Documentation
SLOT MACHINE:  V2.0


System Requirements

  • Perl 5
  • Server Sides Includes
  • Sendmail

Preliminaries

  • Determine the path to PERL 5 on your web server host.  Note that some web hosting companies run both PERL 4 and PERL 5.  Make ABSOLUTELY sure you are not setting this up under PERL 4.  Ask your administrator if you are not sure.
  • Download the tarfile for this program and save it to your desktop. 
  • Unpack the tar archive on your desktop using a program that unpacks UNIX TAR ARCHIVES. If you don't have such a program then download WINZIP FREE from SHAREWARE.COM
  • After you have unpacked the TAR archive you will have a collection of folders and files on your desktop.  Now you have to do some basic editing of each of these files (or at least some of them).  Use a text editor such as wordpad, notepad, BBEdit, simpletext, or teachtext to edit the files.  These are NOT WORD PROCESSOR DOCUMENTS they are just simple TEXT files so don't save them as word processor documents or save them with extentions such as .txt or they will NOT WORK.   Note that there may be a some files inside of folders which are "blank".   This is normal.

Preparing the CGI scripts

Define Path To PERL 5

The first step is to open up each and every file that has a .cgi extention and edit line number one of each script.  Each of the cgi scripts is written in perl 5. For your scripts to run they must know where perl 5 is installed on your web server. The path to perl 5 is defined to a cgi script in the first line of the file. In each of the cgi scripts the first line of code looks something like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

If the path to perl 5 on your web server is different from /usr/bin/perl you must edit the first line of each cgi script to reflect the correct path. If the path to perl 5 is the same no changes are necessary. If you do not know the path to perl 5 ask the webmaster or system administrator at your server site.  

Upload files and set permissions

Create a directory inside of your htmlspace called slots, upload index.shtml into here and also the imagedirectory and all of its contents such that the URLS to the slotmachine page and its image directory will be

  • http://www.yourdomain.com/slots/index.shtml
  • http://www.yourdomain.com/slots/images/

Create a directory inside your cgi-bin called slots and upload files below setting all permissions to 755 except "emails" set to 777 or 666.

  • slot.cgi
  • emails
  • load.cgi
  • configure.cgi

Configure the .cgi files

configure.cgi

Edit the variables inside configure.cgi

REQUIRED AREA

  • $slotcgi = "/cgi-bin/slots/slot.cgi";    RELATIVE URL to slot.cgi
  • $localurl = "www.yourdomain.com";     your domain name
  • $width=100;     width of slot machine images
  • $height=100;     height of slot machine images
  • $title = "THE SLOT MACHINE";    Title of slot machine
  • $odds = 100000;     odds of winning (1 out of $odds)
  • $imgdir = "/slots/images";    RELATIVE URL (not path) to the images directory
  • $mailinglist = "/path/to/cgi-bin/slots/emails";    FULL PATH to emails file (contains opt in email addresses)
  • $mailprogram = "/usr/lib/sendmail";    FULL PATH to sendmail
  • $adminemail = "you\@slotmachine.com";    administrative email address
  • $subject = "YOU WON!";    subject of email sent to winner
  • $cookieblock = "perm"; # temporary or permanent block    READ BELOW

OPTIONAL AREAS

  • $img[#] = "0.jpg";    name of imagefile
  • $link[#] = "http://www.yourdomain.com/slots/image0.htm";    URL of site or product this image is for
  • $product[#] = "describe product 0";    one line description of this product

You only have to setup the REQUIRED configuration area but will probably want to also customize the OPTIONAL areas. 

The cookie block variable should be left to "perm".  This assures that only one ACTUAL spin is allowed per player.   If you set it to "temp" then they can retry everytime they quit their browser. 

Notes

When a player goes to http://www.yourdomain.com/slots/index.shtml the SSI (server sides includes) tag will execute "load.cgi".  This is a prelimary "practice" area that allows users to spin the slot machine as many times as they want without any chance of actually winning by REFRESHING or RELOADING the page in their browser.  Once they decide to actually play and hit the "SPIN" button they will not be able to play again. 

The email addresses are stored inside of the file /cgi-bin/slots/emails one address per line as a plain text file.  You can use any standard bulk email program to send mail to the list.

If a player wins both the player and the administrator are emailed.  The administrator then will deal with issuing the prize awarded.