NAME

MiniVend -- shopping cart and electronic catalog system

Version

This document describes MiniVend 4.0, based on Andrew Wilcox's original Vend, Version 0.2, with portions from Vend 0.3. This is the fourth major revision of MiniVend.

DESCRIPTION

MiniVend is a database access and retrieval system focused on e-commerce. It allows customers to select items to buy from catalog pages. The program tracks which products they have selected and the quantity desired. Many different catalog pages may be visited, and the user "session" will be tracked to build a cumulative list of items. Once selection is finished, they may complete the ordering process by entering their name and address along with payment information, if any. Once the order process is completed, MiniVend submits the order to the system via email or an external order entry program.

Though its name begins with "Mini", MiniVend is anything but. It is a high-end, fully customizable, powerful software system with complete database functionality. It is suitable for many applications besides shopping carts, though that is its main bent. For example, you can build a complete database-oriented content display system using MiniVend.

MiniVend plugs into a system with an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) server, allowing encrypted transmission of sensitive customer data. This capability makes the entry of credit card numbers practical and secure. In addition, it supports online payment systems and encryption; no credit card numbers need be stored on the system "en clair".

Many different catalogs can be run from the same MiniVend server, allowing an ISP to serve many different customers from one or just a few MiniVend server processes. As many as 2,000 MiniVend catalogs have been run on one machine from the same server process.

MiniVend is powerful, and correspondingly complex. It can easily handle catalogs of a million items or more, with excellent performance. It has completely flexible page display, search, and order entry capability. If you only have a few items to catalog, MiniVend is probably overkill for your needs. But if you are willing to spend some up-front learning time, it can support your simple catalog with unlimited room to grow. To get a fast start with a simple catalog, start with the simple demo and customize from there.

OVERVIEW OF MINIVEND

The following section describes how MiniVend works, and should be read by anyone creating a MiniVend catalog.

The Vend Concept

MiniVend is a descendent of Vend, originally developed by Andrew Wilcox in 1995. Though the original Vend was much simpler than MiniVend in implementation, the basic concept remains unchanged. Quite simply, MiniVend maintains its own set of pages, outside of regular HTML space, which contain special tags that are interpreted by MiniVend.

The tags, which are in [square brackets], are interpreted by MiniVend and many different values can be substituted. Some examples are:

User form input: MiniVend remembers input by a user from form to form, and the value of any form variable is "remembered" and inserted upon finding a [value input_field] tag. The input_field is a normal HTML form field.
Database contents: MiniVend can have an unlimited number of attached databases, either in one of its own internal formats or attached via SQL/ODBC. The contents of a database can be referenced with tags like [data table=products column=name key=334-12] or [query sql="select * from products where category = 'Clothing'"].
Session parameters: Things like where the user originally found your catalog [data session referer]), domain they are from ([data session host]), source of hit in a partner program ([data session source]), the time of their last access ([data session time]), and many other parameters.
Embedded Perl ala ASP: MiniVend has a powerful object system that allows direct access to Perl and external programs. There is an ASP-like syntax which can be used, or the traditional MiniVend tag approach can be employed.
File contents or program output: You can insert the contents of an outboard file with [file directory/file] or [include directory/file], or the output from an arbitrary program (given proper permission from your administrator!).
Searches of files: MiniVend supports different search engines, including Glimpse, or you can make your own SQL database queries and have MiniVend process the output for you.

There are over 80 different distinct tags supporting hundreds of functions. In addition, the user can easily implement tags fully as powerful as the standard tags.

A typical user session

The user hears about your catalog via a search engine, link from another page, or click-thru from a banner ad. They access the link, which is a URL pointing to the MiniVend CGI link program (generically called VLINK or TLINK, more on that below). The MiniVend server is already running on your system, and your catalog has been designed and tested.

The link, which is a regular CGI program, calls the MiniVend server through a socket. The MiniVend server sees the path information which is appended to the URL calling it, and brings up the corresponding page. The page contains a link to find or order items from your catalog.

The user clicks on the link and MiniVend looks in the products database, finds the item, and places it in the user's shopping cart. (Each user has a separate shopping cart, which is attached to their session.)

Once the user decides to purchase, they check out by filling out a form with their name, address, payment information, etc. In the process they may make choices about how the product should be shipped, how they will pay, and provide any other information you may ask for. They then place (or "submit") the order.

Their payment may be taken at that point via real-time electronic payment and a soft-goods product downloaded -- or their order information may be simply sent to you, the store owner, via encrypted email or FAX. The order is saved to a file or database table as backup, or in the case of fully-automated systems sent directly to an order entry program or database link.

All of these operations are fully configurable by you. The base MiniVend distribution includes a sample store -- some users have simply customized the text and images inside, changed the database entries, and opened their store. You will probably want to fully customize for a distinctive catalog look and feel.

How MiniVend Manages Sessions

Normally, each request for a World Wide Web page which comes in to a server stands on its own. While the server will probably know which machine a request comes from, it may not know if the next request comes from the same browser or even from the same user on that machine.

MiniVend keeps track of who is ordering by one of two means:

Cookies: MiniVend can issue cookies that contain the user session ID. If the user returns the cookie, then they can be presented pages without accompanying session information.
URL re-writing: If the user doesn't want to use cookies for whatever reason, MiniVend will include in the URL a session id, which is a random piece of text which is different for each customer browsing the catalog.

MiniVend will automatically do the right thing depending on whether the user gives back a cookie.

Pages in the catalog served by MiniVend running as a cgi-bin program generate a special URL for every link. Here is an example of such a URL:

http://www.minivend.com/cgi-bin/simple/browse1?id=WehUkATn&pc=122&ar=99-102

An explanation of each part:

www.minivend.com: Internet address of the server hosting the MiniVend catalog.
cgi-bin: Informs server that the requested page will be generated by a program. This can be done any way your HTTP server will recognize.
simple: Name of the program to run -- this is MiniVend's VLINK or TLINK
browse: Page of the catalog to display
id=WehUkATn: The session ID
&: Separates session ID from other other parameters (normal HTTP)
mv_arg=99-102: An argument which can be used by MiniVend to select page display options.
&: Separates argument from other parameters (normal HTTP)
mv_pc=122: A unique integer (or source code, if it contains a letter) which prevents caching servers from caching the URL.

Page Delivery

MiniVend pages are written in regular HTML with extensions to support catalog ordering. MiniVend extensions look like:

<A HREF="[href specials]">See our specials!</A>

Pages are delivered through the following steps:

The HTTPD server (Apache, Netscape, or NCSA are examples of HTTP servers) receives a request for a MiniVend page.
The server is already running as a daemon, and the request calls a small C program (source is vlink.c or tlink.c) that is named according to which catalog is being called. This program communicates with the MiniVend program via a UNIX- or INET-domain socket.
MiniVend reads the source page from the MiniVend pages directory, and interprets the MiniVend tags in the file. If the page doesn't exist, and corresponds to a part number in the database, it is built "on the fly" using a template page. In the process, it may read or modify any number of database tables. If the user's browser doesn't accept cookies, then any links generated on the page will contain the session ID, which is needed to ensure the user's session is retained.
The page, which is now entirely in regular HTML, is delivered to the HTTP server, which returns it to the browser.

DISTRIBUTION AND SUPPORT INFORMATION

MiniVend is normally free of charge, and is distributed under the GNU general public license. This means that individuals and organizations, both commercial and non-commercial, may use MiniVend without charge. If you modify and redistribute it, there are certain obligations you must fulfill. See the file Copying which came with your MiniVend distribution for the full license.

MiniVend is not guaranteed to be supported other than by making full source code available. If it breaks you get to keep both pieces. However, the author is always looking to improve MiniVend and sometimes answers questions. The more concise and better-researched your question, the more likely it is to get an answer. No tutorials will be provided, though. You have to learn all of this stuff on your own, or use the MiniVend mail list and hope that someone will help you.

Where to Download MiniVend

The latest stable MiniVend is available from:

http://www.minivend.com/minivend/download.html

Perl

You will need Perl version 5.005 or higher to run MiniVend 4.0. Many sites are still running lower Perl versions. You can download the latest Perl 5 from any CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) site. See

http://www.perl.com/CPAN/

Windows users will need to obtain the ActiveState Perl build 5xx. No earlier version will work -- for example, the old version on the NT Resource kit will definitely not work.

In addition, on systems that do not have GDBM or DB_File installed, large catalogs will use large amounts of memory if the databases must all reside there. If you use SQL, this is not a problem.

QUICK START

Obtain, decompress and untar the distribution:

gzip -dc minivend-4.xx.tar.gz | tar xvf -

NOTE FOR WINDOWS: Windows users need to unzip the file WinZip or a similar program or obtain the self-extracting executable.

Before installing, check the site where you obtained MiniVend for any patches that might have been issued since the release.

Change to the created directory, something like:

cd minivend-4.xx

On UNIX, you perform the normal Perl installation method:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test && make install

Replace the perl with the proper path to your Perl 5.005 or higher binary.

You will be asked for the directory where you want to install MiniVend -- any directory will do. The defaults are:

Installed as root: /usr/local/minivend
Installad as user: ~/mvend

You must of course have write permission there. This directory is referred to later in the documentation as VendRoot or the MiniVend software directory.

To install the link program, you will eventually need to have write permission on your CGI and HTML directories. The definition of these are typically part of your HTTP server configuration; In Apache, the CGI directory is set by ScriptAlias; the HTML directory is set by DocumentRoot.

The process should be self-explanatory. If you have trouble answering the questions asked, look closely at the examples provided. If you still have trouble, you will need to find a tutorial about the World Wide Web -- the WWW FAQ at www.boutell.com would be a good place to look.

If you discover any problems, refer to the section If something goes wrong. Otherwise, MiniVend should be installed at the completion of the script. It is strongly suggested that you install the demo catalogs as a starting point for your own catalog -- in fact you will not be able to do anything useful with MiniVend until you have created a catalog.

You will want separate directories to hold the catalog pages and databases. The makecat program supplied with MiniVend will make those for you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: One point that is to be emphasized -- only your base html pages go in the document space of your http server. Any pages with MiniVend elements/tags go in the directory set by the PageDir directive (the default is ~/catalogs/catalog_name/pages). For the demos supplied with MiniVend, this means that only one or a few pages will be copied to your HTML directory, with the remainder of the pages staying in the directory defined as PageDir.

If you are on an ISP where all of your files are in HTML document space, you should disable all access to your MiniVend catalog directory with the proper HTTP access restrictions. Normally that is creating a .htaccess file like this:

<Limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Limit>

If you are unable to do this, it is recommended that you do not run MiniVend. If you can set file permissions such that files will not be served, it may be OK, but security will be a problem. Please be careful with your customers' personal information.

The Catalog Directory

MiniVend pages are NOT in normal HTML space. They are contained in the catalog directory. Each individual catalog must have its own base directory. The catalog directory has this structure by default:

catalog.cfg

File containing configuration directives for this catalog. (Subcatalogs have differing information in a file named for the subcatalog.)

config

Directory that will be read when directives are set with the <filename notation. For example, the file config/static.pages will be read when the directive

StaticPage  <static.pages

is encountered in the catalog.cfg file.

This directory also contains template information used with the makecat program.

error.log

File which contains catalog-specific errors. Check this file when something doesn't work right. It is also where any syntax errors in embedded Perl code will be shown.

etc

Directory normally used for tracking files, order profiles, and other configuration and log information.

pages

Directory that contains the pages of your catalog. This can be considered to be the "document root" of the catalog. Pages contained therein are called with the path information after the script name -- i.e. /cgi-bin/simple/products/gold will call the page in the file pages/products/gold.html.

products

Directory containing database source files, including the special MiniVend databases shipping.asc, accessories.asc, pricing.asc (and other shipping database files)

session

Directory which contains session files.

tmp

The temporary or scratch directory for various uses like retired ID numbers, search paging files, sort tests, import temporary files, etc. This is the default set by ScratchDir; if you wish you can redefine it to be located on another partition.

makecat -- set up a catalog from a template

The supplied makecat script, which is in the MiniVend program directory bin, is designed to set up a catalog based on your server configuration. It interrogates the user for parameters like the directories to use, URL to base the catalog in, HTTP server definitions, and file ownership. It is self-documenting in that it asks verbose questions and gives relevant examples.

The makecat script needs a template catalog to operate on. The simple and basic demo templates are distributed with MiniVend. You can also look for older demo catalogs (mostly for ideas) at ftp.minivend.com.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You only make a catalog once. All further configuration is done by editing the files within the catalog directory.

A catalog template contains an image of a configured catalog. The best way to see what the makecat program does is to configure the simple demo and then run a recursive diff on the template and configured catalog directories:

diff -r mvend/simple catalogs/simple

NOTE: diff is usually only available on UNIX.

You will see that the files are mostly the same, except that certain macro strings have been replaced with the answers you gave to the script. For example, if you answered www.mydomain.com at the prompt for server name, then you would see this difference in the catalog.cfg file:

# template
Variable SERVER_NAME  __MVC_SERVERNAME__

# configured catalog
Variable SERVER_NAME  www.mydomain.com

The macro string __MVC_SERVERNAME__ was substituted with the answer to the question about server name. In the same way, other variables are substituted, and include (at least):

MVC_BASEDIR      MVC_IMAGEDIR
MVC_CATROOT      MVC_IMAGEURL
MVC_CATUSER      MVC_MAILORDERTO
MVC_CGIBASE      MVC_MINIVENDGROUP
MVC_CGIDIR       MVC_MINIVENDUSER
MVC_CGIURL       MVC_SAMPLEHTML
MVC_DEMOTYPE     MVC_SAMPLEURL
MVC_DOCUMENTROOT MVC_VENDROOT
MVC_ENCRYPTOR

(Not all of these are present in the simple or sample templates, and quite a few more may be defined.) In fact, any environment variable that is set and begins with MVC_ will be substituted for by the makecat script. So if you wanted to set up a configurable parameter to customize the COMPANY variable in catalog.cfg, you could run a pre-qualifying script that set the environment variable MVC_COMPANY and then place in the catalog.cfg file:

Variable   COMPANY   __MVC_COMPANY__

All files within a template directory are substituted for macros, not just the catalog.cfg file. There are two special directories named html and images. These will be recursively copied to the directories defined as SampleHTML and ImageDir.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The template directory is located in the MiniVend software directory, i.e. where minivend.cfg resides. You normally do not edit files in the template directory. If you want to try creating your own template, it is recommended that you name it something besides simple and copy the simple demo directory to it as a starting point. Templates are normally placed in the MiniVend base directory, but can be located anywhere -- the script will prompt you for location if it cannot find a template.

In addition to the standard parameters prompted for by MiniVend, and the standard catalog creation procedure, you may define four other files in the config directory of the template:

additional_fields  -- file with more parameters for macro substitution
additional_help    -- extended description for the additional_fields
precopy_commands   -- commands passed to the system prior to catalog copy
postcopy_commands  -- commands passed to the system after catalog copy

All files are paragraph-based; in other words, a blank line (with no spaces) terminates the individual setting.

The additional_fields file contains:

PARAM
The prompt. Set PARAM to?
The default value of PARAM

This would cause a question during makecat:

The prompt. Set PARAM to?.....[The default value of PARAM]

If the additional_help file is present, you can give additional instructions for PARAM.

PARAM
These are additional instructions for PARAM, and they
may span multiple lines up to the first blank line.

The prompt would now be:

These are additional instructions for PARAM, and they
may span multiple lines up to the first blank line.

The prompt. Set PARAM to?.....[The default value of PARAM]

If the file config/precopy_commands exists, it will be read as a command followed by the prompt/help value.

mysqladmin create __MVC_CATALOGNAME__
We need to create an SQL database for your Minivend
database tables.

This will cause the prompt:

We need to create an SQL database for your Minivend
database tables.
 
Run command "mysqladmin create simple"?

If the response is "y" or "yes", then the command will be run by passing it through the Perl system() function. As with any of the additional configuration files, MVC_PARAM macro substitution is done on the command and help. Obviously you must have proper permissions for the command.

The file config/postcopy_commands is exactly the same as precopy_commands except you are prompted after the catalog files are copied and macro substitution is performed on all files.

Setting up multiple catalogs

MiniVend has multiple catalog capability, and therefore breaks the configuration files into two pieces. One is global (minivend.cfg) and affects every catalog running under it. The other (catalog.cfg) is specific to an individual catalog, and has no effect on other catalogs.

The global minivend.cfg file is located in the main MiniVend directory, and has only a few server-wide configuration parameters. The most important is the Catalog directive, which defines the catalogs will be created at server startup. The Catalog directive is often set up by the makecat program, which can be used to configure a catalog.

Here is an example Catalog directive:

Catalog simple /home/catalogs/simple /cgi-bin/simple /secure-bin/simple

simple: The catalog identifier, used as the name of the catalog on command lines. In the supplied demo configuration this would be simple. The identifier can contain characters from the set [A-Za-z0-9_].
/home/catalogs/simple: The directory where the catalog.cfg file may be found, and usually the directory where pages and databases are kept.
/cgi-bin/simple /secure-bin/simple: The script names which, when containing a MiniVend link program, will cause that catalog to be called. At least one must be supplied, and the same name may not be used for more than one catalog unless the FullURL directive is specified, in which case the parameter may be specified as www.yourcompany.com/cgi-bin/simple and www.theirs.com/cgi-bin/simple may call a different catalog.

There may also be SubCatalog directives:

SubCatalog easy simple /home/catalogs/simple /cgi-bin/easy

easy: The name of the subcatalog, which also controls the name of the subcatalog configuration file -- in this case easy.cfg.
simple: The name of the base configuration, which will be the basis for the catalog. Parameters in the easy.cfg file that are different will override those in the catalog.cfg file for the base configuration.

The remaining parameters are as in the Catalog directive.

Additional minivend.cfg parameters set up administrative parameters that are catalog wide -- see Server Configuration File for details on each of these.

Each catalog can be completely independent, with different databases -- or catalogs can share any or all pages, databases, and session files. This means that several catalogs can share the same information, allowing "virtual malls".

If something goes wrong

MiniVend is a complex program, and needs the services of other complex programs (i.e. web servers and relational databases) to work. When there is a problem, it is not always MiniVend. It may have to do with Perl or your HTTP server setup. In fact, in the over four years of MiniVend's existence many more basic installation problems have to do with those than with MiniVend itself.

If you get a message about not being able to find libraries, or if you get a core dump or segment fault message, it is always an improperly built or configured Perl and has nothing to do with MiniVend. Contact your system administrator or install a new Perl yourself.

The makecat program is intended to be used to create the starting point for the catalog. If you don't get the demo to work the first time, keep trying. If you still can't get the demo to work, try running in INET mode. Finally, see the MiniVend FAQ at:

http://www.minivend.com/minivend/faq/

Check the two error log files -- error.log in the MiniVend home directory (where minivend.cfg resides) and error.log in the catalog directory (where catalog.cfg resides; there can be many of these). Many problems can be diagnosed quickly if these error logs are consulted.

Check the README file, the FAQ, and mail list archive at the official MiniVend web site for information:

http://www.minivend.com/minivend/

You may subscribe to the MiniVend users mail list by sending the message text subscribe minivend-users to:

majordomo@minivend.com

Double check that you have the following things:

Using UNIX sockets: Check that the vlink program is SUID, or you have made appropriate changes in the SocketPerms directive. Unless the files are world-writable, the vlink program and the MiniVend server must run as the same user ID! If you are running CGI-WRAP or SUEXEC, then you will find that the vlink program must not be SUID.

If you have trouble with the vlink program (named simple in the demo configuration), try re-running makecat and using INET mode instead. (Or you can copy the tlink INET mode link program over vlink). This should work unchanged for many systems, but if you are on an ISP or have a non-standard network configuration you may have to make some changes to minivend.cfg. For tlink to work you must have the proper host name(s) configured into the TcpHost directive in minivend.cfg. The program selects port 7786 by default (the ASCII codes for "M" and "V") -- if you decide to use another port, you must set the same number in both the tlink program (by running compile_link) and the minivend.cfg file.

The tlink program does not need to be SUID.
That you have proper file permissions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The MiniVend server should not run as the user nobody!

The program files can be owned by anyone, but any databases, ASCII database source files, error logs, and the directory that holds them must be writable by the proper user ID, that is the one that is executing the minivend program. The best way to operate in multi-user, multi-catalog setups is to create a special minivend user, then put that user in the group that each catalog user is in. If you can define a group for each individual user, that provides the best security. Then all associated files can be in 660 or 770 mode, and you should have no problems with permissions, and no problems with security.
The vlink program is being executed on a machine that has the socket file etc/socket on a directly attached disk. UNIX-domain sockets will not work on NFS-mounted filesystems! That means the server minivend and the CGI program vlink must be executing on the same machine.

The tlink program does not have this problem, but it must have the proper host name(s) and TCP ports set in the TcpHost and TcpPort directives in minivend.cfg. Also, you should be careful of security if sensitive information like customer credit card numbers is being placed on a network wire.

MiniVend is an ambitious and complex program, and is not presented as being easy to use, easy to install, or bug-free. The configuration scripts were done to try and make a very painful process only slightly painful. Some people install in one pass. Others never make it, especially when they are running on an ISP with a restrictive setup. Determined and thoughtful users almost always make MiniVend work.

SETTING UP YOUR CATALOG

MiniVend uses its own tags to implement catalog functions -- they are similar to normal HTML, but are in [square brackets]. They will be referred to as either tags or elements in this document.

In order to set up a custom catalog, there are a number of steps.

You will need to become familiar with the MiniVend tags and directives to make your own catalog. The demo catalogs are a good starting point, but are not a finished product.

Start with a database

The first thing you must do is develop your product database. This might contain all of the information used to display pages about your products -- or just the product code (SKU), short description, and price. At the minimum, those three fields are required.

Some other things you might put in:

image

A database field giving the name of an image file to display the product. Alternatively, you can keep images in files that are named for the product code -- then display them if they exist (use the [if file file.gif] TAG [/if] construct).

nontaxable

This field should be present if you have items that do not have sales tax calculated for them.

size

A comma-separated string containing product size information, for example:

Small, Medium, Large, XL

You can also define any other attribute information in a database field.

weight

The shipping weight of an item is useful for UPS lookup or other weight-based shipping calculations.

category

If you wish to do one-click category searches to build product directories, you might use this field to select on.

related

Items related to the item in the record. Using MiniVend's [loop item] tag, you could build product subclasses and accessory sets.

By default, all database source files are located in the in the products subdirectory of the catalog directory. The main products database we discussed above is in the file products/products.txt in the supplied demo catalogs. If you use one of the internal database methods, then any changes that are made to the ASCII source file will be reflected in the database on the next access by a user. If you have a very large database, this may not be what you want -- it can take some time to build a large database. If you have less than a thousand records like the ones shown above in your products database, you normally need not worry -- updates will be almost instantaneous. (See NoImport if you wish to stop auto updating.)

Features to use

MiniVend's demo catalog shows many of MiniVend's features -- list and category building via controlled search or query, random selection of feature items, templating with active elements, etc. But each feature has its cost in complexity and performance. The more you ask the computer to do for every page it displays, the less performance you can expect under high load.

Some things that have been found to be popular:

Category searches: If you have only a small number of products, hard coded pages are just fine, though you would be surprised how much of a maintenance headache they are compared to database definitions. If you have any number of products though, you will want to categorize them so that customers can easily find them. Pick a field in your database, perhaps named category, and classify them for search by MiniVend.
Images: You can easily place a thumbnail image (perhaps with a link to a blowup) only for those items that have them. The best way to do this is with an image field in the database; if you do file tests for every image in a large list it can degrade system performance.
Related items: On a product's individual display page, you can embed searches of similar products with the [query ...] or [loop ...] tags. If you develop customer data, you can even search a past order database and present products that previous buyers of that product have selected.
Reviews/Testimonials: You can key the placement on the existence of a file in a certain directory. This is very reasonable to do when a user is viewing a single product.

Use the demo catalogs

The demo catalogs supplied with MiniVend are there to give you a starting point for your own catalog. Play with them, change them, and rename them -- add your own icons, change the pages, change the catalog.cfg file, etc. Each catalog is independent, so you cannot do any harm. 8-)

Tree design

Determine how users will enter and exit your catalog. There are quite complex and intelligent conditional schemes possible, especially if you use the Cookies capability, but simplicity should be the aim. No one can buy from you if they cannot navigate their way around!

