baserunner 2.5.1
Copyright (c) 1998-99 baserunner Software (Mark Glover)

Local Installation

For testing and development, baserunner should be installed on a web server running locally (i.e. at 127.0.0.1). If you do not have a local server on your system, you should install one before you go any further with baserunner. For Windows, the Xitami server is an excellent choice (the URL is included in the documentation). Microsoft PWS (Personal Web Server) also works well, and it is likely that you already have a copy somewhere. For Linux systems, the Apache web server is almost certainly installed already. If it is not installed, check your Linux distribution for information on how to install it.

There are 3 executables included with this distribution (in the /bin directory):

	baserunf.exe, which supports FoxPro format memo files.
	baserund.exe, which supports dBase/Clipper format memo files.
	baserunv.exe, which supports dBaseIV/Visual dBase format memo files.

If you have no preference, use the FoxPro format version of baserunner. FoxPro memo fields are more efficient than the dBase formats. Even if you are not using memo fields in your own database(s), baserunner's session database make significant use of memos in storing user session information.

Whichever executable you choose to use should be copied to your local servers CGI executable directory. In most cases this directory is named cgi-bin. Some servers may use a different name (e.g. MS PWS uses a directory called scripts). Once you have copied the selected executable to your local CGI directory, rename it baserun.exe. Under some Linux servers, you will be required to name the file with a .cgi extension. If this is the case, rename the file baserun.cgi, and modify the example templates, replacing all instances of baserun.exe with baserun.cgi.

Under Linux, make sure that baserun.exe has executable permissions set.

With your own applications, you may give baserunner any name you prefer.

The example application is contained in several directories under the /example directory. You may leave these files where they are or you may move these directories to another location if you wish. However you choose to deal with these files, you must modify the baserun.cfg file, contained in the /bin directory, adding the local paths to the example files.

The example application is made up of:

	laser_*.htm, the template files.
	laser.cfg, the application configuration file.
	laser.dbf/fpt/dbt, the database and memo files.

For instance, under Windows, if you have unzipped the files to c:\baserunner, you would modify baserun.cfg like this:

	_templatepath=c:\baserunner\examples\templates\
	_sessionpath=c:\baserunner\examples\session\
	_datapath=c:\baserunner\examples\data\
	_configpath=c:\baserunner\examples\config\

A Linux version of this file would look something like this (moving the examples directory to your web document path):

	_templatepath=/usr/local/httpd/examples/templates/
	_sessionpath=/usr/local/httpd/examples/session/
	_datapath=/usr/local/httpd/examples/data/
	_configpath=/usr/local/httpd/examples/config/

Note that there are two data directories. If you are using the FoxPro format executable, rename the /data_fox directory /data. If you are using the dBase format executable, rename the /data_dbase directory /data. If you are using the Visual dBase format executable, you may use the dBase data, but the memo fields will not be available.

Under Linux, you will need to use the Linux paths to these directories, rather than dos paths. Also, you will want to read the permissions section later in this document.

Once you have modified the baserun.cfg file, you must copy it to the CGI executable directory, along-side the executable. On some servers, this file will need to be placed in the web root directory. This is the case if the server is configured to run CGI programs from the web root rather than the CGI executable directory.

The name of the baserun.cfg file is determined by the name of the baserunner executable. If the executable's name is baserun, the configuration file's name is baserun. If you choose to use another name for the executable, this configuration file will need to be renamed as well.

Once you have taken the steps above, you should be able to start the example application by opening you browser and linking to:

	http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/baserun.exe?_cfg=laser.cfg

If your CGI executable directory is named something other than cgi-bin, say, scripts, you will need to modify the laser.cfg file. Change

	_cgidir=cgi-bin

to
	
	_cgidir=scripts

and start the example application by linking to:

	http://127.0.0.1/scripts/baserun.exe?_cfg=laser.cfg

Permissions should not present any real issue if you are running baserunner locally under Windows. Under a Linux system, however, you do need to make sure your directory and file permissions are set appropriately. The /session directory will contain a database that baserunner will use to maintain session information for each user. The directory that contains this database must have its permissions set to allow baserunner to write and read those files. Similarly, the directory and the database files used by baserunner must be accessible for both reading and writing. The template and configuration files and directories need only to be read by baserunner.

Remote Installation

Installing baserunner on a remote server is a virtually identical process as installing it to run locally. One issue that often arises is that you may not know the server's local paths. This information is required, since you must provide baserunner with those local paths so that it will be able to use the application files. If you do not have this information, ask your server's administrator. If you still cannot get the information, contact baserunner Software--we can provide you with a simple program that can determine the paths.

Windows to Linux

If you are developing your applications locally under Windows and plan to deploy them on a remote Linux host, keep two things in mind: Linux systems are case-sensitive with file and path names. You will need to change the paths in your baserun.cfg file to use Linux rather than dos paths. Other than those two issues, any baserunner application should be fully portable between the two OS's.

The support and installation page of the documentation contains additional information about options you have installing the example or any baserunner application.



