Interaction™ makes your websites dynamic social places that adapt to the visitors. You can use Interaction to host web communities, build websites that personalize the user experience, or provide other functionality that goes beyond static pages. Many of the features and services of Interaction are configured using familiar dialogs on the Mac. Interaction generates standard HTML pages on the fly from content in its built-in object database, so that you can take advantage of open standards such as server-side XML, Extensible HTML and CSS style sheets while still keeping your sites accessible for legacy browsers.
This document describes how to install the software, how to upgrade from previous versions, known problems and the license agreement. A more extensive printable documentation in Adobe Acrobat PDF format comes with the Interaction distribution. Information about how to purchase a license for Interaction is found in the file called register. Here are some important URLs for information related to Interaction:
New versions and updates: http://interaction.in-progress.com/
Pricing and Ordering: http://interaction.in-progress.com/order
Your feedback about Interaction is highly appreciated and required to make Interaction as usable as possible. Email your comments, suggestions and reports about eventual problems to: feedback@in-progress.com. We appreciate that you participate in making Interaction better and help by spreading the word to others.
The Interaction-Talk mailing list provides discussion of issues relevant to the majority of the Interaction webmaster community. Subscribe by sending an email to interaction-talk-request@in-progress.com containing the word SUBSCRIBE followed by your email address.
QUICK START
The Installation chapter of the Interaction documentation contains detailed procedures for how to set up various web servers for Interaction. The following are general instructions for how to configure a Mac web server for Interaction:
1. Put the folder that contains Interaction wherever you like on your harddrive, but preferably not in the same folder as the web server software for security reasons.
2. Make an alias of the application file "Interaction" by selecting it and choose Make Alias from the File menu in Finder. Put the alias in the folder of the webserver, or in the "cgi-bin" folder if required by the web server. Next, rename the alias to "interaction". Make sure there are no extra spaces in the end of the name of the alias as Interaction then won't be found by the server.
3. Start Interaction by double-clicking the "Interaction" application icon. Interaction must be running before it receives any requests. Activate the web server software as well.
Interaction works right "out of the box", so after completing the steps you should be able to access the homepage. Use the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/interaction$/index (substitute www.yourdomain.com with the domain of your own web server). Note that some servers require that you rename the alias to "interaction.acgi" and also use this in the URL and server configuration. If the alias to Interaction is in the cgi-bin folder, you will have to add "cgi-bin" before "interaction" in the URL.
Although this is a complete configuration, you are recommended to configure Interaction as a preprocessor:
CONFIGURING INTERACTION AS A PREPROCESSOR
Making Interaction the preprocessor eliminates the "/interaction$" part of the URL, making the Interaction pages merge seamlessly with the rest of the site. Unlike most preprocessors, Interaction will not affect or be affected by the files in the folder of your server. Only pages listed in the Locations dialog will be provided by Interaction. Thus, you can make Interaction a preprocessor without a major impact on your current site, then progressively upgrade documents to be served by Interaction.
Note that Interaction will initially take over serving the homepage of the server. If you want to disable that Interaction serves the homepage, open the Locations dialog from the File menu of Interaction, select "index", then choose Not Accessible from the pop-up menu for Access Restriction.
Here is how to configure the common web servers with Interaction as a preprocessor:
WebStar 3.0-4.x: Open the Server Settings dialog from the Edit menu of the WebStar Admin application. Select File Names under Web Settings in the table. Click the Choose button to the right of the PreProcessor field, and choose the Interaction application or its alias as preprocessor.
WebStar 2.x: Open the Miscellaneous Settings dialog from the Configure menu of the WebStar Admin application. In the field labeled "PreProcess" type in "Interaction" as a reference to the Interaction alias in the WebStar folder.
Web Server 4D: Open the Web Server Setup dialog from the File menu of WS4D. Click the PreProcess button in the left bottom corner of the dialog. Select the Interaction application from the file selector.
