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

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

IMPORTANT NOTE: The installation procedure has changed, we hope for the
                better. Please read this even if you have installed
                MiniVend before.

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.minivend.com/minivend/faq/ before you call for help.
And send your system, Perl, and Minivend information, VERSIONS AND ALL!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The installation procedure has changed, we hope for the
                better. If you don't give evidence of having read and
                heeded the above heartfelt plea, your email
                may well be ignored.  Caveat Emptor.


WINDOWS INSTALLATION
--------------------

    Obtain the self-extracting executable minivend-3.14-4.exe
    and double-click on it.

    IMPORTANT NOTE: If you get the message "Bad command or file name"
    when trying to install, then that means that Perl is not installed
    on your machine or is not in your path.  Go to http://www.perl.com
    and install the *standard* 5.004 version (AKA the Gurusamy Sarathy
    port). MiniVend will not work with the ActiveState 5.003 port; it
    appears to work well with the ActiveState 5.005 "Merge" port.
    
    If you already have the CYGWIN.DLL executable or plan on using the
    Perl link CGI, you can download the file minivend-3.14-4-nodll.exe
    and do the same.

    The defaults are set for Microsoft Personal Web Server on Win95 --
    if you use another HTTP server you will have to know where to
    place CGI executables (the CGI-BIN) and HTML documents (DocumentRoot).

    If the program does not find BLAT, you can just enter 'none' when
    asked for SendMailProgram -- that will place all orders in the
    CATALOG_DIR/etc/tracking.asc and CATALOG_DIR/error.log as the
    demo is configured.

    You should get PGP as soon as possible so that you might have
    secure credit card number storage.

    Some features are untested in the Windows version, and it 
    can be considered a beta.

    If you have installed the MIME::Base64 and URI::URL (from libwww)
    modules, then there is a new interface that is available for
    a GUI-like catalog configuration. It should run automatically
	upon a new installation.

UNIX INSTALLATION
------------------
Here is the short version:

    gzip -dc minivend-3.14-4.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    cd minivend-3.14-4
    ./configure

Long version with comments:

    # Unzip and untar the file -- if you have GNU tar, you can substitute
    # 'tar xzf minivend-3.14-4.tar.gz'
    gzip -dc minivend-3.14-4.tar.gz | tar xvf -

    # Change directory to the one that was created 
    #
    cd minivend-3.14-4

    # If you have trouble with picking up the wrong Perl version,
    # try  '/dir/where/perl/is/perl Makefile.PL
    #
    # 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 Makefile.
    #
    # If you are upgrading from a previous version, put the 
    # former MiniVend root directory in when prompted for
    # VendRoot.
    #
    perl Makefile.PL

    # Make the library modules and docs
    make

    # Run a rudimentary test to ensure the server and sockets
    # run on your system
    make test

    # Install the files and compile the link programs
    #
    make install

    ####

       At this point, you can follow the instructions that
       the configure program generates.  If you installed
       MiniVend in another directory besides the current one,
       you will have to change directories to that directory
       before continuing.

    ####

    # Become superuser if you are an ISP or other organization that
    # will be running multiple catalogs. If you don't have root access,
    # don't worry about it.
    #

    # Make the demo catalog. You will be prompted for some initial
    # server-wide parameters, then the catalog-specific parameters.
    #
    bin/makecat simple

    # Start the MiniVend server
    #
    bin/start

The new catalog installer is at:

    http://the.configured.host:7786/mv_admin

NOTE:   The MiniVend server must be running to use the installer.
        We attempt to make this automatic on Windows. 8-)

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.


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

                     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 demo 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.

    -- When using the NEW page syntax, the default in this version,
       tags are interpreted in the order they appear on the page.

    -- It is strongly recommended that you move to the new syntax,
       as MiniVend 4.0 will be removing many of the old tags. If you
       have pages that will be too much trouble to move, use
       [compat][/compat] for now, but even that will go away.

    -- 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
       3.0, you can't 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).

    -- You don't need to do anything to pass variables from page to page.
       If you set it, MiniVend will remember it in the user session.

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

