How to upgrade Anyboard


Posted by ER , Jan 12,2000,16:12	Post Reply				Main Forum

Upgrading to newer or higher versions of Anyboard is a marvel of simplicity. The parameters for each forum are stored in the .forum_cfg (forum configuration) file in each forum's directory, so you won't overwrite or change the appearance or function of your forum when you upgrade. You may add new fuctions, but you will not change old ones
just from upgrading. This feature means you can safely upgrade without losing any of the changes you have made to tailor your Anyboard forums to your own preferences. (Just as a matter of precaution, you should keep a copy of the .forum_cfg file for each of your forums on your own computer.)

Here's all you have to do to upgrade.

Read the change log (changelog.txt) for the version you are upgrading to and take note of new features. You may have to add new sub directories in order to enable them, or possibly other changes.

Configure the new anyboard.cgi script with just a few (1 to 4) lines, copied from your present script.

1. Check the path to Perl.
2. Configure this line: $abmain : : $master_cfg_dir="/usr/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/forumsconfig"; # this should be the path to your master config directory (abmasterd)
3. Configure the SMTP server setting if e-mail functions in Anyboard are used.

Your new Anyboard script is ready to be uploaded. I suggest the following procedure:

Temporarily name it anyboard-new.cgi, upload it to your cgi-bin directory, and set the permission to 755

755 permissions
	Owner	Group	Other
Read	X	X	X
Write	X
Execute	X	X	X

Rename your present anyboard.cgi script anyboard-old.cgi
Rename anyboard-new.cgi to anyboard.cgi
Your upgrade has been accomplished, and the present functions should continue as before.

Add any new subdirectories you may need and configure any new features from the admin screens.

By saving the previous version of Anyboard, you can revert to it should there be any minor problems with the new version that may need correction. This is a prudent move with any software. Even Anyboard has had some minor flaws (that are quickly corrected) that may make you want to revert to the earlier version until the problem has been corrected. Note: any flaws have been minor ones, like losing font formatting on edited messages, esthetic rather than functional.

This procedure applies whether you are upgrading to a new release of the same level program (such as free, silver, gold, etc.), moving up to the gold license, or a newer, higher level (i.e. moving from from older free version to latest gold release). All versions of Anyboard use the same file format and directory structure and only the features are different among the various versions. From gold on up, the difference is how many forums the script can run.