Quid Pro Quo: Rename the Interaction alias in the folder of the server to "Interaction.acgi". Open a Service from the Services menu of Quid Pro Quo (or Configure Server in QPQ version 1) . Select the Processors icon towards the bottom of the leftmost table. Click the New Processor button. Type "Interaction.acgi" in the field for processor. Note that you may have to put the Interaction alias in the "cgi-bin" folder of the server depending on how you have configured QPQ.
Other Web Servers: See the Installation chapter of the Interaction documentation, or eventually the documentation for the web server.
CUSTOMIZING THE SITE
Any document of your website can be served by Interaction to benefit from dynamic features. To create additional locations, use New Locations from the File menu of Interaction. The new locations are listed in the Locations dialog of the File menu.
The homepage can be edited using the Homepage editor available from the File menu of Interaction. To edit the Forums and Chat Rooms, use the dialogs on the Services menu of Interaction. Membership and Access Restrictions are available from the Windows menu.
Interaction is designed to be fairly self-explanatory. Many hints can be found by using ballon-help. We recommend that you take a closer look at the documentation to optimally use Interaction. It is also a good idea to complete the XML Tutorial that comes with the application, and to complement with additional XML literature.
FINETUNING
Interaction is by default configured in a way that works with all Mac web server. However, a production site may benefit from finetuning the request handling for better speed and capacity.
Enable the Partial Responses checkbox of the CGI Responses option of the Preferences dialog to reduce latency. Latency is the delay from the moment a visitor requests a page until the first response appears in the browser. Partial responses allows Interaction to pass the first chunk of a page to the server as soon as it is completed, resulting in a faster response.
Enable the Concurrent Processing of the Process order preference allows Interaction to handle multiple requests in parallel. Concurrent processing usually improves the response time, particularly for smaller pages when many requests occur at the same time.
UPGRADING
This section describes how to upgrade from an earlier version of Interaction:
1. Quit the old version of the Interaction program if it is running. Make backup of the Documents and the Data folder for each site.
2. Place the folder that contains the new version of Interaction somewhere on the same harddrive as the web server, but preferably not in the same folder of the server.
3. PPC Only: If you have a file called "PPCExceptionEnabler" in your System Extensions folder, remove it. Also, remove the old pmcl-library, pmcl-kernel and OpenTransportSupport shared libraries if they are located in the system extensions folder.
4. Copy the contents of the Documents folder from the old Interaction to the Documents folder of the new version.
5. Copy the contents of the Data folder from the old Interaction to the Data folder of the new version (if there is no Data folder, copy the Entities folder and the Members file to the Data folder of the new version.)
6. Copy the Preferences file from the old Interaction to the folder of the new version.
7. Trash the "Cache Database" file if there is one in the folder of the new version (one is created whenever you start Interaction).
8. Increase the memory of the application to a reasonable setting. Allocating less memory than required may cause the application to hang or fail during startup or execution, possible resulting in blank pages or malfunction. If this happens, quit Interaction, increase the memory allocation, trash the cache database and restart. Interaction works better the more memory you allocate to it.
9. Install the latest version of all components used by the old Interaction. See the version history at http://interaction.in-progress.com/version for which components to upgrade. Alternatively, use the Components Manager on the Preferences dialog to identify whether you have the latest version of each component. The latest version of components can be downloaded from <http://interaction.in-progress.com/components/download>.
10. Only when upgrading from versions before Interaction 2.0: If you previously have a document called "index" on the top of the Documents folder, remove it from the folder before starting the application. This is the old homepage of your site. After staring Interaction, open the Homepage from the File menu, and paste in the content from the old "index" File if necessary.
11. Follow the instructions in the earlier section called "Quick Start" for the rest of the installation.
Potential upgrade problems:
• All the pages served by Interaction are blank: This is probably caused by failure to allocate enough RAM to the application. Quit Interaction, trash the Cache Database, increase the memory allocation from the Get Info dialog, and start Interaction again. See the About Interaction dialog to determine how much of the allocated RAM Interaction does not use - at least one MB of unused RAM is recommended (more is better).
