1 WEBCIT for the Citadel/UX System
4 Copyright (C) 1996-1999 by Art Cancro, Nathan Bryant, and Nick Grossman
5 This program is free software released under the terms of the GNU General
6 Public License. Please read COPYING.txt for more licensing information.
12 Citadel/UX is a sophisticated BBS package which allows multiple users to
13 simultaneously access the system using a variety of user interfaces. This
14 package (WebCit) is a "middleware" package which presents an HTML/HTTP user
15 interface to the Citadel system.
17 What this means in practice is that after you've installed WebCit, users can
18 access all functions of your BBS using any web browser. Since this may be the
19 first Citadel experience for many new users, the screens have been designed to
20 be attractive and easy to navigate.
26 If you've installed WebCit v1.xx before, you'll be pleased to know that the
27 new version doesn't require all that tedious mucking about with Apache
28 configuration files and directories. WebCit now contains its own standalone
29 HTTP engine, which you run on another port (port 2000 by default). WebCit is
30 not intended to replace your regular webserver; it is merely a separate service
31 that happens to talk HTTP.
33 To compile from source, enter the usual commands:
37 Then to test it, simply run the webserver:
40 You'll see a bunch of diagnostic messages on the screen. At this time you
41 can try it out. Point your web browser to WebCit using a URL such as:
43 http://your.host.name:2000
45 ...and log in. When you're satisfied that the program is working the way you
46 want it to, you should set it up to be automatically started by the system at
47 boot time. The recommended way to do this is with an entry in /etc/inittab,
48 because init can then automatically restart WebCit if it happens to crash for
49 any reason. Open /etc/inittab and add an entry something like this:
51 wc:2345:respawn:/usr/local/webcit/webserver
54 Several command-line options are also available. Here's the usage for
55 the "webserver" program:
57 webserver [-p localport] [-t tracefile] [remotehost [remoteport]]
61 -> localport: the TCP port on which you wish your WebCit server to run.
62 this can be any port number at all; there is no standard. Naturally,
63 you'll want to create a link to this port on your system's regular web
64 pages (presumably on an Apache server running on port 80).
66 -> tracefile: where you want WebCit to log to. This can be a file, a
67 virtual console, or /dev/null to suppress logging altogether.
69 -> remotehost: the name or IP address of the host on which your Citadel/UX
70 server is running. The default is "localhost". (NOTE: if you run
71 WebCit and the Citadel/UX server on different hosts, the real-time chat
72 screen will not work, due to the Java security model. Only the chat
73 window is written as a Java applet; everything else is plain HTML.)
75 -> remoteport: the port number on which your Citadel/UX server is running.
76 The default is port 504, the IANA-designated standard port for Citadel.
82 WebCit contains a small amount of graphics (buttons, etc.) which are kept
83 in its "static" subdirectory. All site-specific graphics, however, are
84 fetched from the Citadel server.
86 The "images" directory on a Citadel/UX system contains these graphics. The
87 ones which you may be interested in are:
89 -> background.gif: a background texture displayed under all web pages
90 -> hello.gif: your system's logo. It is displayed along with the logon
91 banner, and on the top left corner of each page.
97 That's all you need to know to get started. If you have any questions or
98 comments, please visit UNCENSORED! BBS, the home of Citadel/UX, at one of the
100 via Internet: uncnsrd.mt-kisco.ny.us
101 modem dialup: 914-244-3252