Setting Up ROFM CGI

Contents

Introduction

Set Up

Installation

Upgrading

Use

Special Characters

Misc

Installation

1. Read the requirements to make sure you have the correct version of ROFM CGI plus all the support software you need.
2. Install the following Scripting Addition files, then reboot:
   • ACME parse args
   • ACME Script Widgets 2.5

   "ACME parse args" and "ACME Script Widgets 2.5" are files in the package ACME Script Widgets 2.5, a shareware package by Wayne Walrath.

3. Put the folder ROFM_CGI where your WWW server can see it (often this means in the same folder as your WWW server or a sub-folder, but please read the server's documentation). Please do not rearrange the files within the ROFM_CGI folder, because that may break the samples.
4. Run ROFM.acgi. It should always be running before you try to serve data. It is slow to start up and will probably miss the first request if your WWW server has to launch it.

   The first time you run the CGI it may ask you to locate "FileMaker Pro" and/or "Eudora". Your applications need not have exactly the requested names, but you should be careful to select the correct application! If you don't have Eudora and you are sure you do not wish to email newly added records, then you can supply any application instead of Eudora (if you later change your mind, run a fresh copy of ROFM.acgi).

   Note that ROFM.acgi tests the scripting extensions when it starts up, and will report an error if any are broken or corrupted. Fix any problems before you go on!

5. If ROFM.acgi asked you where applications are, you should now quit it, so it remembers the information for next time. You will need some patience because it takes about 15 seconds to quit. Then run it again.
6. Open the sample database "bb.db" by double-clicking it. Your database(s) must always be open before you can serve them. (FileMaker Pro opens database files so slowly that it is impractical to have ROFM CGI open and close them.)
7. Try it out! Run a WWW browser and open one of the supplied forms, such as "bbFind.html", using an http:// style URL, so that your WWW server serves them. Don't open forms as text files in your browser; your WWW server must serve forms for them to do anything useful!

Upgrading

Read the History to see what changes have occurred. Enhance or modify your forms and databases accordingly.

ROFM CGI 4.3 made significant changes to email handling. If you have forms that send email you must modify your forms. Don't forget to modify forms generated in your database(s) using calculation fields.

ROFM CGI 4.2 and beyond require a modern Mac WWW server, such as QuidProQuo 2 or WebStar 2. They will not work with WebStar 1 or QuidProQuo 1 because those servers hex-decode search arguments (use ROFM CGI 4.1-B with those). If you do use the wrong version everything will work except the "next page" feature, so it is easy to figure out which version to use.

ROFM CGI 4.2 and beyond are compiled with FaceSpan 2.1; as a result they require QuickTime (and, if you have a PowerMac, QuickTime PowerPlug); if you neglect this you will get a misleading message about needing the "FaceSpan Extension".

ROFM CGI 4.1 and beyond use a preferences file. To upgrade from 4.1 no changes are needed to keep your old preferences. To use your settings from versions 3.2 to 4.0 of ROFM CGI you must transfer them manually.

Warning for those upgrading from ROFM CGI 4.0: arguments in URLs came after "$" in version 4.0. This is unique to version 4.0 (I was trying to work around WebStar's decoding of search arguments but ran into the CERN proxy problem). All other versions used "?" instead of "$". To upgrade from 4.0, you must change your calculation fields, forms and URLs to use "?" instead of "$". If you fail to do this you will get errors such as "you must specify _database".