I. Requirements
AMS for Windows NT has been tested on a Windows NT version 4.0 system
running IIS 4.0. Older versions of the IIS webserver that do not support
server-side includes will not be compliant with the AMS software. In general,
any windows NT webserver that has been configured to run Perl interpreted
CGI scripts, and which allow for server-side include #exec commands will
suffice for running the AMS software.
A Perl 5 interpreter is required for AMS to work. We tested the product
using Active State's perl 5.003 for Win32 operating systems. Although other
Perl for windows versions may work, we recommend Active State's product
as it has been proven to be compatible with Perl for Unix (of which AMS
was first designed for). Active State's Perl interpreter is free and can
be downloaded from their website - http://www.ActiveState.com/
II. Pre-Installation Setup
In order to install AMS you must have one of the following:
- Administrative access to the IIS server manager (or the server manager for whatever webserver you use).
- Arranged the creation of the necessary directories with an administrator. If you are to run the installation program, you will need the necessary permissions for copying files.
The following directories must be created before running the installation
program:
- A CGI directory - for storing perl scripts and database files
Ex. C:\InetPub\Scripts\AMS\
- A webdocs directory - for storing the images used by the AMS administrative panel and statistics page.
Ex. C:\InetPub\wwwroot\AMS_Images\
Before running the installer, you will need to unzip the software (you will need Winzip or some other zip/unzip software).
We recommend taking a moment at this point to make sure the required directories and files were created.
You are now ready to run the install program.
For IIS 4.0:
3 Easy Steps:
Step 1: The IIS server manager provides a way for allowing Perl CGI scripts to execute. Simply select the AMS CGI directory you created from the menu of WWW directories and create an application for it. Call it AMS or anything else you like.
Step 2: Using the "configuration" utility, make sure you see a mapping for .pl files, which map to your Perl interpreter. If such a mapping does not exist, create one with the format:
.pl => C:\Perl\Bin\Perl.Exe %s %s
(substitute your Perl directory if different from above).
Step 3: The remainder of the installation is performed by the install-NT.pl script, provided with your AMS software package. If your system is setup to automatically run Perl scripts, then type the following to start the installation script:
'install-NT.pl'
If not, you will need to type:
'C:\Perl\Bin\Perl.Exe install-NT.pl'
(substitute your Perl directory if necessary)
The installation program will prompt you for all of the needed information to complete the installation. This includes the following:
- The path for the specified CGI directory where AMS script files will be stored. The database directory will be created as a subdirectory.
- The absolute url associated with this directory. For example, C:\InetPub\Scripts\AMS\ might be reachable as http://www.mydomain.com/Scripts/AMS/
- The email address of the AMS administrator.
- The path for the AMS images directory and the url associated with it.
The user running the installation program must have the necessary permissions to be able to create directories and copy files to them.
You can troubleshoot the AMS installation with the Installation FAQ.
If you run into trouble, we first recommend contacting your system administrator with specific questions (e.g. the location of perl on your machine).
