EZRANKPG - easy rank page (aka. topsite) maker, by manny juan 6/12/2001
        powered by Solution Script's Topsite Freeware

EZRANKPG INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
----------------------------------

ASSUMPTIONS
        your home base directory is
                path=   /home/htdocs/your.isp.com/website
                URL=    http://www.isp.com/website

        your cgi url is:
                CGIURL=    http://www.isp.com/website/cgi-bin

        you want to store the topsite pages in a subdirectory called 'topsites'.
        note: each topsite page will be a subdirectory beneath 'topsites'.

then you should do the following:

SETUP
        1. create the subdirectory 'topsites' under the home base directory and chmod to 777
        2. unzip ezrankpg.zip into this directory
        3. all the .pl files will go your cgi-bin directory and chmoded to 755

INDEX.HTML
        1. supply correct URL for the logo 
                (ie. IMG SRC=http://www.isp.com/website/topsites/mjmall.jpg)
        2. supply correct URL for the cgi script.  for example:
                <form action="http://www.isp.com/website/cgi-bin/ezrankpg.pl" method="POST">
        3. do above two more times for the 'edit topsite page' and 'delete topsite page'
        buttons.
        4. keep the <!--begin--> line in the page. DO NOT REMOVE!
        5. chmod to 777

DATA.TXT (list of users) 
        1. (initially empty)
        2. install in subdirectory 'topsites' and chmod to 777

EZRANKPG.GIF    - keep in 'topsites', ez topsite page default banner
EZPALETTE.GIF   - keep in 'topsites', color scheme selection graphic
MJMALL.JPG      - keep in 'topsites', logo for ez rank page maker
TOPSITES_LOGO.GIF   - keep in 'topsites'

EZRANKPG.CFG (config file, common variables)
        (you might have to change the extension to .cgi depending on your server)
        1. set this to 1 to override 'updttime' so clicks are counted immediately.
        if this is set to 0, clicks are counted after 'updttime' elapses. 
        ('updttime' is selected during page creation)
                $test=1; 
        2. set this to 1 to use file locking (set to 0 if server is win95)
                $flock = 1;
        3. what extension do you use for scripts?
                $cgi="pl";
        4. The Name of you Top Sites Program
                $topsite_name="Top Sites Demo";
        5. Full path to where topsites.html should be created
                $basedir = "/home/htdocs/your.isp.com/website/topsites";
        6. Url to where topsites.html will be located
                $baseurl="http://www.isp.com/website/topsites";
        7. Url of the cgi directory
                $cgiurl="http://www.isp.com/website/cgi-bin";
        8. install in cgi-bin and chmod to 755
            
EZRANKNU.PL (script for creating new site, replaces newsites.cgi)
        1. make sure first line of script points to location of perl program
                #!/usr/bin/perl
        2. install in cgi-bin and chmod to 755

EZRANKVU.PL (script for viewing and ranking topsites, replaces topsites.cgi)
        1. make sure first line of script points to location of perl program
                #!/usr/bin/perl
        2. install in cgi-bin and chmod to 755

EZRANKPG.PL (easy topsite page maker script)
        (you might have to change the extension to .cgi depending on your server)
        1. make sure first line of script points to location of perl program
                #!/usr/bin/perl
        2. what extension do you use for scripts?
                $cgi="pl";
        3. where is your email program
                $sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
        4. your email - email-id of the person giving this service - (duh, you!)
        (use apostrophe not quote)
                $myemail = 'email@isp.com';
        5. install this script in cgi-bin and chmod to 755

VARIABLES.PL - not used anymore
TOPSITES.CGI - not used anymore, replaced by EZRANKVU.PL
NEWSITES.CGI - not used anymore, replaced by EZRANKNU.PL

USAGE AND TESTING
-----------------
1. from index page, click "new page" to create a new topsite.
2. click "your site here" to add a new site (name, url, email and banner) to the topsite.
3. IMPORTANT:  when the generated HTML appears, you must cut and paste to a page at
your site.  visit that page and click on the EZRANKPG banner to activate your site.  successive
clicks on this banner will increment your hits.
4. for testing purposes, set $test=1 in ezrankpg.cfg - this will records clicks
immediately.  for normal usage, set $test=0 and clicks will be recorded when the
'updttime' (entered at page creation) has elapsed.

NOTE: the files DATA.TXT contains fields used for validating the identity of the user.  you
may want to rename this file to a name that cannot be guessed easily.  if you do, make sure
you also change the ezrankpg.pl script.

NOTE: EZRANKPG was written to work with scripts originally written by Tim Watson 
of Solution Scripts (http://solutionscripts.com) under the name of Topsites Freeware.
please respect those copyrights.  please do not remove any of the links and copyright
information from any of the scripts or the generated pages.

thank you.

----------
manny@jps.net
http://www.inet-images.com/manny
6/12/2001