PerlBlog v.1.09b
Distributed freely under the GNU General Public Licence version 2. The attached licence and acknowledgements must be maintained with all alterations.

This unique script allows you to post, edit and customize your weblog more than any online blog, because it's coded in Perl. It's advantages include a highly customisable interface that lets you take command of your blog without the nitty-gritty coding, it's integrated commenting and archiving system, and it's easy creation of new pages that follow your blog template seamlessly. Editing your blog's template will become a hobby rather than a chore. Please refer to EDITING YOUR WEBLOG for details on making the blog suit your taste.

This latest version works out of the box. Just secure, upload, CHMOD, and write!

It's not complicated.. this tutorial mostly covers how to customize your weblog. To make it easier to understand, all the areas that are taken from the scripts themselves are shown in red

This tutorial-readme file covers:

  • BEFORE YOU INSTALL
  • CUSTOMIZING YOUR WEBLOG BEFORE UPLOADING
  • UPLOADING YOUR WEBLOG
  • USING YOUR WEBLOG
  • EDITING YOUR WEBLOG
  • ADDING MORE PAGES
  • USING WEBLOG-CONFIG.PL
  • USING WEBLOG-ADMIN.PL
  • ABOUT ACCESS.PL
  • TROUBLESHOOTING
  • DOWNLOAD FILES
  • CONTACT
  • KNOWN BUGS


    • BEFORE YOU INSTALL:    (top)

    If you want to customize your weblog offline, then it is highly recommended that you have the latest Apache HTTP server installed on your computer, along with ActivePerl.

    You may download them here:
    ActivePerl- http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl
    Apache HTTP- http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi

    Refer to this tutorial for details http://www.4webhelp.net/tutorials/cgi/local.php

    CUSTOMIZING YOUR WEBLOG BEFORE UPLOADING:    (top)

    Before you actually put your weblog online, you need to change the password to be able to post an entry in your blog. (and to ensure that no one else can do that too). No one will be able to see the password/username online.

    To do so, open weblog-config.pl using NOTEPAD, and scroll down to where you see "EASY CUSTOMIZE". Change the part within the quotation marks to a username/password you'd like, and save it.

    $username = "truediarist"; # Weblog username
    $password = "tryme1234"; # Weblog password
    $adminusername = "truediarist"; # Weblog-admin.pl username
    $adminpassword = "tryme1234"; # Weblog-admin.pl password

    Also you CAN (but you do not need to) to change $code = "write";. Change it to something harder to remember like $code = "asghgal34454ijdfsdfs";

    HENCE the page where you'll write your journal could be

    http://www.mysite.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?asghgal34454ijdfsdfs

    UPLOADING YOUR WEBLOG ONLINE:    (top)

    1) Make sure your server supports Perl/CGI. A good site is http://free.prohosting.com
    2) Make a directory where all your blog files will be located, usually under cgi-bin
    3) Upload ALL files AS THEY ARE, using FTP or anything you choose.

           -weblog.pl                  (weblog script)
       -weblog-config.pl           (weblog configuration script)
       -weblog-admin.pl            (edit/delete your entries)
       -access.pl                  (password access script)
       -forumdata                  (directory)
          |
	   -header.txt       (header file)
	   -footer.txt       (footer file)
	   -months.txt       (list of months)
	   -num.txt          (last thread/reply)
           -all.txt          (all your posts)
           -sidebar.txt      (sidebar column text)
           -200506.txt       (sample month)
           -about.txt        (about page text)
           -clear.js         (quicktags javascript)
           -quicktags.js     (quicktags javascript) 
           -openwin.js       (popup comments javascript)
           -messages         (directory)
           -comments.gif     (comments bubble image)
		|
		  -1.txt (welcome entry)
    4) CHMOD the directory using FTP to 755
    5) Test! Go to http://www.myhost.com/directory/to/your/blog/weblog.pl
    6) If it doesn't work, refer to TROUBLESHOOTING below

    USING YOUR WEBLOG:    (top)

    To begin writing in your weblog, go to
    http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?write (or whatever you changed it to)

    Username Type the username you put in weblog-config.pl
    Password Type the password you put in weblog-config.pl
    Date Add the date or any header topic
    Entry Write your weblog journal entry here.

    You can add every sort of imaginable HTML attribute to your blog entry, including those provided with the quicktags.

    People can also reply to your journals by clicking on the "X comments" link right beneath every entry you write.

    EDITING: (BEGINNER)    (top)

    Editing your script should be done in Notepad. Many of the colors and fonts you can edit using weblog-config.pl Open weblog-config.pl using Notepad, scroll down, and edit the areas described.

    Your weblog is coded in PERL, which means there are places where plain HTML doesn't work.
    Any place between

    print <<"EOF"; and EOF

    can be edited using HTML. It is highly suggested that you make backups of every file you edit, in case anything goes wrong. If you are a beginner, I suggest you use weblog-config.pl and editing the parts you can see are commented and provided.

    eg: You probably don't want "Welcome to my blog" as your title, so open weblog-config.pl with Notepad and scroll to the part
    $blogtitle = "Welcome to my blog"; # Weblog Title

    and change "Welcome to my blog" to something original!

    Check the PerlBlog website for a complete guide on how to customize PerlBlog.

    EDITING YOUR WEBLOG: (ADVANCED)(top)

    Assuming you know about Perl:
    The way the weblog works is such:
    Every page is defined by a ? so that the journal entry page is ?write and the archives page is ?archives. This is the same as going to

    http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?archives etc.

