To install HYMNS you should be familiar with a UNIX HTTP server; to use it, you need some experience in OOD (Object-Oriented Design).

The designer starts working from the maintainance page. Please, please, please, DON'T MAKE A LINK FROM YOUR SITE AREA TO ANY OF THE MODULES OF THE MAINTAINER'S INTERFACE!! Including the maintainance page. Keep bookmarks to it if you like. If you make links, every robot around the NET can get in and mess with your data. From here, the designer goes to the manager/scheduler module or to the user statistics module. But before that happens, HYMNS needs to be installed:

Start installation:

1. decompress the archive which you download from here; it will generate a folder called 'hymnsf';
2. move the scripts - the contents of the folder cgi-bin - to the cgi-bin directory of YOUR server;
3. copy the example area - the rest of the hymnsf folder - to the place on the server where you want to create your new area;
4. now customize: rename the hymnsf folder to something descriptive of what the new area will be; edit the file custom.pl and modify the following variables:
   • $cgif to whatever your server-path to the cgi-bin folder is (default for the HTTPd server is '/cgi-bin');
   • $hymnsf to whatever your server path is to the renamed hymnsf folder (e.g. '/~djoe/coolarea')
   • $hymnsu to the UNIX path to the renamed hymnsf folder (e.g. '/home/djoe/public_html/coolarea')
5. point your client to the index of the hymns folder through the server(!) (e.g. http://www.name.domain/path/hymnsf/ <-- obviously, change the www.name.domain/path/hymnsf to suit your case); move through the example area, then go back to the index and click edit; if the Manager/Scheduler appears, the installation worked;

   That's it!! You're ready to build your site! Take some time now and plan what your site offers and how it should look like. HYMNS has a lot of flexibility in modifying a site, but good organization always pays in speed and looks.

6. continue reading this walk-through; refer back to it as on-line help;
7. browse the tips that come with HYMNS;
8. create the templates you need;
9. add the data to make your pages;
10. modify the templates or the data and watch the affected pages change automatically!

    It would be cool if you send me some kind of comment on how the thing works for you and what you'd like me to add; likewise, DON'T edit out from the scripts the short copyright message that appears at the bottom of every generated page: I'm not asking you to pay for this tool, at least leave me the credit.

Note: This version is made to run on a UNIX server with a HTTPd-compliant server and Perl5 (Linux, BSD, SCO); I tried some versions for the MacHTTP v2.2 which I use on our Macs in conjunction with MacPerl 5.0.7r1m, but the quirks of the Perl-to-Mac-FileManager and the rate of server crash I got scared me away from it... Maybe I'll try again when I have some free time (what's that? :)

End installation...

Start managing:

• Main Display frame
  The frame at the top of the window. It contains:
  • link to the To-Do list;
  • a pop-up menu to select among the actions you can apply to a file;
  • a tree-like copy of the data directory and...
  • ... of the templates directory;
  • a click on a folder moves you to that folder;
    • (to do) delete a folder;
    • (to do) edit a folder name;
  • a click on a file name or on a template name to apply the action that you select in the pop-up menu at the top of the list:
    • edit (default): if the clicked file has data, it opens the editor in data mode; if not, in template mode;
    • duplicate: asks for a new file name, and it creates it with the template of the file you click;
    • delete: asks for confirmation before deleting;
    • schedule: specify the different timed action(s)
  • When called, the to do list appears in the main (upper) frame and at the same time the input frame fills with options for adding and deleting items...
    • a click on the "Manager" button takes you back to the file manager/scheduler
    • under that, you have a list of tasks sorted by importance and due date
• Command/Input frame
  The frame at the bottom of the window. This frame contains prompts generated from the main (upper) frame described above...
  • when you delete a file you have a choice to:
    • delete all the links to that file (or, if it's a template, to all the files with that template);
    • retarget all the links to another file (or, if it's a template, choose a different template for all the files using this one)
    • (to do) make a decision on a file-by-file basis;
  • scheduled actions that the file you click should take...
    • specify the date when the action(s) should take place;
    • check box to announce someone via e-mail (specify the address and the text of the announcement - there are several preset texts in a pop-up, to which you can add);
    • radio button to delete the file....
    • or replace the file (specify the other one)...
    • or cycle alphabetically through the contents of a folder...
    • or cycle randomly through the contents of a folder.
  • options for the To-do list...
    • check box to add item to list (then specify the text of the item and choose its importance from pop-up);
    • check box to delete item from list (make sure you pick the right item number from pop-up)
  • cancel button takes the user back to the maintainance page

End managing...

Start editing:

Template editing
Is used mostly in the design phase of site maintenance, to create the overal look'n'feel; webmasters only, please. You can think about a template as a very extensive style sheet. The template editor has two frames:

• Main frame
  The frame at the top of the window. It consists of a very large textarea in which you type the text of the template or of the chunk, with help from the toolbox:
• Toolbox The frame at the bottom of the window. Here you have tools that simplify and automatize template editing. Have a look at these OOD suggestions...
  • textarea is a temporary data buffer where the results of some of the buttons (described below) appear; copy data from here and paste it in the textarea from the Main frame;
  • add link button opens a tree-like list in a new window and brings the address of the file you select to the textarea;
  • add image button opens a gallery of the images in your pics folder in a new window and brings the address of the file you select to the textarea;
  • compose color(s) button opens a palette with all of the 216 Web-safe colors and some dummy text in a new window and allows you to compare and choose colors for the page and brings the ones you select to the textarea;
  • save template button ... saves the modifications you made to the template file :)
  • edit chunk button takes as argument a chunk (or template) name that you write in the textarea and starts editing it (BE CAREFUL! this ignores all modifications to the current template, if not saved);
  • add data button switches to the data editing mode, to allow you to put in data, if necessary, and preview, or even generate the first file using the edited template;
  • generate button asks for confirmation, then generates in the site area all the files which use the edited template.

Data editing
Is used intensively in the maintainance phase, to modify the data on specific pages. The data editor has three frames; you will have to move the delimitation line between the view frame and the template frame to suit your current activity - larger data input frame when entering variable values or larger preview frame when previewing:

• Template frame
  The frame on the left of the window. This is a form containing textareas for all of the edited page's elements which the template defines as variable.

  Note: when you are working on a template which contains 'repeating chunks', you'll have to specify all the data set for the repeating chunk in the large textarea which contains a template for the first record of that data set; PAY ATTENTION not to delete any of the field separators, or you'll have a hell of a time debugging the generated file(s); if the first preview of the (first) page (or set of pages) generated doesn't look good, it pays just to cancel and start all over. Check out this tip for some good advice.

• View Frame
  The frame on the right of the window. You use this frame only to verify whether the page is drawn well.
• Toolbox
  The frame at the bottom of the window. Here you have tools that simplify and automatize template editing:
  • textarea is a temporary data buffer where the results of some of the buttons appear; copy data from here and paste it in one of the textareas from the template frame
  • add link button opens a tree-like list in a new window and brings the address of the file you select to the textarea;
  • add image button opens a gallery of the images in your pics folder in a new window and brings the address of the file you select to the textarea;
  • compose color(s) button opens a palette with all of the 216 Web-safe colors and some dummy text in a new window and allows you to compare and choose colors for the page and brings the ones you select to the textarea;
  • edit template button opens the template of the current file in the template editor;
  • apply button previews the data from the template frame in the view frame
  • generate button previews the data from the template frame in the view frame, asks for confirmation, then generates the file in the site area
  • cancel button forgets all the changes and takes the user back to the maintainance page

End editing...

Start statistics:

There are two ways to gather statistics data: