Groupee’s UBB.classic™ software

Upgrade to the Current Release
(from Trial or Earlier Licensed Version)

 

 

ã Groupee, Inc.

 

2401 Fourth Ave, Ste 500 • Seattle WA 98121

Phone 206.283.5999 • Fax 206.283.6616

 

 

Document Last Revised: 09/06/2005 (UBB.classic™ version 6.7.3)

 

 

 

Groupee, UBB.classic, Ultimate Bulletin Board, UBBCode, UBBFriend,

Wordlet, and other Groupee products/features referenced in this

document are trademarks of Groupee, Inc.

 

Internet Explorer and FrontPage are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Netscape and the Netscape N and Ship's Wheel logos are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a trademark or registered trademark of Macromedia, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

GoLive is a registered trademark of Adobe Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. CuteFTP is a registered trademark of GlobalSCAPE, Inc. WS_FTP is a registered trademark of Ipswitch, Inc. WinZip is a registered trademark of WinZip Computing, Inc.

 

Table of Contents


Upgrade to Current Version. 3

GENERAL INFORMATION AND TIPS. 3

UPLOADING FILES TO YOUR SERVER USING FTP. 3

SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS. 4

PERFORMING THE UPGRADE. 5

PART 1: PREPARING YOUR UBB.classic™ FOR AN UPGRADE. 5

PART 2: UPLOADING THE UBB.classic™ FILES. 6

PART 3: PERFORMING UBB.classic™ MAINTENANCE. 7

USING UBB.classic™ IN A NON-WRITABLE CGI-BIN.. 7

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET. 8

How it should look on your server after the upgrade: 8


 

 

 


Upgrade to Current Version

These instructions change slightly with every version release of the UBB.classic™ software. 

Note: If you are upgrading from the 5.x series, please use the special instructions for that purpose; do not use the instructions below.

CAUTION: You cannot upgrade to UBB.classic™ 6.x from the older freeware versions 5.10 to 2000d; you must first update to the latest full UBB.classic™ 5 series, then update to UBB.classic™ 6.0. The latest UBB.classic™ 5 series is available in the Members Area.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION AND TIPS

These instructions assume that you have already downloaded the upgrade zip file from the UBB.classic Members Area.  When you unzip the upgrade file, the following directories should be created:

cgi-bin/                       - Contains the UBB.classic™ program files

help/               - Contains help files and test scripts

noncgi/                        - Contains the UBB.classic™ images, HTML templates, and data files

variables/        - Contains the UBB.classic™ Variable Files.

If no directories were created, please unzip the upgrade file again using your zip client's "preserve directories" function.

UPLOADING FILES TO YOUR SERVER USING FTP

You must be careful when uploading the UBB.classic™ files to your server.  Each file type must be transferred in a certain mode to prevent corruption.  These instructions will tell you which mode you need to be in for each file transfer.

Some UBB.classic™ file and directory names contain both capital and lower-case letters.  Please ensure that your FTP client does not change the case of these files or directories during the transfer.  An example would include the "Lite.pm" file inside the "MIME" directory inside the "Modules" directory.  If it is transferred as "modules/mime/lite.pm", the UBB.classic™ software will be unable to locate the file.

Note for advanced users: If you extract the upgrade zip on a Unix server, please be sure to use the -a option.  For more information, please read the unzip manpage.  Please be sure to use GNU unzip, not gzip or bzip2.

SETTING FILE PERMISSIONS

The UBB.classic™ program files, variable files, and certain UBB.classic™ directories must have file permissions set for proper operation.  Normally you do not need to reset permissions during upgrades, but ensuring permissions are set correctly would be a wise idea.  For assistance in setting permissions with your particular FTP client, check the information in our documentation on this page: http://www.groupee.com/support/ubbclassic/install.html

Use these general rules as a guideline:

UBB.classic™ program files (in the 'cgi-bin' directory) need permission 755.

UBB.classic™ variable files (in the 'variables' directory) need permission 777, as well as the Members directory and files in the ‘ubb’ (noncgi) directory.

Directories that you are told to create in the instructions below generally need permission 777.

Permission 777 is sometimes expressed as "-rwxrwxrwx".  Permission 755 is sometimes expressed as "-rwxr-xr-x".  For information on setting permissions, please view your FTP client documentation.

Note for advanced users: The UBB.classic™ uses wide permissions due to common server configurations.  Use of more restrictive permissions cannot be officially advised, but is possible.  If you experience problems when running with more restrictive permissions, please return to the wide permissions as noted above.

 


PERFORMING THE UPGRADE

 

PART 1: PREPARING YOUR UBB.classic™ FOR AN UPGRADE

1.         Open a new browser window and enter your UBB.classic™ control panel.

2.         Scroll to the bottom of the control panel introduction page.  At the bottom of the page, you will find a version number line, such as:

"Ultimate Bulletin Board™ 6.2.1.1"

or

“UBB.classic™ 6.5.0”

            Take note of the version number - you will need it below, and in Part 2, step 6.

3.         Turn your message board off using the toggle on the control panel introduction page.  If you do not see a toggle for your board status on the introduction page, select “Miscellaneous Settings” from the “Primary Settings” drop-down menu.  The board status control will be at the top of the resulting page. 

4.         Next, you must check the board paths.

            If you are using a version prior to 6.6, select "Configuration Settings" from the "Primary Settings" drop-down menu. 

