The ListGarden program is written in the Perl computer language. In order to run, it requires a copy of the Perl language system which is commonly found preinstalled on most Linux and similar systems, as well as on most web servers.
This page is oriented towards users with technical experience who are comfortable with configuring and running programs from the command line or setting up web CGI programs.
The system requirements are: Internet connection if uploading the RSS files by FTP, 200KB+ disk space, Perl language system that includes the library modules: LWP::UserAgent, Net::FTP, and Time::Local.
Follow these instructions to install and run this version:
- Make sure that you have Perl installed on your system.
When you have Perl installed, you can run Perl programs from the
command line by executing "perl programfile"
or if you are running a web server, by serving a Perl program whose permission is set to "Execute".
You can check that Perl is installed and see the version information
by executing the command "perl -v".
- Read the Software Garden License Agreement
to make sure that you understand the restrictions and rights that apply to this program.
The source code is covered by the GNU GPL.
The Generic Perl Version is available for free and comes with
no warranty of any kind.
You may, if you like, give a donation through the Payment Page.
If you do not agree to the above license, do not download or use the program. You may not use or copy the program except under terms of the license.
- Download the Local Generic Perl Version by clicking this link
to download a tar archive file containing all of the source code
for all variations of the program. Extract it into the "listgarden"
subdirectory of the current directory with the command "tar -xvf listgarden-1-3-1.tar".
Alternatively, you can download it as a .gz or .zip file:
The tar, gz, and zip files each contain a "listgarden" directory with the following contents:.To learn about new releases after downloading, make sure that you subscribe to the ListGarden News RSS feed:listgarden.pl - Main file for local execution listgardencgi.pl - Main file for remote execution listgardenwin.pl - Main file for Microsoft Windows when used with ActiveState PDK PerlTray ListGarden.pm - Package containing shared code ListGardenLicense.pm - Copy of license for display gpl.txt - Copy of GNU GPL license listgarden2c.ico - Icon used by Windows version rootssmall16.ico - Icon used by Windows version rootsmallbw.ico - Icon used by Windows version
You run the program locally by executing the command:
perl listgarden.pl option values
Here is what it looks like when run:
[system:~/listgarden user]$ perl listgarden.pl ListGarden Program 1.3.1 To access UI, display in browser: http://127.0.0.1:6555
You can get a list of options by using the "-h" option. When executing the program, you can exit before it's finished by pressing Ctrl-C.
After you start the program running, you interact with it by accessing the URL it lists. By default, you need to open the following local URL with your browser:
http://127.0.0.1:6555
You normally quit by using the "Quit" command in the user interface.
Only the following files are needed for local execution. All others may be deleted.
listgarden.pl ListGarden.pm ListGardenLicense.pm
ListGarden maintains one or more files locally to save all the feed information. By default, those files are stored in the current directory. The files are named "prefix.feed.name.txt", where "prefix" is "listdata" by default and "name" is a name you give to each feed when you create it (for example, "listdata.feed.dblog.txt"). The -d string option can be used to set a different datafile prefix than the default "listdata". The prefix may include path information to use a different directory, e.g., "~/listgarden/data/feeddata".
If the program displays an error message when run complaining about a missing module, such as LWP, or LWP::UserAgent, you can get the missing module from CPAN. Most Perl installations include the CPAN.pm module to automate this downloading process. See the Mac Perl Setup description to get an idea how to use CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm documentation should be available on your computer by using the command "perldoc CPAN".
You run the program remotely by installing it on a web server and running it using CGI. (Note the security warning, below.)
The following files are needed for CGI execution:
listgardencgi.pl ListGarden.pm ListGardenLicense.pm
For example, you could install it in the cgi-bin/lisgarden directory and invoke it with a browser with the following URL:
http://www.you.com/cgi-bin/listgarden/listgardencgi.pl
Before installing ListGarden for remote access, make sure that you are aware of the security issues it may raise. For example, the "Local Filename" setting lets the user save the result anywhere the program has access. When run remotely, you may want to protect the program with a password (such as by using .htaccess) so that only authorized users can run it. For this reason, install and use remote access with caution.
Also, if you are installing ListGarden in a new directory, be aware that ListGarden needs to have permission to create and modify the data files, and some cases a temp file used to do FTP, in the working directory. Therefore, make sure that when run by the web server daemon ListGarden has permission to create files in the directory (for example, that the directory is in the web server's group "apache" with write permission to the group).
To uninstall the program:
- Delete the files you downloaded and extracted.
Documentation is listed on the Documentation page.
A detailed tutorial about how to add an RSS feed to a business or organization website is in "Adding an RSS feed to a normal website".
A detailed tutorial about how to use ListGarden for podcasting is in "Setting Up an RSS Feed for Podcasting Using ListGarden".
Using ListGarden for a simple online list, and customizing the HTML file, is described in "Example Of A Simple Online List".
Subscribe to the ListGarden News RSS feed to be notified of issues and new releases:
