----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I N T E R C H A N G E Interchange 5.5.3 Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Interchange Development Group Copyright (C) 1996-2002 Red Hat, Inc. Originally based on Vend 0.2 and 0.3, copyright 1995-96 by Andrew M. Wilcox. This program is offered without warranty of any kind. See file LICENSE for redistribution terms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interchange is a web application server, electronic catalog and database display system. Features include: * online ordering * real-time credit card processing hooks * high-end database access and retrieval with SQL support * product categorizing, merchandising, and discounting * basic customer relationship management * dynamic content presentation * content management * internationalization and localization support * real-time tax and shipping hooks * reporting * possibility of web-based administration Interchange absolutely REQUIRES Perl 5.8.0 or later, on a Unix-like operating system. Interchange also requires some non-standard Perl modules to be installed on your system. Unless you are installing from distribution-specific packages (Red Hat, Debian, ...), the quick way to install the necessary support is to run: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::Interchange' If you would like to use a specific version of Perl, simply invoke Perl with an absolute path to the Perl binary, such as /usr/local/bin/perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::Interchange' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- More information is in the following files and directories: LICENSE The text of the GNU General Public License (GPL), under which the Interchange software is distributed. README.rpm-dist Notes on using Interchange when installed from RPM packages. README.debian Notes on using Interchange when installed from Debian packages. README.cvs How to access the CVS repository to track ongoing development. WHATSNEW-* Changes per specified version family. UPGRADE Instructions on how to upgrade from an earlier Interchange version. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major files and directories in the distribution: Makefile.PL Script to create a Makefile, used for installation. (run ./configure for usage instructions) dist/ The distribution files, exclusive of executable files and modules. Includes: interchange.cfg.dist Distribution-default interchange.cfg standard/ Demo catalog skeleton, used by makecat src/ C and Perl code for CGI link programs lib/ Back-end administrative interface code/ Usertags and other customizable code hints.pl OS-specific configuration settings. None currently used. eg/ Various helper scripts and addons. lib/ The library modules needed to run Interchange. scripts/ The executable files, relocated to bin/ in the install directory. relocate.pl Script that adjusts paths in scripts/ for installation into bin/. test.pl The installation test script. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I N S T A L L A T I O N You can install Interchange as root for a multi-user system-wide setup, or as an unprivileged user who will be the only one modifying Interchange files. Here is the quick installation summary: tar xvzf interchange-5.5.3.tar.gz cd interchange-5.5.3 perl Makefile.PL make make test make install If you would like to use a specific version of Perl, simply invoke perl with an absolute path to the Perl binary, such as /usr/local/bin/perl Makefile.PL The build procedure asks where you'd like to install Interchange and the name of the user account that will own the installation. The Interchange server doesn't do much if it isn't servicing one or more actual catalogs, so you next need to make your first Interchange catalog, as described in the next section. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D E M O There is a demo catalog skeleton (called 'standard') included. To build your own catalog from the demo, go to the directory where you installed Interchange (default is "interchange" in your home directory, /usr/local/interchange for root installations, or /usr/lib/interchange for RPM installations) and run: bin/makecat Follow the prompts and after restarting the Interchange server you should be able to access the new instance of the demo catalog. Please note that some functionality (notably the reporting features) may not be available if you are not using an SQL database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL. Visit http://demo.icdevgroup.org/ to try out a live demo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- D O C U M E N T A T I O N A documentation package is available, with documentation in many different formats. This and other information is available at the Interchange home on the web: http://www.icdevgroup.org/ http://www.icdevgroup.org/xmldocs/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- C O M P A T I B I L I T Y Interchange is regularly tested on various Linux distributions and FreeBSD. It has also been used on Mac OS X, Solaris, OpenBSD, Digital UNIX/Tru64, SCO, AIX, and other Unix variants. It should work on any Unix with sufficiently high Perl version number and the necessary Perl modules. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (end)