            If you are using version 6.6 or higher, select “Paths & URLs” under the “Master Settings” header from the menu on the left.

5.         Write down the following settings:

"Absolute Path: CGI Directory"

We will refer to this path as the "CGI Directory."

"Absolute Path: Graphics (NonCGI) Directory"

We will refer to this path as the "NonCGI Directory."

"Absolute Path: Variable Files Directory"

We will refer to this path as the "Variable Files Directory."  Note that this is normally the same as your CGI directory.  If it is not, please read the "USING UBB.classic™ IN A NON-WRITABLE CGI-BIN" section below.

6.         Find the "logout" link in the upper right corner of the control panel.  Click the link.  After you have been logged out, close your browser window.

 

PART 2: UPLOADING THE UBB.classic™ FILES

Please read the "UPLOADING FILES TO YOUR SERVER USING FTP" section above before continuing.

1.         Check Paths to Perl - Look in the cgi-bin directory of your unzipped UBB.classic™ software files.  Locate these files: ultimatebb.cgi and cp.cgi.  Open each one (use Notepad or some other reader) and make sure that the top line matches the path to Perl on your web server.  If it doesn’t match, edit the line to match it exactly.  None of the other cgi files requires a Perl path.

2.         Open your FTP client and connect to your UBB.classic™ server.

3.         Navigate your FTP client to the CGI Directory on your server.

SPECIAL NOTE: USING UBB.classic™ IN A NON-WRITABLE CGI-BIN:  Some web hosting providers restrict the writing of files inside the executable directory, usually called "cgi-bin."  If your web host does this, you will need to store your UBB.classic™ Variable Files outside of the cgi-bin directory.  See the special instructions at the end of this document for additional assistance.

4.         Transfer the contents of the 'cgi-bin' directory to the CGI Directory on your server using ASCII or TEXT mode.  Be sure to set permissions, if required.

5.         Navigate your FTP client to the directory where your variables files are located.  Normally this is the same directory as your CGI Directory.

6.         Examine the contents of the 'variables' directory in the upgrade zip.  Compare its contents with the variables files you already have on your server. If there are any files that exist in the 'variables' directory of the zip that do not exist on your server, transfer them using ASCII or TEXT mode (Never overwrite vars files unless directed to.  Doing so will cause parts of the existing board configuration to be lost.). Be sure to set permissions, if required.

            NOTE: If you are upgrading from a release prior to version 6.2.0, please upload the "vars_wordlets_email.cgi" file.  If you to not do this, you will be unable to edit your Email Wordlet List, and the UBB.classic™ may send blank emails.

7.         Navigate your FTP client to the NonCGI Directory on your server and transfer the contents of the 'noncgi' directory to the NonCGI Directory on your server.  Be sure to set the transfer mode for each file. (Binary mode for all files and directories, except the Templates directory, which should be transferred in ASCII mode.) Be sure to set permissions, if required.

 

8.         After all the files and directories have been uploaded, close your FTP client.

PART 3: PERFORMING UBB.classic™ MAINTENANCE

1.         Open a new browser window and enter your UBB.classic™ control panel.

2.         Click the Upgrade button.  A script will run automatically.

Your upgrade is complete!  You should explore the control panel for new settings and options. Click Control Panel Home.

Note that if you are upgrading from a version older than 6.3, you will need to configure your Avatars (under Profile Settings).

To keep the zip download size manageable, only a limited number of avatars come with the default UBB.classic™; however, a much larger number of avatars is available in the “avatar zip” in the Member Area.  If you’d like to add these extra avatars, follow the steps below.

1.         Unzip the “avatar zip” file.

2.         Open your FTP program and set it to binary mode (this is important).

3.         Upload the avatars into your existing ‘Avatars’ subdirectory (in your non-cgi directory).  Any GIF, JPG, or PNG files that you upload into this subdirectory will be recognized by the UBB.classic™ software and displayed as choices in the avatar popup window.

 

USING UBB.classic™ IN A NON-WRITABLE CGI-BIN

1.         Upload the files to a directory elsewhere on the server, such as a new directory inside your NonCGI directory.  Find the absolute path to this directory and take note of it.

2.         Open a copy of "cp.cgi" in Notepad or a similar text-only editor.  Do not use Word or any other "WYSIWYG" editor!

3.         Find the line that reads:

            NOTE TO USERS WHO ARE RUNNING UBB.classic IN THE NON-WRITABLE CGI-BIN SITUATION

4.         Read the included comments.

5.         Find the line reading:

            require "vars_config.cgi";

6.         Change the path to "vars_config.cgi" so that it reflects the path you noted in step 1.  For instance, if the path you noted was "/home/username/public_html/ubb/myvariables", you would change the line to:

            require "/home/username/public_html/ubb/myvariables/vars_config.cgi";

7.         Save cp.cgi and upload it to your UBB.classic™ CGI Directory.

8.         Repeat this process (from step 2) for the "ultimatebb.cgi" file.

 

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET

 

What’s inside the Avatars zip: 75 .gif images!

How it should look on your server after the upgrade:

/noncgi

            /Avatars

            /BanLists
            /cache-…

            /ContentIslands

            /drk-bg-images (optional)

            /Forum1…Forum#

            /icons

            /graemlins

            /Polls

            /searchlogs

            /styles

            /importexport

            /Templates

/cgi-bin

            /Members

            /Modules