Yet Another Bulletin Board
Version: YaBB 1 Final
Installation and Readme File

!!!! UPGRADE NOTE !!!!
Please read the upgrade.txt file!

Install | Troubleshooting | General Notes

Installation Instructions:

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YaBB will run on most Unix/Linux servers and will run on NT running Apache. There are known issues with NT and IIS. Perl 5 is also required.

Step 1 - Configure Settings
Open 'Settings.pl' and set the variables inside as follows:
Required Settings-->

   require "english.lng"        Change to language pack you want to use
   $mbname			The name of your YaBB forum
   $boardurl			URL of your board's folder (without trailing '/') - where YaBB.cgi is located
   $cookieusername		Name of the username cookie (no change necessary)
   $cookiepassword		Name of the password cookie (no change necessary)
   $mailprog			Location of your sendmail program (generally "/usr/sbin/sendmail" or similar)
   $webmaster_email		Your e-mail address (must have the slash in it as shown "webmaster\@mysite.com")

   $boarddir			Absolute path to the board's folder (usually can be left as '.')
   $datadir			Directory with messages (can be left alone unless you wish to move elsewhere)
   $memberdir			Directory with member files (can be left alone unless you wish to move elsewhere)
   $boardsdir			Directory with board data files (can be left alone unless you wish to move elsewhere)
   $sourcedir			Directory with YaBB source files (can be left alone unless you wish to move elsewhere)
   $vardir			Directory with variable files (can be left alone unless you wish to move elsewhere)

   $imagesdir			Path to your images directory
   $helpfile			Location of your help index file (yabbhelp/index.html)
The remaining settings in Settings.pl are not required, but are only feature and layout variables. It is recommended that you do not change them until you get YaBB working! After that, have fun....

Open 'template.html' and modify the layout as you wish (to make it look like your site). Note: the tags beginning with "<yabb " MUST REMAIN in the template.html file. You may move them around as you wish as long as you keep those tags on lines BY THEMSELVES. The tag "<yabb news>" has been removed in this version, in favor of the NewsFader script. You may insert this tag if you would like the old text news format back on your YaBB. (But be sure to set $ShowNewsFader to '0' before you put that tag back in, or you'll have the news twice on the Board Index.) It is recommended that you do not change template.html either until you get YaBB working!

Step 2 - Create Directories
In your CGI-BIN create a directory called "yabb" (or whatever name you wish to use). If you do not have a cgi-bin, then first create a directory called 'cgi-bin' and then inside that create the 'yabb' directory.

Create the following folders inside your 'yabb' folder (or according to Settings.pl):

   cgi-bin/yabb/
   cgi-bin/yabb/Boards
   cgi-bin/yabb/Members
   cgi-bin/yabb/Messages
   cgi-bin/yabb/Sources
   cgi-bin/yabb/Variables
Then, in a section of your webspace (outside the cgi-bin, generally in a 'public_html' folder), create another directory called 'yabbimages' or something similar:
   /yabbimages/
And create another directory called 'yabbhelp' or something similar in a section of your webspace:
   /yabbhelp/

Step 3 - Upload Files
Place the files from the downloaded zip into the directories as shown below:

------- NON cgi-bin section ---------

   /fader.js
   /yabbhelp/			*.*             (Upload in Ascii)
   /yabbhelp/images		*.*             (Upload in Binary!)
   /yabbimages/                 *.gif all files (Upload in Binary!)
   /yabbimages/faces		*.* all files 	(Upload in Binary!)
------- CGI-BIN section (all files in ASCII) ---------
   /yabb/				drwxrwxrwx (chmod 777)
   /yabb/YaBB.cgi			-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)
   /yabb/Search.cgi			-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)
   /yabb/Printpage.cgi	  		-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)
   /yabb/Reminder.cgi			-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)
   /yabb/Settings.pl	  		-rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)
   /yabb/template.html	  		-rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)
   /yabb/english.lng	  		-rw-r--r-- (leave as is)


