, so if you wish to add new CGI scripts you may want to do a bit of research on them first, unless you are familiar with them already. Adding new scripts requires a more advanced knowledge of programming terms and skills and is not generally recommended for Novice Users.

Put your cgi-bin scripts in the www subdirectory named "cgi-bin".

 

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The following is a simple explanation of file permissions in Unix. To list the access permissions of a file or directory, telnet to the server, then:

cd directoryname

to change the directory until you are either in the directory above the file you are interested in, or above the directory you are checking.

Type: ls -l filename

and you will see what the current permission settings are for that file, along with a bunch of other stuff.

Examples of using chmod:

To change permissions for a file named filename.cgi, you need to chmod the file (change mode). For example, when you type this:

chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx filename.cgi

you've given:
read, execute, and write access to the user (that's you)
read and execute access to the group and
read and execute access to others

Some scripts will tell you to chmod 775 (for example). Doing the above is the same thing as typing chmod 775. You can use either method with our Unix servers. To explain:

When using the numeric system, the code for permissions is as follows:

r = 4 w = 2 x = 1 rwx = 7

The first 7 of the chmod775 tells Unix to change the user's permissions to rxw (because r=4 + w=2 + x=1 adds up to 7. The second 7 applies to the group, and the last number 5, refers to others (4+1=5).

When doing an ls -l on the file, telnet always shows the permissions this way:

-rwxr-xr-x

Ignore the first dash, then break up the above into three groups of letters. If there's a dash where a letter should be, it means that there is no permission for those people.

Remember: the first 3 apply to user, the second 3 apply to group, and the third 3 apply to others.

Some FTP clients support changing permissions in a more graphical way.

CuteFTP for Windows has an easy way to change permissions. With CuteFTP, go to the file you want to change the permissions on, and highlight it. Then right click and select "Change file attributes" and you will be given a simple graphical interface to change the permissions of the selected file or directory.

With Fetch, go to the file you want to change the permissions on, and highlight it. Under the Remote menu, select Change Permissions. A window will pop up showing the current permissions for the file you highlighted. Click on the boxes to change permissions as needed.

WS_FTP accomplishes the same task as above. Just highlight the file you want to check, and right-click on it. A menu will pop up, then select CHMOD.

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Below are solutions to some of the more common CGI script problems, in question and answer format. You will find a list of proper permission settings for the scripts we provide at the end.

When I activate my CGI program, I get back a page that says "Internal Server Error. The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

This is generally caused by a problem within the script. Log in via Telnet and test your script in local mode to get a better idea of what the problem is. To do this, go into the directory in which your script is located, then execute the script. To execute the script, you can do it two ways:

1) Type "perl myscript.pl" (Perl being the language interpreter in this case).

2) Or simply type "myscript.pl" alone. This will work if the first line is well written to indicate the location of Perl.

The first one is useful to see if there are any errors IN your script. The second one is useful to test if your "calling line" (the first line of the script) is okay, i.e. if you entered the right location of Perl.

I am being told "File Not Found," or "No Such File or Directory."

Upload your Perl or CGI script in ASCII mode, not binary mode.

When I test my Perl script in local mode (by Telnet), I have the following error: "Literal @domain now requires backslash at myscript.pl line 3, within string. Execution of myscript.pl aborted due to compilation errors."

This is caused by a misinterpretation by Perl. You see, the "@" sign has a special meaning in Perl; it identifies an array (a table of elements). Since it cannot find the array named domain, it generates an error. You should place a backslash (\) before the "@" symbol to tell Perl to see it as a regular symbol, as in an email address.

I am getting the message "POST not implemented".

You are probably using the wrong reference for cgiemail. Use the reference /cgi-bin/cgiemail/mail.txt. Another possibility is that you are pointing to a cgi-bin script that you have not put in your cgi-bin directory. In general, this message means that the web server is not recognizing the cgi-bin script you are calling as a program. It thinks it is a regular text file.

It's saying I don't have permission to access.

This error message means that you are missing your index.htm or the default.htm file for FrontPage. Note:files that start with a "." are hidden files. To see them, type ls -al. If you wish to FTP this file in, go to the home/yourdomain directory. Again, DO NOT FTP files that are directly related to your FrontPage website.

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This script is one from Matt's Script Archive which we have installed and preconfigured for your domain. FormMail is a generic www form to email gateway, which will parse the results of any form and send them to the specified user. This script has many formatting and operational options, most of which can be specified through the form (you don't need any programming knowledge or multiple scripts for multiple forms). This also makes FormMail the perfect system-wise solution for allowing users form-based user feedback capabilities without the risks of allowing freedom of CGI access.

There is only one form field that you must have in your form for FormMail to work correctly. This is the recipient field. Other hidden configuration fields can also be used to enhance the operation of FormMail on your site. The action of your form needs to point towards this script and the method must be POST in capital letters.

Here's an example of the form fields to put in your form:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi">
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="whoever@yourdomain.com">
<input type=hidden name="subject" value="Order">
<input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://yourdomain.com/">
<input type=hidden name="return_link_title" value="Back to Main Page">

The following are descriptions and proper syntax for fields you can use with FormMail.

