INSTALLATION

In the "./eg" directory you can find the needed files to set up a simple working generated index.

HTML::Mason is just one way to use it. You can run the module from apache with mod perl and any other templating tool or from standalone perl scripts Type perldoc HTML::Widgets::iIndex to find more help.

You can set up Apache and Mason correctly before you can use module.

In a few steps:

1.- Install and set up a working apache server 2.- Install and set up HTML::Mason

        This module needs to store data as user apache, so you should
        give him access to the right directory (check your Mason docs!)
        The default looks like /etc/httpd/mason, so you should do:
        # mkdir /etc/httpd/mason
        # chown apache:apache /etc/httpd/mason

3.- Create database web_index on the MySQL server, giving the user

apache select access to it.

        # mysql
        mysql> grant select on web_index.* to apache;

4.- Create and populate a table following the directives you can find

in Index.pm POD (exec perldoc Index.pm), and set up menu.mc in the "./eg" directory to fit your needs. A sample sql command set to create a sample DB is provided in the eg dir (sample.sql). 5.- Copy menu.mc and autohandler to your server's target dir. 6.- Start MySQL and Apache, and give it a go.

What to do if something goes wrong:

1.- Check your apache logs, or even better, monitor them as you start

the server and make the requests:

        # tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log &
        # /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart

2.- Try to test every component separately: Apache, Perl, Mason and

MySQL. Try to access the MySQL database as user apache and execute a SELECT * FROM <yourtable> sql statement to check access permissions.