# MiniVend V2.02
# 
# Copyright 1996 by Michael J. Heins <mikeh@iac.net>
#
# Largely based on Vend 0.2
# Copyright 1995 by Andrew M. Wilcox <awilcox@world.std.com>
#
# Portions from Vend 0.3
# Copyright 1995,1996 by Andrew M. Wilcox <awilcox@world.std.com>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Welcome to MiniVend, based on Vend, Andrew Wilcox's fine
shopping cart program.  This program is completely unsupported,
without warranty of any kind -- but that doesn't mean the
author is not interested in problems, suggestions, or comments.
Please feel free to send them to Mike Heins, <mikeh@iac.net>.

-------------------------------------------------------------

                      I N S T A L L A T I O N

We IMPLORE you to read all of the verbiage below.  We know
how most of us are, so we put the install procedure up here,
but if you have problems please read all of this file, PLUS the
MiniVend documentation in doc/minivend.html.  Also, please check
out the official MiniVend FAQ at http://www.iac.net/~mikeh/faq/
before you call for help.  And send your system, Perl, and
Minivend information, VERSIONS AND ALL!

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you don't give evidence of having read and
                heeded the above heartfelt plea, your email
                may well be ignored.  Caveat Emptor.

Here is the short version:

    gzip -d mvend202.tar.gz
    tar xf mvend202.tar
    cd mvend202
    ./configure
    su
    bin/makecat sample
    bin/makecat simple
    bin/start

With comments:

    # Unzip and untar the file -- if you have GNU tar, you can combine
    # the first two steps with 'tar xzf mvend202.tar.gz'
    gzip -d mvend202.tar.gz
    tar xf mvend202.tar

    # Change directory to the one that was created -- this is a change
    # from MiniVend 1.0x.
    #
    cd mvend202

    # If you have trouble with picking up the wrong Perl version,
    # try  '/dir/where/perl/is/perl configure.pl /dir/where/perl/is/perl'.
    #
    # If you aren't already the user ID of the user who will run the
    # minivend server, you might want to 'su' to that user before
    # running this step.
    #
    # This step will set the MiniVend directory and Perl location,
    # and build the small dispatch program.
    #
    # If in doubt, the defaults are probably OK.
    #
    ./configure

    # Become superuser if you are an ISP or other organization that
    # will be running multiple catalogs
    #
    su

    # Make the demo catalogs -- either one or both. On the first
    # one, you will be prompted for some initial parameters, then
    # asked to re-run.  This is OK.
    #
    bin/makecat sample

    # Make the other catalog. The extension .cat will be
    # put on the catalog configuration file that is created.
    #
    # If you want to make it with a different name, just use:
    #
    #      bin/makecat yourname
    #
    bin/makecat simple

    # Start the MiniVend server
    #
    bin/start

That should be it.  If you have problems, please do what is asked above,
and pretty please reference the web site. And

    -- WHEN IN DOUBT, RE-START THE SERVER.  It won't take but a few
       seconds, and changes in configurable options don't take effect
       until it is done. You may even change a page and not see the
       effect until the server is restarted.

-------------------------------------------------------------

                    K N O W N   P R O B L E M S


IRIX:      This software will not work at all, unless there
           is a fix to file locking with GDBM or DB_File. A
           forked and dissassociated process cannot guarantee
           that a lock will work.

           Help on this from the user base would be appreciated.

DEC OSF:   (aka Digital UNIX) You cannot fork searches, the
           ForkSearches directive in minivend.cfg must be 
           set to 'No'. This has to do with preserving locks
           across forks and may someday be fixed.  Otherwise
           it should work properly.

FreeBSD:   If the kernel parameter CHILD_MAX is not configured
           above the default of 40, expect problems.

Solaris:   You must use the File::Lock module -- flock()
           emulation still does not work properly, and fcntl()
           locking must be used.  This version of MiniVend
           includes File::Lock, and attempts to install it.  If
           you are using GCC on Solaris, you may have to compile
           manually and pass -DSVR4 -lsocket on the compile
           command line, particularly if you have not disabled
           the script that is called 'cc' in many Sun distributions.

-------------------------------------------------------------

                        M I N I V E N D
                                       
   MiniVend is a full-featured electronic catalog system (commonly known
   as a shopping cart) with online ordering capability. It is designed to
   provide an interface complete with SSL security and full database
   support.
   
   MiniVend is freely-redistributable under the GNU General Public
   License -- you can download it via FTP.

   IMPORTANT NOTE:  MiniVend requires Perl 5.002 or higher and GDBM
   or DB_File databases. The program is no longer compatible with 
   NDBM or Perl 5.001.
   
    Features

    MiniVend is a full-featured electronic catalog system (commonly
    known as a shopping cart) with fast and easy online ordering. It
    is designed to provide an interface complete with SSL security
    and full database support. It is as powerful as commercial
    systems costing thousands of dollars.

    MiniVend 2.02 Features

       * Users maintain a "shopping cart" for ordered items
       * Multiple independent or shared catalogs allow one server
         to run many storefronts or a "mall"
       * SSL support means secure and practical credit card ordering
       * PGP support for secure off-site mailing of orders
       * Catalogs can be of almost unlimited size with excellent
         performance
       * Multi-server mode for very high capacity on systems with
         sufficient memory
       * Forked searches for consistent response time in single-server
         mode
       * Cookie support allows browsers to leave catalog and come
         back without losing session state
       * Complete addressable database support with virtually
         unlimited rows and columns
       * mSQL support (experimental in this version)

    Powerful search capability

       * Fast binary search
       * One-click scan and search -- build a whole search in a single HREF
       * Complete Glimpse interface
       * Range searching, numeric and alphanumeric
       * Search sorting with reverse, numeric and case-insensitive options
       * Independent field search selection and return
       * Search any file, build results from any database