Recipient Field
Description: This form field allows you to specify to whom you want your form results to be mailed. Most likely you will want to configure this option as a hidden form field with a value equal to that of your email address.

Syntax:
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="email@yourdomain.com">

Subject Field
Description: The subject field will allow you to specify the subject that you want to appear in the email that is sent to you after this form has been filled out. If you do not have this option turned on, then the script will default to a message subject: "WWW Form Submission".

Syntax: If you wish to choose what the subject is:
<input type=hidden name="subject" value="Your Subject">

To allow the user to choose a subject:
<input type=text name="subject">

Email Field
Description: This form field will allow the user to specify their return email address. If you want to be able to return email to your user, I strongly suggest that you include this form field and allow them to fill it in. This will be put into the From: field of the message you receive. If you want to require an email address with valid syntax, add this field name to the 'required' field.

Syntax:
<input type=text name="email">

Realname Field
Description: The realname form field will allow the user to input their real name. This field is useful for identification purposes and will also be put into the From: line of your message header.

Syntax:
<input type=text name="realname">

Redirect Field
Description: If you want to redirect the user to a different URL, rather than having them see the default response to the fill-out form, you can use this hidden variable to send them to a pre-made HTML page.

Syntax: To choose the URL they will end up at:
<input type=hidden name="redirect" value="http://yourdomain.com/to/file.html">

To allow them to specify a URL they wish to travel to once the form is filled out:
<input type=text name="redirect">

Required Field
Description: You can require certain fields in your form to be filled in before the user can successfully submit the form. Simply place all field names that you want to be mandatory into this field, separated by commas. If the required fields are not filled in, the user will be notified of what they need to fill in, and a link back to the form they just submitted will be provided. To use a customized error page, see 'missing_fields_redirect'

Syntax: If you want to require that they fill in the email and phone fields in your form, so that you can reach them once you have received the mail, use the syntax like:
<input type=hidden name="required" value="email,phone">

Env_report Field
Description: Allows you to have Environment variables included in the email message you receive after a user has filled out your form. Useful if you want to know what browser they were using, what domain they were coming from or any other attributes associated with environment variables. The following is a short list of valid environment variables that might be useful:

REMOTE_HOST - Sends the hostname making the request.
REMOTE_ADDR - Sends the IP address of the remote host.
HTTP_USER_AGENT - The browser the client is using.

Note: In our case, both REMOTE_HOST and REMOTE_ADDR are the same, since our servers don't do the reverse DNS lookup needed to generate the true REMOTE_HOST string.

Syntax: If you wanted to find all the above variables, you would put the following into your form:

<input type=hidden name="env_report" value="REMOTE_HOST,REMOTE_ADDR,HTTP_USER_AGENT">

Sort Field
Description: This field allows you to choose the order in which you want your variables to appear in the email form that FormMail generates. You can choose to have the field sorted alphabetically or specify a set order in which you want the fields to appear in your email message. By leaving this field out, the order will simply default to the order in which the browsers send the information to the script (which is usually the exact same order as they appeared in the form). When sorting by a set order of fields, you should include the phrase "order:" as the first part of your value for the sort field, and then follow that with the field names you want to be listed in the email message, separated by commas.

Syntax: To sort alphabetically:
<input type=hidden name="sort" value="alphabetic">

To sort by a set field order:
<input type=hidden name="sort" value="order:name1,name2,etc...">

Print_config Field
Description: print_config allows you to specify which of the config variables you would like to have printed in your email message. By default, no config fields are printed to your email. This is because the important form fields, like email, subject, etc. are included in the header of the message. However, some users want this option so they can have these fields printed in the body of the message. The config fields that you want to have printed should be in the value attribute of your input tag separated by commas.

Syntax: If you want to print the email and subject fields in the body of your message, you would place the following form tag:
<input type=hidden name="print_config" value="email, subject">

Print_blank_fields Field
Description: print_blank_fields allows you to request that all form fields are printed in the return HTML, regardless of whether or not they were filled in. FormMail defaults to turning this off, so that unused form fields aren't emailed.

Syntax:
<input type=hidden name="print_blank_fields" value="1">

Title Field
Description: This form field allows you to specify the title and header that will appear on the resulting page if you do not specify a redirect URL.

Syntax: If you wanted a title of 'Feedback Form Results':
<input type=hidden name="title" value="Feedback Form Results">

Return_link_url Field
Description: This field allows you to specify a URL that will appear, as return_link_title, on the following report page. This field will not be used if you have the redirect field set, but it is useful if you allow the user to receive the report on the following page, but want to offer them a way to get back to your main page.

Syntax:
<input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://yourdomain.com/index.htm">

Return_link_title
Description: This is the title that will be used to link the user back to the page you specify with return_link_url. The two fields will be shown on the resulting form page as:
Back to Main Page

Syntax:
<input type=hidden name="return_link_title" value="Back to Main Page">

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Cgiemail is provided to non-FrontPage accounts. This is another form processing script, totally different than FormMail, discussed above. It is a program written in the C language that takes the contents of fill-in boxes on a form and emails them to a specified location. In addition to the form specification in the .html file, a mail specification in a .txt file is required to format the resulting email message.

