Although AutoList is aimed at professional web masters and LAN managers, we recognise
that the flexibility AutoList offers may mean that even professionals are unaware of all of AutoList's
various features, and how to use them. This page answers some of the questions you might have about the product.
You may also like to read our Introduction to AutoList.
Is AutoList easy to install?
Yes. AutoList is a collection of CGI scripts written using the popular scripting language perl 5, together
with some JavaScript fragments generated by those scripts (which you don't have to worry about). There is nothing
that makes the AutoList scripts any harder to install than any other CGI scripts. Your web hosting company will be
familiar with the process and should be able to give you all the information you require.
In general, they will sort four things out for you.
If you feel unsure about installing CGI scripts, and your hosting company doesn't seem able to help you, you may like to know that we can sometimes offer a script installation service (and if we don't think we can handle your server ourselves, we'll pass the request on to our network of friends and associates). Contact installation@noisefactory.co.uk for details.
Do I need to customise the scripts for my site?
Yes. AutoList is a sophisticated system and you need to make a few very simple changes to the
generic versions we supply you with.
The three main AutoList scripts [AutoList Lite and AutoList21 are supplied with only two of these scripts] share a lot of functionality, so to make things easier for you we've encapsulated this functionality as a library, called alcore.pl. The library uses a very small number of custom variables to help your system run as smoothly as possible. For example, when a client adds an entry to an AutoList, they can choose to have relevant information emailed to them automatically. However, the script can only do this if you tell the library your own email address (for replies). If you open alcore.pl in a text editor, you'll find the following section (or something very similar, depending on version) near the top.
#
# Do NOT edit this ID. Your clients won't be able to edit their entries.
#
$admin{OwnerId} = 'autolist demo';
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# CHANGE THESE VARIABLES TO MATCH YOUR SETUP
$admin{OwnerEmail} = 'you@yoursite.com';
$admin{OwnerImage} = 'http://yoursite.com/yourpath/yourlogo.gif';
$admin{OwnerImageAlt} = 'Your company name';
$admin{Server} = 'http://yoursite.com';
$admin{DefaultList} = '/yourpath/autolist/index.html';
$admin{Script} = '/cgi-bin/autolist/autolist.cgi';
$admin{SendMailPath} = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t';
# DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have to change the entries to the right of the =-signs to match your own set-up. All
of these values are enclosed by single quotes. If the text you want to specify also
contains a single quote, write it with a backslash preceding it, like this: \'.
For example: 'Mike\'s Site'. If you forget the backslash, running any of the
scripts will typically generate an Internal Server Error.
How do clients call the script?
Inward referrals can be generated from any site on the Web. The inward-referral CGI call looks like this:
autolist.cgi?url=URL&page=PAGE
where PAGE is the relative address of the page containing the list that URL is listed in. If PAGE isn't specified, your default list will be used instead.
Because this CGI call can be tricky to remember, AutoList displays a copy of the relevant details whenever an entry is added, and emails them both to the client adding the entry, and to yourself as List Owner.
When you call a script from an HTML page, you need to tell the page how to find the script in question. Every AutoList comes equipped with some JavaScript code that handles the details of calling the scripts correctly, and passing the right parameters to the server. Consequently, you only need to add the script URL once per page, instead of once per form. If you open your Template page in a text editor, you'll see the following text at the top of the page.
// CHANGE THESE TWO PATHS AS NECESSARY
var script = 'autolist.cgi';
var outward = 'outward.html';
You need to change the script variable to point to the actual "autolist.cgi" script on your server. The variable outward specifies the URL of the outward intercept page. You can have as many AutoLists as you want, provided you have no more than one per page, and you set the script and outward variables correctly for each of these pages.
What scores does AutoList keep track of?
AutoList maintains a number of scores for each list entry. These currently include
In addition, AutoList maintains a record of each entry's ranking relative to the parameter you select as the basis for scoring entries.
Can I use any of these values to re-order the list entries?
Yes. You can list entries according to the number of inward or outward referrals they've
generated, how recently they generated an inward or outward referral, or even in ASCII (i.e.,
case-dependent alphabetical) order.
How do I specify which block an entry belongs to?
