MTVWebdesign MailPage v2.0

You should be very careful handling CGI files. If you type something wrong, it might be that the script will fail. We take good care of our scripts and all the script we place on the internet are tested. They work for us. If they don't work for you you'll see an error in the browser, sometimes with a detailed message. Read more about such problems by clicking here.
If you are not an experienced perl programmer, we advice you not to edit the code. (Except the things you need to change as described in "Getting the script to work". If you want to become a perl programmer, we advice you to look over as much scripts as you possibly can. This script included! Make sure you keep a copy of the script before you start changing things. Get to know certain routines etc., and visit sites like the MTVWebdesign Perl section, CGI-Resources.com (A lot of scripts and tutorials), Scriptsearch.com and Developer Daily. Also, we advice you too read messages in cgi-newsgroups.
Good luck!

I will try to give as much information as possible about the use of this script. Hope you understand it all. If not, you can always email me at cgi@mtvwebdesign.hypermart.net.

Features

• Easy to setup.
• Send page as URL, In body of email or as attachement.
• You can set a tokenfile.
• Unlimited pages allowed

You'll find more information about some of the features in the rest of this page.

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What's new?

• LWP added: now you can attach the page to the email or send the page in the body of the email

Downloading the script

Go to http://mtvwebdesign.hypermart.net/scripts/ for the latest version

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Requirements

You need to have LWP installed on your server. Ask your webmaster.

The script is tested with success on the following system(s):
Pentium 133Mhz (32 Mb RAM), Apache 1.3.4 and Sambar Perl 5 (ActiveState) build 509 (January 4th 1999), Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0.

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Getting the script to work.

Changes in the CGI files

• Please check the first line of all the .CGI files. (#!/usr/local/bin/perl). This should be the place where Perl is located on your server. Ask your webmaster for more information.
  
• In all the .CGI files, you can find the following lines (They might look different in the script):

  use LWP::UserAgent;
  $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
  $ua->agent("$ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}");
  use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); # Provides you with fatal error message if they occur.
  use CGI qw/:standard/;
  require '/home/username/mailpage/mailpage.conf';
  require $mtvwebdesignlib;
  

  These lines are probably the most important.
  Now, what you need to do is this: The

  require '/home/username/mailpage/mailpage.conf';

  line should point to your config file. Please make sure you use an absolute path (as shown). Ask you webmaster for more information.

Changes in the mailpage.conf file

• $servicename
  This is the name of the service you are providing. You can leave it the way it is.
• $servicelocation
  This is the URL to the page where people can find out how to place a link to the script on their page so people surfing on their pages can also email their pages.
• $mtvwebdesignlib
  This should point to the mtvwebdesign.lib file. Make sure it's the absolute path to the file. Example: "/home/username/mailpage/mtvwebdesign.lib";
• $privacy_file
  This should point to the privacy.txt file. Make sure it's the absolute path to the file. Example: "/home/username/mailpage/privacy.txt";
• $use_flock
  Set this to 1 if you are on a UNIX or WindowsNT system. If you don't know what system you are on, just set it to 1.
• $mailprog
  This should point to the mailprogram on your server. Example: "|/usr/bin/sendmail -t";
  Ask you webmaster. Please note that you have to include the pipe (|) and flags like "-t".
• $usetoken
  Set to 1 if you want to use the tokenfile option. Read more about it here.
• $tokenfile
  The name of the file containing the $token. (See the example file tokefile.html)
• $token
  This is the commentline which the script will look for in the $tokenfile. Default is <-- TOKEN -->
• 1;
  Just don't delete the 1...

Uploading the files

UPLOAD IN ASCII FORMAT!

1. mailpage.cgi
   Upload this file to the directory where you want it. CHMOD the file 755.
2. mailpage.conf
   Upload this file to the place specified in each .cgi file under "require". CHMOD 777.
3. mtvwebdesign.lib
   Upload this file to the place specified in $mtvwebdesignlib. CHMOD the file 777.
4. tokenfile.html
   Upload this file to the place specified in $tokefile. CHMOD 644. (Just upload.)

Running the script

<a href="/cgi-bin/mailpage/mailpage.cgi">Email this page!</a>

<a href="/cgi-bin/mailpage/mailpage.cgi?url=http://mtvwebdesign.hypermart.net">Email the MTVWebdesign page to a friend!</a>

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Demo of the script

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Known problems

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FAQ

BinaryDecimal
000 = 0
001 = 1
010 = 2
011 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5
110 = 6
111 = 7

r = readable
w = writeble
x = executable

So to set the permission above, "rw-r--r-x", on the file "test.txt," you would figure out the decimal first:
rw- r-- r-x =
110 100 101 =
6 4 5

I get a 501 Internal server error. What should I do?
Well, you have a problem there....
What you should do first is checking if you uploaded the CGI file in ASCII format and not in BINARY format.
If that doesn't work, check if all the permissions (CHMOD) are set right.
If that doesn't work, check the server error log. Ask your webmaster for more information

What does "premature end of script headers mean"?
You probably uploaded the file in BINARY format. This should be ASCII format.
If that doesn't work, you should check the things you have changed in the script:
Is there a ";" at the end of lines? Are there any missing quotes (")? Etceteras.

How do I use a tokenfile?
First, take a look in the source of tokenfile.html. This is a page which has a tag in the source, which you cannot see when you view it in the browser. The tag is <!-- TOKEN --> (specified in setup.txt at $token). When you select that you want to use a template, Chat with me! will look for the $tokenfile (tokenfile.html) and that it 'll search for the $token. If it finds the token (WHICH NEEDS TO BE PLACE ON A SEPARATE LINE IN THE SOURCE OF THE HTML DOCUMENT!), it'll print it's output at that spot in the html document. This way you get your own nice layout for the Chat with me! service!
TIP: Try to use STYLE tags in the $tokenfile!

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About MTVWebdesign open source.

We particularly point out our use of the English language. Since English is not our first language, we cannot make sure that there a no misspellings in the code.

If your made a change which you think makes the script run better, please email the change (script) to opensource@mtvwebdesign.hypermart.net

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Disclaimer

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Copyright © MTVWebdesign scripts 2000.