We provide the cgiemail in the cgi-bin directory of our server. You need to have an action in your order.htm file to call it. It should look like this:

<form method=post action="http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/cgiemail/order.txt">

Details are provided below. While there are a number of subsections below this one, they all work together and are meant to be read from start to finish. 

order.htm
Look for a file in your www directory called order.htm. This is our example form we put on your site that shows how a form should be configured to work with Cgiemail. Look at it in a browser, and download it to your hard drive using FTP so you can see how it works. If you've never dealt with HTML forms before, don't worry, they're easy to create and understand.

The form prompts the user for data which is sent to the server as simple key-value pairs. Each <input> tag specifies a record. The key is given by the name attribute, and the value is given by the value attribute. The type attribute tells the browser what kind of data to expect. Now, try looking at the example.

Please note that the hidden items are used to transmit critical info to Cgiemail. They provide the location of the success file, the name of the person the results should be sent to, and the subject of the form. When making your own forms, you may want to change the email address in the "required-to" field, and likely the subject in the "subject" field. The first item tells Cgiemail what to show the user after successfully completing the form. You can, but don't need to customize this.

After that come the items that are actually presented to the user. You'll want to use type=text input items with cgiemail: it's a simple tool. The size=60 tells the browser how big to make the box. The name=something is required in each input tag, otherwise the browser wouldn't know how to send the data to the server. The value=" " attribute is correct in most cases, unless you want a default value in the form.

Note that if a field begins with required-, cgiemail will require that the user enter a value for this field. This is particularly useful if you want to require a user to submit their email address.

When the user presses the Submit button, the data goes to our machine where cgiemail starts doing something with it. What is does is controlled by the order.txt file discussed below.

By the way, you can name your HTML form anything you want to. 

order.txt

Now that we have all this data, what do we do with it? Mail it, of course! But for flexibility, cgiemail requires that you create a mail.txt file to show it what to send. (If you didn't want flexibility you'd use a mailto link.) The program will read this file, perform substitutions, and pass it to the mail system.

Make sure that you upload mail.txt in ASCII mode. Failure to upload mail.txt in ASCII mode will generate the message:

"Server Error: The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

There is already an example order.txt document in the forms directory in your www directory.

There is nothing special about the name order.txt. Feel free to call it mail1.txt or form1.mail, or whatever suits you, as long as the form has the correct name for what you uploaded.

Note: the first several lines are mail headers. You probably shouldn't change that part or the corresponding parts in your form. In particular, there must be a To: header or the mail won't go anywhere!

What cgiemail does is simply replace every string that looks like [key] with the value the user typed into the field with name=key. You can lay out your form as is best for your users, but lay out your mail.txt as is best for you to read. You can even insert lots of text to help format the output. Only the [key] parts will be replaced by cgiemail.

Cgiemail does not report environmental variables like FormMail, but other than that, it is an excellent program, allowing you more flexibility in the way you want your data returned by the form.

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Normally, any text (such as your credit card number) sent from your browser to the web server is sent as plain text. This means that a hacker could potentially intercept (however unlikely) the information sent from your browser and read it. However, by using the secure server, the information is encrypted before it is sent from your browser. It would be practically impossible for anyone to decrypt it without knowing the key. Please use the secure server only when necessary, as when requesting sensitive information from your visitors.

The domains hosted by our company are housed on a number of computers and all of them have a different machine name. To find out what machine name to use for your secure order access calls, check the faq file of your domain at:

http://www.yourdomain.com/faq.html

Each server has its own faq file which is dedicated to that particular server. Even though you will be putting your form on your own domain, it must be called through the secure server in order for the form to be secure.

To do this, create your form as usual and put it somewhere in your www directory. You can put your form anywhere that you want, but for this example, let's assume the normal URL for your form can be accessed from a browser with this URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/signup/secureform.html

To call the form through the secure-order server, you need to use the following URL to access your pages via the secure server (even though your form resides on your own domain space): https://machinename/yourdomain/signup/secureform.html

That would be the URL you would put as an <HREF> to link to your form from whatever page you have your visitors link from. Don't forget the "s" in "https."

To call scripts in your cgi-bin via the secure server you should use a URL like this:

https://machinename/cgi-yourdomain/your-cgi.cgi

Special instructions for using FormMail.cgi with the Secure Server:

If you are using formmail.cgi through the secure server, you can still place your form anywhere on your webspace that you want, but you MUST use the following URL as the ACTION of your form: https://machinename/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi

Here's an example of how the first parts of your form might look:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="https://machinename/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi">
<input type=hidden name="recipient" value="whoever@yourdomain.com">
<input type=hidden name="subject" value="Order">
<input type=hidden name="return_link_url" value="http://yourdomain.com/">
<input type=hidden name="return_link_title" value="Back to Main Page">

It is still important that you call your order page through a secure URL in order to work properly. You must use:
https://machinename/yourdomain/order.htm
If you call formmail.cgi through the secure server, you must also call the order form through the secure server. Otherwise, a "bad referrer" message will result.

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Guestbook allows you to set up your own comments page. From there, visitors can add entries to your guestbook and they will be displayed with the most recent at the top and scrolling down, or vice versa. Other options include the ability to limit HTML in the entry, link to email address with mailto tag, use a log to log entries, redirect to a different page after signing, emailing whenever a new entry is added, and much more.