This is handled by the Administration page and script. Decide first what value you want to use for
generating entrys' scores, and whether you want to block-by-rank or block-by-value. For each
block, you simply fill in range of values that belong to the block. For example, to arrange entries
in alphabetical order (of their site details), you would score-by-description. If you select block-by-value
and specify Block 1's boundaries to be "from Aardvark to Zebra", then every entry whose site details
are between the strings "Aardvark" and "Zebra" alphabetically will appear in Block 1.
Note. If you decide to score entries alphabetically, please remember that the ordering is based on standard ASCII codes. In an ASCII dictionary, digits would come before letters, and uppercase letters before lowercase letters.
What's the difference between block-by-rank and block-by-value?
AutoList always ranks entries according to their scores, but there are two ways to display these entries.
With block-by-rank, you specify block membership in terms of rank. For example, you might say
"block 1 contains all entries with ranks 1 to 5". In this case, the block can contain at most 5 entries.
With block-by-value, you specify block membership in terms of scores. For example,
you might declare Block 1 to contain all entries with scores between 100 and 200. The number of entries
in the block will depend solely on how many entries have qualifying scores.
Why do empty blocks sometimes appear on my page, and how can I fix this?
When you block-by-value, you sometimes find that no entries currently qualify for membership of a particular
block. If there are any entries still undisplayed the block header will appear, but the block will appear to be empty.
This is not an error - it is very deliberate. Typically, when you block-by-value it is because you want to reward sites that generate a lot of referrals for you, and this reward takes the form of greater prominence. However, if an empty block is completely suppressed, clients won't be able to see what this extra prominence actually looks like on the displayed page. The header allows them to see what they're missing.
In general, if you want to use block-by-value, you should insert descriptive titles into the gaps just above each block to explain how entries qualify for block membership. See Cimmerian's demo site for a live example that uses block-by-value in this way [Note. The Cimmerian list page is a gateway to adult material. You should NOT access this link unless you are legally entitled to do so, and moreover regard adult material as inoffensive.].
How do I put adverts between blocks?
The gap between one block and the next is very clearly marked in the HTML code for the AutoList.
Any HTML that you insert into a gap will be preserved exactly as-is, so you
can insert any valid HTML objects, including adverts, into any of the gaps.
How many entries can a list hold?
There is currently no intrinsic limit to the number of entries that an AutoList can handle
(subject to the limitations imposed by your own server, of course). You can, however, impose your own
limits as to how many entries are actually displayed.
How many blocks can the entries be split into?
To keep administration manageable, we've currently limited AutoList to five blocks. In fact this
is probably the most you would want to include. Any more than this and a page becomes
very confusing for clients trying to navigate it.
My list is becoming very popular... how can I make it work for me more efficiently?
AutoList is streamlined for medium-length lists. All of the relevant entry data is held in the AutoList
page itself - there are no log or data files.
Those details that are scheduled to be displayed cannot, by definition, be removed from the HTML page, so the main overhead comes from storage of entries that are currently undisplayed. The amount of room required to store such an entry is very low - a typical undisplayed entry introduces an overhead of around 150 bytes (the actual size depends on the length of the URL and site detail text). Even with today's modem speeds and bandwidth availability, you may find this overhead unacceptable once the number of undisplayed etnries climbs into the several-hundred region.
For medium-size lists this is not a problem, but if your list becomes overly popular, you might benefit by moving to a logfile-based version of AutoList instead. We are currently nearing completion of AutoList ver 2.0, which will offer you the option of logfile storage.
How do I try out layout changes without overwriting the "live" list?
When you use the Adminsitration page you are asked whether or not you want to save your changes to a file.
If you don't specify a filepath (and don't click the "save to default list" checkbox), your edits will
be made on-the-fly, and the amended version of the page will be printed directly to the browser for you
to inspect. Note. When a CGI script prints directly to a browser, the URL you see in the "location" bar
is normally that of the CGI script itself. Consequently, you may find that hyperlinks to other files on
your server don't work properly (including images). This is normal, and doesn't mean there's a
problem with your page.
How many different AutoLists can I run at the same time?
You can run as many AutoLists as you want, provided
Similarly, we use JavaScript to construct the "Confirm Redirection" page on-the-fly when a user jumps to a selected entry. The alternative would be to invoke a server-side script, which would again increase both time and bandwidth overheads unnecessarily.
Copyright© 2000 Mike Stannett (NoiseFactory). All rights reserved.