   /yabb/Boards				drwxrwxrwx (chmod 777)
   /yabb/Boards/.htaccess               -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Boards/general.cat             -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Boards/general.dat             -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Boards/general.txt             -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING

   /yabb/Members			drwxrwxrwx (chmod 777)
   /yabb/Members/.htaccess              -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Members/admin.dat              -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Members/memberlist.txt         -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING


   /yabb/Messages 			drwxrwxrwx (chmod 777)
   /yabb/Messages/.htaccess             -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING

   /yabb/Sources			drwxrwxrwx (chmod 777)
   /yabb/Source/Admin.pl                -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/BoardIndex.pl           -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/Display.pl              -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)
   /yabb/Sources/ICQPager.pl		-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)  
   /yabb/Source/InstantMessage.pl       -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)  
   /yabb/Source/LockThread.pl           -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/LogInOut.pl             -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/Maintenance.pl          -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/ManageBoards.pl         -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/ManageCats.pl           -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/Memberlist.pl           -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/MessageIndex.pl         -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/ModifyMessage.pl        -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)  
   /yabb/Source/MoveThread.pl           -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/Notify.pl               -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/Post.pl                 -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/Profile.pl              -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)
   /yabb/Sources/Recent.pl		-rwxr-xr-x (chmod 755)
   /yabb/Source/Register.pl             -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) 
   /yabb/Source/RemoveOldThreads.pl     -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/RemoveThread.pl         -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)   
   /yabb/Source/Subs.pl                 -rw-r--r-- (leave as is)

   /yabb/Variables			-rw-r--r-- (leave as is)
   /yabb/Variables/.htaccess            -rw-r--r-- (leave as is) !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/ban.txt              -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/ban_log.txt          -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/cat.txt              -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/censor.txt           -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/log.txt              -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/membergroups.txt     -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/news.txt             -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/number.txt           -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/oldestmes.txt        -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/reserve.txt          -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING
   /yabb/Variables/reservecfg.txt       -rw-rw-rw- (chmod 666)   !!DO NOT UPLOAD IF UPGRADING

Troubleshooting:

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Question/Error: Answer:
I am getting "500 Internal Server Error"! Did you upload the file in ascii? Also make sure that you chmod the file 755.
Some of my images aren't showing and some are not displaying right. Make sure that your images directory is properly set in Settings.pl to where your images actually are. Also be sure that you uploaded the images in Binary mode.
Why are the colors funny in browsers that don't support CSS? Because they don't support CSS, the color settings in Settings.pl will control the colors in those browsers. Be sure that you set the colors in template.html equivalent to those in Settings.pl.
Ok, people are telling me the news screws up in their browser!!! You have the option of turning the NewsFader off in Settings.pl... some browsers don't like the java associated with this news ticker. If you do this and still wish to have news, you'll need to put the tag "<yabb news>" back into template.html.
How can I turn off some of those bloat-fish features? Many of the features/add-ons in YaBB can be turned off or modified in Settings.pl.
When I try to post or change my profile, nothing changes? Did you forget to chmod 666 (or 777) the files and folders as specified above? That makes them "writeable"....
Well what the hell is chmod? Chmod is a unix command - for "change mode". It sets permissions to files such as "writeable", "readable", "user-writeable".. etc.


General Notes:

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  • YaBB is distibuted free of charge: do not abuse this by using code in other programs or selling any portions of YaBB.
  • Perl5 is required for use of this Perl Application.
  • Support is free of charge at http://www.yabb.org/cgi-bin/support/YaBB.cgi at a "first-come, first-serve basis". Donations (explained on yabb.org) will get you different ammounts of Preference for Support.
  • View the "whats_new.txt" file for information on upgrades and bug fixes from previous versions of YaBB.
  • This is the FINAL version of YaBB 1. Unless major bugs are reported, no complete releases will be distributed by www.yabb.org until YaBB version 2 is completed.
  • For any help on installation and customization, please visit us at http://www.yabb.org.


    Thank you for downloading and trying YaBB - Yet Another Bulletin Board!