New Books List Copyright 2000-2004, The University of Texas at Arlington Written by Michael Doran, doran@uta.edu UTA Libraries, Box 19497, Arlington, TX 76019, USA See also: http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/autolist/ "Voyager" and "WebVoyage" are trademarks of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. ************************************************************* * * * SECURITY: The author of this installation file is NOT * * a Microsoft/Windows system administrator, so cannot * * provide either instructions, advice, or recommendations * * regarding security in that environment. Please consult * * a qualified Windows sysadmin for assistance on file * * ownerships and permissions and/or any other issues that * * may affect security. * * * ************************************************************* |-----------------------------------------------------------| | Version 6.1 Unicode | |-----------------------------------------------------------| | Windows Installation Instructions | |-----------------------------------------------------------| Prerequisites ------------- Perl and the DBI and DBD::Oracle modules must be installed on the server where the New Books List will run. o Windows 2000 - Endeavor installs the requisite Perl components on Windows 2000 servers. o Windows NT - Endeavor does *not* install the requisite Perl components on Windows NT. You must install these yourself. Perl for Windows is freely available at http://www.activestate.com/. In addition to installing Perl, you must also install the DBI and DBD-Oracle modules. Installation steps ------------------ Download newbooks-6.1.W2K.zip to your server. Unzip With WinZip (or similar utility). The newbooks-6.1.W2K.zip file should contain the following files: CHANGES.txt INSTALL.txt README.unicode.txt newbooks.pl newbooks.cgi newbooks.ini newbooks.English newbooks.Finnish newbooks.Swedish newbooks.Welsh newbooks.Language English.gif English-alt.gif Finnish.gif Swedish.gif Welsh.gif newbooks.txt CHANGES.txt (text file) A document extolling all the wondrous new and improved features in this version and previous versions. INSTALL.txt (text file) This file. README.unicode (text file) A README file that provides guidance for editing text files in a Unicode (UTF-8) environment. newbooks.pl (executable program) A Perl program that extracts "new books" data from the Voyager database and outputs a newbooks.txt file. newbooks.cgi (executable program) A CGI/Perl program that displays the initial New Books search form, and then displays the results pages from user searches. newbooks.ini (configuration file) This file contains configuration variables that are used to customize the newbooks.cgi program. newbooks.English/Finnish/Swedish/Welsh (language modules) These files provide the language of the user interface. Only one language module is required, but all modules can be utilized if desired. newbooks.Language (language module template) This is a template for those who want to create their own language module, in order to provide a user interface in a different language than those provided. English.gif/Finnish.gif/Swedish.gif/Welsh.gif (flag image files) English-alt.gif is an alternate "English" flag using the US flag rather than the UK flag. newbooks.txt (text file) A tab delimited flat-file that you can use to test the functionality of newbooks.cgi. You will be generating your own site-specific newbooks.txt file when you configure and run newbooks.pl. Installation locations Place the files in the following locations on the Voyager server: D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.cgi D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.ini D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.English D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.Finnish D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.Swedish D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.Welsh D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/cgi-bin/newbooks.txt D:/voyager/xxxdb/sbin/newbooks.pl (additional files for multilingual sites) D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/html/images/English.gif D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/html/images/Finnish.gif D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/html/images/Swedish.gif D:/voyager/xxxdb/webvoyage/html/images/Welsh.gif Testing and configuration steps ------------------------------- 1) Do a pre-configuration test: Before you start configuring the programs, test to see if newbooks.cgi works by pointing a web browser to: http://Your_WebVoyage.server.edu/cgi-bin/newbooks.cgi It should work "out of the box". (Albeit with the "test" new book data rather than your library's new book data.) If it doesn't work, CHECK: - FILE OWNERSHIPS AND PERMISSIONS - FILE OWNERSHIPS AND PERMISSIONS - that you have Perl installed (perl -v) - that the top line of newbooks.cgi points to a valid Perl executable [Note: links back to the catalog will not work unless your library also owns the item in the test database.] If the program works OK, go to step 2. 