Basic, Step-by-Step Installation Manual

Transcription

1 Basic, Step-by-Step Installation Manual Introduction The purpose of this document is to provide very detailed, step-by-step instructions for installing the software that someone with limited technical skills can easily follow. This document is written as simply as possible, and includes tips for debugging common problems along the way. If you have any question, please feel free to contact us directly. Our contact information is on our web site. Installation Please note: This document is intended for non-technical customers. If you are technical, or do not need a very detailed, step-by-step installation document, please refer to the document Install.pdf, which is located in the same directory. The steps to install SelectSurveyASP Advanced are listed below: 1. Using the welcome we sent to you after purchasing the software, download the software to your local computer. 2. Create a new folder anywhere on your computer called SelectSurveyASP, and copy the.zip file that you just downloaded to this folder. 3. Unzip the files to the newly created SelectSurveyASP directory. When unzipping the files, you will be prompted for a password to unzip the.zip file. This password can be found in the with the download instructions. Note that when you unzip the files, they will be created in a parent folder called SelectSurveyASPAdvanced. 4. In the Documentation/Database subfolder, there is a file called SelectSurveyASPAdvanced97.mdb. Delete this file, as you will not be using it, and having it present could cause some confusion later on in the install process. 5. Next, access the web server where you are going to install the application. If the web server is a server within your company, use Windows Explorer to access the web server. If the web server is hosted by a web hosting customer, FTP to the web site. You can most like find the information to FTP to your web site in the welcome that your web hosting company sent you. If not, contact your web hosting company for this information.

2 6. On the web server, create a new folder called Surveys. This new folder should be located one level below the main directory (that is, the directory with the home page in it). If you have a hosted web account, the root directory is generally either the folder you FTP into by default or a folder named www (or a similar name). If you are installing the software on local computer, the root folder is usually the inetpub/wwwroot folder on the hard drive (usually on the C: drive). 7. Copy or FTP all of the files that you unzipped onto your local computer to the Surveys folder on the web server. Make sure to include the files, as well as the folders, and all of their contents, too. 8. At this point, you should be able to access the login page for the application. To do so, use the domain of your web site, plus /Surveys/Login.asp. If you are installing on a server within your company, you will use the name of the web server to access the application. An example of a syntactically valid URL in this format is If you cannot access the login page in this manner, one of two things is wrong. Either the URL you are entering is not correct, or the folder where you copied or FTP ed the files is not under the root directory. Check both of these, and make sure that you can access the login page. 9. The next step is to set up a few configuration variables to get the application working correctly. This information let s the application know where the database, what type of database you re using, what date format you want to use, and a few other similar types of information. To get started, there a couple of pieces of information that you should ask your web hosting company (if you have one) for: a) Ask the web hosting company what folder an Access database should go in. b) Ask the web hosting company the name of the SMTP server that you should use to send programmatically (they will know exactly what this means) c) Ask the web hosting company what operating system you are hosted on You will use this information later in the installation process. 10. Open the Include/Config_inc.asp file (located in the SelectSurveyASPAdvanced folder) in any text editor. You can use Notepad for this purpose. 2

3 11. Setting up the database is the only mildly complicated part of the entire setup, and after this, the rest of the set up is a snap. You will be using an Access database, which is supplied with the software. The database is located in the Documentation/Database directory, and is called SelectSurveyASPAdvanced.mdb. If your web host recommended putting the Access database in a specific location (often a specific folder intended for databases), delete the Access database from the Documentation/Database folder on the web server. Then, copy or FTP the database from your local computer to the location that the web hosting company recommended. Otherwise, if you are installing locally, you can leave the Access database in the Documentation/Database subfolder. 12. This step explains how to set up the actual connection to the database. Depending on whether or not you have a web hosting company, there are several ways to do this step, each of which is explained below: a) If you have a web hosting company, contact them and ask them to set up a DSN (they will know what that means) to the Access database. If they ask what you want to name the DSN, use SelectSurvey. If they don t ask, they will tell you the name they gave the DSN. Then, in the Config_inc.asp file, find the section that says, ***** DSN FORMAT *****. Just below that, modify the constants as follows: Const SURVEY_APP_CONNECTION = DSN=SelectSurvey If the hosting company gave you another name for the DSN, use that name instead of SelectSurvey. b) If you are installing on a web server within your company, and have a system administrator available who can help you, you can also follow the previous step. Ask the system administrator to set up your DSN for you. Follow this step only if you either have a system administrator who can create a DSN for you, or if you know how to create a DSN. Otherwise, we recommend that you refer to step c), below, to connect to your database. c) The other way to set the database connection is to determine the path to the database yourself. You can do this by going back to your login page, and then in the address bar, switch the page Login.asp to GetAbsolutePath.asp. This will give you the absolute path to the root folder of your application. Copy this path into the Config_inc.asp file in the section titled, ***** MS ACCESS FORMAT *****. Copy this path 3

4 into the section of that constant between the DBQ= and \SelectSurveyASPAdvanced.mdb. For example, imagine an absolute path that is as follows: D:\webhosting\YourDomain.com\username\www You should modify the constant to the following: Const SURVEY_APP_CONNECTION = "DBQ= D:\webhosting\YourDomain.com\username\www\Documentation\Datab ase\selectsurveyaspadvanced.mdb;driver={microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};" Next, in this same constant, modify the path to the go to the actual database. So, if your database is still located in the Documentation/Database subfolder, the modified version of the above path should be as follows: Const SURVEY_APP_CONNECTION = "DBQ= D:\webhosting\YourDomain.com\username\www\Documentation\Datab ase\selectsurveyaspadvanced.mdb;driver={microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};" If the database is in another folder other than Documentation/Database, modify the full path to the database as appropriate. 13. Now that you have the database path set correctly, search in the Config_inc.asp file for all instances of the constant SURVEY_APP_CONNECTION. Make sure that the constant you set does NOT have an apostrophe in front of it, and make sure that all other instances of this constant DO have an apostrophe in front of them. 14. In the same file, "Config_inc.asp," there is a constant called SUR_DATABASE_TYPE. Make sure that this value is already set to MSAccess. If not, update this constant. This value is case-sensitive, so make sure you specify the value exactly as shown. 15. Also in the file, "Config_inc.asp," there is a constant called SUR_ _COMPONENT_TYPE that tells the application which type of component to use to send s. Setting this correctly sometimes takes a little trial and error, so follow the steps below to set this up. This value is case-sensitive, so make sure you specify the value exactly as shown. 4

5 a) If you are on a web server within your company, try using the CDONTS component. b) If you are using a web hosting company, if the site is hosted on Windows 2003, then use CDOMessage. If not, set this constant equal to ASPMail. Next, there is also a constant called SUR_ _COMPONENT_SMTP_SERVER. This constant must be updated to the name of your SMTP server. When you contacted your hosting company, earlier, they should have supplied you with the name of the SMTP server. Set the constant equal to that value. If you re not sure what the value is, a very good guess is to use mail.yourdomain.com, where YourDomain.com is the name of your domain. If your domain has another extension (.net,.org, etc.), use that instead of.com. 16. The next constant in the file, "Config_inc.asp," that must be updated is a constant called SUR_DATE_FORMAT. This constant should be updated to either "1" if using American style dates, or "2" if using European style dates. 17. The next constant is called SUR_DATE_DELIMITER, which must be set to the character that separates the day, month, and year. The possible values for the delimiter are "/", ".", or "-". We strongly recommend that you use /, as it is a standard and never has any issues. 18. Next, the constant SUR_APPLICATION_ADMIN_ _ADDRESS should be set to the address of the administrator of the application. 19. The next constant in the file, "Config_inc.asp," that must be updated is a constant called SUR_APPLICATION_ROOT_URL. This constant should be updated to point to the root HTTP path where the application is located. This value is the same as what you used, above, to access the login page, only without the /Login.asp ending. 20. There is another constant called SUR_APPLICATION_DEFAULT_HOME_PAGE, which is already set to Default.asp. You can leave this constant as is. 21. Now that you have set all of the values correctly, copy or FTP the modified version of the Config_inc.asp file to the Include subfolder on the web server. Note that in doing so, you will overwrite the existing file on the server. 22. The application is now installed! The next step is to test it, and make sure that everything is working correctly. Before testing, set your browser to 5

6 provide detailed error messages, in case there is a problem. To do this, in IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and in the Browsing section, uncheck, "Show friendly HTTP error messages." 23. Go the login page, and use admin as both the username and password to login. If you are able to log in, that means that database is set up correctly. If you are not able to log in, an error message should be displayed. Most likely, you have one of two error messages listed below. We have provided information about how to resolve each issue. a) (unknown)' is not a valid path. This error means that the path to the database was not set up correctly. Check the path in the Config_inc.asp file to make sure it s correctly. If you have a web hosting company or a system administrator, show them your path and tell them where the database is located, and ask them to give you the correct version of the path. b) Operation must use an updateable query. This error means that the web server does not have permission to write data to the database. A permission needs to be set to enable writing to the database. To do this, tell your system administrator or web hosting company where the database is located, and ask, Could you please set the IUSR_MACHINE account to full read/write access on this database? They will know exactly what that means, and should be able to make the change in a matter of minutes. 24. Once you are able to log in successfully, the last thing to do is make sure that you can send s. To do so, create a short, one-question survey, and launch it (that is, set the status to Open). Then go the lists section, create an list, and add your own address as the only in the list. Then, on the main list page, click the Send button (on the right), and follow the wizard through, selecting the survey you just created, and sending an to yourself. If there is no error, check to see that the arrived. If there is an error, or the did not arrive, listed below are the two most likely causes (with solutions). Fixing it is usually trial and error, but is not too hard to do. After making the change(s) indicated, hit the F5 button (refresh button) in your web browser to refresh the web page that shows the confirmation. This will tell the application to try to send another , allowing you to repeatedly test the functionality. a) Invalid ProgID error 6

7 This means that the component that you selected is not installed on the server. Simply set the constant in the Config_inc.asp file equal to another component and copy or FTP the Config_inc.asp file to the web server. b) No error, but the did not arrive This most likely means that the SMTP server is not valid. Our recommendation would be ask your web hosting company or system administrator again for the correct SMTP address. Otherwise, it s often easy to guess what it is. In order, try the following values (where YourDomain is the name of your domain, and the.com ending is replaced by the domain extension of your site): mail.yourdomain.com, localhost, , YourDomain.com, webmail.yourdomain.com 25. By default, the application has a single user entered in the SUR_USER table. The username for this default user is "admin" and the password is also "admin." This account has been granted full administrative rights to the entire application, and should not be deleted. Use this username/password to log into the application the first time. Once logged in as "admin," or if logged in as any account with "Admin" level permissions, you can create other user accounts. For more information about user security levels, refer to the section, "User Information," elsewhere in this document. Support If you need any assistance with the installation or with the application, we're always willing to help out. You can send an to us at support@classapps.com, or submit a support request at When submitting a support request, please supply us with as much detailed information as possible so he can help you as quickly as possible. Please include which database you are using, which version of the application, and any other details that relevant to your request. 7