The most important thing to remember is that if you are supporting browsers which might not accept cookies, you must never send the user to a page that is not served by MiniVend. If you do, they will lose their session (and items in their shopping cart). MiniVend will help in this regard, but you must use its area and page tags.

If you are using frames, you must be careful to source all frame panes containing MiniVend links from an initial page served by MiniVend. If you do not, then you may find the user has multiple session IDs depending on which frame the link came from.

The Essentials

The rest of this section describes the rest of the things you need to know to make the most basic of MiniVend catalogs, one which displays pages and uses the demo shopping basket and checkout sequence. If you want to add custom features, like special shipping charges and sales tax, you will need to go much further. But this will get you started.

All of the mentioned features (and more) are demonstrated in the simple demo catalog.

The Demo Catalog

Sample catalog pages are in the directory simple/. If you would like to use them as a starting point for your own catalog, you can either have the configure script install the demo for you, or you can copy the files into the MiniVend directory and your HTML directory.

To install the demo and name it simple:

bin/makecat simple

To install the demo and name it foo:

bin/makecat foo

Answer the prompts supplied by the program. Note that there are two types of paths asked for, URL paths like the /cgi-bin inside http://www.machine.com/cgi-bin/simple, and file paths that are complete fully-qualified file path names like /home/user/catalogs/simple and /home/httpd/cgi-bin.

A bit about "simple"

The simple catalog really isn't. It is a fairly full-featured demonstration of MiniVend capabilities, though not nearly all of its features are used there.

It uses the Variable feature extensively to simplify hand page editing. Basically speaking, a Variable is a define that allows you to substitute text for a simple __VARIABLE__ string in your page.

For example, in the simple demo, this is a complete page with the standard layout:

   __LOGOBAR__
   __MENUBAR__
   __LEFTSIDE__

       This is your content.

   __RIGHTSIDE__
   __MENUBOTTOM__
   __COPYRIGHT__

The way this looks on the page, roughly, is:

+--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __LOGOBAR__                                          |
|--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __MENUBAR__                                          |
|--------------+-------------------------+---------------+
|              |                         |               |
| __LEFTSIDE__ |   This is your content  | __RIGHTSIDE__ |
|              |                         |               |
|              |                         |               |
+--------------+-------------------------+---------------+
|   __MENUBOTTOM__                                       |
|--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __COPYRIGHT__                                        |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

The __RIGHTSIDE__ is simply defined to be empty, closing table HTML in most cases, so it really is this in most pages:

+--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __LOGOBAR__                                          |
|--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __MENUBAR__                                          |
|--------------+-----------------------------------------+
|              |                                         |
| __LEFTSIDE__ |   This is your content                  |
|              |                                         |
|              |                                         |
+--------------+-----------------------------------------+
|   __MENUBOTTOM__                                       |
|--------------------------------------------------------+
|   __COPYRIGHT__                                        |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

The variables are defined in catalog.cfg, and come from files in the config directory. There are conditional templates with some different color schemes.

Once you get used to using this method, it can be quite convenient. But you may certainly choose to use your own method, perhaps one based on an HTML editor. MiniVend can coexist with some editors; ones that have a <NOTOUCH> </NOTOUCH> or <NOEDIT> </NOEDIT> pair to define areas that should not be "masterminded" by the editor are best.

Bear in mind that this templating method and database layout of the simple catalog is a loose suggestion on how your catalog might be organized. Many users decide to do their own database structure for product display. What you can do is more limited by your imagination than anything.

Yet most users stick with the userdb and checkout strategies employed in the catalog. This is because they have been developed over a period of years and work. Still, these can be customized; you can make it operate like Amazon or another site if you wish.

As stated before, MiniVend catalogs are all about the database. The simple demo has several tables:

area

A table designed to implement a dynamic navigation bar. It is read and parsed to display the areas Galleries, Other Stuff, and Links as distributed. Simply by changing the contents of the area table you can change the left side navigation bar. The value of the field selector is used to search the cat table to find which categories belong in each area.

cat

The product structure of simple follows a single-level categorization. Categories are listed in the cat database table. The cat table is designed to allow you to display meta-information about each category when it is displayed. The fields are:

code: The category code. Must be unique.
area: The area this category should be displayed in.
selector: The selector that is used to scan the products table for products in the category.
name: A label to display, so that you don't have to live with the code or selector.
banner_text: Text to display in a banner or heading.
subs: Placeholder in the demo; intended to allow selection of certain subcategories within the category.
sort: The sort order if you don't want alphanumeric on name.
url: A URL to link to instead of the default search in the products database.

country

A list of countries; used to build select boxes and select shipping modes based on countries.

inventory

Two fields; code and quantity. Minivend's demo will decrement the quantity based on the sale. That is easy; your method of keeping inventory current is the hard part. It might make sense to add a field with the usual shipping time of the product; something like "ships within 24 hours", or "back ordered; allow 2-4 weeks for delivery".

pricing

A database that works in conjunction with the CommonAdjust directive to allow quantity pricing, either for one product or for a group of products (sometimes known as mix-and-match). The fields q2,q5,q10,etc. are for the quantity levels; the price_group field selects the mix-and-match category for the product.

products

The main product table. This is where you store your product information. You can add, delete, or ignore fields as you choose. Field by field:

sku: The unique identifier for the product. Though theoretically it can contain most any character, you should use only characters of the class A-Z a-z 0-9 _ - if you want to be easily compatible with SQL databases and URL encoding. Other characters can cause problems; a slash (/) can interfere with URLs and filenames; a colon (:) can interfere with database representations (or file names on some operating systems); and there are other possible compatibility situations with other characters.
description: A short description for the product, used for displaying in the shopping cart, receipt, and order report. Keep it short.
title: This is somewhat catalog-specific since it applies to art. However, it would also apply to books, CDs, or other items.
artist: This is somewhat catalog-specific since it applies to art. However, it would also apply to CDs, or some other items. You can change it to anything if you remember to change the field names in your catalog pages to match; to do so look for all occurences of the string "artist" in the pages, special_pages, and etc directories.
comment: A long description of the product. If you use the Minivend internal database, the field size is unlimited; if you use another type of database then you will be dependent on the field type you select.
display: Catalog-specific to show the museum the art work is displayed at. You can use or delete this field as you wish.
image: The image filename for the product. Many people add a thumb field to contain the name of a small image for search list display.
price: The quantity-one price of the product.
category: The category used for selection in lists. It is possible to place a product in more than one category, though you will have some display and banner heading decisions to make based upon this. You can use embedded Perl or other methods to deal with this.
nontaxable: If set to 1, the product is not taxable and its price will not be used in a salestax calculation.
weight: A numeric value of the weight, used for determining shipping costs. Normally in pounds, but can be anything your shipping routines will handle.
size: A comma-separated list of options as used in Accessories. See the flypage.html and ord/basket.html pages for examples of how it is used.
color: A comma-separated list of options as used in Accessories. See the flypage.html and ord/basket.html pages for examples of how it is used.
related: Used in the demo to display "upsells", meaning opportunities to purchase an additional item when you purchase this one. Contains a list of SKUs to be offered.
featured: As used in this demo, the only value that means anything is front. If that is contained in the field, this product will possibly be featured on the front page via random selection. See the index.html page for how it integrates with [loop search=something random=3].

orderline

Every line item that is actually ordered is detailed in this table. See the page query/check_orders.html for how it might be used; see etc/report for how it is added to.

transactions

Each individual customer order is detailed in this table. See the page query/check_orders.html for how it might be used; see etc/report for how it is added to.

userdb

The user database used for maintaining customer address information, account information, preferences, and more. See UserDB.

MML -- MiniVend Markup Language

MiniVend functions are accessed via MML, the MiniVend Markup Language. The pages in the catalog are in HTML, but use MML tags to provide access to MiniVend's funtions. MML tags use [square brackets] instead of angular brackets. We will usually call them MiniVend tags or just tags. They are similar to HTML in syntax, i.e. there are both <I>standalone</I> and <I>container</I> tags. A standalone tag has no ending element, i.e.:

[value name]

This tag will insert the user's name, providing they have given it to you in a form. A container tag has both a beginning and an ending element, as in:

[if value name]
You have a name.
[/if]

These tags perform various display and modification operations for the user session. There are over 80 standard predefined tags, and the UserTag facility allows you to create tags fully as powerful that perform your own functions.

Don't expect to understand all of the tags to begin with, there are many. As an introduction, a few of the the tag names and their general function are:

[accessories]     Access product accessory functions
[area]            Insert a re-written MiniVend URL
[checked]         Conditionally check an HTML check/radio box
[currency]        Formats a number like currency for current locale
  [/currency]    
[data]            Access a database or user session element
[error]           Check/display form processing errors
[file]            Insert the contents of a file
[flag]            Set a minivend flag
[fly-list]        Show an item "on-the-fly" in an arbitrary page
  [/fly-list]      
[html_table]      create an HTML table from a query or list
[include]         Include a file with complete MiniVend interpretation
[item-list]       Iterate over a shopping cart
  [/item-list]  
[label]           Set a label for goto
[loop]            Iterate over an arbitrary list
  [/loop]       
[mvasp]           ASP-style Perl programming area
[no-match]        Define area of region results displayed when no match
  [/no-match]   
[nitems]          Show number of items for a shopping cart
[order]           Create HTML link to order an item
[page]            Create A HREF with re-written URL to call MiniVend page
[perl]            Embed output of arbitrary Perl in the page
  [/perl]       
[price]           Show price of an item
[process]         Create URL for MiniVend form processing
[query]           Perform any of several types of SQL query
  [/query]       
[record]          Set a database record
[region]          Define an area of the page as a search list/query
[row]             Used with [col] -- rudimentary text tables for order reports
  [/row]        
[salestax]        Show amount of salestax for shopping cart
[scratch]         Access a scratch variable
[search-list]     Display output of a MiniVend search
  [/search-list] 
[selected]        Conditional selection of drop-down <SELECT ...>
[set]             Set a scratch variable
  [/set]        
[sort]            Set sort order for iterating lists
  [/sort]       
[subtotal]        Calculate subtotal without tax or shipping
[total-cost]      Calculate order total with tax, handling, and shipping
[userdb]          Access user database functions
[value]           Display form value
[value_extended]  Display form array values or do file upload functions

A complete list of tags and all tag syntax is shown in the TAG REFERENCE.

HTML Hypertext links

You will normally not want to use regular hypertext links in MiniVend pages. Such links will not include the session id, which means that if the customer follows an external link back to the catalog the list of products ordered so far will have been lost.

So instead of:

<A HREF="/cgi-bin/mv/shirts">Shirts</A>

You would use:

<A HREF="[area shirts]">Shirts</A>

Images

Inline images are placed in MiniVend pages in the normal fashion with <IMG SRC="URL">. But since MiniVend pages are served by a CGI program you cannot use relative links. MiniVend has the capability of defining an image directory (with the ImageDir and ImageDirSecure directives) that automatically adjusts your image path to a set base directory.

Cookies

All you need to do to have users with cookie-capable browsers retain session context is enable the Cookies directive. You can then intermix standard HREF and MiniVend page links without fear of losing the shopping basket. Cookie capability is also required to use search caching, page caching, and statically generated pages. If the browser does not support cookies, the cache will be ignored.

If you plan to use more than one host name within the same domain for naming purposes (perhaps a secure server and non-secure server) then you can set the domain with the CookieDomain directive. This must contain at least two periods (.) as per the cookie specification, and you cannot set a domain that your server is not located within.

Basic MiniVend Tags

NOTE: In the descriptions, parameters marked with an asterisk* are optional.

When a tag is separated by an underscore, as in item_list, a dash is just as appropriate (i.e. item-list). They are interchangeable, except that the ending tag and beginning tag should match (don't use [item-list] list [/item_list]).

* indicates an optional argument

Inserting hyperlinks

[area ...]

named: [area href="dir/page" secure=1* arg="argument"* form="form string"*]

positional: [area pg arg*]

Produces the URL to call a MiniVend page, without the surrounding A HREF notation. This can be used to get control of your HREF items, perhaps to place an ALT string or a Javascript construct. It was originally named area because it also can be used in a client-side image map.

<A HREF="[area catalog]" ALT="Main catalog page">

The optional arg is used just as in the page tag.

The optional form argument allows you to encode a form in the link.

<A HREF="[area form="
        mv_order_item=99-102
        mv_order_size=L
        mv_order_quantity=1
        mv_separate_items=1
        mv_todo=refresh"
]"> Order t-shirt in Large size </A>

See above for more information.

[/page], [/order]

Expands into </a>. Used with the page element, such as:

[page shirts]Our shirt collection[/page].

TIP: A small efficiency boost in large pages is to just use the </A> tag.

[value name=field set="new value" filter="filter" hide=1]

positional: [value varname]

The [value ...] MML tag expands into the current value of the customer/form input field named by field. If the set value is present, the form variable value will be set to it and the new value returned. Use this to "uncheck" a checkbox or set other form variable values to defaults. If HIDE is set, the value will be set but not returned to the page.

The filter="filter1 filter1" parameter applies any of the standard MiniVend filter types to the value. See Filters.

When the value is returned, any MiniVend tags present in the value will be escaped. This prevents users from entering MiniVend tags in form values, which could be a serious security risk.

[page ...]

named: [page href="dir/page" arg="argument" secure=1* form="form string"]

positional: [page dir/page arg*] (only two positional parameters)

Insert a hyperlink to the specified catalog page pg. For example, [page shirts] will expand into < a href="http://machine.company.com/cgi-bin/vlink/shirts?id=WehUkATn&pc=33">. The catalog page displayed will come from "shirts.html" in the pages directory.

If the user has sent a cookie to MiniVend (meaning the second page they access), and you set the scratch value mv_no_session_id in their session, the session ID will not be appended to the URL. If you set the scratch value mv_no_count, then the page count will not be appended; this is not dependent on cookies. So if you put in your initial page

[set mv_no_session_id]1[/set]
[set mv_no_count]1[/set]
[set mv_add_dot_html]1[/set]

or put in catalog.cfg:

ScratchDefault  mv_no_session_id  1
ScratchDefault  mv_no_count       1
ScratchDefault  mv_add_dot_html   1

no session ID or count will be shown. That makes the URL shown above be http://machine.company.com/cgi-bin/vlink/shirts.html -- once again, that is on the second page the user accesses if they are taking and sending cookies. If the user has a pre-existing MV_SESSION_ID or MV_USERNAME cookie from a prior session, the effect will be immediate.

The argument will be passed to MiniVend and placed in the mv_arg session parameter. This allows programming of a conditional page display based on where the link came from. The argument is then available with the tag [data session arg], or the embedded Perl session variable $Session->{arg}. If you set the catalog configuration option NewEscape, which is the default, then spaces and some other characters will be escaped with the %NN HTTP-style notation and unescaped when the argument is read back into the session.

A bit of magic occurs if MiniVend has built a static plain HTML page for the target page. Instead of generating a normal MiniVend-parsed page reference, a static page reference will be inserted if the user has accepted and sent back a cookie with the session ID.

The optional form argument allows you to encode a form in the link.

[page form="
        mv_order_item=99-102
        mv_order_size=L
        mv_order_quantity=1
        mv_separate_items=1
        mv_todo=refresh"] Order t-shirt in Large size </A>

The two form values mv_session_id and mv_arg are automatically added when appropriate. (mv_arg is the arg parameter for the tag.)

If the parameter href is not supplied, process is used, causing normal MiniVend form processing. If the href points to an http:// link no MiniVend URL processing will be done, but the mv_session_id

This would generate a form that ordered item number 99-102 on a separate line (mv_separate_items being set), with size L, in quantity 2. Since the page is not set, you will go to the default shopping cart page -- equally you could set mv_orderpage=yourpage to go to yourpage.

All normal MiniVend form caveats apply -- you must have an action, you must supply a page if you don't want to go to the default, etc.

You can theoretically submit any form with this, though none of the included values can have newlines or trailing whitespace. If you want to do something like that you will have to write a UserTag.

You can also use it for submitting foreign forms if you like; it will not touch the href if it begins with http:, ftp:, or the like.

[/page], [/order]

Expands into </a>. Used with the page element, such as:

[page shirts]Our shirt collection[/page].

TIP: A small efficiency boost in large pages is to just use the </A> tag.

How to order an item

MiniVend can either use a form-based order or a link-based order to place an item in the shopping cart. The link-based order uses the special [order item-code] tag:

[order code cart/page* database*]

named attributes: [order code="code" href="cart/page" base="database"]

Expands into a hypertext link which will include the specified code in the list of products to order and display the order page. code should be a product code listed in one of the "products" databases. The optional argument cart/page selects the shopping cart the item will be placed in (begin with / to use the default cart main) and the order page that will display the order. The optional argument database constrains the order to a particular products file -- if not specified, all databases defined as products files will be searched in sequence for the item.

Example:

Order a [order TK112]Toaster[/order] today.

Note that this is the same as:

Order a [page order TK112]Toaster</A> today.

You can change frames for the order with:

Order a <A HREF="[area order TK112]" TARGET=newframe>Toaster</A> today.

[/order]

Expands into </a>. Used with the order element, such as: Buy a [order TK112]Toaster[/order] today.

To order with a form, you set the form variable mv_order_item to the item-code/SKU and use the refresh action:

 <FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
 <INPUT TYPE=hidden  NAME="mv_todo"        VALUE="refresh">
 <INPUT TYPE=hidden  NAME="mv_order_item"  VALUE="TK112">

 Order <INPUT NAME="mv_order_quantity" SIZE=3 VALUE=1> toaster

 <INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order!">
 </FORM>

You may batch select whole groups of items:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden  NAME="mv_todo"        VALUE="refresh">

<INPUT TYPE=hidden  NAME="mv_order_item"  VALUE="TK112">
<INPUT NAME="mv_order_quantity" SIZE=3> Standard Toaster

<INPUT TYPE=hidden  NAME="mv_order_item"  VALUE="TK200">
<INPUT NAME="mv_order_quantity" SIZE=3> Super Toaster

<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order!">
</FORM>

Items that have a quantity of zero (or blank) will be skipped, and only items with a positive quantity will be placed in the basket.

You may also specify attributes like size or color at time of order. Order the T-shirt from the more details page of the simple demo to see how it is done.

Where do I go from here?

MiniVend is very complicated but very powerful. If you have read and understood the documentation so far, you have a good start on building a catalog. There are many, many, more features than are shown in the demo, and mastering the ones you need will take time. Thousands of people have built MiniVend catalogs -- you can too. If you feel it is beyond you, then we would suggest engaging a competent consultant. Good luck!

DATABASES

MiniVend, as with most powerful shopping cart programs, is all about databases.

NOTE: No other database besides MiniVend's internal one is needed. You may find that keeping your database in an SQL manager makes it easier to integrate MiniVend with other tools. MiniVend is fully buzzword-equipped, but if you just want to maintain a spreadsheet with your product information, you can ignore the references to SQL, DBI, DBD, and all of those other things and just modify the file products.txt appropriately.

MiniVend implements the database in GDBM, DB_File, SQL, or in-memory format. In most cases, these should operate the same when called by MiniVend's access methods.

A bit about text source files

MiniVend reads TAB-delimited text files to obtain your data. However, the text files are not the database. They are the source information for the database tables; when you change them, essentially you are placing text which will be imported into the database table.

Note the following directive:

Database  products  products.txt   TAB

This says that the products table will obtain its source information from the file products.txt. What is done with it depends on the type of underlying database you are using. The different types:

GDBM

The database source file is checked to see if it is newer than the actual database file, which would be products.gdbm. If it is, then the database table is re-imported from the file.

You can change this behavior in a couple of ways. If you wish the file never to be imported unless the .gdbm file disappears, set the NoImport directive:

NoImport  products

If you want it only to be imported at catalog start-up time, use the IMPORT_ONCE modifier:

Database products IMPORT_ONCE 1

GDBM is the default type if you have GDBM_File Perl module installed (as it will be on Linux).

DB_File

The database source file is checked to see if it is newer than the actual database file, which would be products.db. If it is, then the database table is re-imported from the file.

You can change this behavior in the same way as with GDBM_File (above).

DB_File is the default type if you do not have the GDBM_File Perl module installed. This is typical on FreeBSD.

To explicitly specify DB_File as the type, you can specify it with a Database directive in catalog.cfg:

Database  products  DB_FILE   1

DBI/SQL

If a file named products.sql is present in the same directory as products.txt the database table will not be imported from ASCII source. If there is no products.sql, then the following will occur:

DBI/SQL imports only happen at catalog configuration time.

MiniVend will connect to the SQL database using the specified DSN. (DBI parameter meaning "Database Source Name".)
The table will be dropped with "DROP TABLE products;". This will occur without warning!
The table will be created. If there are COLUMN_DEF specifications in catalog.cfg, they will be used; otherwise the key (first field in the text file by default) will be created with a char(16) type and all other fields will be created as char(128). The table creation statement will be written to the error.log file.
The text source file will be imported into the SQL database. MiniVend will place the data in as in the columns; you must take care of data typing yourself. This means that if you put "none" in a field, and it is defined as a numeric type, the database import will not succeed. If it does not, the catalog will not become active.

In-memory

Every time the catalog is configured, the products.txt file is imported into memory and forms the database. The database is not changed otherwise.

In-memory is the default type if there is no GDBM_File or DB_File Perl module installed; you can also specify it with:

Database   products   MEMORY   1

MiniVend Database Operation

NOTE: In the following descriptions, we will use the following terms somewhat interchangeably:

key, code

Either one is a reference to the key for the database. In MiniVend this is often the product code or SKU, which is the part number for the product. Other key values may be used to generate relationships to other database tables.

It is required that the key be the first column of an ASCII source file for GDBM, Berkeley DB, or in-memory built-in database formats. It is also strongly suggested that you keep that practice for SQL databases, since MiniVend's import, export, and search facilities will work much better with that practice.

field, column

This is a column of the database. One of the columns is always the key -- MiniVend prefers that the key be the first column. Field is an interchangeable reference.

table, database

A table in the database. Because of the evolution of MiniVend from a single-table database to an access method for an unlimited number of tables (and databases, for that matter), we will sometimes refer to a table as a database. The only time database refers to something different is when describing that concept as it relates to SQL -- where a database contains a series of tables. MiniVend cannot create SQL databases, but given the proper permissions it may drop and create tables within that database.

If necessary, MiniVend reads the data to place in tables from standard ASCII-delimited files. All of these ASCII source files are kept in the products directory, normally products in the catalog directory (where catalog.cfg is).

The ASCII files can have ^M (carriage return) characters if desired, but must have a newline character at the end of the line to work -- Mac users uploading files must use ASCII mode, not binary mode!

MiniVend's default ASCII delimiter is TAB.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The items must be separated by a single delimiter. The items are lined up for your reading convenience.

TAB

Fields separated by ^I characters. No whitespace should be at the beginning of the line.

code    description             price   image
SH543   Men's fine cotton shirt 14.95   shirts.jpg

PIPE

Fields separated by | characters. No whitespace should be at the beginning of the line.

code|description|price|image
SH543|Men's fine cotton shirt|14.95|shirts.jpg

CSV

Fields enclosed in quotes, separated by commas. No whitespace should be at the beginning of the line.

"code","description","price","image"
"SH543","Men's fine cotton shirt","14.95","shirts.jpg"

NOTE: Using the default TAB delimiter is highly recommended if you are planning on searching the ASCII source file of the database. PIPE works fairly well, but CSV delimiter schemes cause problems with searching.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Field names are usually case-sensitive. Unless you are consistent in the names, you will have problems. All lower or all upper case names are recommended.

MiniVend uses one mandatory database, which is referred to as the products database. In the supplied demo catalogs, it is called products and the ASCII source is kept in the file products.txt in the products directory. This file is also the default file for searching with the THE SEARCH ENGINE.

MiniVend also has a number of standard but optional databases, some of which are in fixed special formats:

shipping.asc: The database of shipping options if the CustomShipping directive is in use. This is a fixed-format database, and must be created as specified. See SHIPPING.
salestax.asc: The database of sales tax information if the [salestax] tag is to be used. A default is supplied -- caution, these things change! This is a fixed-format database, and must be created as specified. See Sales Tax.
accessories.asc: A simple auxiliary database keyed on the product code. It's value is available via the [item-accessories] or [accessories code] tags. This is a fixed-format database, and must be created as specified. See Accessories. The big advantage of this database is speed -- it is always retained in memory. If you have a large number (many thousands) of items, use an Arbitrary Database instead.
pricing.asc: The database of quantity pricing information. It must be defined as the regular MiniVend database pricing, with the product code as the first field, and a field named price (all lower case) that holds space-separated price information in the order defined by PriceBreaks. Also subject to MixMatch. In addition, this database may hold information about price adjustments -- see PriceAdjustment. This is a database that can be in any form, including SQL/DBI if desired. The only requirement is the presence of the price field in the proper format, and an appropriate key.

The Product Database

Each product you are selling should be given a product code: A short code that identifies the product on the ordering page and in the catalog. You can use any combination of letters, digits, dashes, periods, hash signs, or underscores for the product code. The products.txt file is a ASCII-delimited list of all the product codes, along with an arbitrary number of fields which must contain at least the fields description and price (or whatever you set the PriceField and DescriptionField directives to). Any additional information you want in the catalog can be placed in any arbitrary field. See MiniVend Database Capabilityfor details on the format.

Field names are case-sensitive. Unless you have fields with the names "description" and "price" field, you will have to appropriately set the PriceField and DescriptionField directives to use the [item-price] and [item-description] tags.

The product code must be the first field in the line, and must be unique. Product codes can contain the characters A-Za-z0-9, along with hyphen (-), underscore (_), pound sign/hash mark (#), slash (/), and period (.).

The words should be separated by one of the approved delimiting schemes (TAB, PIPE, or CSV), and are case-sensitive in some cases. If you play with the case of the "description" or "price" field, you will have to appropriately set the PriceField and DescriptionField directives.

NOTE: CSV is not recommended as the scheme for the products database. It is much slower than TAB- or PIPE-delimited, and dramatically reduces search engine functionality -- no field-specific searches are possible. Don't use it unless you know exactly what you are doing -- you will be sorry if you do. Using CSV for any small database that will not be searched is fine.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The field names must be on the first line of the products.txt file. These field names must match exactly the field names of the [item-field] tags in your catalog pages, or the MiniVend server will not access them properly. Field names can contain the characters A-Za-z0-9, along with hyphen (-), underscore (_), pound sign/hash mark (#), slash (/), and period (.).

More than one database may be used as a products database. If the catalog directive ProductFiles is set to a space-separated list of valid MiniVend database identifiers, those databases will be searched (in the order specified) for any items that are ordered, or for product information (as in the [price code] and [field code] tags).

When the database table source file (i.e. products.txt) changes after import or edit, the DBM database is re-built upon the next user access. No restart of the server is necessary.

If changing the database on the fly, it is recommended that you lock the file while it is being modified.

Multiple Database Tables

MiniVend can manage an unlimited number of arbitrary database tables. They use the TAB delimiter by default, but several flexible delimiter schemes are available. These are defined by default:

Type 1      DEFAULT - uses default TAB delimiter
Type 2      LINE
            Each field on its own line, a blank line
            separates the record. Watch those carriage
            returns! Also has a special format when CONTINUE
            is set to be NOTES.
Type 3      %%
            Fields separated by a \n%%\n combination, records by
            \n%%%\n (where \n is a newline). Watch those carriage
            returns!
Type 4      CSV
Type 5      PIPE
Type 6      TAB
Type 7      reserved
Type 8      SQL

The databases are specified in Database directives, as:

Database    arbitrary arbitrary.csv CSV

That specifies a type 4 database, the ASCII version of which is located in the file arbitrary.csv, and the identifier it will be accessed under in MiniVend is "Arbitrary". The DBM file, if any, will be created in the same directory if the ASCII file is newer, or if the DBM file does not exist. The files will be created as arbitrary.db or arbitrary.gdbm, depending on DBM type.

The identifier is case sensitive, and can only contain characters in the class [A-Za-z0-9_]. Fields are accessed with the [item_data identifier field] or [data identifier field key] elements.

MiniVend built-in database support

If you specify one of the first 6 types, the database will automatically be built in the default MiniVend DB style. You can specify the type with DB_FILE, GDBM, or MEMORY if you want to vary from that default. They will coexist just fine with an unlimited number of DBI databases of different types.

In addition to the database, the session files will be kept in the default format, and are affected by the actions below.

The order of preference is:

GDBM

This uses the Perl GDBM_File module to build a GDBM database. You can see if GDBM is in your perl with the command:

perl -e 'require GDBM_File and print "I have GDBM.\n"'

Installing GDBM_File requires rebuilding Perl after obtaining the GNU GDBM package, and is beyond the scope of this forum. Linux will typically have this by default -- most other operating systems will need to specifically build this in.

DB_File (Berkeley DB)

This uses the DB_File module to build a Berkeley DB (hash) database. You can see if DB_File is in your perl with the command:

perl -e 'require DB_File and print "I have Berkeley DB.\n"'

Installing DB_File requires rebuilding Perl after obtaining the Berkeley DB package, and is beyond the scope of this document. BSDI, FreeBSD, and Linux will typically have it by default -- most other operating systems will need to specifically build this in.

If you wish to use DB_File even though you have GDBM_File in your Perl, you must set the environment variable MINIVEND_DBFILE to a true (non-zero, non-blank) value:

# csh or tcsh
setenv MINIVEND_DBFILE 1

# sh, bash, or ksh
MINIVEND_DBFILE=1 ; export MINIVEND_DBFILE

Then re-start the server.

Or you can specify the DB_FILE class in catalog.cfg:

Database arbitrary  DB_FILE  1

In-memory

This uses Perl hashes to store the data directly in memory. Every time you restart the MiniVend server, it will re-import all in-memory databases for every catalog.

If you wish to use this despite the presence of GDBM_File or DB_File, set the environment variable MINIVEND_NODBM as above or specify the memory type in the Database directive:

Database arbitrary  MEMORY  1

Character usage restrictions

To review, database identifiers, field names, and product codes (database keys) are restricted in the characters they may use. A short table showing restrictions:

                                   Legal characters
                                   ---------------------
Database identifiers               A-Z a-z 0-9 _
Field names                        A-Z a-z 0-9 _
Database keys (product code/SKU)   A-Z a-z 0-9 _ # - . /
Database values                    Any (subject to field/record delimiter)

Some SQL databases have reserved words which cannot be used as field names; MiniVend databases do not have this restriction.

For easy HTML compatibility, is not recommended that you use a / in a part number if you wish to use the flypage capability; you can still call it with [page href=flypage arg="S/KU"] if you do happen to use it.

Database Attributes

Especially in SQL databases, there are certain things that can be set with additional database attributes. For text import, the CONTINUE extended database import attribute allows additional control over the format of imported text.

NOTE: CONTINUE applies to all types except CSV. (You won't want to use NOTES unless using type LINE.)

CONTINUE

One of UNIX, DITTO, LINE, NONE, or NOTES. The default, NONE, is to simply split the line/record according to the delimiter, with no possible spanning of records. Setting CONTINUE to UNIX appends the next line to the current when it encounters a backslash (\) at the end of a record, just like many Unix commands and shells.

DITTO is invoked when the key field is blank -- it adds the contents of following fields to the one above, separated by a newline character. This allows additional text to be added to a field beyond the 255 characters available with most spreadsheets and flat-file databases.

Example in catalog.cfg:

Database products products.txt  TAB
Database products CONTINUE      DITTO

Products.asc file:

code     price     description
00-0011  500000    The Mona Lisa, one of the worlds great masterpieces.
                   Now at a reduced price!

The description for product 00-0011 will contain the contents of the description field on both lines, separated by a newline.

NOTE: Fields are separated by tabs, formatted for reading convenience.

This will work for multiple fields in the same record. If the field contains any non-empty value, it will be appended.

LINE is a special setting so that you can use a multi-line field. Normally, when using the LINE type, you may have only data on one line separated by one blank line. When using CONTINUE LINE, you may have some number of fields which are each on a line, while the last one spans multiple lines up until the first blank line.

Example in catalog.cfg:

Database products products.txt  LINE
Database products CONTINUE      LINE

Products.asc file:

  code
  price
  description

  00-0011
  500000
  The Mona Lisa, one of the worlds great masterpieces.
  Now at a reduced price!

  00-0011a
  1000
  A special frame for the Mona Lisa.

NOTES reads a Lotus Notes "structured text" file. The format is that there are any number of fields, all except one of which must have a field name followed by a colon and then the data. There is optional whitespace after the colon.

Records are separated by a settable delimiting charater which goes on a line by itself, much like a "here document". By default it is a form feed (^L) character.

The final field begins at the first blank line and continues to the end of the record. This final field is named notes_field unless you set it as mentioned below.

MiniVend reads the field names from the first paragraph of the file. The key field should be first, followed by other fields in any order. If one (and only one) field name has whitespace, then its name is used for the notes_field and any characters after a space or TAB are used as the record delimiter. If there are none, then the delimiter returns to the default form feed (^L) and the field name reverts to notes_field. The field in question will be discarded, but a second field with whitespace will cause an import error.

Following records are then read by name, and only fields with data in them need be set. Only the notes_field may contain a newline. It is always the last field in the record, and begins at the first blank line.

The following example sets the delimiter to a tilde (~) and renames the notes_field to description.

Example in catalog.cfg:

Database products products.txt  LINE
Database products CONTINUE      NOTES

Products.asc file:

  code
  title
  price
  image
  description ~
  size
  color

  title: Mona Lisa
  price: 500000
  code: 00-0011
  image: 00-0011.jpg

  The Mona Lisa, one of the worlds great masterpieces.
  Now at a reduced price!
  ~
  title: The Art Store T-Shirt
  code: 99-102
  size: Medium, Large*, XL=Extra Large
  color: Green, Blue, Red, White*, Black
  price: 2000

  Extra large 1.00 extra.
  ~

EXCEL

Microsoft Excel is a widely-used tool to maintain MiniVend databases, but has several problems with its standard TAB-delimited export, like encasing fields containing commas in quotes, generating extra carriage returns embedded in records, and not including trailing blank fields. To avoid problems, use a text-qualifier of none.

Set the EXCEL attribute to 1 to fix these problems on import:

Database products EXCEL 1

This is normally used only with TAB-delimited files.

Dictionary indexing with INDEX

MiniVend will automatically build index files for a fast binary search of an individual field. This type of search is useful for looking up the author of a book based on the beginning of their last name, a book title based on its beginning, or other analagous situations.

Such a search requires a dictionary ordered index with the field to be searched contained in the first field and the database key (product code) in the second field. If you specify the INDEX field modifier MiniVend will build the index upon database import:

Database  products  products.txt   TAB
Database  products  INDEX          title

If the title field is the fourth column in the products database table, a file products.txt.4 will be built, containing two tab-separated fields something like:

American Gothic   19-202
Mona Lisa         00-0011
Sunflowers        00-342
The Starry Night  00-343

Options can be appended to the field name after a colon (:) -- the most useful will be f, which does a case-insensitive sort. Careful, you must use the mv_dict_fold option to the search in that case.

Another option is c, which stands for "comma index". If you want to index on comma-separated sub-fields within a field, use the :c option:

Database  products  products.txt   TAB
Database  products  INDEX          category:c

This can get slow for larger databases and fields. MiniVend will split the field on a comma (stripping surrounding whitespace) and make index entries for each one. This allows multiple categories in one field while retaining the fast category search mechanism. It might also be useful for a keywords field.

The fast binary search is described in greater detail below -- see THE SEARCH ENGINE.

MEMORY for memory-only databases

MiniVend's memory-based databases are the fastest possible way to organize and store data you will frequently use. To force a database to be built in memory instead of DBM, use the MEMORY modifier:

Database  country  country.asc   TAB
Database  country  MEMORY        1

Obviously large tables will use a great deal of memory, and the data will need to be re-imported from the ASCII source file at every catalog reconfiguration or MiniVend restart. The big advantage of using MEMORY is that the database remains open at all times and does not need to be reinitialized at every connect -- use it for smaller tables that will be frequently accessed.

The MEMORY modifier forces IMPORT_ONCE.

IMPORT_ONCE

The IMPORT_ONCE modifier tells MiniVend not to re-import the database from the ASCII file every time it changes. Normally, MiniVend does a comparison of the database file modification time with the ASCII source every time it is accessed, and if the ASCII source is newer it will re-import the file. IMPORT_ONCE tells it only to import on a server restart or catalog reconfiguration:

Database  products  products.txt   TAB
Database  products  IMPORT_ONCE    1

SQL databases don't normally need this -- they will only be imported once in normal operation. Also see NoImport for a way to guarantee that the table will never be imported.

IMPORT_ONCE is always in effect for MEMORY databases. Do a catalog reconfiguration to force a change.

Importing in a page

You might often want to add a data record to a database as a result of an order or other operation. Use MiniVend's [import ...] tag.

[import table type*] RECORD [/import]

Named attributes:

[import table=table_name
        file=filename*
        type=(TAB|PIPE|CSV|%%|LINE)*
        continue=(NOTES|UNIX|DITTO)*
        separator=c*]

Import one or more records into a database. The type is any of the valid MiniVend delimiter types, with the default being TAB. The table must already be a defined MiniVend database table; it cannot be created on the fly. (If you need that, it is time to use SQL.)

The import type selected need not match the type the database was specified; different delimiters may be used.

The type of LINE and continue setting of NOTES is particularly useful, for it allows you to name your fields and not have to remember the order in which they appear in the database. The following two imports are identical in effect:

  [import table=orders]
           code: [value mv_order_number]
  shipping_mode: [shipping-description]
         status: pending
  [/import]

  [import table=orders]
  shipping_mode: [shipping-description]
  status:        pending
  code:          [value mv_order_number]
  [/import]

The code or key must always be present, and is always named code.

If you do not use NOTES mode, you must import the fields in the same order as they appear in the ASCII source file.

The file option overrides the container text and imports directly from a named file based in the catalog directory. Careful, if you want to import from products.txt you must specify file="products/products.txt". If the NoAbsolute directive is set to Yes in minivend.cfg, only relative path names will be allowed.

The [import ....] TEXT [/import] region may contain multiple records. If using NOTES mode, you must use a separator, which by default is a form-feed character (^L). See Import Attributes above for more information.

Exporting from a database

To export your existing database to a file suitable for searching by MiniVend, you can create an AdminPage (or any page, for that matter) that contains a [tag export ...][/tag] element.

Perhaps a better method is to define the same sort of tags in an OrderProfile, and then use forms and buttons to access the profile.

Write Control

MiniVend databases can be written in the normal course of events, either using the [import ...] tag or with a tag like [data table=table column=field key=code value=new-value].

If you wish to control writing of a global database, or to a certain catalog within a series of subcatalogs, or make one read only, you can do so.

To enable write control:

Database   products  WRITE_CONTROL  1

Once that is done, you can make a database read only, which won't allow writing even if [tag flag write]products[/tag] is specified:

Database   products  READ_ONLY  1

If you want to have control with [tag flag write]products[/tag]:

Database   products  WRITE_TAGGED  1

If you want to limit write to certain catalogs, you can set:

Database   products  WRITE_CATALOG  simple=0, sample=1

The "simple" catalog will not be able to write, while "sample" will if [tag flag write]products[/tag] is enabled.

If you want a database to be always writable without having to specify [tag flag write] ... [/tag], then you can define:

Database   products  WRITE_ALWAYS  1

The default behavior of SQL datbases is equivalent to WRITE_ALWAYS, while the default for GDBM_File, DB_File, and Memory databases is equivalent to:

Database   products  WRITE_CONTROL 1
Database   products  WRITE_TAGGED  1

Global Databases

If you have a database you want to make available to all catalogs on the MiniVend server instance, you may define a database in minivend.cfg. Any catalog running under that server will be able to use it. Careful; it is writable by any catalog unless you use WRITE_CONTROL.

SQL SUPPORT

MiniVend can use any of a number of SQL databases through the powerful Perl DBI/DBD access methods. This allows transparent access to any database engine that is supported by a DBD module. The current list includes mSQL, mySQL, Solid, Postgres, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres, Dbase, DB2, Fulcrum, and others. Any ODBC (with appropriate driver) should also be supported.

No SQL database is included with MiniVend, but there are a number widely available on the net, and many are free for non-commercial use. Some examples include mSQL, mySQL, Sybase, and Qbase.

It is beyond the scope of this document to describe SQL or DBI/DBD, and we will not attempt to. Sufficient familiarity is assumed.

In most cases, MiniVend cannot perform administrative functions like creating a database or setting access permissions. This must be done with the tools provided with your SQL distribution. But if given a blank database and the permission to read and write it, MiniVend can import ASCII files and bootstrap you from there.

SQL support via DBI

The configuration of the DBI database is done by setting attributes in additional Database directives after the initial defining line as described above. For example, the following defines the database arbitrary as a DBI database, sets the data source (DSN) to an appropriate value for an mSQL database named minivend on port 1114 of the local machine:

Database arbitrary arbitrary.asc SQL
Database arbitrary DSN           dbi:mSQL:minivend:localhost:1114

As a shorthand method, you can instead include the DSN as the type:

Database arbitrary arbitrary.asc dbi:mSQL:minivend:localhost:1114

Supported configuration attributes include (but are not limited to):

DSN

A specification of the DBI driver and its data source. To use the DBD::mSQL driver for DBI, you would typically use:

dbi:mSQL:minivend:othermachine.my.com:1112

where mSQL selects the driver (case IS important), minivend selects the database, othermachine.my.com selects the host, and 1112 is the port. On many systems, dbi:mSQL:minivend will work just fine. (The minivend database must already exist, of course.)

This is the same as the DBI_DSN environment variable -- if you don't set the DSN parameter, then the value of DBI_DSN will be used to try and find the proper database to connect to.

USER

The user name you log into the database with -- same as the environment variable DBI_USER. If you don't need a user name, just don't set the USER directive.

PASS

The password you log into the database with -- same as the environment variable DBI_PASS. If you don't need a password, just don't set the PASS directive.

COLUMN_DEF

A comma-separated set of lines in the form NAME=TYPE(N), where NAME is the name of the field/column, TYPE is the SQL data type reference, and N is the length (if needed). Most MiniVend fields should be of the fixed-length character type, something like char(128). In fact that is the default if you do not choose a type for a column. You can have as many lines as needed. This is not a DBI parameter, it is specific to MiniVend.

NAME

A space-separated field of column names for a table. Normally not used -- MiniVend should resolve the column names properly upon query. Set this if your catalog errors out with "dbi: can't find field names" or the like. The first field should always be code. This is not a DBI parameter, it is specific to MiniVend. All columns must be listed, in order of their position in the table.

NUMERIC

Tells MiniVend to not quote values for this field; allows numeric data types for SQL databases. Placed as a comma-separated field of column names for a table, in no particular order. This should be defined if you are to use an numeric value, as many DBD drivers do not yet support type queries.

UPPERCASE

Tells MiniVend to force field names to UPPER case for row accesses using the [item-data ...], [loop-data ...], [item-field ..., etc. Typically used for Oracle and some other SQL implementations.

DELIMITER

A MiniVend delimiter type - one of TAB,CSV,PIPE,%%,LINE or the corresponding numeric type. The default for SQL databases is TAB -- use DELIMITER if you wish to import another type. This is not a DBI parameter, it is specific to MiniVend.

KEY

You can change the keying default of code in the first column of the database with the KEY directive. Don't use this unless you know exactly what you are doing and are prepared to alter all searches, imports, and exports accordingly. It is best to just accept the default and make the first column the key for any MiniVend database.

ChopBlanks,LongReadLen,LongTruncOK,RaiseError, etc.

Sets the corresponding DBI attribute. Of particular interest is ChopBlanks, which should be set on drivers which by default return space-padded fixed-length character fields (Solid is an example).

The supported list as of this release of MiniVend is:

ChopBlanks
CompatMode
LongReadLen
LongTruncOk
PrintError
RaiseError
Warn

Issue the shell command perldoc DBI for more information.

Here is an example of a completely set up DBI database on mySQL, using a comma-separated value input, setting the DBI attribute LongReadLen to retrieve an entire field, and changing some field definitions from the default char(128):

 Database   products  products.csv  dbi:mysql:minivend
 Database   products  USER          minivend
 Database   products  PASS          nevairbe
 Database   products  DELIMITER     CSV

 # Set a DBI attribute
 Database   products  LongReadLen   128

 # change some fields from the default field type of char(128)
 # Only applies if Minivend is importing from ASCII file
 # If you set a field to a numeric type, you must set the
 # NUMERIC attribute
 Database   products  COLUMN_DEF    "code=char(20) NOT NUL primary key"
 Database   products  COLUMN_DEF    price=float, discount=float
 Database   products  COLUMN_DEF    author=char(40), title=char(64)
 Database   products  COLUMN_DEF    nontaxable=char(3)
 Database   products  NUMERIC       price
 Database   products  NUMERIC       discount

You must have mySQL, DBI, and DBD::mysql completely installed and tested, and have created the database minivend for this to work. Permissions are difficult on mySQL -- if you have trouble, try starting the mySQL daemon with safe_mysqld --skip-grant-tables & for testing purposes.

To change to ODBC, the only changes required might be:

Database products  DSN         dbi:ODBC:TCP/IP localhost 1313
Database products  ChopBlanks  1

The DSN setting is specific to your ODBC setup. The ChopBlanks setting takes care of the space-padding in Solid and some other databases -- it is not specific to ODBC. Once again, DBI, DBD::ODBC, and the and appropriate ODBC driver must be installed and tested.

SQL Access Methods

A MiniVend SQL database can be accessed with the same tags as any of the other databases can. Arbitrary SQL queries can be passed with the [query sql="SQL STATEMENT"] MML tag.

Importing from an ASCII file

When importing a file for SQL, MiniVend by default uses the first column of the ASCII file as the primary key, with a char(16) type, and assigns all other columns a char (128) definition. These definitions can be changed by placing the proper definitions in COLUMN_DEF Database directive attribute:

Database  products  COLUMN_DEF  price=char(20), nontaxable=char(3)

You can set this as many times as desired if it will not fit on the line nicely.

Database  products  COLUMN_DEF  price=char(20), nontaxable=char(3)
Database  products  COLUMN_DEF  description=char(254)

To create an index automatically, you can append information when the value is in quotes:

Database  products  COLUMN_DEF  "code=char(14) primary key"

The field delimiter to use is TAB by default, but can be changed with the Database DELIMITER directive:

Database  products products.csv dbi:mSQL:minivend:localhost:1114
Database  products DELIMITER  CSV

If you wish to create other secondary keys to speed sorts and searches you can do so in the COLUMN_DEF:

Database  products COLUMN_DEF  "author=char(64) secondary key"

or use external database tools. Careful! Not all SQL databases use the same index commands.

If you wish to use an existing SQL database instead of importing, set the NoImport directive in catalog.cfg to include any database identifiers you never wish to import:

NoImport  products inventory

WARNING: If MiniVend has write permission on the products database, you must be careful to set the NoImport directive or create the proper .sql file. If that is not done, and the database source file is changed, the SQL database could be overwritten. In any case, always back up your database before enabling it for use by MiniVend.