Guestbook is already set up for your use. You can simply use the following URL to access it: http://yourdomain.com/Guestbook/guestbook.html

If you want to change any of the configuration options, locate the guestbook.cgi file in your Guestbook directory (inside your www directory). Download it to your hard drive in ASCII mode, and save it somewhere safe. Create a copy of the file and give it the same name, then edit the options as specified below. Keep your backup of the original guestbook.cgi in case you run into problems.

Option 1: $mail
This option will allow you to be notified via an email address when a new entry arrives in your guestbook. The entry will be mailed to you as a notification. If you want to turn this variable on you will need to fill in the 2 variables that go along with it:

$recipient - Your email address, so that the mailing program will know who to mail the entry to.

$mailprog - The location of your sendmail program on your host machine.

Option 2: $uselog
This will allow you the ability to use the short log feature. It is already turned on so you will have to change it to 0 if you do not want to use it.

Option 3: $linkmail
Turning this option on will make the address links in your guestbook become hyperlinked. So instead of simply having (name@some.host) it will put (<a href="mailto:name@some.host">name@somehost</a> so that anyone can simply click on the address to email them.

Option 4: $separator
This allows you to choose whether you want guestbook entries to be separated by a Paragraph Separator <p>, or a Horizontal Rule <hr>. By changing the 0 in the script to a 1, you will turn on the <hr> separator and turn off the <p> separator. The 0 option will do the reverse of that; turn on the <p> and turn off the <hr>.

Option 5: $redirection
By choosing 1 you will enable auto redirection and 0 will return a page to the user telling them their entry has been received and click here to get back to the guestbook.

Option 6: $entry_order
Set this option to 0 and the newest entries will be added below the rest of the entries. Keep this option at 1 and the guestbook will add the newest entries at the top.

Option 7: $remote_mail
Many users of the guestbook want a form letter to be automatically sent to the remote user when they fill in the guestbook. Turning this option on will tell the script to automatically email any user who leaves an email address. You can specify the contents of the email message by editing the section of the script that sends email to the remote user. By default it sends a message that says, "Thank you for adding to my guestbook." and then shows them their entry. If you should choose to turn this variable on, you will need to fill in the 2 variables that go along with it:

$recipient - Your email address so that the mailing program will know who to mail the entry to.

$mailprog - The location of your sendmail program on your host machine.

Option 8: $allow_html
This option allows you to turn on or off the use of HTML tags by users of your guestbook. Setting this variable to 1 allows users to embed html tags such as <b> or <H1> or <a href=" "></a> into your html document. Setting this variable to 0 will not allow them to use any html syntax in their comments or any other field. You can still link to their comments or any other field. You can still link to their email address by turning $link_mail to 1.

There is also the ability for users to add their own URL and then their name is referenced to their URL in the guestbook.html file. This helps to eliminate the need for allow_html to be turned on, and lets users point you to a spot that will tell you more about them. If you want to disable this option, simply delete the following line from your addguest.html file:

URL: <input type=text name=url size=50><br>

guestbook.html
This is the file that you will link to that will contain the Guestbook Entries. You may want to edit the title and heading spaces and customize the look. Do not delete the line <!--begin--> from this guestbook, or else the script will have no way of knowing where to begin the editing. The <!--begin--> line is the only necessary line in your guestbook.html file, but the link to the addguest.html file is also a good idea.

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Free-For-All Links page allows you to set up a web page which your users can then add links to in specified categories. Newest links are added to the top of each category. A running total of the number of links present as well as the time when the last link was added is shown at the top of the page. Your preconfigured Free-For-All Links page is already set up at:
http://www.yourdomain.com/links/links.htm
The only configuration you might want to do is to customize the look of the links.htm page. Just leave the method and input tags the way they are. If you decide to change the category names, you must do so in the links.htm document, AS WELL AS the links.pl file in your cgi-bin.

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This script is preconfigured for you. There is a directory in your www directory called "random." Inside that directory is a file called random.txt. Just download this file to your hard drive and edit it with any random text you would like placed in an html document. Remember to keep the %% separator between quotes. You can use any html formatting tags you want to, including <href> tags so you can configure it as a random link generator. You can put in as many quotes as you want. Upload the random.txt file to the server in the same location you found it, remembering to upload it in ASCII or text mode.

The script uses SSI (Server Side Includes) so the page you want to use random text on must have the .sht, .shtm, or .shtml extension. On your page, just put this tag wherever you want the random text to appear:

<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/randomtext.cgi"-->

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WWW Board is a threaded World Wide Web discussion forum and message board, which allows users to post new messages, follow-up to existing ones and more. It is already preconfigured for you. Just go to
http://www.yourdomain.com/bbs
to post your messages there.

There are several options you might want to configure. First of all, the index.sht file in the bbs directory can be customized any way you want as long as you leave the method and input tags the way they are.

Secondly, there are some options contained in the wwwboard.pl script itself (located in your cgi-bin directory) which you might want to change, depending on your needs:

$show_faq = 1;
This option allows you to choose whether or not you want to display a link to the FAQ on every individual message page or not. It defaults to 1 and the link will be put in at the top of the message along with links to Follow-ups, Post Follow-up and Back to $title. Setting this to 0 will turn it off, and keeping it at 1 will keep the link. You need to create a faq.html file and put it inside the bbs directory. The FAQ can contain any information you want to give your visitors about how the board works, your organization, types of postings that will be allowed, etc.

