Administer Nethernet Topsites : Docs

Introduction:
Welcome to the incredibly easy to use and administer Nethernet Topsites.  Which unlike other companies provides you with in depth documentation, and more.  If this is your first time running this program, we recommend that you fill out the Registration information, so we won't mistake your copy for a pirated version when we do random audits.  Registration will also enable some advanced features, and will give you a password to the support area. 

  

First Time Users:

Nethernet will install the system for you for free, so some of this information is of little use to you, though it will help you gain a greater understanding of how this system works.  (Most of these instructions are keyed toward installing the system on a Linux/UNIX Os.  In the future we will have a Win32 version available as well.

Editing your HTML Templates:
There are a few HTML templates which you can customize to provide a more unique look for your website.  Remember to leave the strings starting with \$ they are important to the function of the program.  It is recommended that you just edit the top and bottom of this page, but once you understand the $variables, you should have no problems changing the entire page's look.  You will have to edit these files and upload them via FTP, unless you purchase the Online HTML editor add-on for an additional $30.

_modify.html - this is the page which will be displayed when a user tried to Modify his/her info.

modify.html - this is the page which will be displayed when the user editing his settings, and viewing the graphs of his traffic.

signup.htm - The page which will be displayed when a user wants to sign-up for your topsites.

thanks.htm - The page which will display a users information once they have signed up for your topsites.  It should include some kind of thank you notice.

What CGI file does what?
We have compiled a brief explanation of what each CGI file does, so that you won't be left completely in the dark when it comes to dealing with them.

signup.cgi - The CGI which lets signup for an account on your topsites

modify.cgi - The CGI which lets users view their statistics, and edit their settings

out.cgi - The C++ CGI that logs the traffic being sent in and out

in.cgi - Basically a Gateway CGI which keeps track of which site a each visitor comes from

create.cgi - The CGI which searches for <!-- top_tag /top_tag--> and updates them when it is called via Web, or via a CRONTAB.

update.cgi - The CGI while keeps track of how many days each user has been in your topsites, and resets all accounts to 0.

Editing the Defaults File:
The default.txt file is one of the most important files for you to edit, it contains many important settings which will control how your topsites works.  Upon registering you will be able to edit it via and an online interface.  You can specify any option that appears in the defaults.txt file and more, below is an overview of some of the most common settings you might use in a top_tag specify in a top_tag.

Option: Example: Explanation:
custom_file custom.pl Name of the file containing custom CGI
col_widths 10,*,20,20 The Width of each Column separated by a ,
col_types rank,description,score, hitsout The item to be displayed in each column separated by 
col_names Rank:,Site:,Score:, Hitsout: The text describing each of the above columns separated by ,s"
type_bg black The BG color for the Row containing the name of each column
font verdana The font to use for the Column names
font_size -1 The Font Size for the Column names
font_color white The Font color for the Column Names
col_color white,lightgray,white, white The color for each Column separated by ,s
border 0 The Border size for the table of sites
bgcolor white The BGcolor for the tables of sites
top_bgcolor black The BGcolor for header for the table of sites
cellpadding 2 The Table's Cellpadding
cellspacing 2 The Tables Cellspacing
cols 4 The number of columns in the table
head The Top 5 Sites The Default Header to be placed on the table of Sites
min_random 3 The Minimum number of hits that a site has to send in order to be selected as a site of the moment
template template.txt the template containing the layout for an entry in your topsites
min 1 The Minimum number of hits required to be listed
start 1 The Starting point for the list of sites
end 5 The ending point for the list of sites
inner_font verdana The font for each cell in the topsites, such as the Rank column
inner_size -1 The font size for the text in the cell
inner_color black The font color for the text in the cell above
inner_cus <b> A custom HTML tag that you want before the text in the cell
inner_cus_end </b> A custom HTML tag you want after the text in the cell
even_color gray The color for Even Rows
odd_color white The Color for Odd Rows


Getting your Topsites to Auto Update:
It is really quite simple to get your topsites to auto update, all you have to do is modify the crontab file we provide, and type the telnet command "
crontab ntop.cron." This will tell the server to automatically run create.cgi every hour and run update.cgi once a day.  Before doing this you will need to modify the ntop.cron to make sure that it has the correct path to your cgi files. (In most cases you should not need to do this step since installation and setup is included with each license purchased.)

Setting up a Basic Topsites:
Setting up a basic topsites should take no time at all.  Since in most occasions the above steps should have already been done for you, all you have to do is add the <!--top_tag /top_tag--> code to the HTML files you want the create.cgi to parse.  You should make some changes to the html templates to have them reflect your site's layout, but you really shouldn't have to do much to launch your topsites, and sitting back to enjoy the automation :-)

The Top_Tag:
The top_tag is what makes Nethernet Topsites unique.  Unlike other topsites where you are trapped inside the creator's look and feel, the top_tag allows you to incorporate the topsites data into your site anyway you want.  For example you could have the top3 sites displayed in a pop-up windows, or on an entrance page.  You can have your topsites span pages and more.

<!--t--><!--top_tag name=value : name="value" /top_tag-->

The top_tag can only span one line of your file, and must start with a <!--t--> to identify to the parser that it needs to read in the following data.

The top tag must start with <!--top_tag   and end with /top_tag-->

The name=value  pairs must be separated by a : unless there is only one name=value pairs. (you may use <quotes> around the value)

The name=value pairs can be any value that you are allowed to define in the default.txt and more, you can see a quick reference above.

Sending Mail:
On the Send Mail page you can choose to mail only certain members of your topsites, or to mail all of your users.  The mail option is pretty much straight forward and you should have no trouble emailing your members.

Viewing your Stats:
Our program allows you to view certain statistics about your site on the view stats page.  Obviously there is not much for you to do on this page but look at your statistics so you should have no trouble using this aspect of the admin.

Viewing all Accounts:
This aspect of our system allows you to see all various information about all sites in your topsites. You can use the field across the top right to choose how you want the sites sorted.  You can click on the title of a site to be presented with an editor where you can modify all aspects of their site including their password, score, title, description and more.

Searching for Accounts:
Another one of our revolutionary concepts is to allow the administrator to edit multiple sites at the same time.  You can search your accounts for various information, and edit or view the corresponding results.

In this section you can select accounts to update, delete and to blacklist.  The update command will update the selected accounts (you must check the accounts you want to update.)  The delete command will delete the selected accounts but take no further action.  The Blacklist command will Delete the selected site(s), and log the webmaster's email and URL to ensure that the webmaster does not try to rejoin your topsites.

Registration:
We highly recommend that you register your copy of Nethernet Topsites.  This helps us to keep copies from being pirated, and keep the cost down for you the paying consumer.  Once registration is completed you will be granted a username and password to access our support area where you can download updates, post bugs, or just comment on the system.

Import a Database:
To make our system more versatile we have incorporated an import feature which will allow you to import the topsites database from any Split Infinity topsites, and most newer versions of the Solution Scripts Topsites.  If you have another format of database files, you can contact ben\@nethernet.com and we quite possibly will program support for that database format into newer releases of Nethernet Topsites.

Request a Custom Tag:
You can use our request form to request a custom tag to use on your topsites.   We will post all custom tags in our customer support area along with minimal documentation to get you started.  In most cases we will complete your custom tag for free, but for some enhancements we will request a payment.

Building a Custom Tag:
We would like to keep an archive of custom tags on our site, so if you do decide to program a custom tag for our system we'd appreciate it if you inform us, so we can make it available to all of our users.  Programming a custom tag is not for the weak hearted, and you will need to know a bit about of PERL in order to get it to work.

An Example Tag:
if(\$SET{'custom->random_site'}) {
srand();

\$b=0;
\$kill=200;
while(
\$site[0] <= \$SET{'min_random'} && \$b++ < \$kill || !\$title) {
   @site=split(/;;;/,\$ac[rand(\$#ac+1)]);
   \$url="\$out_cgi?
\$site[2]";
   }
\$temp = "<a href=\"\$url\" target=\"_blank\">\$title</a>";
}

$temp represents the value which will be returned by the tag.  In a custom Tag you can use any variable that has been passed as an argument by using the associative array \%SET.  You can also use the \@ac array which contains all of the accounts in your database. The above tag is contained in the custom_tags.pl along with another example tag, so I am sure you'll be able to hack it around if you know some perl.

The \@site array if formatted like this:
\$site[0] = SCORE
\$site[1] = TITLE
\$site[2] = ID
\$site[3] = URL
\$site[4] = BANNER URL
\$site[5] = DESCRIPTION
\$site[6] = NAME of OWNER
\$site[7] = PASSWORD
\$site[8] = EMAIL
\$site[9] = AWARDS (to be added)
\$site[10] = Hits OUT
\$site[11] = HITS OUT TOTAL
\$site[12] = HITS IN TOTAL
\$site[13] = DAYS
\$site[14] = The rest

We are not responsible for your use of custom tags, if you don't know what you are doing you could really mess some stuff up.  Please only try to create a custom tag if you know PERL!

Custom Enhancements:
If you want something improved or something added don't hesitate to ask, we will modify Nethernet Topsites to incorporate more features and help it fit your needs.   Just contact ben\@nethernet.com, We will give you a discount since you have already purchased one of our amazing systems :-)

 

 

This script is copyright 1999 Nethernet LLC and is not to be distributed through any medium