• The old version of Interaction is started instead of the new version: Make sure that the old "Interaction" file alias is substituted with a new one in all places including the Startup folder.
KNOWN PROBLEMS
Interaction should be very stable and virtually impossible to "crash" as long as it has sufficient memory. If you experience any problems which are not listed below, please report these problems by sending an email to bugs@in-progress.com. The following problems are known:
• Multi-homing software that automatically adds an extra slash to the URL might be incompatible with Interaction, causing locations not to be found. Configure the multi-homing software to not add the slash on URLs with no suffix. Contact the developer if you can't find a way to disable it, or consider using Interaction's integrated multi-site feature instead.
• Some (all?) versions of RAM-Doubler seem to have bugs that may cause Interaction to crash. If you get error messages when starting Interaction, you can probably solve the problem by disabling RAM-Doubler, or if possible, upgrading to the most recent version (Connectix claims that versions later than 1.6.1 is corrected).
• Speed-Doubler, RAM-Doubler and Virtual Memory may slow down Interaction, so you should disable these if possible and make sure Interaction is the first application to start after a restart if you need to use any of these applications.
• Interaction might behave inconsistently if it is started by double-clicking any of its documents or as a result of a request from a browser. Always start Interaction before opening any files and before the server receives any requests.
LICENSE AND LIMITED WARRANTY AGREEMENT
CAREFULLY READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE
AGREEMENT PRIOR TO USING THIS SOFTWARE. USE OF ANY PORTION
OF THIS SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE
FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH
SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE SOFTWARE.
Definitions
The following definitions apply to the terms as they appear in this
agreement:
• COMPANY means MEDIA DESIGN IN•PROGRESS (TM) and TERJE NORDERHAUG
• PACKAGE means the software, manual(s), and any other items accompanying this agreement.
• SOFTWARE means the computer programs contained in INTERACTION (TM) together with all codes, techniques, software tools, formats, designs, concepts, methods, and ideas associated with these computer programs.
• YOU and YOUR refers to any person or entity that acquires or uses the SOFTWARE.
PART I -- TERMS APPLICABLE WHEN LICENSE FEES NOT (YET) PAID
PERMITTED USES
The COMPANY grants you a non-exclusive license to use the SOFTWARE free of charge only if:
• Your use of the software is for the purpose of evaluating whether to purchase an ongoing license to the SOFTWARE. The evaluation period is limited to 30 days.
You may:
1. Install and operate the SOFTWARE on only one computer at a time.
2. Make a reasonable number of copies of the SOFTWARE solely for backup or archive purposes, which automatically become the property of the COMPANY and are subject to this agreement. In any such copies, you must reproduce all copyright notices and other identifying or restrictive legends that appear on the software as received.
PROHIBITED USES
You may not:
1. Modify the SOFTWARE. Any modified or merged portion of the SOFTWARE is subject to this agreement.
2. Reverse-engineer, disassemble, decompile, or make any attempt to discover the source code or internal technical architecture of the SOFTWARE.
3. Translate or create derivative works based on the SOFTWARE.
4. Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright notice or other proprietary rights related to the SOFTWARE.
5. Transfer, sub-license, sell, lend, rent or lease any portion of the SOFTWARE.
6. Copy any portion of the SOFTWARE, except as described above under permitted uses.
PART 2 -- TERMS APPLICABLE WHEN LICENSE FEES PAID
PERMITTED USES
The COMPANY grants you a non-exclusive license to use the
SOFTWARE according to the terms set forth below. You may:
1. Install and operate the SOFTWARE on only one computer at a time.
2. Make a reasonable number of copies of the SOFTWARE solely for backup or archive purposes, which automatically become the property of the COMPANY and are subject to this agreement. In any such copies, you must reproduce all copyright notices and other identifying or restrictive legends that appear on the software as received.
