Required Software

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile

This section lists the software components you must have installed to use this book, and the Web sites where you can get them. You may find many of them already available, particularly if you have an account with an ISP that offers Web-hosting services to its customers. There are three major required components:

• MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/)

  The MySQL database management system underlies almost all the applications in this book. I used the MySQL 3.23.xx series to write the applications, but most of them should work without modification under 3.22.xx version as well. (There are a few exceptions, such as applications that require transactions; transaction support is not present in MySQL 3.22.xx.)

• Perl (http://www.perl.com/, http://www.activestate.com/)

  The Perl programming language you should have Perl 5.005 or newer or some scripts in this book may not work properly. Under UNIX, Perl will almost certainly already be installed. Under Windows, you can use ActiveState Perl.

• Apache (http://www.apache.org/)

  The Apache Web server. Any recent version should be suitable.

You also need several Perl modules: CGI.pm, DBI, and DBD::mysql. (Note that DBD::mysql is packaged in the module named Msql-Mysql-modules.) If you want to perform transaction processing at the DBI abstraction level, you ll need DBD::mysql version 1.2216 or newer. All these modules, as well as those listed in Optional Software, can be obtained from the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), a valuable resource at http://cpan.perl.org/ that contains lots of useful Perl software. Under Windows, use ActiveState s PPM (Perl Package Manager) tool to install modules that are not included in the standard ActiveState distribution.

NuSphere (http://www.nusphere.com/) provides an easy-to-use package that installs all the required components for you. It s a convenient way to get going, and it works under Linux, Solaris, and Windows.^[1]

^[1] Disclaimer! I work for NuSphere. (But I do think it s a nice installer.)

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile