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Chapter Two

Installing PolyForm

Now that you have a sense of what PolyForm can do for you, the next step is to install the software. Installing PolyForm takes just a few minutes. You will provide some basic system information and PolyForm will retrieve some information from your Web server's registry.

You will first need to verify that you have the required hardware and software as listed in the "Before You Install" section of this chapter. That section also describes the other information PolyForm's installation process requests. You should then follow the step-by-step instructions in the second section. The rest of the chapter discusses where you can obtain more information about PolyForm and what to do next.

When you finish this chapter, you will be ready to use PolyForm to construct your own Web forms and respond to each user's input.

Before You Install

PolyForm has fairly simple requirements, which your system must meet before you begin to install the software.

Hardware Requirements

The degree of traffic on your Web site will determine whether you can get by with the minimum requirements or whether you should aim for the recommended hardware, as listed below. In general, Web servers are memory-hungry, so more Random Access Memory (RAM) can be a significant advantage. Here are the recommended hardware standards for running PolyForm:

Operating System Requirements

PolyForm is a full 32-bit Windows application that requires one of the following operating systems:

Web Server Requirements

PolyForm works with any Web server that is fully compliant with the Windows Common Gateway Interface (Win-CGI) standard, version 1.1.

The following Web servers are known to work with PolyForm at the time of publication:

Other Win-CGI 1.1 compliant Web servers will certainly become available. Check online at http://polyform.ora.com for up-to-date information.

Mail Server Requirements

To take advantage of PolyForm's ability to send email, you need access to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail server. SMTP is the Internet standard for sending email messages. Access to an SMTP server generally means either you are using a mail server that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides, or one that you run yourself on your local network.

Ask your Internet service provider or network administrator if you have access to an SMTP mail server.

To integrate messaging systems such as MAPI or Microsoft Exchange, you still need an SMTP/POP server on the local network.

Information You Need During Installation

PolyForm's installation routine will ask you for the following information:

Fully Qualified Domain Name
A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is the Internet address of your server. You will recognize it from such examples as: website.ora.com, www.whitehouse.gov. Either your Internet service provider or network administrator can provide you with the FQDN for your server.
Mail server
The mail server is the SMTP Internet mail server address. Contact your Internet service provider or network administrator if you do not already know this address.
Full path to Windows CGI directory
Typically this is a subdirectory called cgi-win under your Web server's directory. If your server does not follow the standard, you may not have a directory named cgi-win. In this case, install PolyForm in a directory in which you know you can run Windows CGI programs. During the install process, enter the full path and URL of this directory. See your Web server's documentation for more information.
URL of the Windows CGI directory
This URL is typically specified by the server software. It must be the full URL, including the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the server, for example, http:// your.host.com/cgi-win/. Contact your Web server administrator if you need help with this.
PolyForm administrator's email address
This is the default return email address for email sent by PolyForm.

Installing the Software

Like other Windows software, you install PolyForm by running setup.exe on the first distribution disk.

Note:
Close all other software, including your Web server, so Setup can update all the necessary files.

Follow these steps to install PolyForm:

  1. Start your computer and log in to Windows NT (3.51 or higher) or Windows 95. Exit from any other Windows programs that may be running.
  2. Insert Disk 1 into the 3.5-inch drive on your system.
  3. Select setup.exe in the File Manager or Windows Explorer and press Enter, or double-click. The PolyForm Install Wizard (Setup) runs, displaying the Welcome to PolyForm screen as shown in Figure 2-1. The Install Wizard collects required information before installing the software.

    4. Figure 2-1
    Figure 2-1 PolyForm Install Wizard

  4. Choose Next. Setup displays the Registration Information screen.
  5. Enter your name, company name, and the serial number from the label inside the product diskette envelope. To continue, choose OK. Setup displays a verification screen.
  6. Verify that you have entered the correct information. Choose Yes to continue. Choose No to return to the previous screen to change the information. When you choose Yes, Setup displays the Server Software screen as shown in Figure 2-2.

    7. Figure 2-2
    Figure 2-2 PolyForm Install Wizard Server Software screen

  7. Select the Web server you will use with PolyForm. If your Web server is not listed, select Other Win-CGI compliant server. Choose Next. Setup displays the Server Domain Name screen.
  8. Enter your server's fully qualified domain name and choose Next. Setup displays the Window CGI Directory screen.
  9. Select the Windows CGI directory path for your server and choose Next.

    10. PolyForm may be able to identify this directory, depending on which Web server you are using. If you need to change the directory, type the path or use the drive and directory boxes to browse. PolyForm must be installed into a directory configured by your Web server software as a Windows CGI directory. Consult your server documentation if you are not sure which directory has been designated as a Windows CGI directory.

