Installation of DynAds Pro MySQL Fast CGI Version 1.20

DynAds Pro fast CGI can be used as either standard CGI program or fast CGI program. If the web server does not provide fast CGI functionality, then DynAds Pro runs as a standard CGI script. If your server is fast CGI enabled, then DynAds Pro runs as a fast CGI application. We suggest using fast CGI server for very fast responses.

Requirements

In order to run DynAds Pro MySQL fast CGI V1.20, you need these features on your server.

1. Right to run Perl or CGI programs (i.e. cgi-bin directory)
2. MySQL database server. MySql is a free product that you can download and install from mysql.com.
3. The following Perl modules are required. These modules come with the standard Perl installation (except Net::SMTP). Any missing module can be installed from cpan.org for free.
   • CGI module
   • DBI and DBD::MySQL module
   • Fcntl module
   • HTTP and LWP modules for some operations
   • Net::SMTP module if there is no command line sendmail program for sending e-mails
   • Perl CGI::Fast and FCGI modules.
4. fast CGI compliant web server for fast CGI access.

Fresh Installation

Installation of DynAds Pro is very easy. DynAds Pro comes with a setup program to configure database and program specific options.

Do the following steps to install the scripts.

1. For Unix/Linux systems, you must know the exact path to the perl interpreter installed on your server. The default on the scripts is /usr/bin/perl. The default path works for most systems. If your path is different from this (ask to your hosting provider, if you do not know it), open setup.pl, ad.pl and dynadmin.pl in a text editor and replace the first line with #!YourServerPerlPath. Do not put any space at the line beginning.
2. For Windows servers, make sure that your server associates .pl extension with the Perl interpreter.
3. Some rare servers require that the CGI file extensions must be .cgi. If your server does not accept .pl as a CGI application, then change the file names of setup.pl to setup.cgi, ad.pl to ad.cgi and dynadmin.pl to dynadmin.cgi (other file extensions should not be changed). In this document, we still refer to perl files with a .pl extension.
4. Upload all of the files to your server. Always upload perl files in ASCII mode. Make sure that, your server allows you to run CGI scripts under the directory you put DynAds Pro files (most servers require CGI scripts be under cgi-bin directory).
   Give execute permissions to the script files (755 or more restrictive one of your choice), setup.pl, ad.pl, and dynadmin.pl.
   For Windows servers, ask your hosting provider to give read-write-execute permissions to the installation directory.
5. Run setup.pl from your browser. For example, if your domain is http://www.YourDomain.net, and you installed DynAds Pro at the directory (relative to URL) cgi-bin/dads then type in your browser's address bar:
   http://www.YourDomain.net/cgi-bin/dads/setup.pl
   If everything is OK, you should see the main setup screen. One by one, enter the menus and set the configuration options. Setup program is self explanatory.
6. When you finished configuring DynAds Pro, run the control panel program, dynadmin.pl, from your browser. For example, if your domain is http://www.YourDomain.net, and you installed DynAds Pro in the directory (relative to URL) cgi-bin/dads then type in your browser's address bar:
   http://www.YourDomain.net/cgi-bin/dads/dynadmin.pl
   If everything is OK, you should see a Login page. Enter the administrator user name and password you have set in the setup program. Make sure that the cookies on your browser are enabled. dynadmin.pl requires cookies for user tracking.
7. If the scripts are not functioning, first check the file permissions. Then make sure that the first lines of executable files are set correctly to the Perl interpreter. If you can not find the problem, contact RobustHost.com for assistance and help.

Running DynAds Pro as a Fast CGI Script

1. Install DynAds Pro as a regular CGI script as outlined in the steps above.
2. Configure your web server to run scripts under the DynAds Pro installation directory as fast CGI scripts. Ask your hosting service provider how to do it. Especially, configure the server to re-load a fast CGI script if it exits on disk and not resident in memory.
3. Under fast CGI, scripts are persistent in memory. When a request is made to a script it is compiled only for the first time and then kept in the memory. That is why fast CGI scripts run very fast. However, persistent Perl interpreter may pollute the memory in time. Therefore, ad.pl and dynadmin.pl scripts exit after 100 services by default. Then the fast CGI server should re-load the script.
4. You can test if the scripts are running in fast CGI mode and resident in memory.
   For ad.pl file, run the following command in the browser:
   http://YourDomain/InstallPath/ad.pl?md=isresident
   In the first several tries it may respond that the file is loaded from disk. However, for the subsequent requests it should respond that the file is resident in memory if the fast CGI is functioning correctly.

   Similarly run the following command for dynadmin.pl to test if it is resident in memory:
   http://YourDomain/InstallPath/dynadmin.pl?state=isresident
   

Upgrading

If not specified otherwise in the documentation of the new version, we suggest that you do a fresh installation in a directory different than the old version. After the fresh installation and configuration, you can transfer your old data to the new version via the data transfer feature of the setup program. Then, you can delete the old installation and rename the directory of the new installation to the old one if you like.

NOTE: DynAds Pro is not code or link compatible with DynAds! So, if you are upgrading from DynAds to DynAds Pro, you have to change your existing links and ad access/rotation codes.

RobustHost.com wishes you a happy DynAds Pro experience.