3. Transfer, after providing written notification to the COMPANY, all (but no lesser portion) of the SOFTWARE and related manuals to another person or entity, who will in turn be subject to this agreement. An education entity may not transfer its license to a commercial, for profit entity.
PROHIBITED USES
You may not:
1. Modify the SOFTWARE. Any modified or merged portion of the SOFTWARE is subject to this agreement.
2. Reverse-engineer, disassemble, decompile, or make any attempt to discover the source code or internal technical architecture of the SOFTWARE.
3. Translate or create derivative works based on the SOFTWARE.
4. Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright notice or other proprietary rights related to the SOFTWARE.
5. Transfer, sub-license, sell, lend, rent or lease any portion of the SOFTWARE.
6. Copy any portion of the SOFTWARE, except as described above under permitted uses.
PART III -- TERMS APPLICABLE TO ALL LICENSE GRANTS
The SOFTWARE involves valuable proprietary rights of the COMPANY and others. The COMPANY retains the title to and ownership of the SOFTWARE and all copyright, trade secret, trade
name, trademark, and other property rights related to the SOFTWARE, regardless of form that the original or other copies exist in. You may not violate these rights and must take appropriate steps
to protect the COMPANY's rights. The COMPANY may at any time replace, modify, alter, improve, enhance, or change the SOFTWARE.
Both the license and your right to use the software terminate automatically if you violate any part of this agreement. In the event of termination, you must immediately destroy all copies of the SOFTWARE or return them to the COMPANY.
LIMITED WARRANTY
The COMPANY does not warrant that the SOFTWARE will not be corrupted when downloaded from the network. If you discover that the SOFTWARE has been corrupted after downloading, you may repeat the download process until you obtain a non-corrupted copy of the SOFTWARE. The COMPANY warrants that the SOFTWARE will substantially conform to the specifications established by the COMPANY. The COMPANY does not warrant that the SOFTWARE is free from all bugs, errors and omissions.
EXCEPT AS SPECIFICALLY SET FORTH ABOVE, THE COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE IN TERMS OF ITS CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME JURISDICTIONS. THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
EXCEPT AS SPECIFICALLY SET FORTH ABOVE, THE COMPANY WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTIONS, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, LOSS OF GOOD WILL AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE EVEN IF MEDIA DESIGN/IP'S LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THE COMPANY'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ACTUAL DAMAGES FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE) WILL BE LIMITED TO THE PURCHASE PRICE YOU PAID FOR THE PRODUCT.
The SOFTWARE includes code from MCL by Digitool. DIGITOOL, INC. ("DIGITOOL") AND ITS LICENSOR MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING MCL. DIGITOOL AND ITS LICENSOR DO NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF MCL IN THE TERMS OF ITS CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF MCL IS ASSUMED BY YOU. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
IN NO EVENT WILL DIGITOOL, ITS LICENSOR, THEIR DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, LOSS OF GOOD WILL AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE MCL EVEN IF DIGITOOL AND/OR ITS LICENSOR HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Digitool's and it's licensor's liability to you for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), product liability or otherwise), will be limited to $50.
GENERAL
Although the COMPANY is not responsible for maintaining or helping you use the SOFTWARE, the COMPANY does at its discretion offer support.
This agreement constitutes the entire agreement and supersedes any prior agreement between the COMPANY and you concerning the contents of this package. The COMPANY is not bound by any provision of any purchase order, receipt, acceptance, confirmation, correspondence, or otherwise, unless TERJE NORDERHAUG agrees to the provision in writing and the writing includes the signature of TERJE NORDERHAUG. Any written or oral information or advice given by the COMPANY or TERJE NORDERHAUG will in no way increase the scope of this warranty. Nor may you rely on any such oral or written communication. This agreement cannot be amended, modified or waived, unless the change is written and approved by TERJE NORDERHAUG.
WebStar is a trademark of StarNine. MCL is a trademark of Digitool, Inc. Interaction, in•Progress and Media Design in•Progress are trademarks of Media Design in•Progress.