MINIVEND TAG REFERENCE

[accessories]     Access product accessory functions
[ad]              Insert a random or rotating ad banner
[area]            Insert a re-written MiniVend URL
[bounce]          Insert header to redirect to a different URL
[calc]            Perform Perl calculations (low overhead)
  [/calc]        
[cart]            Set the current shopping cart name
[cgi]             Insert a CGI form value
[checked]         Conditionally check an HTML check/radio box
[comment]         Insert comments in MiniVend pages
  [/comment]     
[col]             Used with [row] -- rudimentary text tables for order reports
  [/col]         
[condition]       Sets a condition inside [if explicit] and others
  [/condition]   
[currency]        Formats a number like currency for current locale
  [/currency]    
[data]            Access a database or user session element
[default]         Insert a variable but with a default response if blank
[description]     Output a product description
[discount]        Set a product discount coupon
  [/discount]    
[discount-price]  Show the discounted price
[ecml]            Translate to-from Electronic Commerce Modeling Language field
[else]            Defines else region for [if ...], [if-item-field ..] and others
  [/else]        
[elsif]           Defines elsif region for [if ...]
  [/elsif]       
[error]           Check/display form processing errors
[field]           Access a product database field
[file]            Insert the contents of a file
[flag]            Set a minivend flag
[fly-list]        Show an item "on-the-fly" in an arbitrary page
  [/fly-list]      
[goto]            goto an arbitrary page location, skipping the rest
[html_table]      create an HTML table from a query or list
[if]              Perform any of many conditional tests
  [/if
[if-ITEM-data]    Display region only if database element non-empty
  [/if-ITEM-data
[if-ITEM-field]   Display region only if field non-empty
  [/if-ITEM-field
[if-ITEM-param]   Display only if item passed parameter set
  [/if-ITEM-param
[include]         Include a file with complete MiniVend interpretation
[import]          Import ASCII text into a database
[index]           Create a searchable ASCII index
[input_filter]    Create an input filter
[ITEM-accessories]Product accessory functions (set select box)
[ITEM-alternate]  Alternation for table/line build
[/ITEM-alternate
[ITEM-change]     Grouping of items in list display
  [/ITEM-change
[ITEM-code]       Insert current item SKU/code/row identifier
[ITEM-data]       Insert data entry corresponding to current SKU
[ITEM-description]Insert description corresponding to current SKU
[ITEM-discount]   Show amount of discount for current SKU
[ITEM-field]      Insert product database entry corresponding to current SKU
[ITEM-increment]  Count for list
[ITEM-last]       Stop displaying if condition is met
  [/ITEM-last]  
[ITEM-next]       Skip item if condition is met
  [/ITEM-next]  
[item-list]       Iterate over a shopping cart
  [/item-list]  
[ITEM-param]      Show element from list.
[ITEM-pos]        Show positional element from list.
[ITEM-price]      Display price of item with any discounts/price breaks/adjustments
[ITEM-quantity]   Show quantity ordered on shopping cart line
[ITEM-subtotal]   Subtotal for the item (item-quantity * item-price)
[label]           Set a label for goto
[loop]            Iterate over an arbitrary list
  [/loop]       
[matches]         Show number of matches from search
[modifier-name]   Place a variable name that corresponds to an attribute
[more]            Show region of search list only if more matches
[more-list]       Display more matches list with links to next series
  [/more-list]  
[mvasp]           ASP-style Perl programming area
[no-match]        Define area of region results displayed when no match
  [/no-match]   
[nitems]          Show number of items for a shopping cart
[order]           Create HTML link to order an item
[onfly]           Order an item "on-the-fly"
[page]            Create A HREF with re-written URL to call MiniVend page
[perl]            Embed output of arbitrary Perl in the page
  [/perl]       
[price]           Show price of an item
[process]         Create URL for MiniVend form processing
[quantity-name]   Place a variable name that corresponds to item quantity
[query]           Perform any of several types of SQL query
  [/query]       
[read_cookie]     Read a cookie sent by the user
[record]          Set a database record
[region]          Define an area of the page as a search list/query
[row]             Used with [col] -- rudimentary text tables for order reports
  [/row]        
[salestax]        Show amount of salestax for shopping cart
[scratch]         Access a scratch variable
[search-list]     Display output of a MiniVend search
  [/search-list] 
[selected]        Conditional selection of drop-down <SELECT ...>
[set]             Set a scratch variable
  [/set]        
[set_cookie]      Send a cookie to the user
[setlocale]       Set the locale
[shipping]        Calculate shipping
[shipping-desc]   Show shipping description
[sort]            Set sort order for iterating lists
  [/sort]       
[strip]           Strip leading/trailing whitespace
[subtotal]        Calculate subtotal without tax or shipping
[tag]             Miscellaneous functions
  [/tag]        
[then]            Define THEN region for [if ...]
  [/then]       
[timed_build]     Build region of page on timed basis
[total-cost]      Calculate order total with tax, handling, and shipping
[userdb]          Access user database functions
[update]          Perform MiniVend actions
[value]           Display form value
[value_extended]  Display form array values or do file upload functions

To build complex order forms and reports, MiniVend has a complete tag language with over 80 different functions, dubbed MML, for Minivend Markup Language. It allows you access to and control over any of an unlimited number of database tables, multiple shopping carts, user name/address information, discount, tax, and shipping information, search of files and databases, and much more.

There is some limited conditional capability with the [if ...] tag, but when doing complex operations you should strongly consider using embedded Perl/ASP.

Most of the tests use Perl code, but MiniVend uses the Safe.pm module with its default restrictions to help ensure that improper code will not crash the server or modify the wrong data.

Perl can also be embedded with in the page, and if given the proper permission by the system administrator, can call upon resources from other computers and networks.

Tag syntax

MiniVend uses a style similar to HTML, but with [square brackets] replacing <chevrons>. The parameters that can be passed are much the same, where a parameter="paramter value" can be passed.

Summary:

[tag parameter]             Tag called with positional parameter
[tag parameter=value]       Tag called with named parameter
[tag parameter="the value"] Tag called with space in parameter
[tag 1 2 3]                 Tag called with multiple positional parameters
[tag foo=1 bar=2 baz=3]     Tag called with multiple named parameters
[tag foo=`2 + 2`]           Tag called with calculated parameter
[tag foo="[value bar]"]     Tag called with tag inside parameter
[tag foo="[value bar]"]
    Container text.         Container tag.
[/tag]

Most tags can accept some positional parameters; this speeds up parsing and is simpler to write in many cases.

Here is an example tag:

[value name=city]

That will cause MiniVend to look in the user form value array and return the value of the form parameter city, which might have been set with:

City: <INPUT TYPE=text NAME=city VALUE="[value city]">

Note that we pre-set the value with the previous value of city (if any). It uses the positional style -- name is the first positional parameter for the [value ...] tag.

Positional parameters cannot be derived from other MiniVend tags; for instance [value [value formfield]] will not work. But if you use the named parameter syntax, the parameters can contain other tags, i.e.:

[value name="[value formfield]"]

There is one exception to the above rule when using the [item-list], [loop ...], [sql ...], and other list tags. We will examine that in their individual sections.

Many MiniVend tags are container tags:

[set Checkout]
    mv_nextpage=ord/checkout
    mv_todo=return
[/set]

Tags and parameter names are not case sensitive, so [VALUE NAME=something] would work just as well. MiniVend convention is to place HTML tags in upper case and MiniVend tags in lower case so pages are easier to read, but you could easily reverse the sense.

Single quotes work just as well as double quotes, and can prevent ambiguity.

[value name=b_city set='[value city]']

works just as well.

Backticks, the other single quote, cause the parameter contents to be evaluated as Perl code via the [calc] tag. (This is in MV3.15 and above.) So

[value name=row_value set=`$row_value += 1`]

is the same as

[value name=row_value set="[calc]$row_value += 1[/calc]"]

You can also specify constructs inside an HTML tag:

<TABLE MV="if items">
<TR MV="item-list">
<TD> [item-code] </TD>
<TD> [item-description] </TD>
<TD> [item-price] </TD>
</TR></TABLE>

The above will loop over any items in the shopping cart, displaying their part number, description, and price, but only IF there are items in the cart. It is equivalent to:

[if items]
<TABLE>
[item-list]
<TR>
<TD> [item-code] </TD>
<TD> [item-description] </TD>
<TD> [item-price] </TD>
</TR>
[/item-list]
</TABLE>
[/if]

This is provided to allow HTML editors to work with MiniVend if they wish. One common tag that is best specified in this fashion is [body n], which would be best done as <BODY MV="body 1">.

What is done with the results of the tag depends on whether it is a container or standalone tag. A container tag is one which has an end tag, i.e. [tag] stuff [/tag]. A standalone tag has no end tag, as in [area href=somepage]. (Note that [page ...] and [order ..] are not container tags.)

A container tag will have its output re-parsed for more MiniVend tags by default. If you wish to inhibit this behavior, you must explicitly set the attribute reparse to 0. Note that you will almost always wish the default action.

With some exceptions ([include file] among them) the output of a standalone tag will not be re-interpreted for MiniVend tag constructs.

Most container tags will not have their contents interpreted before being passed the container text. Exceptions include [calc] .. [/calc] and [currency] ... [/currency]. All tags accept the INTERPOLATE=1 tag modifier, which causes the interpretation to take place. It is frequent that you will not want to interpret the contents of a [set variable] TAGS [/set] pair, as that might contain tags which should only be upon evaluating an order profile, search profile, or mv_click operation. If you wish to perform the evaluation at the time a variable is set, you would use [set name=variable interpolate=1] TAGS [/set].

DATA and FIELD

The [data ...] and [field ...] tags access elements of MiniVend databases. They are the form used outside of the iterating lists, and can be effectively used to do lookups when the table, column/field or key/row is conditional based on a previous operation.

The following are equivalent for attribute names:

table ---> base
col   ---> field --> column
key   ---> code  --> row

The [field ...] tag is special in that it looks in any of the tables defined as ProductFiles, in that order, for the data, returning the first non-empty value. In most catalogs, where ProductFiles is not defined (i.e. the demo), [field title 00-0011] is equivalent to [data products title 00-0011].

FAQ: Why doesn't [field col=foo key=bar] display something from my table "category"?

It won't if:

-- "category" is not in the directive ProductFiles
-- You have multiple ProductFiles and an earlier one has an 
   entry for that key

[data table column key]

named attributes: [data base="database" field="field" key="key" value="value" op="increment]

Returns the value of the field in any of the arbitrary databases, or from the variable namespaces. If the option increment=1 is present, the field will be atomically incremented with the value in value.

If a DBM-based database is to be modified, it must be flagged writable on the page calling the write tag. Use [tag flag write]products[/tag] to mark the products database writable, for example.

In addition, the [data ...] tag can access a number of elements in the MiniVend session database:

accesses      Accesses within the last 30 seconds
arg           The argument passed in a [page ...] or [area ...] tag
browser       The user browser string
host          MiniVend's idea of the host (modified by DomainTail)
last_error    The last error from the error logging
last_url      The current MiniVend path_info
logged_in     Whether the user is logged in via UserDB
pageCount     Number of unique URLs generated
prev_url      The previous path_info
referer       HTTP_REFERER string
ship_message  The last error messages from shipping
source        Source of original entry to MiniVend
time          Time (seconds since Jan 1, 1970) of last access
user          The REMOTE_USER string
username      User name logged in as (UserDB)

Databases will hide variables, so don't name a database "session", "scratch", or any of the other reserved names or you won't be able to use the [data ...] tag to read them. Case is sensitive, so in a pinch you could call the database "Session", but it would be better not to.

[field name code]

named attributes: [field code="code" name="fieldname"]

Expands into the value of the field name for the product identified by code as found by searching the products database. It will return the first entry found in the series of Product Files. the products database. If you want to constrain it to a particular database, use the [data base name code] tag.

SET, SETI and SCRATCH

Scratch variables are maintained in the user session separate from the form variable values set on HTML forms.

Many things can be controlled with scratch variables, notable search and order processing, the mv_click multiple variable setting facility, and key MiniVend conditions like whether an item will be ordered on a separate line.

There are two tags which are used to access the space, [set name]value[/set] and [scratch name].

[set variable]value[/set]

named attributes: [set name="variable"] value [/set]

Sets a scratchpad variable to value.

Most of the mv_* variables that are used for search and order conditionals are in another namespace -- they can be set by means of hidden fields in a form.

You can set an order profile with:

[set checkout]
name=required You must give us your name.
address=required Oops! No address.
[/set]
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_profile VALUE="checkout">

A search profile would be set with:

[set substring_case]
mv_substring_match=yes
mv_case=yes
[/set]
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_profile VALUE="substring_case">

To do the same as [set foo]bar[/set] in embedded Perl:

[calc]$Scratch->{foo} = 'bar'; return;[/calc]

[seti variable][value something][/seti]

Same as [set] [/set] except it interpolates the container text. THe above is the same as:

[set name=variable interpolate=1][value something][/set]

[scratch name]

Returns the contents of a scratch variable to the page. [scratch foo] is the same as, but faster than:

[perl]$Scratch->{foo}[/perl]

[if scratch name op* compare*] yes [else] no [/else] [/if]

Tests a scratch variable (see IF).

LOOP

Loop lists can be used to construct arbitrary lists based on the contents of a database field, a search, or other value (like a fixed list).

Loop accepts a search parameter which will do one-click searches on a database table (or file).

To iterate over all keys in a table, use the idiom ([loop search="ra=yes/ml=9999"] [/loop]. ra=yes sets mv_return_all, which means "match everything". The ml=9999 limits matches to that many records -- you normally don't want to use that many, but it is a reasonable default maximum. If you want to not use the text file for searching a Minivend DBM database, don't forget to use st=db (mv_searchtype).

Both can be sorted with [sort table:field:mod -start +number] modifiers. See SORTING.

[loop item item item] LIST [/loop]

named attributes: [loop prefix=label* list="item item item"* search="se=whatever"*]

Returns a string consisting of the LIST, repeated for every item in a comma-separated or space-separated list. Operates in the same fashion as the [item-list] tag, except for order-item-specific values. Intended to pull multiple attributes from an item modifier -- but can be useful for other things, like building a pre-ordained product list on a page.

Loop lists can be nested by using different prefixes:

[loop prefix=size list="Small Medium Large"]
    [loop prefix=color list="Red White Blue"]
        [color-code]-[size-code]<BR>
    [/loop]
    <P>
[/loop]

This will output:

        Red-Small
        White-Small
        Blue-Small

        Red-Medium
        White-Medium
        Blue-Medium

        Red-Large
        White-Large
        Blue-Large

You can do an arbitrary search with the search="args" parameter, just as in a one-click search:

[loop search="se=Americana/sf=category"]
    [loop-code] [loop-field title]
[/loop]

The above will show all items with a category containing the whole world "Americana".

[if-loop-data table field] IF [else] ELSE [/else][/if-loop-field]

Outputs the IF if the field in table is non-empty, and the ELSE (if any) otherwise.

NOTE: This tag does not nest with other [if-loop-data ...] tags.

[if-loop-field field] IF [else] ELSE [/else][/if-loop-field]

Outputs the IF if the field in the products table is non-empty, and the ELSE (if any) otherwise.

NOTE: This tag does not nest with other [if-loop-field ...] tags.

[loop-accessories]

Evaluates to the value of the Accessories database entry for the item.

[loop-alternate N] DIVISIBLE [else] NOT DIVISIBLE [/else][/loop-alternate]

Set up an alternation sequence. If the loop-increment is divisible by N, the text will be displayed. If an [else]NOT DIVISIBLE TEXT[/else] is present, then the NOT DIVISIBLE TEXT will be displayed.

For example:

[loop-alternate 2]EVEN[else]ODD[/else][/loop-alternate]
[loop-alternate 3]BY 3[else]NOT by 3[/else][/loop-alternate]

[/loop-alternate]

Terminate the alternation area.

[loop-change marker]

Same as [item-change] but within loop lists.

[loop-code]

Evaluates to the product code for the current item.

[loop-data database fieldname]

Evaluates to the field name fieldname in the arbitrary database table database, for the current item.

[loop-description]

Evaluates to the product description (from the products file) for the current item.

[loop-field fieldname]

The [loop-field ...] tag is special in that it looks in any of the tables defined as ProductFiles, in that order, for the data, returning the value only if that key is defined. In most catalogs, where ProductFiles is not defined (i.e. the demo), [loop-field title] is equivalent to [loop-data products title].

Evaluates to the field name fieldname in the database, for the current item.

[loop-increment]

Evaluates to the number of the item in the list. Used for numbering items in the list.

[loop-last]tags[/loop-last]

Evaluates the output of the MiniVend tags encased inside, and if it evaluates to a numerical non-zero number (i.e. 1, 23, or -1) then the loop iteration will terminate. If the evaluated number is negative, then the item itself will be skipped. If the evaluated number is positive, then the item itself will be shown but will be last on the list.

[loop-last][calc]
  return -1 if '[loop-field weight]' eq '';
  return 1 if '[loop-field weight]' < 1;
  return 0;
  [/calc][/loop-last]

If this is contained in your [loop list] and the weight field is empty, then a numerical -1 will be output from the [calc][/calc] tags; the list will end and the item will not be shown. If the product's weight field is less than 1, a numerical 1 is output. The item will be shown, but will be the last item shown.

[loop-next]tags[/loop-next]

Evaluates the output of the MiniVend tags encased inside, and if it evaluates to a numerical non-zero number (i.e. 1, 23, or -1) then the loop will be skipped with no output. Example:

[loop-next][calc][loop-field weight] < 1[/calc][/loop-next]

If this is contained in your [loop list] and the product's weight field is less than 1, then a numerical 1 will be output from the [calc][/calc] operation. The item will not be shown.

[loop-price n* noformat*]

Evaluates to the price for optional quantity n (from the products file) of the current item, with currency formatting. If the optional "noformat" is set, then currency formatting will not be applied.

IF

[if type field op* compare*]: named attributes: [if type="type" term="field" op="op" compare="compare"]
[if !type field op* compare*]: named attributes: [if type="!type" term="field" op="op" compare="compare"]

Allows conditional building of HTML based on the setting of various MiniVend session and database values. The general form is:

[if type term op compare]
[then]
                            If true, this is printed on the document.
                            The [then] [/then] is optional in most
                            cases. If ! is prepended to the type
                            setting, the sense is reversed and
                            this will be output for a false condition.
[/then]
[elsif type term op compare]
                            Optional, tested when if fails
[/elsif] 
[else]
                            Optional, printed when all above fail
[/else]
[/if]

The [if] tag can also have some variants:

[if explicit][condition] CODE [/condition]
            Displayed if valid Perl CODE returns a true value.
[/if]

You can do some Perl-style regular expressions, and combine conditions:

[if value name =~ /^mike/i]
                            This is the if with Mike.
[elsif value name =~ /^sally/i]
                            This is an elsif with Sally.
[/elsif]
[elsif value name =~ /^barb/i]
[or value name =~ /^mary/i]
                            This is an elsif with Barb or Mary.
[elsif value name =~ /^pat/i]
[and value othername =~ /^mike/i]
                            This is an elsif with Pat and Mike.
[/elsif]
[else]
                            This is the else, no name I know.
[/else]
[/if]

While the named parameter tag syntax works for [if ...], it is more convenient to use the positional syntax in most cases. The only exception is if you are planning on doing a test on the results of another tag sequence:

[if value name =~ /[value b_name]/]
    Shipping name matches billing name.
[/if]

Oops! This will not work. You must do instead

[if type=value term=name op="=~" compare="/[value b_name]/"]
    Shipping name matches billing name.
[/if]

[if type=value term=high_water op="<" compare="[shipping]"]
    Shipping cost is too high, charter a truck.
[/if]

If you wish to do AND and OR operations, you will have to use [if explicit]. This allows complex testing and parsing of values.

There are many test targets available:

config Directive

The MiniVend configuration variables. These are set by the directives in your MiniVend configuration file (or the defaults).

[if config CreditCardAuto]
Auto credit card validation is enabled.
[/if]

data database::field::key

The MiniVend databases. Retrieves a field in the database and returns true or false based on the value.

[if data products::size::99-102]
There is size information.
[else]
No size information.
[/else]
[/if]

[if data products::size::99-102 =~ /small/i]
There is a small size available.
[else]
No small size available.
[/else]
[/if]

discount

Checks to see if a discount is present for an item.

[if discount 99-102]
Item is discounted.
[/if]

explicit

A test for an explicit value. If perl code is placed between a [condition] [/condition] tag pair, it will be used to make the comparison. Arguments can be passed to import data from user space, just as with the [perl] tag.

[if explicit]
[condition]
    $country = '[value country]';
    return 1 if $country =~ /u\.?s\.?a?/i;
    return 0;
[/condition]
You have indicated a US address.
[else]
You have indicated a non-US address. 
[/else]
[/if]

This example is a bit contrived, as the same thing could be accomplished with [if value country =~ /u\.?s\.?a?/i], but you will run into many situations where it is useful.

This will work for Variable values:

[if explicit "__MYVAR__"] .. [/if]

file

Tests for existence of a file. Useful for placing image tags only if the image is present.

[if file /home/user/www/images/[item-code].gif]
<IMG SRC="[item-code].gif">
[/if]

or 

[if type=file term="/home/user/www/images/[item-code].gif"]
<IMG SRC="[item-code].gif">
[/if]

The file test requires that the SafeUntrap directive contains ftfile (which is the default).

items

The MiniVend shopping carts. If not specified, the cart used is the main cart. Usually used as a litmus test to see if anything is in the cart, for example:

[if items]You have items in your shopping cart.[/if]

[if items layaway]You have items on layaway.[/if]

ordered

Order status of individual items in the MiniVend shopping carts. If not specified, the cart used is the main cart. The following items refer to a part number of 99-102.

[if ordered 99-102] ... [/if]
  Checks the status of an item on order, true if item
  99-102 is in the main cart.

[if ordered 99-102 layaway] ... [/if]
  Checks the status of an item on order, true if item
  99-102 is in the layaway cart.

[if ordered 99-102 main size] ... [/if]
  Checks the status of an item on order in the main cart,
  true if it has a size attribute.

[if ordered 99-102 main size =~ /large/i] ... [/if]
  Checks the status of an item on order in the main cart,
  true if it has a size attribute containing 'large'.
  THE CART NAME IS REQUIRED IN THE OLD SYNTAX. The new
  syntax for that one would be:

  [if type=ordered term="99-102" compare="size =~ /large/i"]

  To make sure it is exactly large, you could use:

  [if ordered 99-102 main size eq 'large'] ... [/if]

[if ordered 99-102 main lines] ... [/if]
    Special case -- counts the lines that the item code is
    present on. (Only useful, of course, when mv_separate_items
    or SeparateItems is defined.)

salestax

The salestax database.

[if salestax [value state] > 0]
There is salestax for your state.
[else]
No salestax for your state.
[/else]
[/if]

Key matching is case-insensitive.

scratch

The MiniVend scratchpad variables, which can be set with the [set name]value[/set] element.

[if scratch mv_separate_items]
Ordered items will be placed on a separate line.
[else]
Ordered items will be placed on the same line.
[/else]
[/if]

session

The MiniVend session variables. Of particular interest are login, frames, secure, and browser.

shipping

The shipping database.

validcc

A special case, takes the form [if validcc no type exp_date]. Evaluates to true if the supplied credit card number, type of card, and expiration date pass a validity test. Does a LUHN-10 calculation to weed out typos or phony card numbers.

value

The MiniVend user variables, typically set in search, control, or order forms. Variables beginning with mv_ are MiniVend special values, and should be tested/used with caution.

The field term is the specifier for that area. For example, [if session frames] would return true if the frames session parameter was set.

As an example, consider buttonbars for frame-based setups. It would be nice to display a different buttonbar (with no frame targets) for sessions that are not using frames:

[if session frames]
    [buttonbar 1]
[else]
    [buttonbar 2]
[/else]
[/if]

Another example might be the when search matches are displayed. If you use the string [value mv_match_count] titles found, it will display a plural for only one match. Use:

[if value mv_match_count != 1]
    [value mv_match_count] matches found.
[else]
    Only one match was found.
[/else]
[/if]

The op term is the compare operation to be used. Compare operations are as in Perl:

==  numeric equivalence
eq  string equivalence
>   numeric greater-than
gt  string greater-than
<   numeric less-than
lt  string less-than
!=  numeric non-equivalence
ne  string equivalence

Any simple perl test can be used, including some limited regex matching. More complex tests are best done with [if explicit].

[then] text [/then]

This is optional if you are not nesting if conditions, as the text immediately following the [if ..] tag is used as the conditionally substituted text. If nesting [if ...] tags you should use a [then][/then] on any outside conditions to ensure proper interpolation.

[elsif type field op* compare*]

named attributes: [elsif type="type" term="field" op="op" compare="compare"]

Additional conditions for test, applied if the initial [if ..] test fails.

[else] text [/else]

The optional else-text for an if or if-item-field conditional.

[condition] text [/condition]

Only used with the [if explicit] tag. Allows an arbitrary expression in Perl to be placed inside, with its return value interpreted as the result of the test. If arguments are added to [if explicit args], those will be passed as arguments are in the [perl] construct.

[/if]

Terminates an if conditional.

TAG -- the catch all

Many MiniVend functions can be controlled or specified with [tag ...][/tag] pairs.

