From: Dave C. <da...@da...> - 2002-12-28 14:50:58
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Thanks for tohse comments. I've forwarded them to the nms developers mailing list. Hopefully someone there will pick them up and make the changes. Cheers, Dave... On Fri, Dec 20, 2002 at 05:10:44PM -0800, web...@cu... (web...@cu...) wrote: > Dear Dave, > > Thank you (and your colleagues) for taking pity on us non-programmers. My > web hosting company uses the original MSA scripts, and in the course of > setting up a guestbook I went to Matt's site, read his recommendation to > use NMS scripts instead, and downloaded your package. > > Since I am actually a techie (network engineer, but no background in the > programming side of the house) I have a keen appreciation for minor details > like security and bug-free scripts. <g> So having discovered your version > of things, I was determined to use that rather than the MSA script that was > provided. > > I've now got it working (and will hopefully be using more NMS scripts, too) > and have a couple of suggestions for the README that's included in the > guestbook package. > > 1) > The script did not work on my host server with the permissions listed in > the doc (or in Matt's doc, either). The only chmod step listed in your doc > is the 755 (r+x) for the script itself. Even after doing the 766 (r+w) on > the guestbook.html (listed in the MSA doc) the script still failed with an > error msg on line 583. Using the debug tool/telnet, I realised that the > script was trying to create two new (.lck) files in the guestbook directory > (does the script also reset permissions on the guestbook.html file? - is > this one of your security features??). My host server's default > permissions on new directories are 755, and I'm pretty sure that's standard > on a UNIX box. However, in order for the script to create those new files, > it needs write permissions. Once I set the permissions for the guestbook > directory to 777, the script ran just fine. > Ergo, the additional chmod steps need to be added to the doc. > > 2) > The $style variable was a little confusing to me. Maybe it was just a > question of terminology, but I couldn't figure out if the path was in > $basedir or URL format; I tried both. I also tried relative/absolute > paths. What finally worked was a relative path, exactly as would be used > in an HTML hyperlink. Different wording, and perhaps an example, would > make this issue a ton clearer. E.G. > /public_html/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl > /public_html/guestbook/nms.css > Thus you have a relative path from the script to the stylesheet of: > ../guestbook/nms.css > > Again, Dave, I'm no programmer. If I'm way off base with any of this, I am > only too happy to receive enlightenment. And if my suggestions are of any > use, then I'm glad to have helped in a very small fashion. Either way, > much kudos and keep up the good work - it's great to see such > civic-mindedness on the web. > > Seasons greetings, > > MP -- Drugs are just bad m'kay |