Publish - Before Publishing

Communicating with your Webmaster or IT administrator:

Web servers can be configured in many different ways, and it is important to be in contact with the person responsible for administering it. The following is meant to help EZSurvey users get set up on a server that they don't administer themselves.

When you plan to use a server that is administered by another department, organization or on a separate ISP it helps to have a good technical contact that understands web publishing. Publishing problems usually arise because no one really knows how the web server works and what restrictions are in place.

Basics of what you need to know:

• What operating system is the server running on? (UNIX or Windows, in rare circumstances another operating system may be used to run the web server)
• How will the survey get on the server? (via FTP or over the network)
• How to set the permissions on the files/folders.
• The name and location of the folder you will be uploading to. (usually the cgi-bin or scripts directory)
• The web server (or network) address the survey will have: www.raosoft.com and the folder the survey will run in. (usually the cgi-bin or scripts directory)

Common restrictions that affect how you set up your web survey:

• The administrator does everything themselves.
• You can only FTP to the server (no direct access or command line).
• You cannot run executables, or you are limited in the type you can run.

The majority of EZSurvey users use the CGI option for Windows and the compiled CGI option for UNIX servers, these are the primary choices. The other options are offered for users that, because of restrictions on their web server, cannot use either of the primary publishing choices.

Publishing with the compiled CGI is preferable because the compiled CGI allows all of EZSurvey's advanced functions. Some EZSurvey functions are marked as only available on the compiled web scripts.

See also...

• Under the Hood - Web Servers