Named syntax:

[tag op=operation arg="arg1 arg2 ..."]other[/tag]

[tag arg* arg*]text[/tag]

Performs any of a number of operations, based on the presence of arg. The arguments that may be given are:

each database

Returns a loop-list with every key in database evaluated as the [loop-code]. This will return the key and field name for every record in the products database:

[tag each products][loop-code]  [loop-field name]<BR>[/tag]

export database file* type*

Exports a complete MiniVend database to its text source file (or any specified file). The integer n, if specified, will select export in one of the enumerated MiniVend export formats. The following tag will export the products database to products.txt (or whatever you have defined its source file as), in the format specified by the Database directive:

[tag export products][/tag]

Same thing, except to the file products/new_products.txt:

[tag export products products/newproducts.txt][/tag]

Same thing, except the export is done with a PIPE delimiter:

[tag export products products/newproducts.txt 5][/tag]

The file is relative to the catalog directory, and only may be an absolute path name if NoAbsolute is set to No.

flag arg

Sets a MiniVend condition.

The following enables writes on the products and sizes databases held in MiniVend internal DBM format:

[tag flag write]products sizes[/tag]

SQL databases are always writable if allowed by the SQL database itself -- in-memory databases will never be written.

The [tag flag build][/tag] combination forces static build of a page, even if dynamic elements are contained. Similarly, the [tag flag cache][/tag] forces search or page caching (not usually wise).

log dir/file

Logs a message to a file, fully interpolated for MiniVend tags. The following tag will send every item code and description in the user's shopping cart to the file logs/transactions.txt:

[tag log logs/transactions.txt]
[item_list][item-code]  [item-description]
[/item_list][/tag]

The file is relative to the catalog directory, and only may be an absolute path name if NoAbsolute is set to No.

mime description_string

Returns a MIME-encapsulated message with the boundary as employed in the other mime tags, and the description_string used as the Content-Description. For example

[tag mime My Plain Text]Your message here.[/tag]

will return

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-ID: [sequential, lead as in mime boundary]
Content-Description: My Plain Text

Your message here.

When used in concert with [tag mime boundary], [tag mime header], and [tag mime id], allows MIME attachments to be included -- typically with PGP-encrypted credit card numbers. See the demo page ord/report.html for an example.

mime boundary

Returns a MIME message boundary with unique string keyed on session ID, page count, and time.

mime header

Returns a MIME message header with the proper boundary for that session ID, page count, and time.

mime id

Returns a MIME message id with the proper boundary for that session ID, page count, and time.

time

Formats the current time according to POSIX strftime arguments. The following is the string for Wednesday, September 1, 1999.

[tag op=time]%A, %B %d, %Y[/tag]

Options =item touch

Touches a database to allow use of the tag_data() routine in user-defined subroutines. If this is not done, the routine will error out if the database has not previously been accessed on the page.

[tag touch products][/tag]

COMMENT

[comment] code [/comment]: Comments out MiniVend tags (and anything else) from a page. The contents are not displayed unless DisplayComments is set in minivend.cfg. Can be nested.

User-defined Tags

To define a tag that is catalog-specific, place UserTag directives in your catalog.cfg file. For server-wide tags, define them in minivend.cfg. Catalog-specific tags take precedence if both are defined -- in fact, you can override the base MiniVend tag set with them. The directive takes the form:

UserTag  tagname  property  value

where tagname is the name of the tag, property is the attribute (described below), and value is the value of the property for that tagname.

The user tags can either be based on Perl subroutines or just be aliases for existing tags. Some quick examples are below.

An alias:

UserTag product_name Alias     data products title

This will change [product_name 99-102] into [data products title 99-102], which will output the title database field for product code 99-102. Don't use this with [item-data ...] and [item-field ...], as they are parsed separately. You can do [product-name [item-code]], though.

A simple subroutine:

UserTag company_name Routine   sub { "Your company name" }

When you place a [company-name] tag in a MiniVend page, the text Your company name will be substituted.

A subroutine with a passed text as an argument:

UserTag caps   Routine   sub { return "\U@_" }
UserTag caps   HasEndTag

The tag [caps]This text should be all upper case[/caps] will become THIS TEXT SHOULD BE ALL UPPER CASE.

Here is a useful one you might wish to use:

UserTag quick_table HasEndTag
UserTag quick_table Interpolate
UserTag quick_table Order   border
UserTag quick_table Routine <<EOF
sub {
    my ($border,$input) = @_;
    $border = " BORDER=$border" if $border;
    my $out = "<TABLE ALIGN=LEFT$border>";
    my @rows = split /\n+/, $input;
    my ($left, $right);
    for(@rows) {
        $out .= '<TR><TD ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=TOP>';
        ($left, $right) = split /\s*:\s*/, $_, 2;
        $out .= '<B>' unless $left =~ /</;
        $out .= $left;
        $out .= '</B>' unless $left =~ /</;
        $out .= '</TD><TD VALIGN=TOP>';
        $out .= $right;
        $out .= '</TD></TR>';
        $out .= "\n";
    }
    $out .= '</TABLE>';
}
EOF

Called with:

[quick-table border=2]
Name: [value name]
City: [value city][if value state], [value state][/if] [value country]
[/quick_table]

The properties for UserTag are are:

AddAttr

Add the attribute hash to the parameters already defined to be sent by the Order setting. This includes the canned attributes true, false, undef, interpolate, and any other attributes you have set in the tag. Allows your tag routine to take a hash reference with the important parameters. Example:

UserTag echo-params AddAttr
UserTag echo-params Routine <<EOR
sub {
    my($ref) = @_;
    my $out;
    for (sort keys %$ref) {
        # skip these meaningless parameters
        next if /^(undef|true|false)$/;

        $out .= "$_=";
        $out .= '"';
        $out .= $ref->{$_};
        $out .= '"'
        $out .= "\n";
    }
    return $out;
}
EOR

If you define the above UserTag and put put this on a MiniVend page

<PRE>
[echo-params  Param1=1 param2=2 param3=three]
</PRE>

the resulting output will be:

interpolate="0"
param1="1"
param2="2"
param3="three"

The interpolate parameter is always present for every tag, and defines the behavior of container text or output depending on the value of HasEndTag.

Alias

An alias for an existing (or other user-defined) tag. It takes the form:

UserTag tagname Alias    tag to insert

An Alias is the only property that does not require a Routine to process the tag.

attrAlias

An alias for an existing attribute for defined tag. It takes the form:

UserTag tagname attrAlias   alias attr

As an example, the standard MiniVend value tag takes a named attribute of name for the variable name, meaning that [value name=var] will display the value of form field var. If you put this line in catalog.cfg:

UserTag value attrAlias   identifier name

then [value identifier=var] will be an equivalent tag.

CanNest

Notifies MiniVend that this tag must be checked for nesting. Only applies to tags that have HasEndTag defined, of course. NOTE: Your routine must handle the subtleties of nesting, so don't use this unless you are quite conversant with parsing routines. See the routines tag_loop_list and tag_if in lib/Vend/Interpolate.pm for an example of a nesting tag.

UserTag tagname CanNest

Gobble

If there is no end tag present for a container tag, the normal behavior is to not process the tag call. If you set Gobble, the tag will work for all the remaining text on the page. The timed-build and mvasp tags are the tags MiniVend defines to Gobble.

HasEndTag

Defines an ending [/tag] to encapsulate your text -- the text in between the beginning [tagname] and ending [/tagname] will be the last argument sent to the defined subroutine.

UserTag tagname HasEndTag

Implicit

This defines an attribute as implicit, meaning it can just be an attribute instead of an attribute=value pair. It must be a recognized attribute in the tag definition, or there will be big problems. Use this with caution!

UserTag tagname Implicit attribute value

If you want to set a standard include file to a fixed value by default, but don't want to have to specify [include file="/long/path/to/file"] every time, you can just put:

UserTag include Implicit file file=/long/path/to/file

and [include file] will be the equivalent. You can still specify another value with [include file="/another/path/to/file"]

Interpolate

The behavior for this attribute depends on whether the tag is a container (i.e. HasEndTag is defined). If it is not a container, the Interpolate attribute causes the the resulting HTML from the UserTag will be re-parsed for more MiniVend tags. If it is a container, Interpolate causes the contents of the tag to be parsed before the tag routine is run.

UserTag tagname Interpolate

InvalidateCache

If this is defined, the presence of the tag on a page will prevent search cache, page cache, and static builds from operating on the page.

UserTag tagname InvalidateCache

It does not override [tag flag build][/tag], though.

Order

The optional arguments that can be sent to the tag. This defines not only the order in which they will be passed to Routine, but the name of the tags. If encapsulated text is appropriate (HasEndTag is set), it will be the last argument.

UserTag tagname Order param1 param2

PosRoutine

Identical to the Routine argument -- a subroutine that will be called when the positional call is made, i.e. [usertag argument] instead of [usertag ARG=argument]. If not defined, Routine is used, and MiniVend will usually do the right thing.

ReplaceAttr

Works in concert with InsertHTML, defining a single attribute which will be replaced in the insertion operation.

UserTag tagname ReplaceAttr  htmltag attr

An example is the standard HTML <A HREF=...> tag. If you want to use the MiniVend tag [area pagename] inside of it, then you would normally want to replace the HREF attribute. So the equivalent to the following is defined within MiniVend:

UserTag  area  ReplaceAttr  a  href

Causing this

<A MV="area pagename" HREF="a_test_page.html">

to become

<A HREF="http://yourserver/cgi/simple/pagename?X8sl2lly;;44">

when intepreted.

Routine

An inline subroutine that will be used to process the arguments of the tag. It must not be named, and will be allowed to access unsafe elements only if the minivend.cfg parameter AllowGlobal is set for the catalog.

UserTag tagname Routine  sub { "your perl code here!" }

The routine may use a "here" document for readability:

UserTag tagname Routine <<EOF
sub {
    my ($param1, $param2, $text) = @_;
    return "Parameter 1 is $param1, Parameter 2 is $param2";
}
EOF

The usual here documents caveats apply.

Parameters defined with the Order property will be sent to the routine first, followed by any encapsulated text (HasEndTag is set).

Note that the UserTag facility, combined with AllowGlobal, allows the user to define tags just as powerful as the standard MiniVend tags. This is not recommended for the novice, though -- keep it simple. 8-)

PRICE, DESCRIPTION, ACCESSORIES

[price code quantity* database* noformat*]

named attributes: [price code="code" quantity="N" base="database" noformat=1* optionX="value"]

Expands into the price of the product identified by code as found in the products database. If there is more than one products file defined, they will be searched in order unless constrained by the optional argument base. The optional argument quantity selects an entry from the quantity price list. To receive a raw number, with no currency formatting, use the option noformat=1.

If an named attribute corresponding to a product option is passed, and that option would cause a change in the price, the appropriate price will be displayed.

DEMO EXAMPLE: The T-Shirt (product code 99-102), with a base price of $10.00, can vary in price depending on size and color. S, the small size, is 50 cents less; XL, the extra large size, is $1.00 more, and the color RED is 0.75 extra. There are also quantity pricing breaks (see the demo pricing database. So the following will be true:

   [price  code=99-102
           size=L]              is $10.00

   [price  code=99-102
           size=XL]             is $11.00

   [price  code=99-102
           color=RED
           size=XL]             is $11.75

   [price  code=99-102
           size=XL
           quantity=10]         is $10.00

   [price  code=99-102
           size=S]              is $9.50

An illustration of this is on the simple flypage template when passed that item code.

[description code database*]

named attributes: [description code="code" base="database"]

Expands into the description of the product identified by code as found in the products database. If there is more than one products file defined, they will be searched in order unless constrained by the optional argument base.

[accessories code attribute*, type*, field*, database*, name*, outboard*]

named attributes: [accessories code="code" arg="attribute*, type*, field*, database*, name*, outboard*"]

If not given one of the optional arguments, expands into the value of the accessories database entry for the product identified by code as found in the products database.

If passed any of the optional arguments, initiates special processing of item attributes based on entries in the product database.

See Item Attributes for a complete description of the arguments.

When called with an attribute, the database is consulted and looks for a comma-separated list of attribute options. They take the form:

name=Label Text, name=Label Text*

The label text is optional -- if none is given, the name will be used.

If an asterisk is the last character of the label text, the item is the default selection. If no default is specified, the first will be the default. An example:

[accessories TK112 color]

This will search the product database for a field named "color". If an entry "beige=Almond, gold=Harvest Gold, White*, green=Avocado" is found, a select box like this will be built:

<SELECT NAME="mv_order_color">
<OPTION VALUE="beige">Almond
<OPTION VALUE="gold">Harvest Gold
<OPTION SELECTED>White
<OPTION VALUE="green">Avocado
</SELECT>

In combination with the mv_order_item and mv_order_quantity variables this can be used to allow entry of an attribute at time of order.

FILE and INCLUDE

These elements read a file from the disk and insert the contents in the location of the tag. [include ...] will allow insertion of MiniVend variables.

[file ...]

named: [file name="name" type="dos|mac|unix"*]

positional: [file name]

Inserts the contents of the named file. The file should normally be relative to the catalog directory -- file names beginning with / or .. are only allowed if the MiniVend server administrator has disabled NoAbsolute.

The optional type parameter will do an appropriate ASCII translation on the file before it is sent.

[include file]

named attributes: [include file="name"]

NOTE: New to MiniVend 3.04.

Same as [file name] except interpolates for all MiniVend tags and variables.

MiniVend has a built-in banner rotation system designed to show ads or other messages according to category and an optional weighting.

The [banner ...] MML tag is used to implement it.

The weighting system pre-builds banners in the directory 'Banners', under the temporary directory. It will build one copy of the banner for every one weight. If you weight one banner 7, one 2, and one 1, then a total of 10 pre-built banners will be made. The first will be displayed 70% of the time, the second 20%, and the third 10%, in random fashion. If you want all equal, place an equal weight of 1.

Each category may have separate weighting. If you place the above in category tech, then it will behave as above when you place [banner category=tech] in the page. A separate category, say art, would have its own rotation and weighting.

The [banner ...] tag is based on a database table, named banners by default. It expects a total of five (5) fields in the table:

code

This is the key for the item. If the banners are not weighted, then this should be a category specific code.

category

If you choose to categorize weighted ads, this contains the category to select. If empty, it will be placed in the default (or blank) category.

weight

Must be an integer number 1 or greater to include this ad in the weighting. If 0 or blank, the ad will be ignored when weighted ads are built.

rotate

If the weighted banners are not used, this must contain some value. If the field is empty, the banner will not be displayed. If the value is specifically 0 (zero), then the entire contents of the banner field will be displayed when this category is used. If it is non-zero, then the contents of the banner field will be split into segments (by the separator {or}). For each segment, the banners will rotate in sequence for that user only. Obviously, the first banner in the sequence is more likely to be displayed than the last.

Summary of values of rotate field:

non-zero, non-blank: Rotating ads
blank:               Ad not displayed
0:                   Ad is entire contents of banner field

banner

This contains the banner text. If more than one banner is in the field, they should be separated by the text {or} (which will not be displayed).

Minivend expects the banner field to contains the banner text. It can contain more than one banner, separated by the string '{or}'. To activate the ad, place any string in the field rotate.

The special key "default" is the banner that is displayed if no banners are found. (Doesn't apply to weighted banners.)

Weighted banners are built the first time they are accessed after catalog reconfiguration. They will not be rebuilt until either:

-- the catalog is reconfigured
-- the file tmp/Banners/total_weight or
   tmp/Banners/<category>/total_weight is removed

If the option once is passed (i.e. [banner once=1 weighted=1] then the banners will not be rebuilt until the total_weight file is removed.

The database specification should make the weight field numeric so that the proper query can be made. Here is the example from MiniVend's demo:

Database   banner   banner.txt   TAB
Database   banner   NUMERIC      weight

Examples:

weighted, categorized

To select categorized and weighted banners:

Your banner table would look like:

code    category   weight   rotate   banner
t1      tech       1                 Click here for a 10% banner
t2      tech       2                 Click here for a 20% banner
t3      tech       7                 Click here for a 70% banner
a1      art        1                 Click here for a 10% banner
a2      art        2                 Click here for a 20% banner
a3      art        7                 Click here for a 70% banner

Tag would be:

[banner weighted=1 category="tech"]

This will find *all* banners with a weight >= 1 where the category field is equal to tech. The files will be made into the director tmp/Banners/tech.

weighted

To select weighted banners:

[banner weighted=1]

This will find *all* banners with a weight >= 1. (Remember, integers only.) The files will be made into the director tmp/Banners.

code    category   weight   rotate   banner
t1      tech       1                 Tech banner 1
t2      tech       2                 Tech banner 2
t3      tech       7                 Tech banner 3
a1      art        1                 Art banner 1
a2      art        2                 Art banner 2
a3      art        7                 Art banner 3

Each of the above with a weight of 7 will actually be displayed 35% of the time.

categorized, not rotating

[banner category="tech"]

This is pretty much equivalent to:

[data table=banner col=banner key=tech

The differences are:

-- not selected if "rotate" field is blank
-- if not selected, the default banner is displayed

Your banner table would look like:

code    category   weight   rotate   banner
tech               0        0        Tech banner

You can put MiniVend tags in the category parameter if you wish:

[banner category="[value interest]"]

categorized and rotating

[banner category="tech"]

The difference between this and above is the database. Your banner table would look like:

code    category   weight   rotate   banner
tech               0        1        Tech banner 1{or}Tech banner 2
art                0        1        Art banner 1{or}Art banner 2

This would rotate between banner 1 and 2 for the category tech for each user. Banner 1 is always displayed first. The art banner would never be displayed unless you used the tag [banner category=art], of course.

You can put MiniVend tags in the category parameter if you wish:

[banner category="[value interest]"]

multi-level categorized

[banner category="tech:hw"] or [banner category="tech:sw"]

If you have a colon-separated category, Minivend will select the most specific ad available. If you banner table looks like:

code    category   weight   rotate   banner
tech               0        1        Tech banner 1{or}Tech banner 2
tech:hw            0        1        Hardware banner 1{or}HW banner 2
tech:sw            0        1        Software banner 1{or}SW banner 2

This works the same as single-level categories, except that the category tech:hw will select that banner. The category tech:sw will select its own; but the category tech:html would just get the "tech" banner.

Otherwise, it works just as in other categorized ads -- rotation will work if set non-zero/non-blank, and it will be inactive if the rotate field is blank. Each category rotates on its own.

ADVANCED

All parameters are optional since they are marked with an asterisk (*).

Tag syntax:

[banner
    weighted=1*
    category=category*
    once=1*
    separator=sep*
    delimiter=delim*
    table=banner_table*
    a_field=banner_field*
    w_field=weight_field*
    r_field=rotate_field*
]

Defaults are blank except:

table       banner    selects table used
a_field     banner    selects field for banner text
delimiter   {or}      delimiter for rotating ads
r_field     rotate    rotate field
separator   :         separator for multi-level categories
w_field     weight    rotate field

Tags for summarizing shopping basket/cart

The following elements are used to access common items which need to be displayed on baskets and checkout pages.

* marks an optional parameter

[item-list cart*]

named attributes: [item-list name="cart"]

Places an iterative list of the items in the specified shopping cart, the main cart by default. See Item Lists for a description.

[/item-list]

Terminates the [item-list] tag.

[value field flag*]

Expands into the current value of the customer input field named by field. If flag is present, single and double quotes will be escaped with a backslash; this allows reliable SQL inserts. See the section on input fields for more information.

[nitems cart*]

Expands into the total number of items ordered so far. Takes an optional cart name as a parameter.

[subtotal]

Expands into the subtotal cost, exclusive of sales tax, of all the items ordered so far.

[salestax cart*]

Expands into the sales tax on the subtotal of all the items ordered so far. If there is no key field to derive the proper percentage, such as state or zip code, it is set to 0. See Sales Tax for more information.

[shipping-description mode*]

named attributes: [shipping-description name="mode"]

The text description of mode -- the default is the shipping mode currently selected.

[shipping mode*]

named attributes: [shipping name="mode"]

The shipping cost of the items in the basket via mode -- the default mode is the shipping mode currently selected in the mv_shipmode variable. See SHIPPING.

[total-cost cart*]

Expands into the total cost of all the items in the current shopping cart, including sales tax (if any).

[calc]

Starts a region where the arguments are calculated according to normal arithmetic symbols. For instance:

[calc] 2 + 2 [/calc]

will display:

[/calc]

Terminates the calculated region.

The [calc] tag is really the same as the [perl] tag, except that it doesn't accept arguments, is more efficient to parse, and is interpolated at a higher precedence.

TIP: The [calc] tag will remember variable values inside one page, so you can do the equivalent of a memory store and memory recall for a loop.

[currency convert*]

named attributes: [currency convert=1*]

When passed a value of a single number, formats it according to the currency specification. For instance:

[currency]4[/currency]

will display:

4.00

Uses the Locale and PriceCommas settings as appropriate, and can contain a [calc] region. If the optional "convert" parameter is set, it will convert according to PriceDivide> for the current locale. If Locale is set to fr_FR, and PriceDivide for fr_FR is 0.167, the following sequence

[currency convert=1] [calc] 500.00 + 1000.00 [/calc] [/currency]

will cause the number 8.982,04 to be displayed.

[/currency]

Terminates the currency region.

[cart name]

named attributes: [cart name="name"]

Sets the name of the current shopping cart for display of shipping, price, total, subtotal, and nitems tags. If you wish to use a different price for the cart, all of the above except [shipping] will reflect the normal price field. You must emulate those operations with embedded Perl or the [item-list], [calc], and [currency] tags, or use the PriceAdjustment feature to set it.

[row nn]

named attributes: [row width="nn"]

Formats text in tables. Intended for use in emailed reports or <PRE></PRE> HTML areas. The parameter nn gives the number of columns to use. Inside the row tag, [col param=value ...] tags may be used.

[/row]

Terminates a [row nn] element.

[col width=nn wrap=yes|no gutter=n align=left|right|input spacing=n]

Sets up a column for use in a [row]. This parameter can only be contained inside a [row nn] [/row] tag pair. Any number of columns (that fit within the size of the row) can be defined.

The parameters are:

width=nn        The column width, I<including the gutter>. Must be
                supplied, there is no default. A shorthand method
                is to just supply the number as the I<first> parameter,
                as in [col 20].
    
gutter=n        The number of spaces used to separate the column (on
                the right-hand side) from the next. Default is 2.
    
spacing=n       The line spacing used for wrapped text. Default is 1,
                or single-spaced.
    
wrap=(yes|no)   Determines whether text that is greater in length than
                the column width will be wrapped to the next line. Default
                is I<yes>.
    
align=(L|R|I)   Determines whether text is aligned to the left (the default),
                the right, or in a way that might display an HTML text
                input field correctly.

[/col]

Terminates the column field.

Item Lists

Within any page, the [item-list cart*] element shows a list of all the items ordered by the customer so far. It works by repeating the source between [item-list] and [/item-list] once for each item ordered.

NOTE: The special tags that reference item within the list are not normal MiniVend tags, do not take named attributes, and cannot be contained in an HTML tag (other than to substitute for one of its values or provide a conditional container). They are interpreted only inside their corresponding list container. Normal MiniVend tags can be interspersed, though they will be interpreted after all of the list-specific tags.

Between the item_list markers the following elements will return information for the current item:

[if-item-data table column]

If the database field column in table table is non-blank, the following text up to the [/if-item-data] tag is substituted. This can be used to substitute IMG or other tags only if the corresponding source item is present. Also accepts a [else]else text[/else] pair for the opposite condition.

NOTE: This tag does not nest with other [if-item-data ...] tags.

[if-item-data ! table column]

Reverses sense for [if-item-data].

[/if-item-data]

Terminates an [if-item-data table column] element.

[if-item-field fieldname]

If the products database field fieldname is non-blank, the following text up to the [/if-item-field] tag is substituted. If you have more than one products database table (see ProductFiles), it will check them in order until a matching key is found. This can be used to substitute IMG or other tags only if the corresponding source item is present. Also accepts a [else]else text[/else] pair for the opposite condition.

NOTE: This tag does not nest with other [if-item-field ...] tags.

[if-item-field ! fieldname]

Reverses sense for [if-item-field].

[/if-item-field]

Terminates an [if-item-field fieldname] element.

[item-accessories attribute*, type*, field*, database*, name*]

Evaluates to the value of the Accessories database entry for the item. If passed any of the optional arguments, initiates special processing of item attributes based on entries in the product database.

[item-alternate N] DIVISIBLE [else] NOT DIVISIBLE [/else][/item-alternate]

Set up an alternation sequence. If the item-increment is divisible by N, the text will be displayed. If an [else]NOT DIVISIBLE TEXT[/else] is present, then the NOT DIVISIBLE TEXT will be displayed.

For example:

[item-alternate 2]EVEN[else]ODD[/else][/item-alternate]
[item-alternate 3]BY 3[else]NOT by 3[/else][/item-alternate]

[/item-alternate]

Terminate the alternation area.

[item-code]

Evaluates to the product code for the current item.

[item-data database fieldname]

Evaluates to the field name fieldname in the arbitrary database table database, for the current item.

[item-description]

Evaluates to the product description (from the products file) for the current item.

[item-field fieldname]

The [item-field ...] tag is special in that it looks in any of the tables defined as ProductFiles, in that order, for the data, returning the value only if that key is defined. In most catalogs, where ProductFiles is not defined (i.e. the demo), [item-field title] is equivalent to [item-data products title].

Evaluates to the field name fieldname in the products database, for the current item. If the item is not found in the first of the ProductFiles, all will be searched in sequence.

[item-increment]

Evaluates to the number of the item in the match list. Used for numbering search matches or order items in the list.

[item-last]tags[/item-last]

Evaluates the output of the MiniVend tags encased inside the tags, and if it evaluates to a numerical non-zero number (i.e. 1, 23, or -1) then the list iteration will terminate. If the evaluated number is negative, then the item itself will be skipped. If the evaluated number is positive, then the item itself will be shown but will be last on the list.

[item-last][calc]
  return -1 if '[item-field weight]' eq '';
  return 1 if '[item-field weight]' < 1;
  return 0;
  [/calc][/item-last]

If this is contained in your [item-list] (or [search-list] or flypage) and the weight field is empty, then a numerical -1 will be output from the [calc][/calc] tags; the list will end and the item will not be shown. If the product's weight field is less than 1, a numerical 1 is output. The item will be shown, but will be the last item shown. (If it is an [item-list], any price for the item will still be added to the subtotal.) NOTE: no HTML style.

[item-modifier attribute]

Evaluates to the modifier value of attribute for the current item.

[item-next]tags[/item_next]

Evaluates the output of the MiniVend tags encased inside, and if it evaluates to a numerical non-zero number (i.e. 1, 23, or -1) then the item will be skipped with no output. Example:

[item-next][calc][item-field weight] < 1[/calc][/item-next]

If this is contained in your [item-list] (or [search-list] or flypage) and the product's weight field is less than 1, then a numerical 1 will be output from the [calc][/calc] operation. The item will not be shown. (If it is an [item-list], any price for the item will still be added to the subtotal.)

[item-price n* noformat*]

Evaluates to the price for quantity n (from the products file) of the current item, with currency formatting. If the optional "noformat" is set, then currency formatting will not be applied.

[discount-price n* noformat*]

Evaluates to the discount price for quantity n (from the products file) of the current item, with currency formatting. If the optional "noformat" is set, then currency formatting will not be applied. Returns regular price if not discounted.

[item-discount]

Returns the difference between the regular price and the discounted price.

[item-quantity]

Evaluates to the quantity ordered for the current item.

[item-subtotal]

Evaluates to the subtotal (quantity * price) for the current item. Quantity price breaks are taken into account.

[modifier-name attribute]

Evaluates to the name to give an input box in which the customer can specify the modifier to the ordered item.

[quantity-name]

Evaluates to the name to give an input box in which the customer can enter the quantity to order.

Embedded Perl Code

Perl code can be directly embedded in MiniVend pages. The code is specified as:

[perl]
    $name    = $Values->{name};
    $browser = $Session->{browser};
    return "Hi, $name! How do you like your $browser?";
[/perl]

ASP syntax can be used with:

[mvasp]
    <%
    $name    = $Values->{name};
    $browser = $Session->{browser};
    %>
    Hi, <%= $name %>!
    <%
        HTML "How do you like your $browser?";
    %>
[/perl]

The two snippets above are essentially equivalent.

The [perl] tag enforces Safe.pm checking, and many standard Perl operators are not available. This is a good thing, as you would not want users having access to all files and programs on the system with the MiniVend daemon's permissions! See GlobalSub and UserTag for ways to make external files and programs available to MiniVend.

named attributes:

[perl tables="tables-to-open"* subs=1 global=1* no_return=1*]

Required attributes: none

Attribute information:

global

When set to 1, and when the catalog is allowed to use global permissions via the minivend.cfg directive AllowGlobal, Safe.pm checking is turned off. In this case, the embedded Perl code can do anything that the user ID running it can! This is not recommended when the same MiniVend server runs for different companies/user ids. Be careful! Security is your responsiblity and should be your concern.

subs

When set to 1, any GlobalSub routines can be accessed by name.

tables

Opens specified MiniVend database tables, preparing them for access inside the Perl code.

When running under Safe, some database operations are restricted due to inability to create objects. For SQL there is nothing that can be done -- you must have global access to use data from SQL tables. But for MiniVend databases, you can access them as long as you pre-open them by using an item first.

Example:

[perl tables="products pricing"]
    $key = $Values->{sku};
    $title = $Tag->data('products', 'title', $key):
    return "You looked up the title $title";
[/perl]

If the tables=products> was not specified, there would be a syntax error trap from Safe.pm.

Any MiniVend tag (except ones using SQL) can be accessed via the $Tag object. If you need to use SQL queries inside a Perl element, you will have to have AllowGlobal permissions and set the global=1 parameter.

Examples:

# If the item might contain a single quote
[perl]
$comments = $Value->{comments};
[/perl]

IMPORTANT NOTE: Global subroutines are not subject to the stringent security checking of the Safe module, so almost anything goes there. The subroutine will be able to modify any variable in MiniVend, and will be able to write to read and write any file that the MiniVend daemon has permission to write. Though this gives great power, it should be used with caution. Careful! They are defined in the main minivend.cfg file, so should be safe from individual users in a multi-catalog system.

Global subroutines are defined in minivend.cfg with the GlobalSub directive, or in user catalogs which have been enabled via AllowGlobal. Global subroutines are much faster than the others as they are pre-compiled. (Faster still are UserTag definitions.)

Catalog subroutines are defined in catalog.cfg, with the Sub directive. They are subject to the stringent Safe.pm security restrictions that are controlled by SafeUntrap.

The code can be as complex as desired, but cannot use any operators that modify the file system or use "unsafe" operations like "system", "exec", or backticks. These constraints are enforced with the default permissions of the standard Perl module Safe -- operations may be untrapped on a system-wide basis with the SafeUntrap directive.

The result of the tag will be the result of the last expression evaluated, just as in a subroutine. If there is a syntax error or other problem with the code, there will be no output.

Here is a simple one which does the equivalent of the classic hello.pl program:

[perl] my $tmp = "Hello, world!"; $tmp; [/perl]

Of course you wouldn't need to set the variable -- it is just there to show the capability.

To echo the user's browser, but within some HTML tags:

[perl]
my $html = '<H5>';
$html .= $Session->{'browser'};
$html .= '</H5>';
$html;
[/perl]

To show the user their name, and the current time:

[perl arg=values]

my $string = "Hi, " . $Values->{'name'} ". The time is now ";
$string .= $Tag->mvtime();
$string;

[/perl]

ASP-like Perl

MiniVend supports an ASP-like syntax using the mvasp tag.

[mvasp]
<HTML><BODY> 
    This is HTML.<BR>

<% HTML "This is code<BR>"; %>
    More HTML.<BR>
<% $Document->write("Code again.<BR>") %>
[/mvasp]

If no closing [/mvasp] tag is present, the remainder of the page will be seen as ASP.

ASP is simple. Anything between <% and %> is code, and the string %> is not allowed anywhere inside. Anything not between those anchors is plain HTML that will be placed unchanged on the page. MiniVend variables and [L][/L] and [LC][/LC] areas will still be inserted, but any MiniVend tags will not be.

There is a shorthand <% = $foo %>, which is exactly equivalent to <% $Document->write($foo); %> or <% HTML $foo; %>

[mvasp]
<HTML><BODY> 
    This is HTML.<BR>
    [value name] will show up as &#91;value name].<BR>

    &#95_VARIABLE__ value is equal to: __VARIABLE__

<% = "This is code<BR>" %>

The __VARIABLE__ will be replaced by the value of Variable VARIABLE, but [value name] will be shown unchanged.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you make use of the SQL::Statement module, your catalog must be set to AllowGlobal in minivend.cfg. It will not work in "Safe" mode due to limitations of object creation in Safe. Also, you must have the Safe::Hole module installed to have SQL databases work in Safe mode.

MiniVend Perl Objects

MiniVend gives ready access to all objects associated with the catalog and the user settings, with opcode restrictions based on the standard Perl module Safe.pm.

There are some things you will need to know about programming with Minivend.

Under Safe, certain things cannot be used. For instance, this is not legal when running Safe:

$variable = `cat file/contents`;

The backtick operator violates a number of the default Safe op code restrictions. You can not do direct file opens, either:

open(SOMETHING, "something.txt") 
    or die;

This will also cause a trap, and the code will fail to compile.

You can, however, use the Minivend equivalent routines:

# This will work if your administrator doesn't have NoAbsolute
# set
$users = $Tag->file('/home/you/list');

# This will always work, file names are based in the 
# catalog directory
$users = $Tag->file('userlist');

The standard objects are:

$CGI

This is a hash reference to %CGI::values, the value of user variables as submitted in the current page/form. To get the value of a variable submitted as

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=foo VALUE=bar>

use

<% $Document->write("Value of foo is $CGI->{'foo'}"); %>

Remember, multiple settings of the same variable are separated by a NULL character. To get the array value, use $CGI_array.

$CGI_array

This is a hash reference to %CGI::values_array, arrays containing the value or values of user variables as submitted in the current page/form. To get the value of a variable submitted as

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=foo VALUE=bar>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=foo VALUE=baz>

use

<% = "The values of foo are", join (' and ', @{$CGI_array->{'foo'}}) %>

Remember, multiple settings of the same variable are separated by a NULL character. To get the array value, use $CGI_array.

$Carts

A reference to the shopping cart hash $Vend::Session->{carts}. The normal default cart is "main". An alias for that is $Items in the normal course of events.

Shopping carts are an array of hash references. Here is an example of a session cart array containing a main and a layaway cart.

{
    'main' => [ 
                {
                    'code' => '00-0011',
                    'mv_ib' => 'products',
                    'quantity' => 1,
                    'size' => undef,
                    'color' => undef
                },
                {
                    'code' => '99-102',
                    'mv_ib' => 'products',
                    'quantity' => 2,
                    'size' => 'L',
                    'color' => 'BLUE'
                }
            ],
    'layaway' => [ 
                {
                    'code' => '00-341',
                    'mv_ib' => 'products',
                    'quantity' => 1,
                    'size' => undef,
                    'color' => undef
                }
            ]
}

In this cart array $Carts->{main}[1]{'code'} is equal to 99-102. In the normal course of events, it would be equivalent to $Items->[1]{'code'}.

$Config

A reference to the $Vend::Cfg array. Normally you should use this with a liberal dose of the MiniVend source code, but for simple things you can use something like:

# Turn off CyberCash for this user
$Config->{CyberCash} = 0;

Changes are not persistent except when running in the foreground (Debug mode or on Windows).

%DB

A hash of databases that you shared with the [mvasp tables="foo"] parameter to the tag call. Once you share the database, it is opened and can be accessed by any of its methods.

ONCE AGAIN, this will not work with SQL unless AllowGlobal is set for your catalog.

To get a reference to a particular table, specify its hash element:

$ref = $Db->{products};

The methods available:

# access an element of the table
$field = $ref->field($column, $key);

# set an element of the table
$ref->set_field($column_name, $key, $value);

# atomic increment of an element of the table
$ref->inc_field($column_name, $key, 1);

# see if element of the table is numeric
$is_numeric = $ref->numeric($column_name);

# Quote for SQL query purposes
$quoted = $ref->quote($value, $column_name);

# Check configuration of the database
$delimiter = $ref->config('DELIMITER');

# Find the names of the columns (not including the key)
@columns = $ref->columns();
# Insert the key column name
unshift @columns, $ref->config('KEY');

# See if a column is in the table
$is_a_column = defined $ref->test_column($column_name);

# See if a row is in the table
$is_present = $ref->record_exists($key);

# Create a subroutine to return a single column from the table
$sub = $ref->field_accessor($column);
for (@keys) {
    push @values, $sub->($key);
}

# Create a subroutine to set a single column in the database
$sub = $ref->field_settor($column);
for (@keys) {
    $sub->($key, $value);
}

# Create a subroutine to set a slice of the database
$sub = $ref->row_settor(@columns);
for (@keys) {
    $sub->($key, @values);
}

# Retrurn a complete array of the database (minus the key)
@values = $ref->row($key);

# Retrurn a complete hash of the database row (minus the key)
$hashref = $ref->row_hash($key);

# Delete a record/row from the table
$ref->delete_record($key);

%SQL

A hash of SQL databases that you shared with the [mvasp tables="foo"] parameter to the tag call. It returns the DBI database handle, so you can do things like:

<%
  my $dbh = $SQL{products}
      or return HTML "Database not shared.";
  my $sth = $dbh->prepare('select * from products')
      or return HTML "Couldn't open database.";
  $sth->execute();
  my @record;
  while(@record = $sth->fetchrow()) {
      foo();
  }
  $sth = $dbh->prepare('select * from othertable')
      or return HTML "Couldn't open database.";
  $sth->execute();
  while(@record = $sth->fetchrow()) {
      bar();
  }
%>

ONCE AGAIN, this will not work with unless AllowGlobal is set for your catalog. And full "use strict" checking is in force.

$DbSearch

A search object which will search a database without using the text file. It is the same as MiniVend's db searchtype. Options are specified in a hash and passed to the object. All multiple-field options should be passed as array references.

Before using the $DbSearch object, you must tell it which table to search -- to use the table foo it must have been shared with [mvasp foo].

There are three search methods -- array, hash, and list.

array    Returns a reference to an array of arrays (best)
hash     Returns a reference to an array of hashes (slower)
list     Returns a reference to an array of tab-delimited lines

Example:

  $DbSearch->{table} = $Db{foo};

  $search = {

          mv_searchspec => 'Mona Lisa',
          mv_search_field => [ 'title', 'artist', 'price' ],
          mv_return_fields    => ['

      }; 

  my $ary = $DbSearch->array($search);

  if(! scalar @$ary) {
      return HTML "No match.\n";
  }

  for(@$ary) {

$Document

This is an object that has several routines associated with it.

HTML $foo;                     # Append $foo to the write buffer array
$Document->write($foo);        # object call to append $foo to the write
                               # buffer array
$Document->insert($foo);       # Insert $foo to front of write buffer array
$Document->header($foo, $opt); # Append $foo to page header
$Document->send();             # Send write buffer array to output, done
                               # automatically upon end of ASP, clears buffer
                               # and invalidates $Document->header()
$Document->hot(1);             # Cause writes to send immediately
$Document->hot(0);             # Stop immediate send
@ary = $Document->review();    # Place contents of write buffer in @ary
$Document->replace(@ary)       # Replace contents of write buffer with @ary
$ary_ref = $Document->ref();   # Return ref to output buffer

$Document->write($foo)

Write $foo to the page in a buffered fashion. The buffer is an array that is the results of all previous $Document->write() operations. If $Document->hot(1) has been set, the output immediately goes to the user.

$Document->insert($foo)

Insert $foo to the page buffer.

$Document->write("23");
$Document->insert("1");
$Document->send();

will output "123", while

$Document->write("23");
$Document->write("1");
$Document->send();

will output "231".

$Document->header($foo, $opt)

Add the header line $foo to the HTTP header. You can use this to change the page content type, cache options, or other attributes.

The below code changes the content type (MIME type) to text/plain:

$Document->header("Content-type: text/plain");

There is an option hash that can be sent, with the only valid value being "replace". The below code scrubs all previous header lines:

$Document->header("Content-type: text/plain", { replace => 1 } );

Once you have sent output with $Document->send(), this can no longer be done.

$Document->hot($foo)

If the value of $foo is true (in a Perl sense), then all $Document->write() operations will be immediately sent until a $Document->hot(0) is executed.

$Document->send()

Causes the document write buffer to be sent to the browser and empties the buffer. Any further $Document->header() calls will be ignored.

Can be used to implement non-parsed-header operation.

$Document->review()

Returns the value of the write buffer.

@ary = $Document->review();

$Document->replace(@new)

Completely replaces the write buffer with the arguments.

$Document->ref()

Returns a reference to the write buffer.

# Remove the first item in the write buffer
my $ary_ref = $Document->ref();
shift @$ary_ref;

HTML

Writes a string (or list of strings) to the write buffer array. The call

HTML $foo, $bar;

is exactly equivalent to

$Document->write($foo, $bar);

Honors the $Document->hot() setting.

$Items

A reference to the current shopping cart. Unless you have used a MiniVend [cart ...] tag, it is normally the same as $Carts->{main}.

$Scratch

A reference to the scratch values ala [scratch foo].

<% $Scratch->{foo} = 'bar'; %>

is equivalent to:

[set foo]bar[/set]

$Session

A reference to the session values ala [data session username].

<%
    my $out = $Session->{browser};
    $Document->write($out);
%>

is equivalent to:

[data session browser]

You can also set values. If you wanted to change the value of [data session source], for example, you could do:

<%
    $Session->{source} = 'New_partner';
%>

$Tag

Using the $Tag object, you can access any MiniVend tag including user-defined tags.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If the tag will access a database that has not been previously opened, you must pass in the table name in the ASP call, i.e.:

# HTML style
<HTML MV="mvasp" MV.TABLES="products pricing">
 
  or
 
# Named parameters
[mvasp tables="products pricing"] 
 
  or
 
# Positional parameters
[mvasp products pricing]

Any tag can be called.

<%
    my $user = $Session->{username};
    my $name_from_db = $Tag->data('userdb', 'name', $user );
    $Document->write($name_from_db);
%>

is the same as:

[data table=userdb column=name key="[data session username]"]

If the tag has a dash (-) in it, use an underscore instead:

# WRONG!!!
$Tag->shipping-desc('upsg');
# Right
$Tag->shipping_desc('upsg');

There are two ways of specifying parameters. You can either use the positional parameters as documented (for an authoritative look at the parameters, trace the %Routine value in Vend::Parse), or you can specify it all with an option hash parameter names as in any named parameters as you would specify in a MiniVend tag. The calls

$Tag->data('products', 'title', '00-0011');

and

my $opt = {     
                table   => 'products',
                column  => 'title',
                key     => '00-0011',
            };

$Tag->data( $opt );

are equivalent for the data tag.

If you are using the option hash method, and the tag has container text, you can either specify it in the hash parameter body or add it as the next argument. The two calls:

$Tag->item_list( { 
                    'body' => "[item-code] [item-field title]",
                });

and

$Tag->item_list( { }, "[item-code] [item-field title]")

are equivalent.

Parameter names are ALWAYS lower case.

$Values

A reference to the user form values ala [value foo].

<% $Document->write($Values->{foo}); %>

is equivalent to:

[value foo]

&Log

Send a message to the error log (same as ::logError in GlobalSub or global UserTag).

<% 
    Log("error log entry");
%>

It prepends the normal timestamp with user and page information. To supress that information, begin the message with a backslash (\).

<% 
    Log("\\error log entry without timestamp");
    Log('\another error log entry without timestamp');
    Log("error log entry with timestamp");
%>

On-the-fly Catalog Pages

If an item is displayed on the search list (or order list) and there is a link to a special page keyed on the item, MiniVend will attempt to build the page "on the fly". It will look for the special page flypage.html, which is used as a template for building the page. If [item-field fieldname], [item-price], (etc.) elements are used on the page, quite complex and information-packed pages can be built. The [if-item-field fieldname] HTML [/if-item-field] pair can be used to insert HTML only if there is a non-blank value in a particular field.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Because the tags are substituted globally on the page, you cannot use [item-*] tags on the default on-the-fly page. If you want to use a [search-region] or [item-list] tag, change the default with the prefix parameter. Example:

[item-list prefix=cart]
[cart-code] -- title=[cart-data products title]
[/item-list]

If you want to have an on-the-fly page mixed in reliably, use the idiom [fly-list prefix=fly code="[data session arg]"] [/flylist] pair.

[fly-list code="product_code" base="table"] ... [/fly-list]

Other parameters:

prefix=label     Allows [label-code], [label-description]

Defines an area in a random page which performs the flypage lookup function, implementing the tags below.

[fly-list code="[data session arg]"]
 (contents of flypage.html)
[/fly-list]

If you place the above around the contents of the demo flypage, in a file named flypage2.html, it will make these two calls display identical pages:

[page 00-0011] One way to display the Mona Lisa [/page]
[page flypage2 00-0011] Another way to display the Mona Lisa [/page]

If the directive PageSelectField is set to a valid product database field which contains a valid MiniVend page name (relative to the catalog pages directory, without the .html suffix) it will be used to build the on-the-fly page.

Active tags in their order of interpolation:

[if-item-field field]    Tests for a non-empty, non-zero value in B<field>
[if-item-data db field]  Tests for a non-empty, non-zero B<field> in B<db>
[item-code]              Product code of the displayed item
[item-accessories args]  Accessory information (see I<accessories>)
[item-description]       Description field information
[item-price quantity*]   Product price (at B<quantity>)
[item-field field]       Product database B<field>
[item-data db field]     Database B<db> entry for B<field>

Special Pages

A number of HTML pages are special for MiniVend operation. Typically they are used to transmit error messages, status of search or order operations, and other out of boundary conditions.

NOTE: The distributed demo does not use all of the default values.

The names of these pages can be set with the SpecialPage directive. The standard pages and their default locations:

canceled (special_pages/canceled.html)

The page displayed by MiniVend when an order has been canceled by the user.

catalog (special_pages/catalog.html)

The main catalog page presented by MiniVend when another page is not specified.

failed (special_pages/failed.html)

If the sendmail program could not be invoked to email the completed order, the failed.html page is displayed. (Sadly we don't know if the email was successfully delivered).

flypage (special_pages/flypage.html)

If the catalog page for an item was not found when its [item-link] is clicked, this page is used as a template to build an on-the-fly page. See On-the-fly Catalog Pages.

interact (special_pages/interact.html)

Displayed if an unexpected response was received from the browser, such as not getting expected fields from submitting a form. This would probably happen from typos in the html pages, but could be a browser bug.

missing (special_pages/missing.html)

This page is displayed if the URL from the browser specifies a page that does not have a matching .html file in the pages directory. This can happen if the customer saved a bookmark to a page that was later removed from the database, for example, or if there is a defect in the code.

Essentially this is the same as a 404 error in HTTP. If you want to actually display a 404 error, just put this in special_pages/missing.html:

[tag op=header]Status: 404 missing[/tag]

nomatch (special_pages/nomatch.html)

This page is displayed if the search engine is used, but there is no match for the search specification and no [no-match] region found on the search page.

noproduct (special_pages/noproduct.html)

This page is displayed if the URL from the browser specifies the ordering of a product code which is not in the products file.

order (special_pages/order.html)

This page is displayed when the customer orders an item. It can contain any or all of the customer-entered values, but is commonly used as a status display (or "shopping basket").

It is normal to set this page to something in your user page space:

SpecialPage   order   ord/basket

search (special_pages/search.html)

Contains the default output page for the search engine results. Also required is an input page, which can be the same as search.html or an additional page.

By convention MiniVend defines this as the page results.

SpecialPage   search   results

violation (pages/violation.html)

Displayed if a security violation is noted, such as an attempt to access a page denied by an access_gate. See UserDB.

Checking Page HTML

MiniVend allows you to debug your page HTML with an external page checking program. Because leaving this enabled on a production system is potentially a very bad performance degradation, the program is set in a the global configuration file with the CheckHTML directive.

To check a page for validity, set the global directive CheckHTML to the name of the program (don't do any output redirection). A good choice is the freely available program weblint -- it would be set in minivend.cfg with:

CheckHTML  /usr/local/bin/weblint -s -

Of course you must restart the server for it to be recognized. The full path to the program should be used -- if you have trouble, check it from the command line (as you should with all external programs called by MiniVend).

Insert [tag flag checkhtml][/tag] at the top or bottom of pages you want to check, and the output of your checker should be appended to the browser output as a comment, visible if you view the page or frame source.

To do this only at times, use a Variable setting:

Variable  CHECK_HTML    [tag flag checkhtml][/tag]

and place __CHECK_HTML__ in your pages. You can then set the Variable to the empty string if you wish to disable it.

FORMS AND MINIVEND

MiniVend uses HTML forms for many of its functions, including ordering, searching, updating account information, and maintaining databases. Order operations possibly include ordering an item, selecting item size or other attributes, and reading user information for payment and shipment. Search operations may also be triggered by a form.

MiniVend supports file upload with the multipart/form-data type. The file is placed in memory and discarded if not accessed with the [value-extended name=filevar file_contents=1] tag or written with [value-extended name=filevar outfile=your_file_name]. See Extended Value Access and File Upload.

Special Form Fields

MiniVend treats some form fields specially, to link to the search engine and provide more control over user presentation. It has a number of predefined variables, most of whose names are prefixed with mv_ to prevent name clashes with your variables. It also uses a few variables which are postfixed with integer digits -- those are used to provide control in its iterating lists.

Most of these special fields begin with mv_, and include:

(O = order, S = search, C = control, A = all, X in scratch space)

Name               scan Type  Description

mv_all_chars         ac  S   Turns on punctuation matching
mv_arg[0-9]+             A   Parameters for mv_subroutine (mv_arg0,mv_arg1,...)
mv_base_directory    bd  S   Sets base directory for search file names
mv_begin_string      bs  S   Pattern must match beginning of field
mv_case              cs  S   Turns on case sensitivity
mv_cartname              O   Sets the shopping cart name
mv_cache_params          S   Determines caching of searches
mv_change_frame          A   Any form, changes frame target of form output
mv_check                 A   Any form, sets multiple user variables after update
mv_checkout              O   Sets the checkout page
mv_click                 A   Any form, sets multiple form variables before update
mv_click                 XA  Default mv_click routine, click is mv_click_arg
mv_click <name>          XA  Routine for a click <name>, sends click as arg
mv_click_arg             XA  Argument name in scratch space
mv_coordinate        co  S   Enables field/spec matching coordination
mv_column_op         op  S   Operation for coordinated search
mv_credit_card*          O   Discussed in order security (some are read-only)
mv_delay_page        dp  S   Delay search until after inital page display
mv_dict_end          de  S   Upper bound for binary search
mv_dict_fold         df  S   Non-case sensitive binary search
mv_dict_limit        di  S   Sets upper bound based on character position
mv_dict_look         dl  S   Search specification for binary search
mv_dict_order        do  S   Sets dictionary order mode
mv_doit                  A   Sets default action
mv_email                 O   Reply-to address for orders
mv_exact_match       em  S   Sets word-matching mode
mv_failpage          fp  O,S Sets page to display on failed order check/search
mv_field_file        ff  S   Sets file to find field names for Glimpse
mv_field_names       fn  S   Sets field names for search, starting at 1
mv_first_match       fm  S   Start displaying search at specified match
mv_head_skip         hs  S   Sets skipping of header line(s) in index
mv_index_delim       id  S   Delimter for search fields (TAB default)
mv_matchlimit        ml  S   Sets match page size
mv_max_matches       mm  S   Sets maximum match return (only for Glimpse)
mv_min_string        ms  S   Sets minimum search spec size
mv_negate            ne  S   Records NOT matching will be found
mv_nextpage          np  A   Sets next page user will go to
mv_numeric           nu  S   Comparision numeric in coordinated search
mv_order_group           O   Allows grouping of master item/sub item
mv_order_item            O   Causes the order of an item
mv_order_number          O   Order number of the last order (read-only)
mv_order_quantity        O   Sets the quantity of an ordered item
mv_order_profile         O   Selects the order check profile 
mv_order_receipt         O   Sets the receipt displayed
mv_order_report          O   Sets the order report sent
mv_order_subject         O   Sets the subject line of order email
mv_orsearch          os  S   Selects AND/OR of search words
mv_profile           mp  S   Selects search profile
mv_range_alpha       rg  S   Sets alphanumeric range searching
mv_range_look        rl  S   Sets the field to do a range check on
mv_range_max         rx  S   Upper bound of range check
mv_range_min         rm  S   Lower bound of range check
mv_record_delim      dr  S   Search index record delimiter
mv_return_all        ra  S   Return all lines found (subject to range search)
mv_return_delim      rd  S   Return record delimiter
mv_return_fields     rf  S   Fields to return on a search
mv_return_file_name  rn  S   Set return of file name for searches
mv_return_spec       rs  S   Return the search string as the only result
mv_save_session          C   Set to non-zero to prevent expiration of user session
mv_search_field      sf  S   Sets the fields to be searched
mv_search_file       fi  S   Sets the file(s) to be searched
mv_search_line_return lr S   Each line is a return code (loop search)
mv_search_match_count    S   Returns the number of matches found (read-only)
mv_search_page       sp  S   Sets the page for search display
mv_searchspec        se  S   Search specification
mv_searchtype        st  S   Sets search type (text, glimpse, db or sql)
mv_separate_items        O   Sets separate order lines (one per item ordered)
mv_session_id        id  A   Suggests user session id (overridden by cookie)
mv_shipmode              O   Sets shipping mode for custom shipping
mv_sort_field        tf  S   Field(s) to sort on
mv_sort_option       to  S   Options for sort
mv_spelling_errors   er  S   Number of spelling errors for Glimpse
mv_substring_match   su  S   Turns off word-matching mode
mv_successpage           O   Page to display on successful order check
mv_todo                  A   Common to all forms, sets form action
mv_todo.map              A   Contains form imagemap
mv_todo.checkout.x       O   Causes checkout action on click of image
mv_todo.return.x         O   Causes return action on click of image
mv_todo.submit.x         O   Causes submit action on click of image
mv_todo.x                A   Set by form imagemap
mv_todo.y                A   Set by form imagemap
mv_unique            un  S   Return unique search results only
mv_value             va  S   Sets value on one-click search (va=var=value)

Form Actions

MiniVend form processing is based on an action and a todo. The predefined actions at the first level are:

process       process a todo
search        form-based search
scan          path-based search
order         order an item
minimate      get access to a database via MiniMate

You can define any action you desire with ActionMap.

The process action has a second todo level called with mv_todo or mv_doit. The mv_todo takes preference over mv_doit, which can be used to set a default if no mv_todo is set.

The action can be specified either with:

page name

Calling the page "search" will cause the search action, process will cause a form process action, etc. Examples:

<FORM ACTION="/cgi-bin/simple/search" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT NAME=mv_searchspec>
</FORM>

The above is a complete search in MiniVend -- it causes a simple text search of the default products database(s). Normally you don't use hard-coded paths, but use a minivend tag to specify it for portability:

<FORM ACTION="[area search]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT NAME=mv_searchspec>
</FORM>

You will often see the tag [process] in MiniVend forms. The above can be called equivalently with:

<FORM ACTION="[process]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo VALUE=search>
<INPUT NAME=mv_searchspec>
</FORM>

mv_action

Setting the special variable mv_action causes the page name to be ignored as the action source. The above forms can use this as a synonym:

<FORM ACTION="[area foo]" METHOD=post>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_action VALUE=search>
<INPUT NAME=mv_searchspec>
</FORM>

The page name will be used to set mv_nextpage if it is not otherwise defined; if mv_nextpage is present in the form it will be ignored.

The second level todo for the process action has these defined by default:

search   Trigger a search
submit   submit a form for validation (and possibly a final order)
go       Go to C<mv_nextpage>
return   Go to C<mv_nextpage>
set      Update a database table
refresh  Go to C<mv_orderpage|mv_nextpage> and check for
         ordered items
cancel   Erase the user session

If you define a page name as an action with ActionMap, or use of MiniVend's predefined action process, it will cause form processing. first level is setting the special page name process, or speciis set to do a form process, the for MiniVend form can be used for any number of actions. The actions are mapped by the ActionMap directive in the catalog configuration file, and are selected on the form with either the mv_todo or mv_doit variables.

To set a default action for a process form, set the variable mv_doit as a hidden variable:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_doit VALUE=refresh>

When the mv_todo value is not found, the refresh action defined in mv_doit will be used instead.

One-click Multiple Variables

MiniVend can set multiple variables with a single button or form control. You first define the variable set (or profile, as in search and order profiles) inside a scratch variable:

[set Search by Category]
mv_search_field=category
mv_search_file=categories
mv_todo=search
[/set]

The special variable mv_click sets variables just as if they were put in on the form. It is controlled by a single button, as in:

<INPUT TYPE=submit NAME=mv_click VALUE="Search by Category">

When the user clicks the submit button, all three variables will take on the values defined in the "Search by Category" scratch variable. You can set the scratch variable on the same form as the button is on -- in fact that is recommended for clarity.

The mv_click variable will not be carried from form to form, it must be set on the form being submitted.

The special variable mv_check sets variables for the form actions checkout, control, refresh, return, search, and submit. This function operates after the values are set from the form, including the ones set by mv_click, and can be used to condition input to search routines or orders.

The variable sets can contain and be generated by most MiniVend tags -- the profile is interpolated for MiniVend tags before being used. This may not operate how you would expect -- for instance, if you set:

[set check]
[cgi name=mv_todo set=bar hide=1]
mv_todo=search
[if cgi mv_todo eq 'search']
do something
[/if]
[/set]

The if condition is guaranteed to be false, because the tag interpretation takes place before the evaluation of the variable setting.

Any setting of variables already containing a value will overwrite the variable, so to build sets of fields (as in mv_search_field and mv_return_fields) you must use comma separation if that is supported for the field.

It is very convenient to use mv_click as a trigger for embedded Perl:

<FORM ...
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_check VALUE="Invalid Input">
...
</FORM>

[set Invalid Input]
[perl]
my $type        = $CGI->{mv_searchtype};
my $spell_check = $CGI->{mv_spelling_errors};
my $out = '';
if($spell_check and $type eq 'text') {
    $CGI->{mv_todo}     = 'return';
    $CGI->{mv_nextpage} = 'special/cannot_spell_check';
}
return;
[/perl]
[/set]

Checks and Selections

You can provide a "memory" for drop-down menus, radio buttons, and checkboxes with the [checked] and [selected] tags.

[checked var_name value]

named attributes: [checked name="var_name" value="value" multiple=0|1 default=0|1]

This will output CHECKED if the variable var_name is equal to value. Not case sensitive.

If the multiple attribute is defined and set to a non-zero value (1 is implicit) then if the value matches on a word/non-word boundary it will be CHECKED. If the default attribute is set to a non-zero value, then the box will be checked if the variable var_name is empty or zero.

[selected var_name value MULTIPLE*]

named attributes: [selected name=var_name value="value" multiple=1]

This will output SELECTED if the variable var_name is equal to value. If the optional MULTIPLE argument is present, it will look for any of a variety of values. Not case sensitive.

Here is a drop-down menu that remembers an item-modifier color selection:

<SELECT NAME="color">
<OPTION [selected name=color value=blue]> Blue
<OPTION [selected name=color value=green]> Green
<OPTION [selected name=color value=red]> Red
</SELECT>

For databases or large lists of items, sometimes it is easier to use [loop list="foo bar"] and its option parameter. The above can be achieved with:

<SELECT NAME=color>
[loop list="Blue Green Red" option=color]
<OPTION> [loop-code]
[/loop]
</SELECT>

Integrated Image Maps

Imagemaps can also be defined on forms, with the special form variable mv_todo.map. A series of map actions can be defined -- the action specified in the default entry will be applied if none of the other coordinates match. The image is specified with a standard HTML 2.0 form field of type IMAGE. Here is an example:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_todo.map" VALUE="rect submit 0,0 100,20">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_todo.map" VALUE="rect cancel 290,2 342,18">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_todo.map" VALUE="default refresh">
<INPUT TYPE=image  NAME="mv_todo" SRC="url_of_image">

All of the actions will be combined together into one image map with NCSA-style functionality -- see the NCSA imagemap documentation for details -- except that MiniVend form actions are defined instead of URLs. The standard actions are:

submit   Submit order
refresh  Refresh order page (update quantities, etc.)
cancel   Cancel order and wipe credit card numbers
return   Go to previous page (or page defined in mv_nextpage variable)
control  Control help, colors, etc.
search   Search for an item in the catalog

Setting Form Security

You can cause a form to be submitted securely (to the base URL in the SecureURL directive, that is) by specifying your form input to be ACTION="[process secure=1]".

To submit a form to the regular non-secure server, just omit the secure modifier.

Stacking Variables on the Form

Many MiniVend variables can be "stacked", meaning they can have multiple values for the same variable name. As an example -- to allow the user to order multiple items with one click, you can set up a form like this:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="[process-order]">
<input type=checkbox name="mv_order_item" value="M3243"> Item M3243
<input type=checkbox name="mv_order_item" value="M3244"> Item M3244
<input type=checkbox name="mv_order_item" value="M3245"> Item M3245
<input type=hidden name="mv_doit" value="refresh">
<input type=submit name="mv_junk" value="Order Checked Items">
</FORM>

The stackable mv_order_item variable with be decoded with multiple values, causing the order of any items that are checked.

To place a "delete" checkbox on your shopping basket display:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="[process-order]">
[item-list]
  <input type=checkbox name="[quantity-name]" value="0"> Delete
  Part number: [item-code]
  Quantity: <input type=text name="[quantity-name]" value="[item-quantity]">
  Description: [item-description]
[/item-list]
<input type=hidden name="mv_doit" value="refresh">
<input type=submit name="mv_junk" value="Order Checked Items">
</FORM>

In this case, first instance of the variable name set by [quantity-name] will be used as the order quantity, deleting the item from the form.

Of course, not all variables are stackable. Check the documentation for which ones can be stacked -- or experiment on your own.

Extended Value Access and File Upload

MiniVend has a facility for greater control over the display of form variables; it also can parse multipart/form-data forms for file upload.

File upload is simple. You define a form like:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target] METHOD=POST ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo     VALUE=return>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_nextpage VALUE=test>
<INPUT TYPE=file NAME=newfile>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Go!">
</FORM>

The [value-extended ...] tag performs the fetch and storage of the file. If you put the below on the test.html page (as you specified with mv_nextpage and use with the above form it will write the file you have specified:

   <PRE>
   Uploaded file name: [value-extended name=newfile]
   Is newfile a file? [value-extended name=newfile yes=Yes no=No test=isfile]

   Write the file. [value-extended name=newfile outfile=junk.upload]
   Write again with
    indication: [value-extended name=newfile
                               outfile=junk.upload
                               yes="Written."]
                               no=FAILED]

   And the file contents:
   [value-extended name=newfile file_contents=1]
   </PRE>

The [value-extended] tag also allows access to the array values of stacked variables. Use the following form:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target] METHOD=POST ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=testvar VALUE="value0">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=testvar VALUE="value1">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=testvar VALUE="value2">
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Go!">
</FORM>

and page:

testvar element 0: [value-extended name=testvar index=0]
testvar element 1: [value-extended name=testvar index=1]
testvar elements:
 joined with a space:   |[value-extended name=testvar]|
 joined with a newline: |[value-extended
                            joiner="\n"
                            name=testvar
                            index="*"]|
 first two only:    |[value-extended
                            name=testvar
                            index="0..1"]|
 first and last:    |[value-extended
                            name=testvar
                            index="0,2"]|

to observe this in action.

The syntax for [value-extended ...] is:

named: [value-extended 
           name=formfield
           outfile=filename*
           ascii=1*
           yes="Yes"*
           no="No"*
           joiner="char|string"*
           test="isfile|length|defined"*
           index="N|N..N|*"
           file_contents=1*
           elements=1*]

positional: [value-extended name]

Expands into the current value of the customer/form input field named by field. If there are multiple elements of that variable, it will return the value at index; by default all joined together with a space.

If the variable is a file variable coming from a multipart/form-data file upload, then the contents of that upload can be returned to the page or optionally written to the outfile.

name

The form variable NAME. If no other parameters are present, then the value of the variable will be returned. If there are multiple elements, then by default they will all be returned joined by a space. If joiner is present, then they will be joined by its value.

In the special case of a file upload, the value returned is the name of the file as passed for upload.

joiner

The character or string that will join the elements of the array. Will accept string literals such as "\n" or "\r".

test

Three tests -- isfile returns true if the variable is a file upload. length returns the length. defined returns whether the value has ever been set at all on a form.

index

The index of the element to return if not all are wanted. This is useful especially for pre-setting multiple search variables. If set to *, will return all (joined by joiner). If a range, such as 0 .. 2, will return multiple elements.

file_contents

Returns the contents of a file upload if set to a non-blank, non-zero value. If the variable is not a file, returns nothing.

outfile

Names a file to write the contents of a file upload to. It will not accept an absolute file name; the name must be relative to the catalog directory. If you wish to write images or other files that would go to HTML space, you must use the HTTP server's Alias facilities or make a symbolic link.

ascii

To do an auto-ASCII translation before writing the outfile, set the ascii parameter to a non-blank, non-zero value. Default is no translation.

yes

The value that will be returned if a test is true or a file is written successfully. Defaults to 1 for tests and the empty string for uploads.

no

The value that will be returned if a test is false or a file write fails. Defaults to the empty string.

Updating MiniVend database tables with a form

Any MiniVend database can be updated with a form using the following method. The MiniVend companion application MiniMate uses this facility extensively.

NOTE: All operations are performed on the database, not the ASCII source file. You will have to perform a [tag export table_name][/tag] operation if you want the ASCII source file to reflect the results of the update.

You of course may insert or update records in any SQL database with the [sql set] tag, but you may also do form-based updates or inserts.

In an update form, special MiniVend variables are used to select the database parameters:

mv_data_enable (scratch)

IMPORTANT: This must be set to a non-zero, non-blank value in the scratch space to allow data set functions. Usually it is put in an mv_click that precedes the data set function, i.e.:

[set update_database]
[if type=data term="userdb::trusted::[data session username]"]
    [set mv_data_enable]1[/set]
[else]
    [set mv_data_enable]0[/set]
[/else]
[/if]
[/set]
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_click VALUE=update_database>

mv_data_table

The table to update.

mv_data_key

The field that is the primary key in the table. Must match the existing database definition.

mv_data_function

UPDATE, INSERT or DELETE. The variable mv_data_verify must be set true on the form for a DELETE to occur.

mv_data_verify

Confirms a DELETE.

mv_data_fields

Fields from the form which should be inserted or updated. Must be existing columns in the table in question.

mv_update_empty

Normally an variable that is blank will not replace the field. If you set mv_update_empty to true, a blank value will erase the field in the database.

mv_data_filter_(field)

Instantiates a filter for (field), using any of the defined MiniVend filters. For example, if mv_data_filter_foo is set to digits, only digits will be passed into the database field during the set operation. A common value might be "entities", which protects your HTML by translating < into <, " into ", etc.

The MiniVend action set causes the update. Here is an pair of example forms. One is used to set the key to access the record (careful with the name, this one goes into the user session values). The second actually performs the update. It uses the [loop] tag with only one value to place default/existing values in the form based on the input from the first form:

 <FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="[process-target]">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN name="mv_doit" value="return">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN name="mv_nextpage" value="update_proj">
 Sales Order Number <INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=8
                         NAME="update_code"
                         VALUE="[value update_code]">
 <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT name="mv_submit"  Value="Select">
 </FORM>



 [new]
 <FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="[process-target]">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="mv_data_table"    VALUE="ship_status">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="mv_data_key"      VALUE="code">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="mv_data_function" VALUE="update">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="mv_nextpage"      VALUE="updated">
 <INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="mv_data_fields"
             VALUE="code,custid,comments,status">
 <PRE>

 [loop arg="[value update_code]"]
 Sales Order <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="code    SIZE=10 VALUE="[loop-code]">
Customer No. <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="custid" SIZE=30
                 VALUE="[loop-field custid]">
    Comments <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="comments" 
                 SIZE=30 VALUE="[loop-field comments]">
      Status <INPUT TYPE=TEXT NAME="status"
                 SIZE=10 VALUE="[loop-field status]">
 [/loop]
 </PRE>

     <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_todo" VALUE="set">
     <INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Update table">
 </FORM>

The variables in the form do not update the user's session values, so they can correspond to database field names without fear of corrupting the user session.

THE SEARCH ENGINE

MiniVend implements a search engine which will search the product database (or any other file) for items based on customer input. It uses either forms or link-based searches that are called with the special page name scan. The search engine uses many special MiniVend tags and variables.

If the search is implemented in a link or a form, it will always display formatted results on the results page, a MiniVend page that uses some combination of the [search-region], [search-list], [more-list], [more], and other MiniVend tags to format and display the results. The search results are usually a series of product codes/SKUs or other database keys, which are then iterated over similar to the [item-list].

Examples of search forms and result pages are included in the supplied demos.

Two search engine interfaces are provided, and five types of searching are available. The default is a text-based search of the first products database source file (i.e. products.txt). A binary search of a dictionary-ordered file can be specified. An optional Glimpse search is enabled by placing the command specification for Glimpse in the catalog.cfg directive Glimpse. There is a range-based search, used in combination with one of the above. And finally, there is a fully-coordinated search with grouping.

The default, a text based search, sequentially scans the lines in the target file. By default it returns the first field (delineated by the delimiter for that database, for every line matching the search specification. This corresponds to the product code, which is then used to key specific accesses to the database.

The text-based search is capable of sophisticated field-specific searches with fully-independent case-sensitivity, substring, and negated matching.

A number of variables can be set on search forms to determine which search will be used, what fields in the database it will search, and what search behavior will be.

Here is a simple search form:

<FORM ACTION="[area search]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE="text" SIZE="30" NAME="mv_searchspec">
<INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Search">
</FORM>

When the "Search" submit button is pressed (or <ENTER> is pressed) MiniVend will search the products.txt file for the string entered into the text field mv_searchspec, and return the product code pertaining to that line.

The same search for a fixed string, say "shirt", could be performed with the use of a hot link, using the special scan URL:

[page search="se=shirt"]See our shirt collection![/page]

The default is to search every field on the line. If you only wished to match on the string shirt in the product database field "description", you could modify the search:

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_search_field" VALUE="description">

In the hot-linked URL search:

[page search="
              se=shirt
              sf=category
          "]See our shirt collection![/page]

If you want to let the user decide on the search parameters, you can use checkboxes or radiobox fields to set the fields:

Search by author
   <INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="mv_search_field" VALUE="author">
Search by title
    <INPUT TYPE="checkbox" NAME="mv_search_field" VALUE="title">

Fields can be stacked -- if more than one is checked, all checked fields will be searched.

Glimpse

To use the Glimpse search, you must build the Glimpse index based on files in your ProductDir, or wherever the files to be searched will be located. If you installed MiniVend in the default /usr/local/lib/minivend, the command line to build the index for the products file would be:

chdir products
glimpseindex -b -H . products.txt

There are several ways to improve search speed for large catalogs.

One method that works well for large products.txt files is to split the products.txt file into small index files (in the example, 100 lines) with the split(1) UNIX/POSIX command, then index it with glimpse:

split -100 products.txt index.txt.
glimpseindex -H /usr/local/lib/minivend/products index.txt.*

This will dramatically increase search speeds for large catalogs, at least if the search term is relatively unique. If it is a common string, as you might have in a category search, you will be better off to use the text-based search.

If you are intending to search for numbers, add the -n option to the Glimpse command line.

(A large catalog is one of more than several thousand items -- smaller ones have acceptable speed in any of the search modes.)

If the Glimpse executable is not found at MiniVend startup, the Glimpse search will be disabled and the regular text-based search used instead.

There are several things you have to watch for while using glimpse, and a liberal dose of the Glimpse documentation is suggested. In particular, the spelling error capability will not work in combination with the field-specific search -- Glimpse selects the line, but MiniVend's text-based search routines disqualify it when checking to see if the search string is within one of the specified fields.

To use field-specific searching on Glimpse, you need to tell it what the field names are. If your search is on your products database (file), nothing is needed, for the default is to use the field names from the products database. If it is some other field layout, specify the file to get the field names from with mv_field_file (ff).

Fast Binary Search

Fast binary searching is useful for scanning large databases for strings that match the beginning of a line. They use the standard Perl module Search::Dict, and are enabled through use of the mv_dict_look, mv_dict_end, mv_dict_limit, mv_dict_fold, and mv_dict_order variables.

