Installing House Hunter

Follow these steps to install and configure House Hunter:

  1. copy the "house_hunter" directory (including all subdirectories) in the desired HTML path on your server. Here is a summary of the subdirectories:

    • data - contains the listing database (listing.txt) and the counter file (counter.txt).

    • pix - contains the general button and House Hunter graphics.

    • photos - default directory for property photos.

    • templates - default directory for HTML template files.

  2. copy the "hunt" directory into your cgi directory. Here is a summary of the scripts and what they do:

    3.
    • hunt.pl - The script that brings up a list of properties, based on the search criteria.

    • hunt_add.pl - The script that adds entries to the data file.

    • hunt_admin.pl - The script that allows you to add/modify/delete entries to the data file.

    • hunt_calc.pl - The mortgage calculator.

    • hunt_cookies.pl - The script that operates the "Memory Bank".

    • hunt_kill.pl - The script that physically removes deleted entries.

    • hunt_mod.pl - The script that physically modifies entries.

    • hunt_prefs.pl - The script that contains all of the shared variables and subroutines.

    • hunt_view.pl - The script that displays listings using the HTML template.

    • hunt_takethat.pl - The script that uploads and names photos.

    • cgi-lib.pl - A free perl library script that is is used to support file upload features.

    • users.txt - The file that contains information for users. Each user's information is stored in a line with the format:

      userid|password|name|email|phone


Configuring HTML files

In order for House Hunter to work properly, you must specify the location of the CGI scripts within two HTML files:

  • index.html - 1.) You must specify the web address to hunt.pl; 2) Within the javascript, you must specify the web path to hunt_cookies.pl

  • admin.html - You must specify the web address to hunt_admin.pl


Configuring Scripts

For House Hunter to work properly, you must set variables specific to your web site. These include the following:

  • Variables in hunt_prefs.pl:

    1. $listing - the path to the data file, including the file name. Use double slashes within the filepath.

    2. $home - the web path to the house_hunter directory

    3. $homepath - the filepath to the house_hunter directory. Use double slashes within the filepath.

    4. $password - the password for adding/modifying and deleting listings. This is case sensitive.

    5. $weasel - The file path to lock file, including the file name. Use double slashes within the filepath.

    6. temp - The file path to the temporary file, including the file name. Use doble slashes within the filepath.

    7. $counter - The file path to counter.txt, including the file name. Use double slashes within the filepath.

    8. $hunt - The web path to the hunt directory.

    9. $company - Your Company Name.

    10. $cookies - Specify "yes" if you want to use the memory bank. Otherwise, you can delete this variable.

    11. $days - Specify the number of days you want Memory Bank to remember a listing.

    12. $maps - Specify "yes" if you want to use the mapping feature. Otherwise, you can delete this variable.


  • Other Scripts:
    For all other scripts, you only need to specify the location of hunt_prefs by changing the directory path specified in the push (@INC, "\\online\\cgi-shl\\hunt\\"); line at the beginning of each script. Use double slashes within the filepath.