Be carefull with changes in you configuration it may cause the MCC to fall over. In that case you have to edit Settings.pl by hand to correct the problem.

Preferences and Settings

To help you setup your system we created an example page below. Be carefull with the password filter it can disable registering or even your whole site. Of course also all the URL and path should be changed with cautions.

Settings explained

In this paragraph we asume that MCC is installed at www.mysite.com, so replace this name with your website throughout the paragraph. This is one of the more "exciting" menu options where you are able to set the parameters that we explain below. Note that the screen can contain more settings if you are using one or more add-ons. The settings for the add-ons should be explained in the documentation of the add-on.

• MCC Name
  • The name of your Member Control Center. Is also used on the bottom of E-mails to your members and on other places throughout the solution.
• Root URL
  • Set this to the URL for the MCC. Ex: http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/mcc/mcc.pl
• Language pack
• English is default, select the other available languages you want to support
• Database driver
• TextFiles is default, select the other available database drivers use
• Default Length for login cookies to last (in minutes & > 5)
  • Set this for a default time for cookies to last, in minutes (e.g., 360=6 hrs)
• Cookie Name - Username
  • Default: "cookieUsername" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their username).
• Cookie Name - Password
  • Default: "cookiePassword" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their password).
• Show not authorized Areas
• Using this option will show all available areas to he member also the onces he/she is not authorized form. Using this option will give members the capablities to request access to a other area.
• Enable Logging at Bottom
• Use this option only when you are having problems with your MCC. Because it will print additional information about the processing at the bottom of your pages.
• Member Active on Creation
• When checked a members I active on creation and does not have to enter a activation code that would have been send to him in the welcome message. When not checked a member is registerd but has to activate his account by entering a activation code.
• Send Welcome message
• Check this option when you want to send a welcome message to you new members. The message can be edit form the option on the admin webpage.
• Show all fields on register
• MCC has the ablilty to add additional fields to the member profile. Some of them can be required. Default behaviour is to show only the required fields on registration and not the optional fields. Check this option if you want to show all fields at registration time.
• Hide Memberlist
• When option checked the memberlist functions are removed from the toolbar. Admin user can still edit members using the admin page.
• Disable Register function
• When option checked the registration of new members is disabled.
• Allow double E-mail addresses
• When option checked system will allow same e-mail form more then one member.
• Use personalized E-mail
• When option checked all outgoing message will be personalized. Personalisation replaces all <field member_field_[recnr]> tags by the corresponding value of the member record. [recnr] should be replace by the field number of the memberrecord.
• Default Groups used for new member
• Filling the field with groups that are seperated by a + sign will result in that new members are assigned to these groups. For example you want that all new members are a part of Group1 and Group2 just type: Group1+Group2. The groups you can use the give members access to areas.
• Area filename
• Filename used to store Area information, default ./data/areas.db.
• Group filename
• Filename used to store Group information, default ./data/groups.db.
• Member filename
• Filename used to store Member information, default ./data/members.db.
• Location of Sendmail Program
• Directory of host "sendmail" program. Default is: /usr/sbin/sendmail
• SMTP-Server
  • The name of your SMTP server (email send server). Only valid if the following is set to use SMTP.
• Send Mails using: sendmail | SMTP
  • Set to "sendmail" if your host uses sendmail, or use SMTP if your host uses this protocol.
• Webmaster Email Address
  • Email address for the webmaster of the MCC.
• Root Directory
  • Default is "." This could also be the absolute server path to your MCC folder (such as /usr/home/account/cgi-bin/mcc)
• Sources Directory
  • Default is "./sources". Contains the source files for MCC. Relative to MCC root directory above.
• Data Directory
  • Default is "./data". Contains the user editable files for MCC. Relative to MCC root directory above.
• Images Directory
  • http://www.mysite.com/mcc/images. Again, set this to the directory you chose to set up "mcc/images", relative to your URL.
• Help File
  • The URL location of the help file. Default is: http://www.mysite.com/mcc/help/index.html. Set this to the correct URL for your installation.
• URL to News Fader file (fader.js)
  • Default is http://www.mysite.com/mcc/fader.js make sure that the script is included in the url. Otherwise you will get a java script error "fade not found" when using the news fader on the main page.

----- Note these colors are also reflected in the CSS tag of template.html and stemplate.html (so change them to the SAME colors) -----