    Complete control of appearance

       * Full frames support
       * Catalog pages automatically selected -- either built
         "on the fly" from the database or pre-made for popular items
       * The on-the-fly page is selectable from the database
       * Embedded Perl and conditional HTML allow complex and
         flexible catalog pages to be completely built from
         the database

    Flexible Ordering Process

        * Multi-level order screens with configurable field
          verification
        * Multiple shopping carts per catalog, allows both buy
          and sell operations
        * Shipping calculation, mixed modes, with UPS table lookup
        * Sales tax calculation, with fully independent non-taxable
          item and taxed shipping
        * PGP encryption of credit card information or
          the entire emailed order
        * Fully-configurable discounts with coupons or
          across-the-board discounts
        * Fully-configurable quantity pricing
        * Back end order entry capability
        * Full client-side imagemap support, including frame targets and form
          submits
        * Fully configurable order reports

    Easy Administration

        * Automated installation and configuration
        * Runs under Perl 5 and almost any UNIX
        * Designed to be secure, runs with taint checking enabled
        * Built-in online help capability
        * Offline database builds
        * Static page build for high performance
        * Works well with all browsers

    Andrew Wilcox wrote Vend, the copylefted shopping cart software.
    MiniVend is based on Vend V0.2, but enhanced considerably,
    adding support for frames, powerful searching, remote
    administration, superfast server mode, conditional HTML,
    user-customizable help and displays, and much more. This version
    of MiniVend includes an automatic configuration and installation
    utility, and continues to be free under the GNU copyleft.

    To learn more about MiniVend, see the HTML documentation, visit
    the offical MiniVend site, or download it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

                         D E M O

There are two demos supplied. The 'sample' demo demonstrates
frames on MiniVend, along with many of the advanced
features. The 'simple' demo does not use frames, but now
demonstrates a subset of the features of MiniVend.

To install the demos, go to the MiniVend installation directory
and run:

    bin/makecat simple
    bin/makecat sample

Follow the prompts and after restarting the MiniVend server you
should be able to access the new catalogs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

                      A V A I L A B I L I T Y
                              A N D
                     C O M P A T I B I L I T Y

MiniVend has been well-tested on Solaris 2, SunOS, Linux,
OSF/Alpha, BSDI, and FreeBSD. The underlying Vend engine has
certainly been tested on several more OS versions -- and it
should work on any UNIX with Perl 5.002 or higher and GDBM or
DB_File support.

GDBM works best for most -- it is the fastest for import,
and most reliable.  DB_File is best for BSD operating systems.

IRIX 5 has problems with MiniVend -- it apparently has bugs
in the UNIX-domain socket code that were not yet resolved as
of this writing.

For Solaris 2, you will need the File::Lock module, which is
now included with MiniVend (installation is attempted).

Please let the author know if you have successfully run MiniVend
on any additional platforms -- patches would be appreciated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

                     S E T T I N G   U P
                   Y O U R   C A T A L O G

Setting up a MiniVend catalog can be quite complex, and that
is why the documentation and demos were provided.  They should
be sufficient to get you started. Many hours have been spent
in documenting the features of MiniVend, and thoughtful users
should almost always find their answers there.

Key things that people sometimes don't understand:

    -- The actual pages of the catalog are NOT in HTML document
       space.  They are in the catalog directory of the catalog
       that is in question.

    -- The highly interpolative nature of MiniVend and HTML tags
       means that order is often important.

    -- The first thing to do in setting up a custom MiniVend catalog
       is to define the database.  Everything with MiniVend stems
       from the products database -- many of the custom features
       depend on the shipping, salestax, accessories, pricing,
       and other databases.  Determine your data set first.

    -- The demo pages are there to be played with.  With MiniVend
       2.0, you shouldn't be able to stop the system simply by
       changing a page.

    -- Many of the configurable features of MiniVend are determined
       by the directives in catalog.cfg (or minivend.cfg in a standalone
       catalog).

    -- WHEN IN DOUBT, RE-START THE SERVER.  It won't take but a few
       seconds, and changes to many of the configurable options don't
       take effect until it is done.

The author is very interested in learning your problems with
MiniVend, and is interested in clarifying the documentation for
future improvements.  (He isn't much interested in BEING your
documentation, though, unless you pay well and promptly.) Please
send kudos, comments, questions, and complaints to:

       mikeh@iac.net


-------------------------------------------------------------------

                   M I S C E L L A N E O U S
                         O S   N O T E S

            Recommended DBM    Tested on     Notes
           -----------------  ------------  -----------------------
Linux         GDBM             1.2.x & up    This is what MiniVend is
                                             developed on -- all features
                                             should work normally.

FreeBSD       DB_File          2.1.0, 2.1.5  Many users run MiniVend on
                                             this OS, no known problems

BSDI          DB_File                        Some users run MiniVend on
                                             this OS, no known problems

DEC/OSF, aka  GDBM             3.0           ForkSearches won't work,
Digital UNIX                                 MultiServer does


Solaris 2     GDBM             2.4,2.5       No known problems once you
                                             get it going.  File::Lock less
                                             of a problem, GCC still sometimes
                                             means manual compilation of vlink

SunOS 4.1.x   DB_File          4.1.3         ForkSearches won't work,
                                             MultiServer does

IRIX          GDBM, I guess    All           MiniVend DOES NOT WORK NORMALLY
                                             due to stdio/socket/locking problems

UnixWare      ????????         ??????        No known users, looking for
                                             reports of compatibility

SCO           ????????         ??????        No known users, looking for
                                             reports of compatibility

AIX           ????????         ??????        No known users, looking for
                                             reports of compatibility

HP/UX         ????????         ??????        No known users, looking for
                                             reports of compatibility