$allow_html = 1;
This option lets you choose whether or not you want to allow HTML mark-up in your posts. If you do not want to allow it, then everything that a user submits that has <>'s around it will be cut out of the message. Setting this option to 1 will allow HTML in the posts and you can turn this option off by setting it to 0.

$quote_text = 1;
By keeping this option set to 1, the previous message will be quoted in the follow-up text input box. The quoted text will have a ':' placed in front of it so you can distinguish what had been said in the previous posts from what the current poster is trying to get across. Setting this option to 0 will leave the follow-up text box empty for the new poster.

$subject_line = 0;
There are three options for the way that you can display the subject line for the user posting a follow-up. Leaving this option at 0 which is the default value, will put the previous subject line into the follow-up form and allow users to edit the subject. Setting this option to 1, however, will quote the subject, but simply display it to the user, not allowing him or her to edit the subject line. The third and final option can be achieved by setting the $subject_line variable to 2. If it is set to 2, the subject will not be quoted and instead the user will be prompted with an empty subject block in their follow-up subject line.

$use_time = 1;
This option allows you to choose whether or not you want to use the hour:minute:second time with the day/month/year time on the main page. Day/Month/Year will automatically be placed on the main wwwboard.html page when a new entry is added, but if you leave this variable at 1, the hour:minute:second time will also be put there. This is very useful for message boards that get a lot of posts, but if you would like to save space on your main page, you can set this to 0, causing the hour:minute:second display not to be added.

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Search will look at all your html pages for words you enter, and return all pages on a list with links. This program is completely configured, but for Search.cgi to return a response, it needs to be activated. This is done by logging in via telnet and at the prompt after login type the following command:

chmod +r /www/yourdomain

Now you can access search.cgi with the following URL: http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

There is a configuration file called search_define.pl which accompanies search.cgi and sets up the variables for it. You can customize which files you want to exclude from searches and also the cosmetics of the search and results pages.

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There are 3 different types of page counters you can place on your pages. The first is a graphical counter which looks like this:

To use this one, put the following tag somewhere on your page, but change the yourpage.htm to be the address of the actual page you are putting this counter on. The width=5 part refers to how many digits you want in your counter.
This counter is not as reliable as the others mentioned.

<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?width=5&link=http://yourdomain/yourpage.htm">

Another page counter you may want to use is the Virtual Publisher Counter (on qualifying accounts only). It is another graphical counter, but it will give you all kinds of stats such as time and date of visits, and domains that your visitors come from. It looks like this:

To put this counter on your page, insert the following tag somewhere... please note that the line had to be broken up to fit on this page, but the line should not be broken on your page.

<img src="http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.cgi? fnam=testcount&viz=yes&isinv=yes&setup=
/home/www/yourdomain/cgi-bin/counter/setup.txt">

Where you see fram=testcount, put in the name of the page you want to put the counter on instead of the word testcount. The viz=yes part tells the counter script whether your counter should be invisible or not. If you want the counter to be visible, leave it as yes. If you want it to be invisible, change it to viz=no.

The isinv=yes part is for whether you want the counter to be inverted or not. The default as below means that it is inverted (as shown in the graphic above). If you want it to be a black number against a white background, change it to isinv=no.

Another great thing about this one is that you can access the log files for each page you have the counter on, and also reset the count to any number you want. To see the instruction page, go to
http://yourdomain.com/counter/ with your web browser.

Please be aware that a count file will not be created until a page is accessed for the first time.

Finally, the simplest kind of page counter is a text-based counter. It uses SSI so the page you are putting it on must have the .sht, .shtm, or .shtml extension. It will look like whatever text and size attributes you give it on your page. The tag looks like this:

<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-yourdomain/counters/counter.cgi"-->

After you've put the counter on your page, look at it with your browser. If you don't see the counter the first time, hit reload. Then you should see the number 1. If you want to change the page count, FTP to your site, and look in the counters directory in your cgi-bin. There will be a file there with the name of whatever page you placed this counter on. Just upload a new text file with a new number on it, and that will be the new count on the page next time you hit reload. Remember to upload the file in ASCII or text format.

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Your domain is capable of supporting use of SSI's, support is limited to the exec cgi command and in order for the system to process the include you must save the page with a .shtml or .sht rather than .htm or .html

Sample SSI:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->

Please note as shown in the example above, the URL must be relative and not a full call, the following will not work:
<!--#exec cgi="http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/count.cgi"-->

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To begin the setup, point your browser to:

http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/thatsanorder_LE.setup

 

REMEMBER: Replace "yourdomain.com" with your own 
domain name.

 

When you have configured That's An Order LE with your preferences, you can then view your online store at:

http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/thatsanorder_LE

 

REMEMBER: Replace "yourdomain.com" with your own 
domain name.

To retrieve your orders securely, point your browser to:
https://machine-name/username/thatsanorder/secure

REMEMBER: Replace "machine-name" with the "Machine Name" that we told you about above.

