Documentation
INSTALLMENT IBILL PAYMENT SYSTEM:
V1.0
System Requirements
- Perl 5
- IBILL Account
- Mysql
Preliminaries
- Determine the path to PERL 5 on your web
server host. Note that some web hosting companies run both PERL 4 and PERL 5.
Make ABSOLUTELY sure you are not setting this up under PERL 4. Ask your
administrator if you are not sure.
- Unpack the tar archive on your desktop using a
program that unpacks UNIX TAR ARCHIVES. If you don't have such a program then download
WINZIP FREE from SHAREWARE.COM.
- After you have unpacked the TAR archive you
will have a collection of folders and files on your desktop. Now you have to do some
basic editing of each of these files (or at least some of them). Use a text editor
such as wordpad, notepad, BBEdit, simpletext, or teachtext to edit the files. These
are NOT WORD PROCESSOR DOCUMENTS they are just simple TEXT files so don't save them as
word processor documents or save them with extentions such as .txt or they will NOT WORK.
Note that there may be a some files inside of folders which are "blank".
This is normal.
Preparing the CGI scripts
Define Path To PERL 5
The first step is to open up each and every
file that has a .cgi extention and edit line number one of each script. Each of the
cgi scripts is written in perl 5. For your scripts to run they must know where perl 5 is
installed on your web server. The path to perl 5 is defined to a cgi script in the first
line of the file. In each of the cgi scripts the first line of code looks something like
this:
#!/usr/bin/perl
If the path to perl 5 on your web server is
different from /usr/bin/perl you must edit the first line of each cgi script to reflect
the correct path. If the path to perl 5 is the same no changes are necessary. If you do
not know the path to perl 5 ask the webmaster or system administrator at your server site.
Configure the .cgi files
configure.cgi
This file pretty much runs the whole
show. If you screw this one up don't count on anything working properly. In
other words, make sure you take the time to do this step CORRECTLY. Ask your
administrator if you need to. Below are the variables used in ALL of the other cgi
scripts. All of the other cgi programs USE configure.cgi to figure out where certain
things are.
$date_command =
"/usr/bin/date";
$mysqldatabase = "mysql database
name";
$mysqlusername="mysql
username";
$mysqlpassword="mysql
password";
$webmasterurl =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html";
$mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
$adminemail =
"you\@yourdomain.com";
$idatadirectory =
"/full/path/to/cgi-bin/installment/idata";
$sourcedirectory =
"/full/path/to/cgi-bin/installment/tarballs";
$installment = "24.95";
$adminmodifycgi =
"/installment/admin/modify.cgi";
$admindeletecgi =
"/installment/admin/delete.cgi";
$supporturl =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/installment/support.html";
$installperiod = "30";
$fullypaid = "300";
$numberofinstallments =
"10";
$date_command = path to date
$mysqldatabase = "mysql database
name";
$mysqlusername="mysql
username";
$mysqlpassword="mysql
password";
$webmasterurl = FULL URL to /installment/index.html
$mailprog = path to sendmail
$adminemail = your email address
$idatadirectory = full path to /cgi-bin/installment/data/
directory
$sourcedirectory = full path to
/cgi-bin/installment/files/ directory (if selling content)
$installment = price per installment
$adminmodifycgi = RELATIVE URL to
/installment/admin/modify.cgi";
$admindeletecgi = RELATIVE URL to
/installment/admin//delete.cgi";
$supporturl = FULL URL TO
/installment/support.html";
$installperiod = Number of days between installments
$fullypaid = Number of days till account is fully paid
$numberofinstallments = Number of installments until fully paid
Upload Your Edited CGI and Database Files
- Create directory inside cgi-bin called
/cgi-bin/installment/ and upload the following files chmod them all to 755
- configure.cgi
- download.cgi
- signup.cgi
- status.cgi
- Create directory inside cgi-bin called
/cgi-bin/installment/admin/ and upload the following files chmod them all to 755
- configure.cgi
- delete.cgi
- login.cgi
- modify.cgi
- system.cgi
- counter.cgi
- Make a directory inside your HTML called
/installment and upload the following files
- Make a directory inside your HTML called
/installment/admin/ (password protect it) and upload the following files
Upload MYSQL tables
- Upload the MYSQL tables supplied
(installment.sql)
Mods you might want to make
- signup.cgi - you may want to customize the
emails that go out
Notes on running the system
- The concept of this system is primarily for
sites with large amounts of downloadable content to allow people to make payments and
download single files until their account is paid in full.
- It can also be used to run sites with dynamic
content as a payment system that allows them to download content on a periodical basis as
long as they pay
- This is not intended to run a password
protected content site. When I speak of content I mean DOWNLOADABLE FILES. Use
another program such as mastergate, ibill processor, etc for those types of sites
- The important key with this system lay in the
fact that the users MUST FTP the files to THEIR machines rather than DOWNLOAD files from
your machine. This creates an unBEARABLE security wall for hackers that do not want
to give away their identities. Thus your fraud will drop to practically zero.
- It is also noted that once they pay a set fee
to get the main downloadables (use this site as an example). They end up paying
EXTRA (kind of like installment plans at SEARS, etc). Not only that but they
continue making monthly payments to keep their accounts active and get the new content.
This is optional but advised as you will make a LOT more money this way.