    Your links are:
    http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?archives- Archives
    http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?the-page-you-put-in-weblog-config - Page where you can write your journal
    http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?about- Your "about" page

    Words that have the $ sign are those that are either saved in the messages file or defined elsewhere in the script.

    When you write an entry in the journal, you need to type in the password and username that you chose when you edited weblog-config.pl. The script then saves that journal entry as a number and a message. Hence you get two files that contain your entry. These are saved under the messages directory, and the 200402 file (or any month that you wrote the blog... December 2005 would be 200512)

    Whenever a reply is posted on a comment, the reply message is saved under the journal entry in the appropriate entry number under messages.

    This you can edit using weblog-admin.pl. (More information is available on the main website)

    ADDING MORE PAGES    (top)

    There are two methods to do so:

    1) ADD NEW HTML PAGE- This is easy: add a new link at the header script. Scroll down in weblog.pl You'll find a set of code like this:

    
<!-- LINKS TO YOUR PAGES --!>
    
                    [ <a href="weblog.pl" class="subtitlelink">$subtitle</a> | 
                      <a href="?archives" class="subtitlelink">archives</a> | 
                      <a href="?about" class="subtitlelink">about</a> ]
    Just add for every page
    | <a href="http://link.to/my/new/page.html" class="subtitlelink">title of my new page</a>

     and be sure to add the "]" to close the link area

    2) ADD A NEW PERL PAGE- This is quite simple but needs several procedures. It's helpful when you don't want to make an entirely new page, because your headers and sidebars are already determined.

    COPY AND PASTE First, open weblog.pl in Notepad and scroll to where you see ####### MY ABOUT PAGE#####. Copy everything from that ### area to the next one, which is ##### THE ARCHIVES #####. Then paste it right after the last script in the ABOUT PAGE section.

    eg: the script ends like this
    EOF
    &printFooter;
    }     (PASTE HERE)

    EDIT PAGE ATTRIBUTES
    Now go to the top of what you just copy and pasted: you'll see just below the MY ABOUT PAGE header the following:

    sub displayAbout

    change it to sub displayYourpage (like if its a music page, sub displayMusic)

    EDIT PAGE DIRECTION
    Now scroll all the way to the near top of the whole script and you'll see a header called ###### QUERIES FOR SUB-ROUTINE #####

    Add the follwing line in between the other similar queries

    elsif ($command eq "Yourpage") {&displayYourpage;}

    like

    elsif ($command eq "Music") {&displayMusic ($value);}

    squeeze it between "month" and "about" to make sure it works. So now you have
    if ($command eq "archives") {&displayArchives;}
    elsif ($command eq "month") {&displayMonth ($value);}
    elsif ($command eq "music") {&displayMusic;}
    elsif ($command eq "about") {&displayAbout;}

    FINISHED
    Your new page is now at http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?Yourpage
    or as the example: http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog.pl?music

    The address location is case sensitive.

    USING WEBLOG-CONFIG.PL:    (top)

    Weblog-config.pl is a script that helps you change the colors on your blog swiftly and effortlessly. Just type the colors and fonts you'd like in weblog-config.pl with Notepad, save it, and upload it.

    Note: without weblog-config.pl in the same directory as weblog.pl and weblog-admin.pl, the weblog will NOT work.

    USING WEBLOG-ADMIN.PL:    (top)

    Weblog-admin.pl can be used to delete or modify your journal entries as well as the replies that your visitors make.

    Go to http://www.myhosting.com/directory/to/my/weblog-admin.pl

    and login with the username and password that your put when you edited weblog-admin.pl

    You can also edit weblog-admin.pl with HTML and Perl.

    ABOUT ACCESS.PL:    (top)

    You will not be able to view access.pl online, nor will anyone be able to do so. It is only there to serve the purpose of ensuring that no one except anyone who knows the password will be able to post an entry in the blog. You will not need to edit access.pl.

    TROUBLESHOOTING:    (top)

    What to do when your weblog.pl does not work or comes up with a 500 Internal Server Error:

    1) Make sure that your server allows CGI scripting.
    2) Verify that you've CHMODed your directory to 755.
    3) Verify that you have all the files uploaded AS they are, with the proper directories in place.

    If you have just uploaded your weblog and it doesn't work, then the problems are either of the above. However if you have edited material in your .pl files, check to make sure:

    1) You haven't added HTML scripts in the wrong places.
    2) That if you have added HTML scripts, that every quotation mark " is preceded by \
    eg: <a href=\"http://www.mysite.com\">

    (only anywhere else than between print <<"EOF"; and EOF)

    What to do when you've altered your scripts to a point of no return:
    Download the files at http://www.chronicled.org/perlblog

    What to do when your weblog.pl comes up half blank
    You may have inadvertently deleted a footer or a header file. These are neccessary so that the script can execute the general settings, etc. Add a blank header.txt and a footer.txt to resolve the problem.
    CONTACT:    (top)

    Contact the author of the revised script by emailing dev@chronicled.org
    Any feedback or comment is heartily appreciated, as well as any updates/bugs you may find. You can also see the script in real time at the PerlBlog homepage

    Last updated: 11:35 AM 6/7/05
    KNOWN BUGS/NEED TO BE FIXED THINGS:    (top)

    Weblog-admin.pl continues to be stubborn and refuses to act normally. Proceed with caution.