New Books List
Installation Instructions : Classic version for Windows
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 Ex Libris
*************************************************************
* *
* 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</a> </font>
</th></tr></table></td><td> </td>
<td><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr><th nowrap bgcolor="#8b8989"> <font
color="#ffffff"> <a style="color:#ffffff"
href="/cgi-bin/newbooks.cgi">New Books</a>
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 x25326 (toll-free in U.S.)
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. :-)