2) Generate your own data: Read the configuration comments in newbooks.pl and then edit the configurable parts so it will run on your system and so that the desired options are specified. Set newbooks.pl to run as a Perl program on your server: Select newbooks.pl (by single-clicking on the file). Then select: File -> Properties -> General [tab], and next to where it says "Opens with:", click the "Change" button, scroll down and select "Perl Command Line Interpreter". Run newbooks.pl (should take approx. 1 to 10+ minutes): Start -> Run -> [Browse to the newbooks.pl, select it, and then press the "OK" button.] Debug and repeat as necessary (and re-read the comments!) Set newbooks.pl to run as a "Scheduled Task". Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks -> Add Scheduled Task [Wizard: Browse to (and select) the newbooks.pl script; name the task "New Books List"; schedule it "Daily"; set a "Start time" around midnight and either perform "Every Day", or "Weekdays; enter and confirm the password of the appropriate user; finish]. 3) Customize newbooks.cgi by editing newbooks.ini: Read the configuration comments in newbooks.ini and then edit the configurable parts to customize for your library. If you chose months instead of weeks in newbooks.pl, you must choose the same option in newbooks.ini. Use your browser to test newbooks.cgi against your library's new books file (newbooks.txt) that you generated in step 2. Debug and repeat as necessary. Be sure that you take the time to adjust the colors to match your library's WebVoyage look. It only takes a few minutes and makes a big difference. :-) 4) Customize the appropriate language module(s) as needed or desired. Note that this step applies to English-only sites, too! You can change/edit any and all text that makes up the user interface. Examples include changing the tab text to match the tabs in your Webvoyage search screens. Please read the README.unicode help file prior to editing language module files. Multilingual sites should examine pathname values in the language modules for accuracy and may also want to refine the translations. It is also possible to add additional languages using the language module template (newbooks.Language). 5) Add a "New Books" tab to all WebVoyage search screens: This step requires that you edit the Tab_Text entry in the Course_Reserve_Search_Page stanza of the D:/voyager/xxxdb/etc/webvoyage/local/opac.ini file. Replace this: Tab_Text=Course Reserves With this: Tab_Text=Course Reserves       
   New Books IMPORTANT NOTE: There shouldn't be any line breaks in the above code! That means that all of the Tab_Text value should be one continuous line. If you cut-and-paste, there will be line breaks that have to be removed! You will also have to adjust font, background, and style colors to match your site's scheme. If your site does not utilize the Course Reserves tab, then of course, you will be apply this to the right-most tab, using the corresponding stanza and making whatever adjustments are appropriate. 6) I would really appreciate it, if once you make the New Books List available to your patrons, you would send me the URL so that I can add your institution to the User List. This is the ONLY thing I ask for in return for using this program. (see: http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/autolist/users.html) Free advice ----------- As you edit the program files, make sure you regularly make backup copies. That way if some configuration change renders the program unexecutable and you can't figure out how to fix it, you can always backtrack to a previous working copy. Mailing list ------------ My intention is to eventually maintain a mailing list of contacts for libraries using these programs so that minor news regarding bug fixes, etc., can be sent out without spamming the voyager-l listserv. While not required, I'd appreciate it if using libraries would provide the email address of a system administrator or other contact person. Bug Reports ----------- Please report bugs or installation problems to: Michael Doran email: doran@uta.edu telephone: 1.817.272.5326 telephone: 1.888.565.9023 x5326 (toll-free in U.S.) x25326 after March 18, 2004 Support ------- I don't have a Windows-on-Voyager setup to do development on, so I can only provide limited assistance if you have Windows support questions. These instructions come courtesy of the the system administrators who first installed the New Books List on Windows. Thanks especially to Bob Richart, the Systems Librarian at Madigan Army Medical Center, and to Ali Jafri and Eli Lutfallah at Endeavor Information Systems. I am a Systems Librarian with a full time job quite apart from creating, enhancing, documenting, distributing, and supporting the New Books List. Please keep that in mind and thoroughly read these installation instructions, the program comments, and the FAQs (http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/autolist/faq.html) before contacting me for help. Considerable effort has gone into the documentation, and chances are good that the answer to your question is contained there. This is not meant to discourage you from contacting me, particularly in regard to bugs or issues that may impact other users of the software. I am also very interested in hearing how the installation instructions and other documentation can be made more clear or otherwise improved. That's all folks! ----------------- Good luck and thanks for choosing the New Books List. :-)