VOH // Script Distribution
Virtual office hours is run by several scripts that handle question
submission, posting, and answering. These scripts are available for
use by academic institutions free of charge. Please send email to
voh@chem.ucla.edu. Commercial users must write to establish
a licensing agreement.
October 8, 1997: Notice! There was a small typo in the Robot that would cause it
to quitely fail. In the GetConf routine the configuration entries should
split on the ",". The previous version used ":". The bot file here and
the tar file versions have been corrected.
August 14, 1997: Flash!! Updated (slightly) scripts,
full directory, install instructions all together in one easy to use package!
Get the NEW VOH tar file (version 1.1)!!
NOTICE: As I'm no longer working on VOH, this will probably be
the one and only posted upgrade. Please send questions and comments
to voh@chem.ucla.edu.
Thanks you!!
Matthew Walker
Unix Scripts:
These are the new ones included with the tar file...
Mac Scripts:
You should be able to run the UNIX scripts if you:
- Set $system_type="Mac" in the voh-lib.pl file
- Change all filesystem directory separators to ":" instead of the "/"
used by UNIX.
These scripts will run under MacPerl 5. Requires the MacHTTP "Glue" (which
allows scripts to be called by a web server such as MacHTTP or WebStar)
and MacSMTP.pl (which allows mail to be sent by the scripts) to run.
These can be found at the same archives where MacPerl is located.
See: For MacPerl
Stuff
Windows NT Scripts:
The Unix scripts should work unmodified. Set $system_type to NT.
Example HTML:
- Question Submission Form
- Announcements
- Questions Answered
- Question/Answer & Announcement Request Form
We are now using the server's htpasswd system to secure answer submission,
therefore the password section of this document (and the checking part
of qa-ann.pl) has been removed. Place all documents that you wish only your
instructors and staff to use in a directory that requires a password for
net access.
For the Mac, WebStar's builtin password protection system (which uses
realms) is used.
For NT, I haven't figured it out yet... check back soon.
Configuration File
Because of the unfortunate coincidence that the MacOS uses ":" as it's
directory separtor, I had to switch the Mac version of the voh.conf to
a different separtor. I used ",". Because we needed both class and
instructor information in the voh.conf file for the Mac project, the
lecture field was subdivided into lecture:instructor fields by a colon.
This facilitated extending the file structure an additional level.
Hence, all versions of the scripts now expect a "," field separator
in the voh.conf file!
Some Maintenance Scripts
These guys are definitely prototypes.
Instructions
voh@chem.ucla.edu //
Last revision: August 14, 1997