REMEMBER: Replace "username" with your own account username.

 

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Step 1 - Set Tax Rate

The first step is setting a tax rate. You need to select the state that you will be charging tax in, and then enter the rate in decimal format (i.e., a 6% tax rate should be entered as .06).

If you are not going to charge sales tax for any state, check the box for "No Tax For Any State".

Note: You must click this box to proceed without entering a tax rate. If you try to proceed with out checking the box you will encounter a Warning Error telling you to enter a tax rate for selected state. At this point, use your browser’s " ;back" button to return to the Step 1. screen and check the "No Tax For Any State" box.

If you need to charge sales tax in more than one state, click the "Add Additional Tax Rate" button and follow the same directions for adding the first state and tax rate. For more states and tax rates, continue clicking the "Add Additional Tax Rate" button after entering each state and tax rate. There is no limit to the number of rates you can add.

Note: If you add the same state twice with different tax rates you will encounter a Warning Error. You will be able to add or delete tax rates in the administration area after you have completed That’s An Order LE setup.

When you have added all the state tax rates that you need, click the "Go To Step 2" button.

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Step 2 - Set Shipping Rates

The second step is setting the way in which any shipping costs will be charged, and entering the specific shipping rates for each method of shipping.

First choose from the list of four shipping charge options by clicking on the appropriate option button. Click the "Enter Rates" button.

Figure shipping costs per item ordered:

If you are going to figure shipping costs per item ordered, you will be prompted to enter the type(s) of shipping you will have available (e.g., ground, air, express) and the shipping charge per each item ordered that is correlated with it.

In the column titled "Type of Shipping" enter one shipping method in each box numbered 1-5 as you want it to appear to your customer. In the column titled "Shipping Charge Per Each Item Ordered" enter the shipping charge per each item ordered. That's An Order LE will automatically display it in dollars and cents format.

If you have more than 5 types of shipping, click the "Add Additional Shipping Rates" button, and add the types of shipping and shipping charge per each item ordered in the same way as 1-5. There is no limit to the number of rates you can add.

When you have entered the type(s) of shipping you want, click the "Go To Step 3" button.

Figure shipping costs based on total amount of order:

If you are going to charge for shipping based on the total amount of the order, you will be prompted to enter the type(s) of shipping you will have available (e.g. ground, air, express) and the shipping charge for amounts between two total amounts.

In the column "Type of Shipping" enter one shipping method in each box numbered 1-5 as you want it to appear to your customer.

In the column titled "Total Charge is Between These Amounts", enter a low and high total charge value to define a range for the corresponding shipping charge. For example, if you are charging a $2 shipping rate for totals between $1 and $10, enter 1 in the first box and 10 in the next box, followed by $2 in the shipping rate box. Be careful not to overlap values. In this example, use $10.01 for your next low value, $20 for your next high value, $20.01 for your next low value, and $30 for your next high value, and so on.

In the column titled "Shipping Charge" enter the shipping charge for each total charge. That's An Order LE will automatically display it in dollars and cents format.

If you have more than 5 types of shipping, click the "Add Additional Shipping Rates" button, and add the additional information in the same way as 1-5.

When you have entered the type(s) of shipping you want, click the "Go To Step 3" button.

Note: If you encounter a Warning Error after entering the shipping rates, carefully read the warning message and use your browser’s back button to return to the Step 2 page to correct your error.

Figure shipping costs based on a percentage of the total amount of order:

If you are going to charge for shipping based on a percentage of the total order, you will be prompted to enter the type(s) of shipping you will have available, and the corresponding percentage of the total amount of the order that will equal the shipping cost.

In the column "Type of Shipping" enter one shipping method in each box numbered 1-5 as you want it to appear to your customer.

In the column titled "Percentage of Total Amount of Order" enter the percentage of the total amount of the purchased order that will equal the shipping charge for the order. Enter the percent in decimal form (e.g., enter 6% as .06).

Do not charge for shipping:

If you are not going to charge for shipping, click the "Do not charge for shipping" option button , followed by the "Enter Rates" button, to continue to Step 3.

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Step 3 - Upload Header File

The third step is uploading a header file from your FrontPage website. The header file will be used to create a header at the top of each page in your store, check out area and order form. This file may contain an image(s). If so, the image(s) must be located in your "images" directory of your website.

To select your header file, click the "Browse…" button to search for the file on your computer or a disk where your FrontPage website is located. When you find the header file that you have created using your FrontPage software, click the "Open" button or double click on the header file to enter it in the box.

IMPORTANT: To see the images properly, make sure the image(s) files you are using for your "header.htm" file are included in your "images" directory within your FrontPage website.

When you have entered the header file, click the 
"Go To Step 4" button to continue.

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Step 4 - Upload Footer File

The fourth step is uploading a footer file from your FrontPage website. The footer file will be used to create a footer at the bottom of each page in your store, check out area and order form. This file may contain an image(s). If so, the image(s) must be located in your "images" directory of your website.

To select your footer file, click the "Browse…" button to search for the file on your computer or a disk where your FrontPage website is located. When you find the header file that you have created using your FrontPage software, click the "Open" button or double click on the footer file to enter it in the box.

