21 December 1998 ========================= QUIKdata 2.0 Release Notes ========================= QUIKdata enables ERL 2.x and ERL 4.x customers to electronically transfer SilverPlatter databases and license sheets to their site via the Internet. The QUIKdata software consists of a small collection of Perl scripts, executables, and shell scripts that you install and run directly from your ERL server machine. You can run QUIKdata manually at any time or you can schedule it to run automatically via the operating system (as a cron job, for example). The results of all QUIKdata transactions are then sent to any e-mail address you specify during installation. This document contains the following sections: 1. System Requirements 2. Downloading the QUIKdata Software 3. Installing the QUIKdata Software in a UNIX Environment 4. Installing the QUIKdata Software in a Windows NT Environment 5. Updating QUIKdata Software 6. Running QUIKdata 7. Running QUIKdata in concert with a Proxy Server 8. Known Issues ---------------------- 1. System Requirements ---------------------- * Supported platforms: - SUN Solaris 2.4 or better (SPARC). - SCO Unix OpenServer 5 v3.05 or better (Intel). - IBM AIX 3.2 or better (PowerPC). - Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 or better (Intel). * An installed ERL 2.x or 4.x server. * 15 MB of available disk space for the installation. The version of Perl 5 installed in /sproot/perl requires 7 MB of space, while the rest of the QUIKdata files need an additional 8 MB of space. ------------------------------------ 2. Downloading the QUIKdata Software ------------------------------------ The QUIKdata software is available as a self-extracting file (one for each platform) from SilverPlatter's FTP site. For Unix, a self-extracting compressed tar file is provided. For Windows NT, an InstallShield based self-extracting installation program is provided. Each self-extracting file contains the following components: * Perl 5.004 - automatically installed in the /sproot/perl directory. * libwww 5.36 and related libraries - automatically installed under the ${QD_ROOT}/perl5 directory. * gunzip, diskfree - automatically installed in the ${QD_ROOT}/bin directory. * QUIKdata.pl - This script is the main component of the QUIKdata process. It is automatically installed in the ${QD_ROOT}/perlscripts directory. * QUIKdata.sh - In a Unix environment, this shell script sets the QUIKdata environment and runs the main script (QUIKdata.pl). It is automatically installed in the ${QD_ROOT}/perlscripts directory. * QUIKdata.cmd - In an NT environment, this shell script sets the QUIKdata environment and runs the main script (QUIKdata.pl). It is automatically installed in the ${QD_ROOT}/perlscripts directory. * An empty ${QD_ROOT}/filelists directory - This directory will hold all the file lists of downloaded database volumes. * An empty ${QD_ROOT}/licsheets directory - This directory will hold all downloaded database license sheets. * An empty ${QD_ROOT}/log directory - This directory will hold all log files for the latest QUIKdata run. To Download the QUIKdata Software: 1. Login to your ERL server as user "erl". 2. Go to SilverPlatter's FTP site and the appropriate directory for your ERL 2.0 platform. 3. Select the installation tar (Unix) or exe (NT). 4. Set the transfer mode to "binary" (using the "bin" command) and download the tar file to any directory on your ERL server. 5. Once the file is downloaded, change the file mode to make the file executable. This is not required under Windows NT. For example, you could type the following: chmod +x qd2 You are now ready to install the QUIKdata software. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. Installing the QUIKdata Software in a Unix environment. ---------------------------------------------------------- To install the QUIKdata software: 1. Login to your ERL server as user "root". 2. Run the installation script. For example, type: ./qd2 3. When the License Agreement screen appears, press [q] to stop viewing the agreement and continue with the install, [Ctrl-C] to abort the installation process, or [space] to view the next page of the agreement. Type Yes to agree to the license and continue with the installation process. 4. If you accept the license agreement, the script prompts you for the following information: A. The directory to install QUIKdata in (defaults to /opt/QUIKdata). B. The directory where ERL is installed on the system (defaults to /sproot). C. Your ERL server ID (defaults to host name). D. The directory where volumes will be automatically downloaded (defaults to the directory called download in the install directory entered in step A. default). E. The e-mail address to receive the results of QUIKdata transactions (defaults to erl@localhost). The information you enter is stored in a file named QUIKdata.cfg in the perlscripts directory in the install directory specified in step A. You can edit this file at any time after installation to change the QUIKdata configuration. 5. When the script prompts you to confirm the information you entered, type "Y" to begin the installation or "N" to loop through the list again. Typing Ctrl-C will abort the install process. If you type "Y", the installation script does the following: * Creates the necessary directory structure for the installation files. * Extracts and installs the contents of the tar file, including Perl 5.003, libwww 5.07 and its supporting libraries, gunzip, QUIKdata.pl, QUIKdata.sh, and QUIKdata.cfg. * Attempts to verify a 16-bit GNU sum command. If the initial sum command fails, the script automatically tries the sum -s command. If sum -s fails as well, the script displays an "incompatible sum command" error message and the installation quits. NOTE: Once installation is complete, you can delete the original tar file (qd2). ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Installing the QUIKdata Software in an Windows NT environment. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To install the QUIKdata software: 1. Login to your ERL server as user "Administrator". 2. Run the installation program. For example, type: .\qd2 3. Navigating the installation program is done using the Next and Back buttons on the installation program window. Press Next to go to the License Agreement screen. Press Yes to agree to the license and continue with the installation process. 4. If you accept the license agreement, the program presents a series of dialog windows prompting for the following information: A. The directory to install QUIKdata in (defaults to c:\Program Files\SilverPlatter Information\QUIKdata). B. Your ERL server ID. C. The directory where ERL is installed on the system This is also referred to as sproot. D. The directory where volumes will be automatically downloaded (defaults to \temp\QUIKdata\download). E. The e-mail address to receive the results of QUIKdata transactions. F. The hostname of the e-mail server used to send outgoing messages. G. The e-mail address to use as the return address for all e-mail sent by the QUIKdata program. The information you enter is stored in a file named QUIKdata.cfg in the perlscripts directory in the install directory specified in step A. You can edit this file at any time after installation to change the QUIKdata configuration. 5. After entering the configuration information described in step 4, the installation program builds the QUIKdata.cfg file and then prompts that the installation is completed. NOTE: Once installation is complete, you can delete the original installation file (qd2). ------------------------------ 5. Updating QUIKdata Software. ------------------------------ Updating the QUIKdata 2.0 software will happen automatically for both the UNIX and the NT platforms. Earlier QUIKdata version do not include this automatic update feature. If you are running an earlier version of QUIKdata you are advised to uninstall (NT) or remove (UNIX) this QUIKdata version and install the QUIKdata software from SilverPlatter's FTP site first. Every time the QUIKdata script is started, it will always check the version variable from the main Perl script (QUIKdata.pl) against the latest version of QUIKdata available on the download server. When a new software update is available, QUIKdata will install the update automatically,and then continue with the regular download operation. You will be automatically informed about this upgrade by an email from QUIKdata, and you can also find the upgrade history in the {QD_ROOT}/log/install.log file. --------------------- 6. Running QUIKdata. --------------------- You can run QUIKdata manually at any time through the QUIKdata shell script (QUIKdata.sh for Unix, QUIKdata.cmd for NT). This script sets the QUIKdata environment and runs the main Perl script (QUIKdata.pl) automatically. To run QUIKdata manually: 1. Login to your ERL server as user "erl". 2. Run the QUIKdata shell script from the perlscripts directory of the QUIKdata install directory by typing: ./QUIKdata.sh of for Windows NT users: .\QUIKdata.cmd QUIKdata has two command line options which are mutually exclusive: -i: run QUIKdata in interactive mode, prompting the user before downloading any databases. -q: run QUIKdata in quiet mode, accepting the default repsonse of [y] for each database to download. This option is appropriate when automating the download process via scheduling. The default setting for interactive mode is determined by the INTERACT setting in the QUIKdata.cfg file. The initial setting for this variable is YES. Each time you run QUIKdata, the results are sent to the e-mail address you specified during installation. NOTE: If you are running QUIKdata in automatic mode (INTERACT=NO in quikdata.cfg) this will allow you to schedule QUIKdata to run automatically via the operating system as a "cron" or "at" job. Refer to the documentation of your operating system for more information on scheduling. When run in automatic mode QUIKdata will download all database updates that are available for your subscriptions without asking confirmation for each update. QUIKdata will download database updates unless the database update is already installed on the ERL server or already downloaded to the "SPDBDOWNLOAD" directory of QUIKdata. If you want to continue running in automatic mode but you want to prevent certain downloads from taking place, you can create an empty directory in /sproot/spdbvols directory with the same database id as the database update you do not want to receive. For instance,you would create an empty directory /sproot/spdbvols/CCOC0123 to prevent the download of this database update. ---------------------------------------------------- 7. Running QUIKdata in concert with a Proxy Server. ---------------------------------------------------- If you are running QUIKdata behind a firewall and you are using a proxy server to gain access to the internet, you will need to change the QUIKdata.cfg file in order for QUIKdata to function properly. You will need to add a line of the form: PROXY=http://192.168.0.1:80 to the QUIKdata.cfg file found in the perlscripts directory in the install directory specified during the installation process. Substitute for 192.168.0.1 the address of the proxy server that you wish QUIKdata to communicate with. Also, substitute for 80 the port number that the proxy server uses for HTTP access. Release Notes first released for QUIKdata 2.0 Beta 30 October 1998 Revised: 1 December 1998