           RUBOARD -- easily configurable multi-language web board
             Copyright (c) 1998 by Andrew Maltsev <am@amsoft.ru>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruboard is easy to use, simple, configurable web board - a place where
people can discuss things interactively usign their browsers.

Although initially based on Matthew Wright's WWWBoard, Ruboard has been
completely rewritten to improve stability, configurability and ease of use.

The author of Ruboard is Andrew Maltsev, <am@amsoft.ru>; Copyright (C) 1998.

Please visit Ruboard homepage http://www.amsoft.ru/ruboard/ - most of
up to date information and extended descriptions and instructions are
there.


Ruboard features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most significant features of Ruboard are:
 * Stability -- file locking to prevent article and index destruction.
 * Compatibility with WWWBoard. Ruboard may be used to control WWWBoard
   forums without any conversion (I had not tried this, but no changes
   were done to file formats).
 * Ruboard is simple to install and use.
 * User registration and password protection options.
 * Ability to post messages, images and url's is controllable through
   passwords. Users may apply for registration and there are
   administration mechanisms to maintain registered users base.
 * IP addresses may be blocked if desired.
 * Multiple languages are supported (Russian and English for now).
 * The size of board (number of entries on main page) is controllable.
 * Support for multible boards from one program.
 * A lot of visual enhancements and configuration options (all colors,
   fonts, background images and so on may be set individually for each
   forum).
 * Separate posting page/mode made so posters do not have to scroll to
   bottom of long page
 * Can add advertisement on every generated page


Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruboard is tested in FreeBSD and Linux, with Perl 4 and 5 (text formatter
and banned words may not work correctly in non-english languages with
perl4). It does not depend on anything valuable form the system, so I think
it will run on most of Unix-like systems with no changes at all.

Installation:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to install Ruboard you have to have direct (or telnet) access to
your unix host. It is possible to install Ruboard over ftp in some
circumstances, but it's not easy and there are no common rules in this case.

 1. Read License.

 2. Extract archive. Usually by something like
    `gzip -dc ruboard-1.2.tar.gz | tar -xvf -' will do.

 3. Select the user under which priveleges your boards will live - like
    `boards'; create that user if necessary. This implies you have root
    privileges, if not - it's Ok, just make installation under your normal
    uid and leave things as is.

    The idea is, that `ruboard.pl' and `rubadmin.pl' should run having
    priveleges of specified user or you to be able to write articles to
    disk, read configuration and so on. The only function of `rubstub'
    mentioned below is to arrange it. If your system is organized in such a
    way, that your CGI scripts will run under your credentials - you're
    lucky. You may drop rubstub and place rubadmin.pl/ruboard.pl just into
    your cgi directory.

 4. Edit `Config' file. If you run Linux, don't forget to change `make' to
    `pmake'!

 5. Type `make install' (or `pmake install' in Linux).

 6. Copy, link or symlink `rubstub' into your server cgi-bin directory
    under the names ruboard.pl and rubadmin.pl. Supposing that you are in
    cgi-bin directory your command should be
    `ln -s /usr/local/lib/ruboard/rubstub ruboard.pl' and
    `ln -s /usr/local/lib/ruboard/rubstub rubadmin.pl'.

 7. Go to `/usr/local/lib/ruboard/example' directory and edit `ruboard.cf'
    and `ruboard.html' files. You have to change at least $baseurl line in
    `ruboard.cf' and reference to your host in `ruboard.html'.

 8. Configure your web server to go to `example' directory when something
    like http://your.host/boards/example/ has been fed to it. Employ
    `Alias' if you are using Apache:
    `Alias /boards/example/ /usr/local/ib/ruboard/example/'.

 9. Type `http://your.host/boards/example/ruboard.html' or
    `http://your.host/cgi-bin/ruboard.pl?config=example&post' in your
    browser. If something doesn't work - check file and directories
    permissions, server error log, try to run ruboard.pl without server,
    read support page.

10. To create new board just copy the content of example directory. You may
    also want to read comments in `rublib.pl' around `read_config'
    subroutine.

11. Play with ruboard.cf and enjoy!


License:
~~~~~~~~

1) Ruboard is free for noncommercial use. You may use it to create
any number of forums if no profit is taken from them. The presence
of advertisements or `link exchange banners' on forum is considered
`commercial usage'.

2) You have to register Ruboard for US$25 if you are using it
commercially. Visit http://www.amsoft.ru/ruboard/ for details.

3) Ruboard may be non-commercially redistributed in non modified form.

4) If you are going to sell modified or unmodified source code of
Ruboard or any derived products you have to get written permission from
me. Commercial CD-ROM's, BBS'es and alikes aren't considered `commercial
distribution' if no profit is taken on per-program basis.

5) Any derived product can't have less restricted License than this one.

6) There are no warranties of any kind. Use Ruboard on your own risk.

7) No support is warranted. I reserve the right to ignore any questions
regarding Ruboard if they has their answers in documentation, FAQs,
configuration examples or source code.

Thanks:
~~~~~~~

Eddie Rhodes for ideas and testing; James Garner for financial support
of 1.0 to 1.1 patches; Alexander Yaremtchuk for idea and testing; Matt
Wright for original script.

Good luck!
~~~~~~~~~~
