Discus + NetWare HOWTO
(c) by Rainer Backes, 'bond' Software Entwicklung GmbH
This document describes the way I successfully set up Discus on a NetWare 5 server.
It shall help anybody who needs to set up the famous discussion system on his or her 
system.
DISCLAIMER: ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY FOR
CORRECTNESS. ALL WHAT YOU DO, YOU DO ON YOUR OWN RISK.
LICENSE: YOU MAY DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT IN ANY WAY YOU WANT, YOU MAY MAKE ADDITIONS/
CORRECTIONS AS LONG AS YOU CLEARLY NOTE WHAT YOU'VE CHANGED OR ADDED. YOU MAY NOT 
DELETE MY COPYRIGHT FORM THIS DOCUMENT.
OK, now back to the systems:
The situation: We have a NetWare 5 (or eventually 4.11/4.2) server with or without 
running Netscape Web Server for NetWare and want to run Discus.
Here is what you should do:
1. Get the newest Service Pack for your NetWare (as time of writing SP 2 for NW 5, 
   SP 6a for NW4.11). BTW: it's allways a good idea getting the newest Service Pack.
   Apply it.
2. Get the newest Version of Netscape Enterprise Server for NetWare, at least Version
   3.8b. This Version ist often referred to as Build 4/28 and contained in the file
   NES541A.EXE which you can download from support.novell.com.
3. Be sure to rename/delete the directories SYS:NOVONYX *AND* SYS:PERL.
4. Install NES.
Up to now it's quite easy. Now comes the hard stuff.
5. Create a directory SYS:cgi-bin.
6. Locate the file obj.conf in the config-directory of the NES. The path should be 
   SYS:\Novonyx\suitespot\HTTPS-\config. Change the line containing
   "PERL_ROOT" that it reads:
       Init fn="init-lcgi" PERL_ROOT="SYS:cgi-bin"
   This changes the root for Perl-Scripts to be executed to this directory.
7. Add a line reading:
       NameTrans fn="pfx2dir" from="/cgi-bin" dir="/perl/lcgi/cgi2perl.nlm" name="lcgi"
   under the line containing "from="/perl"". These both steps create an Unix-like
   execution environment for the scripts.
8. Invoke your browser, go to the server administration program and click "Apply" to
   read in the changes you made by hand.
Now it's time for some fundamental decisions. If you run only one Webserver on your 
system and want only one Discus-board you're ok. But if you have either more than one
virtual servers running or want to have more than one Discus-boards, you have to 
create seperate subdirectories for each board under cgi-bin. Lets suppose you have to 
and continue.
So before continuing, we have to fill a little "worksheet" for our installation.
We need the script-directory, where we store the scripts and the admin stuff. (The
admin directory also contains perl executables, so it MUST be installed under 
SYS:cgi-bin).
We also need a directory for the discus-HTML files which is most likely "discus"
under the document root.
For both locations we need the URL and the filesystem path.
I will use the following locations as examples:
Script-Directory:  SYS:cgi-bin/bs    URL ///cgi-bin/bs
HTML-Directory:    WEB:bs-com/discus URL ///discus
9. Go to http://www.chem.hope.edu/discus. Click on "Installation" on the menue on 
   the left and than on "Unix/NT web server with FTP access only".
10.As WWW Server Operating System select "Unknown ISP WWW server". Select "Install/
   Upgrade by ftp" as Installation Option. Leave the release as default (I had 
   3.01.1 3/02/99). Select your Language and agree with the license.
11.Click the Download-button. On the next page simply click on "Generate File" and
   save the resulting ftpdiag.cgi in SYS:cgi-bin.
12.Open your browser and refer to the script http:///cgi-bin/ftpdiag.cgi.
13. If all went right, you see a big form, where you have to fill some values:
      - Path to Perl: leave it as it is, it doesn't matter
      - CGI-Extension: leave the default, "CGI"
      - Administration Directory: add the path to the Subdir under cgi-bin (in the
         example: /cgi-bin/bs/discus_admin  (with forward slashes)
      - HTML Directory: add the path to the Server-Root (ex: WEB:/bs-com/discus)
         ATTENTION: Note the forward slashes!!
      - HTML Files URL: now the URL for the HTML files (ex: http:///discus)
      - Script Files Directory: add the path to the Script Subdir
         (example: /cgi-bin/bs/discus)
      - Script URL: this is the URL for the scripts 
         (ex: http:///cgi-bin/bs/discus)
      - Board Title, Board Contact - fill as you want.
    Now hit "Submit Form".
14. On the page now, download your tailored distribution. I prefer the ZIP-Archive.
    Save the file and extract it to a temporary directory. There is a README.HTML
    at your temporary Directory. You can follow the instructions contained there or
    continue reading here - it doesn't matter.
15. You decided to follow me - that's ok - now here we go:
16. copy the contents of admin_files to the admin directory (including subdirs)
    (in the example sys:\cgi-bin\bs\discus_admin)
17. copy the contents of html_files to the html-directory (including subdirs)
    (example: web:\bs-com\discus)
18. copy the contents of script_files to the script directory (including subdirs)
    (example: sys:\cgi-bin\bs\discus
That's it. Now you can access your board with your browser and configure it.
Some Notes:
- email doesn't function yet. Because discus relies on a sendmail program (or something
  similar), what doesn't exist yet on NetWare.
- reaction times: Read access to the board is quite fast, because the pages are pre-
  generated. Posting messages and administration are a bit slow because of the direct
  interaction with the perl scripts.
- sometime perl stucks. I don't know why yet. An easy way to get it to work again is
  to unload cgi2perl and then unload perl. Sometimes you have to unload cgi2perl two
  times.
That's it.
Please send all corrections and additions to me.
I'll try to keep the version at http://www.bond.de/users/backes/discus/discus.txt
current.
Rainer Backes,
'bond' Software Entwicklung GmbH
rbackes@bond.de

NOTE: The Discus system requirements state that Discus has been tested to run on unix, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT servers meeting our minimal requirements. DiscusWare has not tested Discus on Netware and does not support the installation or use of Discus on Netware. This document is provided for informational purposes only.