    Setup displays the CGI Directory URL screen.

  10. Enter the complete URL of the Windows CGI directory for your server in the format http://your.domain.name/cgi-win/, where your.domain.name is the fully qualified domain name of your Web server, and cgi-win is the directory that has been designated as a Windows CGI directory. Choose Next. Setup displays the Mail Settings screen.
  11. On the Mail Settings page, enter the SMTP server, and the default return email address for email generated by PolyForm. Choose Next to continue.

    12. Ask your Web administrator, Internet service provider, or network administrator for this information.

    Setup displays the Make Backups screen.

  12. We recommend that you choose to back up the files that Setup will replace. This includes files from a previous version of PolyForm, as well as any files that PolyForm replaces with more current versions. To back up files that will change, choose Yes. Choose No to skip the backup process.
  13. If you chose to back up files, select the directory to use for the backup. Choose Continue. Setup will copy files to your hard disk. Setup displays the Ready to Install screen. (See Figure 2-3.)

    14. Figure 2-3
    Figure 2-3 Ready to Install screen

  14. Choose Install Now to install PolyForm according to the information you entered. Choose Back to review information you entered.

    15. When you choose Install Now, Setup places the polyform.exe file in the directory that contains your Windows CGI files, and creates a subdirectory called pftools for various other PolyForm files.

    Subdirectories under pftools are the default locations for form, template, and other files you create through PolyForm, though you may place these files in other locations. If you create a file in one of these directories, but move it later, you should update its location in the PolyForm Control Panel.

  15. If you had a previous PolyForm installation on your hard disk, Setup displays the Import Previous Configuration? dialog. Choose Import to import the scripts from a previous installation.
  16. When Setup displays the Insert New Disk dialog, place the second installation disk in the floppy diskette drive and choose OK. For Windows NT 3.51 only, Setup then displays the Select Program Manager Group dialog.
  17. If you are running Windows NT 3.51, select a Program Manager Group for the PolyForm icons and choose OK. Setup creates the Program Manager Group if necessary, and adds the icons. For Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, Setup installs the icons in a program folder called PolyForm 1.0.

    18. Depending on your operating system, the Program Manager Group or Start menu program folder contains three icons:

    For Windows NT 3.51 the Program Manager Group also contains a PolyForm Uninstall icon to remove PolyForm files and Registry entries. For Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, the PolyForm Uninstall icon is found in the Windows Control Panel, Add/Remove Software.

    Setup displays the PolyForm Release Notes screen.

  18. Read the Release Notes and follow any instructions. Choose OK. Setup displays the Install Complete! dialog.
  19. Choose OK. Setup closes, revealing your desktop.
  20. Immediately after installing PolyForm, use the access control in your Web server to restrict access from the Web to the pftools subdirectory and its subdirectories. The programs and files in these directories must not be accessible to Web browsers. Refer to your server's documentation for information on access control.

To update the installation information, choose Settings from the Options menu on the PolyForm Control Panel.

At this time, please register your copy of PolyForm. You may either fill out and mail the registration card in the front of this manual, or register online at: http://polyform.ora.com/register.html. To register online, you must provide the serial number from the label inside your PolyForm product diskette envelope.

For More Help

Several sources of help are available to you, including:

Getting the Most Out of This Book

This book provides comprehensive instructions for installing and running PolyForm. Chapter 3, Getting Started with PolyForm, introduces you to the PolyForm Control Panel's menus, toolbar, and tabs, as well as to the PolyForm Script Wizard. Chapter 4, PolyForm Tools, discusses each of the PolyForm tools in detail. Chapter 5, Creating Applications with PolyForm, shows how to create some common, and some less common, PolyForm applications. Chapter 6, Form HTML Basics, introduces HTML for forms and then provides a complete reference. Chapter 7, Advanced Form HTML, discusses advanced HTML techniques that you can use in your forms. The Appendix helps you diagnose and correct problems you may have with your scripts.

Using Online Help

You can start PolyForm's online help through the Help menu, or by choosing one of two help icons on the toolbar. As with online help for other Windows-based applications, PolyForm help includes hyperlinks to associated topics, and topic searching.

Using Web Resources

The most exciting source of help and other information about PolyForm is the Web site maintained by PolyForm's technical support group at http://polyform.ora.com.

Technical Support

PolyForm phone technical support is free of charge for the first 90 days for registered users.

Technical support contracts for a full year are also available. Please contact O'Reilly & Associates Customer Service department for more details.

What Next

Now that you've installed PolyForm, you're ready to use the PolyForm Control Panel to build a form and choose what you want to do with the information users submit. Chapter 3, Getting Started with PolyForm, introduces you to this process.

Chapter 3