AnyBoard Version 9 Installation Guide
Please see the install.txt file in the AnyBoard package for updated information

Installation has been made even easier in version 9.
Estimated time: 5 minutes.

AnyBoard Web installer use this to install AnyBoard and AnyEmail free version on your site.

If you are setting up Windows IIS, please refer the link below on how to setup PERL for IIS

http://aspn.activestate.com//ASPN/Reference/Products/ActivePerl/faq/Windows/ActivePerl-Winfaq6.html

 

Quick Install Guide 1) Upload abicons/ folder to your web root folder 2) Upload the abmasterd/ folder to your web server, change its permission to make it writable 3) Edit anyboard.cgi: set the $abmain::master_cfg_dir to the path of abmasterd/ 4) Install anyboard.cgi to your cgi-bin, then access the script with the URL below and follow the instructions http://your-host/your-cgi-dir/anyboard.cgi?cmd=init

Detailed Instructions for new AnyBoard users



System requirements

AnyBoard can be installed on web servers which supports CGI, including UNIX, Linux and Windows NT/2000. The basic requirements for AnyBoard are

• CGI access. Your server must allow you to install your own CGI scripts. Normally, the CGI scripts are installed under a directory named cgi-bin/, cgi-local/, cgibin/, scripts/, etc. Consult your ISP on this.
• PERL 5.004 and up.

Your ISP should have a FAQ page answer questions such as CGI access and perl scripts. Always consult your ISP if not sure.

Download AnyBoard Free Version (links directly to AnyBoard.zip file), unzips it, you will find a script file named anyboard.cgi, which is the AnyBoard program.

Installation procedures

 

1 FTP the abmasterd/ folder and the abicons/ folder to your web server (trivial)

After you unzip the anyboard.zip file, you will see the following files and sub folders

As the first step, you upload both the abmasterd/ and abicons/ folders (include their sub folders) to your web server. If you have telnet access to the server, you can ftp the anyboard.zip file and unzip it on the server, otherwise, you need to unzip the AnyBoard package and upload the folders using FTP.

A) The abmasterd/ folder contains the AnyBoard functions code (the file AnyBoardOne.pm), and samples configuration filea which can be used as templates. This folder will also contain the password file for the AnyBoard System Admin (master admin), it should be placed outside of your web tree, so it's not directly accessible via the browser. Transfer all files in binary mode. Make sure abmasterd/ is writable by the CGI user.

On UNIX, the command "chmod 777 abmasterd" will make it writable. On Windows, only the server admin can change the directory permissions.

B) The abicons/ folder is just for the default icons used by AnyBoard. Upload the abicons/ directory and all image files and sub folders to your web root. Make sure it's at the right place, for example, http://your-domain.com/abicons/folder.gif should show a folder icon, if not, then you have installed the folder at the wrong place. Make sure the formicons/ sub folder is also uploaded. You should to able to see http://your-domain.com/abicons/formicons/cut.gif .

2 Edit and install the anyboard.cgi script (Pay attention now)

Set the following required parameter in the anyboard.cgi script

$abmain::master_cfg_dir

This is must be set to the path of abmasterd/ installed in step I.

Examples:
$abmain::master_cfg_dir = "/home/user/mysite/abmasterd";
$abmain::master_cfg_dir = "e:/inetpub/abmasterd";

You can use relative path for the directory, for example,

$abmain::master_cfg_dir = "../../abmasterd";

If you are not sure about the paths, you can install and run the getinfo.cgi script to examine your server settings.

Now, install the anyboard.cgi (FTP in ascii mode) to your /cgi-bin/, make sure the script is set to the right permissions. You may need to consult your web host's FAQ on how to install PERL cgi scripts. Open your browser and point to the anyboard.cgi script on the server
(http://your-site-url/your-cgi-dir/anyboard.cgi), if you set the $abmain::master_cfg_dir correctly and the abmasterd/ folder has the right permissions, you should see a form asking you to create a master administrator for the AnyBoard system.

 

3 Follow the online setup wizard (Pay attention now)

After master_cfg_dir is set correctly, AnyBoard will prompt you to create a master administrator, who has control of all AnyBoard forums.

After creating the master admin, AnyBoard will prompt you to login as the master. Once logged in, you enter the master admin panel. At this point, AnyBoard will create one forum automatically, the forum is listed as Master Forum on the admin panel. But this is a special forum resides in the master_cfg_dir and may not be under the web tree.

 

To create new forums, click on the create new forum link on the master admin panel. Simply follow the online instructions. With most Apache servers setups, this will just work, and you can skip the rest of this section.

If you have problems, then go back to the master admin panel, clicking on the "Examing system settings" link and read the information in the comments area carefully. You may have to set additional parameters, which can be done by either edit the anyboard.cgi script or through the "Reconfigure settings" link.

Most web servers supports something called PATHINFO, and AnyBoard takes advantage of that to determine the physical locations of folders automatically. However, on servers which do not provide correct support for PATHINFO, you need to tell AnyBoard not to use it. This is done by setting the $abmain::no_pathinfo in the script to 1. Now, you have 3 additional parameters to set.

$abmain::no_pathinfo = 1;

$fix_top_dir: the web directory which will contain all forums, must be writable
$fix_top_url: the URL of the $fix_top_dir
$fix_cgi_url: the URL of the AnyBoard script itself

 

Configuration	What it is	Examples
$master_cfg_dir	Where site configuration information is stored. Must be writable.	UNIX: $master_cfg_dir="/home/anyboard/abmasterd"; Windows: $master_cfg_dir="D:/inetpub/abmasterd";
$fix_top_url	Top URL of the directory which contains all forums..	$fix_top_url="http://anyboard.net/anyboard/";
$fix_top_dir	Directory for the top url above. Must be writable.	UNIX: $fix_top_dir = "/home/netbula/www/anyboard/"; Windows: $fix_top_dir="D:/inetpub/www/anyboard/";
$fix_cgi_url	Full url of the AnyBoard CGI script.	$Fix_cgi_url= "http://anyboard.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi"; $fix_cgi_url= "http://251.222.123.234/scripts/anyboard.pl";

A correctly configured script's sinfo page looks like the following:

Once these variables are configured correctly, you will see the Create new forum page. Just fill in the relevant information, and your forum will be created.

You will be then directed to the new forum's admin panel:

The very first thing you need to do is to set a admin password:

4 Request license key (registered version only)

If you are installing a non-free version of AnyBoard, you need to obtain and enter a license key, otherwise, the forum admin panel will be missing the configuration sections and certain admin functions will not be activated.

To request a key, login the master admin panel, and click on the "Set license key" link, you will see the anyboard.cgi url and a long string of letters and digits in square brackets, email both the url and the info in square brakets to sales@netbula.com to obtain a license key. You don't need a license key for the free version.

If you do the above, you have a forum running, you should start configuring the forum, such as changing admin login and password. AnyBoard has over 300 configuration parameters, see the AnyBoard manual for details.

5 Additional help needed?

If you can get the step 1) to display the sinfo page and can't go beyond that, please submit an installation request, and we will have a look. If your system requires special treatment, we may install AnyBoard on your site for free (you need to provide login/password to your site), otherwise, you may order the installation service from us.