IMPORTANT: To see the images properly, make sure the image(s) files you are using for your "footer.htm" file are included in your "images" directory within your FrontPage website.

When you have entered the footer file, click the 
"Go To Step 5" button to continue.

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Step 5 - Product Information

The fifth step is selecting the information you want displayed with a specific product. In addition to displaying the product’s name and price, you have the option of displaying image(s), size(s), color(s), and a description.

If you wish to display any or all of these parameters click the "Yes" option button next to the parameter you desire. Click the "No" option button next to a parameter you do not want displayed.

Note: That’s An Order will support any image that can be viewed in an HTML document (.jpg, .gif, etc.)

If you wish to display one of the parameters for some products, but not all, you must click the "Yes" option button, and later choose to omit or include it when you are entering your products.

Note: Deciding which parameters to display will decide the format of the product pages in your store. Choosing all the parameters will format each page to display all parameters, whether you want to display it for each individual product or not. For example, if you choose to display an image, and you don’t have images for all your products, there will be an empty space instead of an image for those products that you don't have images for.

When you have chosen the parameters you wish you include, click the "Continue" button.

Product Sizes
To enter the available size(s) of your products ,enter one size per line in the box. If you have products that are not offered in the same size(s) enter the available sizes in the box. You will have a chance later to choose which product is offered in which size(s).

For example, if you sell both cars and T-shirts, a car may be offered in "2-doors" and "4-doors", while a T-shirt may be offered in "small", "medium", and "large". In this case, enter 2-door, 4-door, s mall, medium, and large on separate lines in the box.

Note: Entering all available sizes in the setup process creates a checkbox for each size. This will save you from having to type them in later for each individual product when you are adding products in the Admin Options area.

If your product does not come in different sizes, i.e. it only comes in one size, you may want to enter any size information in the description of the product.

When you have entered all of the available sizes, click the "Enter Sizes" button to continue.

Note: Don’t worry if you forget a size or enter a size that is not available. You will be able to edit sizes when you enter your products.

Product Colors
To enter the available product color(s), enter one color per line in the box. If you have products that are not offered in the same color(s), enter the available colors in the box. You will have a chance later to choose which product is offered in which color(s).

For example, if you sell both cars and T-shirts, a car may be offered in "silver", and "cherry red", while a T-shirt may be offered in "red", "blue" and green". In this case, enter silver, cherry red, red, blue, and green on separate lines, in the box.

Note: Entering all available colors in the setup process creates a checkbox for each color. This will save you from having to type them in later for each individual product when you are adding products in the Admin Options area.

If your product does not come in different colors, i.e. it only comes in one color, you may want to enter any color information in the description of the product.

When you have entered all of the available colors, click the "Enter Colors" button to continue.

Note: Don’t worry if you forget a color or include a color that is not available. You will be able to edit colors when you enter your products.

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Step 6 - Server Information

In order for your online store to work correctly in secure mode (SSL), which safeguards your customers' orders, you must enter your server name.

In the box provided enter the "Machine Name" which is provided at the beginning of this email.

When you have entered the machine name, click the "Go To Step 7" button to continue.

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Step 7 - Upload Email Text for Customer Email

When your customer places an order, they will receive an email confirming their order. You need to enter a file that will appear in the email the customer receives after placing an order. This is a regular text file (not HTML), and should include your contact information, return policy, etc. All line breaks and other formatting will show as you have created it. The actual order information will appear below this text.

To select your email text file, click the "Browse" button to search for the file on your computer or a disk. When you find the file, click the "Open" button or double click on the file to enter it in the box. To continue click the "Go to Step 8" button.

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Step 8 - Admin Information

In Admin Information you have the opportunity to enter an email address, username, password, and store name for your online store. The email address you type is the one that will receive the order emails from your customers . Your username and password are what you will use to enter into the admin info editing area to change product information. The name of the store is what customers will see as the name of the online store when they receive order confirmation emails.

Enter the appropriate information in the boxes provided and click the "Complete Set Up" button to complete That’s An Order LE setup. Remember to record your username and password in a safe place.

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That’s An Order LE Administrative Functions

In order to add products, edit product information, and perform other administrative functions in your online store, go to:

http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/thatsanorder_LE.setup

Enter your username and password in the boxes provided. Click the "Login" button.

If you forgot your password, click the "Forgot Password" button and follow the directions on the screen for retrieving your username and password. To obtain your username and password off your server, you must be able to telnet to your server.

Add Product
To add a product to your online store, in Admin Options, scroll to "Add Product" and click the "Go!" button.

In the Add Product page, you will be able to fill in boxes for Product Name, Price, Description, Product Image, Available sizes, Additional Sizes, Available Colors, and Additional Colors. Note: You will only see image, size, color and description options, if you chose to display those options in

"Step 5 - of That’s An Order LE setup".

Enter each parameter as you want it to appear to your customer in the online store.

To select the available sizes and colors for the given product, check the check box next to the desired color(s) or size(s). Adding additional colors or sizes will add additional checkboxes to be available the next time you add a product.

When you are finished adding the product click the "Add Product" button to return to the Admin Options page.

To add more products, scroll to "Add Product" and click the "Go!" button.

Edit/Delete Product
Note: To edit or delete a product, you must first add a product to the database.