• Title BG Color
  • The background color of the title text. This color is used mostly on table header text.
• Title Text Color
  • The color of the title text.
• Window BG Color
  • The background color of one of the two alternating "panels" in MCC
• Window BG Color #2
  • The background color of the second "row".
• Windows BG Color #3
  • The background color of table rows on the Area Index and used in a few other places.
• Table Border Color
  • This color is actually used as a table "background" color, but the way the tables are rendered, this makes border lines between table rows and columns be this color.
• News Fader Title Color
  • This is the News Fader Title color for the News Fader (if you have it turned on).
• Show News Fader?
  • When users first logon, show the sequenced "news" items. See the Admin functions for explanations on "news" items.
• Milliseconds between News Fades.
• A news message can contain more the one message. With this options you can specify in milliseconds the time between the news messages.
• Items Per Page in Lists
• Set this to the maximum number of lines to display in each page. Applies to Members,Areas and Groups
• Number of days until an inactive members is removed
• The options in admin to "remove inactive members" takes this parameter in days as an input for removing inactive members.The days are counted from the last time they logged-in.
• Target frame when opening full page function
• MCC can also be used in a small mode, resulting in only a small login screen and a link list. Sometimes it is needed to display the full page to a member, for example when a new member whats to register. If you are using frames fill here the name of target frame or use _blank to open a new window..
• Error Message,wrong password filter
• The message you enter here is shown to a member when he/she enters a password that is not correct according to the password filter. See option below.
• Password filter?
• The password filter contains a PERL validation experession that is used to validate the password. The default is all normal characters and it should be between 5 and 15 long. People should be carefull with changing this option because it can cause MCC to fall over. For the expression syntax please use a PERL manual.
• Send Welcome Message?
• If this option is turned on, a welcome message will be send to new Members. You can edit the welcome text from you admin page.
• Use File-Locking?
  • Whether to use it and what type of file-locking to use. This locks files while they are being written to (for safety). The options are:
    • No File-Locking - Use for systems that don't provide a file-locking mechanism.
    • Unix/Linux File-Locking - Use for this OS.
    • Windows File-Locking - Use for this OS.
• Password Method
  • Select the password method you want to use. Note the Windows users should only select MD5 because PERL Crypt is not supported on Windows. If you don't have MD5 support installed check your PERL provider for how to install it.
  • Apache mod_perl should only be selected when you are using a apache server that supports mod_perl. This option will use the MCC database for the authentication and authorization. Therefor only a .htaccess file will be created, but this file must contain more fields then the other two. Change the htaccess template by (un)commenting the appropriate sections.
• Use fake file truncate
  • This option should only be used when you get a error message "truncate not supported on this platform"
• Traperrors and shown on HTML Page
  • By default check this option. Only uncheck if you want to run perl in warning mode. (perl -w). When checked script errors are shown on the webpage.
• Server time offset in hours
• Specify the time in hours between the server and the country of origin of your website.

Modify the Template

Open 'template.html' and modify the layout as you wish (to make it look like your site). Note: the tags beginning with "<subs " MUST REMAIN in the template.html file. You may move them around as you wish, but leave  them somewhere in the file, or things will not show up. It is recommended that you do not change template.html either until you get MCC working!

Edit small template

Open 'stemplate.html' and modify the layout as you wish (to make it look like your site). Note: the tags beginning with "<subs " MUST REMAIN in the stemplate.html file. You may move them around as you wish, but leave  them somewhere in the file, or things will not show up. It is recommended that you do not change stemplate.html either until you get MCC working! The small template is used if you want to use MCC in small mode (mcc.pl;small=1)

Edit News

This allows you to set the text for news items displayed on the Index page. Add any item you want (e.g., "Don't miss the conference this Tuesday!"). Each news item must be separated by a carriage-return. You are also allowed to use HTML tags in your news for variety!. The news fader is only shown when active and fader.js script is available. See preferences and settings.

Edit Welcome text

Edit the welcome message that will be send to a new member on registration when option is checked in preferences and settings. You can use "<field XXX>" tags to include information from MCC into the message. XXX can be replaced by the following fieldsnames:

Edit Flexible Profile

MCC has the option to add fields to the profile and do validation on the input. The input should contain for each member a line and the fields within the line are separated by a '~'. The sequence of fields is as follows: 0=Disabled,1=on,2=required ~ length ~ Name ~ Comment ~ Perl Filter ~ Error message Do not put spaces between the separators, here it's only done to make the helpfile readable.Be aware that no syntax checking is done and that lines starting with # are threaded as comments.

Example
#a not required address field and a required country
1~80~Address
2~20~Country
#a disabeld sex field with checking for MF or mf
0~1~Sex~~[MFmf]~Only m of f allowed
1~15~Birthday~Use format YYYY/MM/DD~\d\d\d\d/\d\d/\d\d

Edit Area Redirect script

On the index page a user will see all the hyperlinks to his areas. During setup of an area you can define if you want to use this javascript or use a normal redirect. We have provided a default script but you are free to change it. Giving the posiblity to use popup windows or some other high tech stuff. The default script is copied below. You must keep function name the same but may change script based on action. To increase performance on redirect in same frame using the option to embbed commands into your script.

<script language="JavaScript1.2" type="text/javascript">
//Special functions are added to speed-up redirects in same frame.
//Use word .all to turn all redirects on or off see example below
//Replacing .all by the area name allows you to turn a specfic area on or off
//redirect.all=off 
//redirect.area1=on  use fast redirect for area with id area1
function AreaRedirect(action,area,uri,title,targetframe) {
 if (action == "popup") {
  window.open(uri);
 } else if (action == "redirect") {
  window.location=uri;
 } else if (action == "targetredirect") {
    i = 0;
    while (i < parent.length) {
       win = parent.frames[i];
       if (win.name == targetframe) {
           win.location=uri;
           return;
       }
       i = i + 1;
    }
    window.location=uri;
 } else {
   window.location=uri;
 }
}
</script&gr;

Edit Registration Conditions

Use this option to edit the registration conditions you want new members to read during there registration. When empty no message is shown.