Documentation
REVSHARE TOOLKIT: V7.1
NOTE: It is not recommended that you attempt
this installation if you have no comprehension of cgi. We can install it for you for a minimal fee.
System Requirements
- Customizable to work with all operating
systems
- Customizable to work with all web servers
- Server Sides Includes Required
- Compatible with all billing companies and
billing methods
- If you are using NT you must have DAF installed
- Perl 5
- Sendmail or Qmail
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.
Previous installations required
This script interfaces with IBILL PROCESSOR so you have to install IBILL PROCESSOR to handle the transactions. This
system handles the affiliates commissions. Once you have IBILL PROCESSOR installed simply install the REVSHARE
TOOLKIT and upload the accountcreate.cgi replacement file included in this tar file over
the one distributed with the IBILL PROCESSOR.
Configure the .cgi files
configure.cgi
This file pretty much runs the whole
show. If you screw this one up don't count on anything working properly. In
other words, make sure you take the time to do this step CORRECTLY. Ask your
administrator for help if you need to. Below are the variables used in ALL of the
other cgi scripts. All of the other cgi programs use configure.cgi to figure out
where certain things are.
$MasterAccountID =
"axxxx";
Your IBILL master account number (a8493 or whatever)
$MasterAccountNumber =
"axxxx";
Again... Your IBILL master account number (a8493 or whatever)
$agentcode = "pickaname";
Use a UNIQUE name for your site (for example -
"myaffiliate", or "salesagent") DO NOT USE SPACES
$mailprogram='/path/to/sendmail';
Full path to SENDMAIL on your webserver
$adminemail =
"you\@yourdomain.com";
Your email address (YOU HAVE TO USE THE BACKSLASH
HERE!)
$webmasterurl =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/agents/webmasters";
Full URL to the webmasters directory
containing the login form
$clickthroughurl =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/";
This is the FULL URL where people will be
sent after clicking on your banner.
$ErrorURL="http://www.yourdomain.com/agents/error.html";
This is the FULL URL to the
error.html page (used by the cgi - not by you)
$SuccessURL="http://www.yourdomain.com/agents/thankyou.html";
This is the FULL URL to the thankyou.html page (used by the
cgi - not by you)
$cgiurl =
"http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/agents";
Full URL to the agents directory containing
the .cgi files
$cgidirectory = "/path/to/cgi-bin/agents";
This is the FULL PATH
to the agents directory containing the
.cgi files
$datadirectory = "/path/to/agents/data";
This is the FULL PATH to the agents data directory. By default
is /path/to/cgi-bin/agents/data
$logsdirectory = "/path/to/agents/logs";
This is the FULL PATH to the agents logs directory. By default is /path/to/cgi-bin/agents/logs
$clicksdirectory = "/path/to/agents/clicks";
This is the FULL PATH to the agents clicks directory. By default is /path/to/cgi-bin/agents/clicks
$localurl = "yourdomain.com";
Your domain name
Upload Your Edited CGI and Database Files
- Upload all of the cgi files (.cgi) into a
directory you create called "agents" inside your cgi-bin
(http://yourdomain/cgi-bin/agents)
- Make three new directories inside of your
/cgi-bin/agents folder data, clicks, and logs
- http://yourdomain/cgi-bin/agents/data/
- http://yourdomain/cgi-bin/agents/clicks/
- http://yourdomain/cgi-bin/agents/logs/
Note that the logs and the clicks directories are empty
folders, but there are 4 files inside the data folder (schedule.db, paid, passwords, and
memberdatabase) all of these 4 files except schedule.db are just blank text files.
schedule.db is a database for organizing your pay periods. If you see files called
blank.ignore then ignore them.
Upload The Edited HTML Files
- Make a directory inside of your webspace
called agents (http://yourdomain/agents/) and 2 directories inside of this called
webmasters and admin (http://yourdomain/agents/webmasters, http://yourdomain/agents/admin)
- Modify the form action tags of the admin
(index.html) page and the webmasters (index.html) page and upload these into their
respective directories.
- If you are not allowing textlinks then you
will want to customize the banners.cgi html output so it doesnt give instructions for text
links. Simply edit the html in between the ENDHEADER markers inside of banners.cgi
Password Protect the admin
Directory
If you need to review or learn
the basics of CGI and Perl check out the superscripts
tutorial archives.
Upload Your Banner image(s)
- Upload your banner(s) into the
http://yourdomain/agents/webmaster directory.
WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED...
http://www.yourdomain.com/agents/index.html
SIGNUP PAGE FOR NEW
AFFILIATES
http://www.yourdomain.com/agents/webmasters/index.html
Where users will login to get bannercode,
check stats, modify info
http://www.yourdomain.com/agents/admin/index.html
Password protected admin area
ALL CGI will be
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/agents/
File Access Permissions
File access permissions must be set correctly
for this program to run. The table below lists the permissions of each file which are to
be set by the unix command ( chmod ) used to set the correct access permissions. You must
set the access permissions for each of these files. As usual you will set all .cgi
files to 755 (rwx-r-x-r-x)and all other files and directories to 666 (rw-rw-rw).
CHMOD 755
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CHMOD 777
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- add.cgi
- login.cgi
- banners.cgi
- bydate.cgi
- byuser.cgi
- agents.cgi
- stats.cgi
- revoke.cgi
- overview.cgi
- configure.cgi
- delete.user.cgi
- editstats.cgi
- getinfo.cgi
- revshare.cgi
- payout.cgi
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- logs directory
- data directory and everything inside
(schedule.db, paid, passwords, memberdatabase)
- clicks directory
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Edit payout.cgi
This is simple - just edit the path to the
configure.cgi file used by the Revshare Toolkit.
require
"/path/to/cgi-bin/agents/configure.cgi";
Edit accountcreate.cgi
You simply edit the path to the
/cgi-bin/agents/payout.cgi file in the require statement and replace your old
accountcreate.cgi file with the one distributed with the revshare toolkit
require
"/path/to/cgi-bin/agents/payout.cgi";
Edit your IBILL JOIN PAGE
To finish the installation you have to add a
server sides includes tag into the form buttons on your IBILL JOIN PAGE. You may
have to rename your page to .shtml instead of .html on some machines - ASK your system
administrator the requirements on your server to execute SSI. The tag should look
like this and is inserted inside the html for each join button:
- <!-- COPY CODE BETWEEN THESE COMMENT LINES FOR
EACH CREDIT CARD SUB ACCOUNT -->
- <form method="POST"
action="https://secure.logicom.com/cgi-win/ccard/ccard.exe">
- <INPUT type="hidden"
name="hellopage" value="ibillblack">
- <input type="hidden"
name="reqtype" value="secure">
- <input type="hidden"
name="ref1" value="/
path/to/pincodefile">
<input type="hidden"
name="ref2" value="3">
<!--#EXEC
CGI="/cgi-bin/agents/revshare.cgi" -->
<input type="hidden"
name="account" value="pincodefile">
<input type="submit" value="$2.95
for 3 days by credit card"></form>
<!-- COPY CODE BETWEEN THESE COMMENT LINES FOR
EACH CREDIT CARD SUB ACCOUNT -->
Replace web good pages
You have to replace the webgood page(s) with
the special versions included with the Revshare Toolkit distribution. Just edit the
form action tag.
Set default commissions in REVSHARE
Before the system will accept any signups you
have to setup "DEFAULT REVSHARE SPLITS" inside of the IBILL admin section by logging
into your account @ IBILL
Cookies, IP's and Ports
If you haven't guessed by now, Agents of
Fortune uses COOKIES to keep track of commissions. When an surfer clicks on one of
your affiliates banners a cookie is set inside their browser and remains there until
something like the year 2003. Anytime that visitor returns to your site and buys
something payout.cgi sucks the cookie out of the browser and writes to a database the
commission information. Likewise if this surfer also signed up for your affiliate
system the cookie would write to a database and Agents would know that this new affiliate
was referred to you by someone else. The secondary commission information is all
tracked in the member databases.
The thing about cookies (and its a good
thing) is that you can only retrieve cookies that you sent. This means it is totally
IMPOSSIBLE for you to read all the cookies in my browser that have been set by 100's of
other websites tracking my behaviour. Cookies can only be read from the exact same
IP address and PORT that they were set by.
Notes for NT users
You must turn encryption ON for
this installation to work on NT. Also you must be using sendmail or a compatible
email program or modify add.cgi to work with your system.
Operating your Affiliates Program
ADMINISTRATION
The administrative interface is basically a
navigational and editing interface. If you take a little time to push buttons you
will see how it works. You can zoom into the statistics from any point starting at
the yearly overview and zooming into the individual users statistics. From the
payout menu you can revoke sales or delete affiliates.
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