If you wish to edit product information or delete a product information, in Admin Options, scroll to Edit/Delete Product and click the "Go!" button.

You will see a screen with a list of the products you have added to your store in the column titled "Product Name", and a column titled "Delete" containing check boxes. To delete a product check the box next to it in the "Delete" column and click the "Delete Products" button. To edit a product, click the name of the product to get to the edit product page.

In the Edit Product page, make any desired changes to the product information, then click the "Edit Product" button to return to the Admin Options page.

Edit/Delete Tax Rates
To edit or delete a tax rate, in Admin Options, scroll to "Edit/Delete Tax Rates" and click the "Go!" button.

You will see a list of the current states and tax rates that you have entered.

To make any desired changes, click on the boxes and either scroll to desired state, or enter a new tax rate.

To delete a tax rate, delete the rate next to the state.

To add a tax rate, enter a rate and choose a state in the blank spaces provided.

When you have made the desired changes, click the "Edit/Delete Tax Rates" button to return to the Admin Options page.

Edit/Delete Shipping Rates
To edit or delete the way in which you charge for shipping, or the shipping rates, in Admin Options, scroll to "Edit/Delete Shipping Rates" and click the "Go!" button.

You will see the four shipping rate options listed with option buttons next to them.

To change the way in which you charge for shipping, click on the option button next to the method you want to use. To make the change and return to the Admin Options page, click the "Edit/Delete Shipping Rates".

Note: If you change the type of shipping it will delete all rates and you'll have to enter new rates or none will appear in your online store.

To edit shipping rates, click the underlined text next to the option button that you have selected. Make any desired changes in the boxes provided. You can add up to 4 shipping rates by typing values in the boxes. You can delete shipping rates by clearing the values in the boxes.

Click the "Edit Shipping" button to return to the Admin Options page.

Edit Admin Information
To change your admin email address, username, password, or store name, in Admin Options, scroll to "Edit Admin Information" and click the "Go!" button.

In the displayed boxes you will see the current admin information. To make any desired changes, click the appropriate box, delete the current information, and type in any changes.

Note: All fields are required.

Click the "Edit Admin Information" button to make the changes and return to the Admin Options page.

Edit Product Information
To change the information categories that are displayed for each product, in Admin Options, scroll to Edit Product Information and click the "Go!" button.

To change what information is displayed about products, select either "Yes" to display or "No" to hide "Images", "Sizes", "Colors", and "Descriptions". Click the "Edit Product Information" button to make the changes and return to the Admin Options page.

If you changed either size or color from a "No" to a "Yes", you will need to add at least one size or color as detailed in Step 5 of setup "Product Sizes" and "Product Colors".

To edit the actual images, sizes, colors or descriptions, click on the underlined text next to the option buttons and then edit the information in the boxes provided. Click the button at the bottom of the screen to make the changes and return to the Admin Options page.

Upload New Header/Footer/Email Files
To change your header, footer or email files, in Admin Options, scroll to "Upload New Header/Footer/Email Files" and click the "Go!" button.

Note: The boxes displayed are blank. If you enter any new information in them, your previously entered information will be overwritten. Leaving the boxes blank will keep the previously entered file(s) intact.

To enter a new header, footer or email file click in the appropriate box. and click the "Browse…" button to search for your file on your computer or a disk. When you find the file, click the "Open" button, or double click on it to enter it into the box.

When you have made all desired changes, click the "Overwrite Files" button to return to the Admin Options page.

Edit Machine Name
To edit your machine name, in Admin Options, scroll to "Edit Machine Name" and click the "Go!" button.

In the box provided you will see the current machine name displayed. To change it, delete the current name and retype the new name. Click the "Edit Machine Name" button to make the change and return to the Admin Options page. The correct "Machine Name" can be found at the top of these instructions.

Delete Current Setup File and Start New Setup
Warning! This will delete all files associated with That’s An Order LE, including images, files, product information and all setup options.

If you wish to delete all previously entered setup information, in Admin Options, scroll to "Delete Current Setup File and Start New Setup" and click the "Go!" button.

You will see a Delete Warning, and two buttons. If you wish to continue to delete the current setup, click the "Continue Delete Setup" button. If you do not wish to continue deleting setup, click the "Cancel Delete" button.

If you press the "Continue Delete Setup" button, follow setup Steps 1-8 as outlined above.

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Viewing Your Online Store

Once you setup That's An Order LE the way you want it to appear to your customer, you can test out your online store.

Go to: http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/thatsanorder_LE

You can now shop in your store as if you are a customer.

Please note the following about the checkout process:

The customer has the option of secure (SSL) or regular checkout. Secure checkout will ensure that orders are not viewed by outside parties.

That's An Order LE creates a unique order number for each order made.

Certain information (quantity, size, color, state, and shipping method) is required when placing an order. Certain fields (first name, last name, address, day phone, credit card number, and cardholder's name) are required of the customer when filling out the online order form. The order form checks the validity of the credit card number and the expiration date however, it is still possible that the card is not good.

The final total including tax and shipping is displayed to the customer before the order is finalized.

When the customer completes their order, a message thanking them for shopping at your store and informing them that they will receive an order confirmation via email is displayed.

That's it :)

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