                              WEBNOTICE 
	    
	    A System for distributing Notices on the Internet


Name:    WebNotice
Author:  Ian Graham, 
	 Instructional and Research Computing/Computing and Communications
	 University of Toronto
Date:    15 April 1996
Version  1.1


1. Overview 
-----------

This is the distribution package for WebNotice, a Web-based system for
distributing notices over the World Wide Web. Details of the package are
found in the LaTeX documentation files, found in the documentation/
directory.

This software is copyrighted by Ian Graham -- you are essentially free to
do what you want with the package, provided you do no sell the resulting
software. Please read the copyright notice, found in the file COPYRIGHT, 
and as a header to all the main programs, for more details.


2. Supported Environment -- UNIX and Perl
-----------------------------------------

This entire package is written in perl Version 4, for UNIX-based computers.
You will need perl Version 4.036 to succesfully run the software -- this 
package will *not* run under perl 5 without (possibly substantial) 
modification.  The package written for UNIX systems, and has been tested 
under the SGI IRIX, Digital Equipment ULTRIX, and SunOS UNIX variants.


3. Supported HTTP Servers and Configuration
-------------------------------------------

This package should work under any UNIX HTTP server that supports the 
standard CGI conventions. HOwever, I have personally only run the package 
under the NCSA and Apache servers.  The installation configuration files 
describe how you can configure the NCSA or Apache HTTPD server to  run 
WebNotice. 

This configuration will be significantly different if you are using the 
CERN/W3C, Netscape or other server. Please consult your server documentation 
for instructions as to how to (a) install gateway programs, and  (b)
configure access and password control. Note that, for non-NCSA servers,
you may need to modify the password control programs found in the 
admin/ and admin-src/ directories.


4. Description of Distribution
------------------------------

You should see the following files and directories from the directory
containing this README:

BUG_FIXES         -  A semi-complete list of bug fixes and updates.
COPYRIGHT         -  Copyright Notice
README            -  This file -- an overview of the package
README.INSTALL    -  A file containing installation instructions
configure.ph      -  A perl header file, used for configuration and
		     installation. You will edit this file to configure
		     WebNotice for your local system.
config_adm.ph     -  A perl header file, containing configuration information
		     used by the administrative programs.
config_cron.ph    -  A perl header file, containing configuration information
		     used by the cron scripts.
config_install.ph -  A perl header file, containing configuration information
		     required only by the installation script.
install.sh        -  The installation shell script -- this checks for the
		     perl software, and then runs the install.pl program.
install.pl        -  An installation perl script -- this actually does all the 
		     hard work
cron_entries      -  Example crontab entries for the daemon mail and news
		     distribution programs found in mail+news/
admin/            -  Contains perl scripts that manage the adminstrative
		     database. These perl scripts are username/password
		     protected by the HTTP server.
admin-src/        -  Contains C source code for two administrative programs.
cgi-reg/          -  Regular gateawy programs used to access posted notices.
                     (not server protected).
cgi-secure/       -  Gateway programs that deposit/modify/delete posted
		     notices. These programs must be username/password
		     protected by the server.
documentation/    -  Documentation for the package, as a latex document and
		     as a printable postscript file.
logs/             -  log directory -- contains log files that record accesses
		     to the administrative database files.
mail+news/        -  This contains perl programs implemented under cron: these
		     do automatic deletion of expired notices, and 
		     mailing/posting of notices to listservs/newsgroups.
passwd/           -  A passwords directory, containin password files that 
		     control access to the cgi-secure/ and admin/ directories.
Template/         -  Directory containing the HTML document templates used by
		     the WebNotice programs.
db_dir/           -  Directory containing example configuration files for
		     the WebNotice system.
help_docs/        -  Directory containing the HTML online help documents.
notices/          -  Empty directory -- could contain some example notice
		     entries, but does not in this version. This is present
		     to support subsequent releases of WebNotice.


5. For More Information
-----------------------

For more information -- go to the documentation directory and print the file.
For installation information, see the file README_INSTALL

And have fun!

--
Ian Graham .................................... ian.graham@utoronto.ca