The field to search is the first field in the file, then the product code should be in the second field, delimited by TAB. You will also have to set mv_return_fields=1 to return the product code in the search.

The search must be done on a dictionary-ordered pre-built index, which can be produced with the database INDEX modifier. See Dictionary indexing with INDEX.

If you use the mv_dict_look parameter by itself, and the proper index file is present, MiniVend will set the options:

mv_return_fields=1
mv_dict_limit=-1

This will make the search behave much like the simple search described above, except it will be much faster on large files and will match only from the beginning of the field.

Here is an example. You have built a title index by including in catalog.cfg:

Database   products   INDEX    title

NOTE: The ASCII source file must be "touched" to rebuild the index and the databse.

Now you can specify in a form:

<FORM ACTION="[process href=search]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_dict_limit VALUE=title>
<INPUT NAME=mv_dict_look>
</FORM>

or in a URL:

[page search="dl=Van Gogh/di=title"]

This search is case-sensitive. To do the same thing case-insensitively:

  Database   products   INDEX    title:f
  
  <FORM ACTION="[process href=search]" METHOD=POST>
  <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_dict_limit VALUE=title>
  <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_dict_fold  VALUE=1>
  <INPUT NAME=mv_dict_look>
  </FORM>

  [page search="dl=Van Gogh/di=title/df=1"]

Coordinated and joined searching

MiniVend will do a complete range of tests on individual columns in the database. To use this function, set mv_coordinate to yes (co=yes in the one-click syntax).

In order to use coordinated searching, the number of search fields must equal the number of search strings. This makes sense if you think about it a bit.

If you want to make sure that is the case, use the mv_search_map variable. It allows you to map variables to others in the search specification. For example:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_map VALUE="
    mv_searchspec=search1
    mv_searchspec=search2
    mv_searchspec=search3
    ">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_field VALUE=title>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_field VALUE=artist>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_field VALUE=category>
Artist: <INPUT NAME=search1 VALUE="">
Title:  <INPUT NAME=search2 VALUE="">
Genre:  <INPUT NAME=search3 VALUE="">

Even if the user leaves one blank, the search will work.

Leading/trailing whitespace is stripped from all lines in the mv_search_map variable, so you can position it as shown for convenience.

Coordinated searches may be joined with the output of another table if you set one of the mv_search_field values to a table:column pair. Note that this will slow down large searches considerably unless you have another search specification, as the database must be accessed for every search line! If you have a search field that qualifies for a regular expression search function, or are doing a binary search with mv_dict_look, or are not doing an OR search, the penalty should not be too great as only matching lines will cause an access to the database.

Individual field operations can then be specified with the mv_column_op (or op) parameter. The operations include:

operation            string     numeric   equivalent
---------           
equal to               eq         ==           =
not equal              ne         !=           <>
greater than           gt         > 
less than              lt         < 
less than/equal to     le         <= 
greater than/equal to  ge         >= 
regular expression     rm                       =~ , LIKE
regular expression NOT rn                       !~
exact match            em

An example:

  [page scan
          co=yes
          sf=title
          se=Sunflowers
          op=em
          sf=artist
          se=Van Gogh
          op=rm          ] Sunflowers, Van Gogh [/page]

  [page search="
          co=yes

          sf=title
          se=Sunflowers
          nu=0
          op=!~

          sf=artist
          se=Van Gogh
          op=rm    
          nu=0

          sf=inventory:qty
          se=1
          op=>=
          nu=1 
      "] Any in stock except Sunflowers, Van Gogh [/page]

Note that in the second example you need to specify nu=0 even though that is the default. This is to set the proper correspondence. To avoid having to do this, use MiniVend's option array feature:

[page search.0="
                sf=title
                se=Sunflowers
                op=!~
            "
      search.1="
                sf=artist
                se=Van Gogh
            "
      search.2="
                sf=inventory:qty
                se=1
                op=>=
                nu=1 
            "
    ] Any in stock except Sunflowers, Van Gogh [/page]

The co=yes is assumed when specifying a multiple search.

The second search will check the stock status of the painting provided there is an inventory table as in some of the MiniVend demo catalogs. If the qty field is greater than or equal to 1, then the product will be picked. If out of stock, it will not be found.

It always helps to have an rm type included in the search. This is used to pre-screen records so that database accesses only need be made for already-matching entries. If accesses must be made for every record large searches can get quite slow.

Specifying a text-based search with SQL-like syntax

If you have installed Jochen Wiedmann's SQL::Statement module, you can specify an SQL syntax for the text-based search. (This is not the same as the the SQL search, treated below separately. It would work on an SQL table but only on the ASCII text source file, not on the actual database.)

This syntax allows this rather nice form setup:

Artist: <INPUT NAME="artist">
Title:  <INPUT NAME="title">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_sql_query"
        VALUE="
            SELECT code FROM products
            WHERE artist LIKE artist
            AND    title LIKE title">

If the right hand side of an expression looks like a column, i.e. is not quoted, then the appropriate form variable is substituted. (If used in a one-click, the corresponding scratch variable is used instead.) The assumption is reversed for the left-hand side -- if it is a quoted string then the column name is read from the passed values -- otherwise the column name is literal.

Search for: <INPUT NAME="searchstring"><BR>                
Search in   <INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="column" VALUE="title"> title
    <INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="column" VALUE="artist"> artist
    <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="mv_sql_query"                            
      VALUE="SELECT code FROM products WHERE 'column' LIKE searchstring">

Once again, this does not do a search on an SQL database, but formats a corresponding text-based search. Parentheses will have no effect, and an OR condition will cause all conditions to be OR. The searches above would be similar to:

 [page search="
             co=yes
             sf=artist
             op=rm
             se=[value artist]
             sf=title
             op=rm
             se=[value title]
         "  ]
     Search for [value artist], [value title]
 [/page]

 [page search="
             co=yes
             sf=[value column]
             op=rm
             se=[value searchstring]
         "  ] 
 Search for [value searchstring]
        in  [value column]
 [/page]

Range Searching

Range searching allows you to qualify your search returns with a field that must be within a certain numeric or alphanumeric range. To use it, set the mv_range_look variable to the products database field, or a column/field number for another file. Then set the corresponding mv_range_min and mv_range_max variables with a selectable field.

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_range_look" VALUE="price">
    Search on Price
Min <SELECT NAME="mv_range_min">
         <OPTION value=0 SELECTED> Free
         <OPTION value=1000000> $1,000,000
         <OPTION value=10000000> $10,000,000
         <OPTION value=20000000> $20,000,000
         <OPTION value=40000000> $40,000,000
    </SELECT><BR>
Max <SELECT NAME="mv_range_max">
        <OPTION value=0 SELECTED> no object
        <OPTION value=1000000> $1,000,000
        <OPTION value=10000000> $10,000,000
        <OPTION value=20000000> $20,000,000
        <OPTION value=40000000> $40,000,000
    </SELECT>

The value of 0 for mv_range_max is equivalent to infinity if doing a numeric search. (This makes it impossible to search for a ceiling of 0 with a negative mv_range_min, just in case you were planning on trying that.)

The fields are stackable, so you can set more than one range to check. The order is significant, in the sense that the array of field names and minimum/maximum values must be kept in order to achieve correspondence.

The optional mv_range_alpha specification allows alphanumeric range matching for the corresponding field -- if it is set, and you have stacked the fields, they must all be set. The mv_case field does apply if it is set -- otherwise the comparison is without regard to case.

If you wish to do ONLY a range search, you must select all lines with mv_return_all=yes in order to make the search operate. Range-only searches will be quite slow for large databases, since every line must be scanned. It should be quite usable for catalogs of less than 10,000 items in size, given a fast machine. Using it in combination with another search technique (in the same query) will yield faster search returns.

One-click searches

MiniVend allows you to pass a search in a URL, as shown before. Just specify the search with the special page parameter search or special page scan. Here is an example:

[page search="
           se=Impressionists
           sf=category
       "]
   Impressionist Paintings
[/page]

This is the same:

[page scan se=Impressionists/sf=category]
   Impressionist Paintings
[/page]

Here is the same thing from a home page (assuming /cgi-bin/vlink is the CGI path for MiniVend's vlink):

<A HREF="/cgi-bin/vlink/scan/se=Impressionists/sf=category">
   Impressionist Paintings
</A>

The two-letter abbreviations are mapped with these letters:

ac  mv_all_chars
bd  mv_base_directory
bs  mv_begin_string
co  mv_coordinate
cs  mv_case
cv  mv_verbatim_columns
de  mv_dict_end
df  mv_dict_fold
di  mv_dict_limit
dl  mv_dict_look
DL  mv_raw_dict_look
do  mv_dict_order
dr  mv_record_delim
em  mv_exact_match
er  mv_spelling_errors
ff  mv_field_file
fi  mv_search_file
fm  mv_first_match
fn  mv_field_names
hs  mv_head_skip
ix  mv_index_delim
lb  mv_search_label
lo  mv_list_only
lr  mv_search_line_return
md  mv_more_decade
ml  mv_matchlimit
mm  mv_max_matches
MM  mv_more_matches
mp  mv_profile
ms  mv_min_string
ne  mv_negate
ng  mv_negate
np  mv_nextpage
nu  mv_numeric
op  mv_column_op
os  mv_orsearch
ra  mv_return_all
rd  mv_return_delim
rf  mv_return_fields
rg  mv_range_alpha
rl  mv_range_look
rm  mv_range_min
rn  mv_return_file_name
rr  mv_return_reference
rs  mv_return_spec
rx  mv_range_max
SE  mv_raw_searchspec
se  mv_searchspec
sf  mv_search_field
sg  mv_search_group
si  mv_search_immediate
sp  mv_search_page
sq  mv_sql_query
sr  mv_search_relate
st  mv_searchtype
su  mv_substring_match
tc  mv_sort_command
td  mv_table_cell
tf  mv_sort_field
th  mv_table_header
to  mv_sort_option
tr  mv_table_row
un  mv_unique
va  mv_value

They can be treated just the same as form variables on the page, except that they can't contain a newline. If you use the multi-line method of specification, the characters will automatically be escaped for a URL.

IMPORTANT NOTE: An incompatibility in earlier MiniVend catalogs is specifying [page scan/se=searchstring]. This is interpreted by the parser as [page scan/se="searchstring"] and will cause a bad URL. Change this to [page scan se=searchstring], or perhaps better yet:

[page search="
                se=searchstring
        "]

cause a bad URL. Change this to [page scan se=searchstring].

You may specify a one-click search in three different ways.

Original

If you wish to do an OR search on the fields category and artist for the strings "Surreal" and "Gogh", while matching substrings, you would do:

[page scan se=Surreal/se=Gogh/os=yes/su=yes/sf=artist/sf=category]
   Van Gogh -- compare to surrealists
[/page]

In this method of specification, to replace a / (slash) in a file name (for the sp, bd, or fi parameter) you must use the shorthand of ::, i.e. sp=results::standard. (This may not work for some browsers, so you should probably either put the page in the main pages directory or define the page in a search profile.)

Multi-line

You can specify parameters one to a line, as well.

[page scan
    se="Van Gogh"
    sp=lists/surreal
    os=yes
    su=yes
    sf=artist
    sf=category
] Van Gogh -- compare to surrealists [/page]

Any "unsafe" characters will be escaped. If you need to search for trailing spaces (unlikely) you must quote.

Ampersand

You can substitute & for / in the specification and be able to use / and quotes and spaces in the specification.

[page href=scan se="Van Gogh"&sp=lists/surreal&os=yes&su=yes&sf=artist&sf=category]
   Van Gogh -- compare to surrealists
[/page]

Any "unsafe" characters will be escaped.

Setting display options with mv_value

You can specify a value that will be set in the link with the mv_value parameter. It takes an argument of var=value, just as you would set a normal variable in a MiniVend profile. Actually mv_value is a misnomer, for you would almost never use it in a form, where you can easily set variable values. You will always specify it in a one-click search with va=var=value. Example:

[page href=scan
      arg="se=Renaissance
           se=Impressionists
           va=category_name=Renaissance and Impressionist Paintings
           os=yes"]Renaissance and Impressionist Paintings[/page]

Now you can display the appropriate category on the search results page with [value category_name].

In-page searches

You may specify a search inside a page with the [search-region parameters*] tag. The parameters are the same as the the one-click search, and the output is always a newline-separated list of the return objects -- by default a series of item codes.

The [loop ...] tag directly accepts a search parameter. To search for all products in the categories "Americana" and "Contemporary" you can do:

[loop search="
    se=Americana
    se=Contemporary
    os=yes
    sf=category9
    "]
Artist: [loop-field artist]<BR>
Title: [loop-field title]<P>
[/loop]

The advantage of the in-page search is that you can embed searches within searches, and you can have straight unchanging links from static HTML pages.

To place an in page search with the full range of display in a normal results page, use the [search-region] tag the same as above, except that you can place [search-list], [more-list], and [more] tags within it and use them to display and format the results -- including paging.

For example:

[search-region  more=1
                search="
                     se=Americana
                     sf=category
                     ml=2
                "]
[more-list][more][/more-list]
[search-list]
<A MV="page [item-code]" HREF="flypage.html">
    [item-field title]<A>, by [item-field artist]
[/search-list]
[no-match]
    Sorry, no matches for [value mv_searchspec].
[/no-match]
[/search-region]

If you want to use the same page for search paging, make sure you set the sp=page parameter.

Search Profiles

You can predefine an unlimited number of search profiles that reside in a file or files. To use this, make up a series of lines like:

mv_search_field=artist
mv_search_field=category
mv_orsearch=yes

These correspond to the MiniVend search variables that can be set on a form. You can set it right on the page that contains the search.

[set artist_profile]
mv_search_field=artist
mv_search_field=category
mv_orsearch=yes
[/set]

This is the same:

[set artist_profile]
sf=artist
sf=category
os=yes
[/set]

Then in the search form, set a variable with the name of the profile:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_profile VALUE=artist_profile>

In a one-click search, you use the mp modifier:

[page scan se=Leonardo/mp=artist_profile]A left-handed artist[/page]

You can also place them in a file. Define the file name in the SearchProfile directive. (You must reconfig the catalog for MiniVend to read it.) The profile is named by placing a name following a __NAME__ pragma:

__NAME__ title_search

The __NAME__ must begin the line, and be followed by whitespace and then the name.

The special variable mv_last stops interpretation of search variables. The following variables are always interpreted:

mv_dict_look
mv_searchspec
mv_range_look
mv_range_min
mv_range_max

Other than that, if you set mv_last in a search profile, and there are other variables on the search form, they will not be interpreted.

If you want to place multiple search profiles in the same file, separate them with __END__, which must be on a line by itself.

Search Reference

The supplied simple/srchform.html and simple/results.html pages show example search forms. You can modify them to present the search in any way you like -- just be careful to use the proper variable names for passing to MiniVend. It is also necessary that you copy the hidden variables as-is -- they are required to interpret the request as a search.

NOTE: The following definitions frequently refer to field name and column and column number -- all are the references to the columns of a searched text file as separated by delimiter characters.

The field names can be specified in several ways.

ProductFiles

If the file to be searched is left empty in the search form or definition (it is set with mv_search_file (fi)), then the text files associated with the products databases will be searched, and field names are already available as named in the first line of the file(s). (This is defined to be products.txt in the MiniVend demonstrations.)

Careful if you are using SQL! If you change your database and don't export it with [tag export products][/tag], you will not find what you want.

other database files

If the file or files to be searched are ASCII delimited files, and have field names specified on the first line of the file, MiniVend will read the first line (of the first file) and determine the field names.

other files

If the file or files to be searched are ASCII delimited files, but don't have field names specified on the first line of the file, you can set the variable mv_field_names to a comma-separated list of field names as they will be referenced.

Fields can also always be specified by an integer column number, with 0 as the first column.

mv_all_chars

Scan abbreviation: ac=[1|0]

Set this if you anticipate searching for lots of punctuation characters that might be special characters for Perl -- the characters ()[]\$^ are included.

mv_base_directory

Scan abbreviation: bd=/directory/name

In the text search, set to the directory from which to base file searches. File names without leading / characters will be based from there. In the Glimpse search, passed to Glimpse with the -H option, and Glimpse will look for its indices there. Default is ProductDir.

If you use an absolute path directory, for security you must enable it in the users session with:

[set /directory/name]1[/set]

This prevents users from setting an arbitrary value and viewing arbitrary files.

mv_begin_string

If this is set, the string will only match if it is at the beginning of a field. The handling is a bit different for the default AND search compared to the OR search. With OR searches all words are searched for from the beginning of the field, with AND searches all are.

This is a multiple parameter. If mv_coordinate is in force, then it should be set as many times as necessary to match the field/searchstring combination. If set only once, it applies to all fields. If set more than once but not as many times as the fields, it will default to off.

mv_case

If this item is set to no, the search will return items without regard to upper or lower case. This is the default -- set to yes if case should be matched. Implement with a checkbox <INPUT TYPE=CHECKBOX> field.

If stacked to match the mv_search_field and mv_searchspec variables, and mv_coordinate is set, it will operate only for the corresponding field.

mv_coordinate

If this item is set to yes, and the number of search fields equals the number of search specs, the search will return only items that match field to spec. (The search specifications are set by stacked mv_searchspec and mv_search_field variables.)

Case sensitivity, substring matching, and negation all work on a field-by field basis according to the following:

If only one instance of the option is set, then it will affect all fields.
If the number of instances of the option is greater than or equal to the number of search specs, all will be used independently. Trailing instances will be ignored.
If more than one instance of the options are set, but fewer than the number of search specifications, the default setting will be used for the trailing unset options.

If a search specification is blank, it will be removed and all case-sensitivity/negation/substring options will be adjusted accordingly.

mv_dict_end

If the string at the beginning of a line lexically exceeds this value, matching will stop. Ignored without mv_dict_look.

mv_dict_fold

Make dictionary matching case-insensitive. Ignored without mv_dict_look. NOTE: This is the reverse sense from mv_case.

mv_dict_limit

Automatically set the limiting string (mv_dict_end) to be one character greater than the mv_dict_look variable, at the character position specified. A value of 1, for instance, will set the limiting string to "fprsythe" if the value of mv_dict_look is "forsythe". A useful value is -1, which will increment the last character (setting the mv_dict_end to "forsythf" in our example). This prevents having to scan the whole file once a unique match is found.

The order of this and the mv_dict_end variable is significant -- each will overwrite the other.

If this is set to a non-numeric value, an automatic mode is entered which looks for a dictionary-indexed file that corresponds to the file name plus .field, where field is what you have set mv_dict_limit to. The actual value of mv_dict_limit is set to -1. If the file does not exist, then the original file is silently used (this might not be what you want!). Also, the value of mv_return_fields is set to 1 to correspond to the location of the key in the auto-indexed file.

To illustrate:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_dict_limit  VALUE=category>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_file VALUE="products.txt">

is equal to:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_dict_limit    VALUE="-1">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_search_file   VALUE="products.txt.category">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_return_fields VALUE="1">

The real utility would be in a form construct like

Search for
<SELECT NAME=mv_dict_limit>
<OPTION> author
<OPTION> title
</SELECT> beginning with <INPUT NAME=mv_dictlook>

which would allow automatic binary search file selection.

Combined with the INDEX attribute to the Database directive, this allows fast binary search qualification combined with regular mv_searchspec text searches.

mv_dict_look

The string at which to begin matching at in a dictionary-based search. If not set, the mv_dict_end, mv_dict_fold, and mv_dict_case variables will be ignored. May be set in a search profile based on other form variables.

mv_dict_order

Make dictionary matching follow dictionary order, where only word characters and whitespace matter. Ignored without mv_dict_look.

mv_doit

This must be set to search to make this a search page.

mv_exact_match

Normally MiniVend searches match words, as opposed to sentences. This behavior can be overridden with mv_exact_match, which when set will place quotes around any value in mv_searchspec or mv_dict_look.

mv_field_names

Deprecated in favor of in-list sorting.

Defines the field names for the file being searched. This guarantees that they will be available, and prevents a disk access if using named fields on a search file (that is not the product database ASCII source, where field names are already known). This must be exactly correct, or it will result in anomalous search operation. Usually passed in a hidden field or search profile as a comma-separated list.

NOTE: You should use this on the product database only if you plan on both pre-sorting with mv_sort_field and then post-sorting with [sort]field:opt[/sort].

mv_first_match

Normally MiniVend will return the first page of a search. If you set this variable it will start the search return at the match specified, even if there is only one page. If set to a value greater than the number of matches, it will act as if no matches were found.

mv_head_skip

Normally MiniVend searches all lines of an index/product file but the first. Set this to the number of lines to skip at the beginning of the index. Default is 1 for the text search, which skips the header line in the product file. Default is 0 for a Glimpse search.

mv_index_delim

Sets the delimiter for counting fields in a search index. The default is TAB.

mv_matchlimit

The page size for matches that are returned. If more matches than mv_matchlimit are found, the search paging mechanism will be employed if the proper [more-list] is present. Can be implemented as a scrolling list (INPUT TYPE=SELECT) or radiobox (INPUT TYPE=RADIO) field.

mv_max_matches

The maximum number of records that will be returned in a search. Default is 2000. This only applies to Glimpse. Use mv_matchlimit to set the search page size.

mv_min_string

Sets the minimum size of a search string for a search operation. Default is 4 for the Glimpse search, and 1 for the text search.

mv_negate

Specifies that records NOT matching the search criteria will be returned. Default is no. It is not operative for the Glimpse search.

If stacked to match the mv_search_field and mv_searchspec variables, and mv_coordinate is set, it will operate only for the corresponding field.

mv_orsearch

If this item is set to yes, the search will return items matching any of the words in searchspec. The default is no.

mv_profile

Selects one of the pre-defined search specifications set by the SearchProfile directive. If the special variable within that file, mv_last, is defined, it will prevent the scanning of the form input for further search modifications. The values of mv_searchspec and mv_dict_look are always scanned, so you can specify this to do the equivalent of setting multiple checkboxes or radioboxes with one click, while still reading the search input text.

mv_range_alpha

Sets the type of match, numeric or alphanumeric, for the range search in its corresponding range field. The search will return true (assuming it is greater than the mv_range_min specification) if the field searched is less than or equal to mv_range_max, in an alphanumeric sense.

mv_range_look

This sets a field to scan for a range of numbers. It must be accompanied with corresponding mv_range_min and mv_range_max variables. It can be specified with either a field name or a column number.

mv_range_max

Sets the high bound for the range search in its corresponding range field. The search will return true (assuming it is greater than the mv_range_min specification) if the field searched is less than or equal to mv_range_max. To set the bound at infinity, or whatever your integer limit is, set mv_range_min to 0.

mv_range_min

Sets the low bound for the range search in its corresponding range field. The search will return true (assuming it is less than the mv_range_max specification) if the field searched is less than or equal to mv_range_min.

mv_record_delim

Sets the delimiter for counting records in a search index. The default is newline, which works for the products and most line-based index files.

mv_return_fields

The fields that should be returned by the match, specified either by field name or by column number. You should almost always specify 0 as the first field to be returned if searching the products database, since that is the key for accessing database fields.

mv_return_spec

Returns the string specified as the search (i.e. the value of mv_searchspec) as the one and only match. Typically used in a SKU/part number search.

mv_search_field

The field(s) to be searched, specified either by column name or by column number.

If the number of instances matches the number of fields specified in the mv_searchspec variable, and mv_coordinate is set to true, each search field (in order specified on the form) will be matched with each search spec (again in that order).

mv_search_file

In the text search, set this variable to the file(s) to be scanned for a match. The default, if not set, is to scan the default ProductFiles (i.e. products.txt). If set multiple times in a form (for a text search), will cause a search all the files. One file name per instance.

In the Glimpse search, follows the Glimpse wildcard-based file name matching scheme. Use with caution and a liberal dose of the Glimpse man page.

mv_search_match_count

Set by the search to indicate the total number of matches found.

mv_search_over_msg

The message that should be displayed if there is an overflow condition (mv_matchlimit is exceeded). Overrides the SearchOverMsg directive -- it is cleared by MiniVend if there is no overflow. Somewhat deprecated by match paging.

mv_search_page

The MiniVend-style name of the page that should display the search results. Overrides the FrameSearchPage directive, and the default value of search.

mv_searchspec

The actual search string that is typed in by the customer. It is a text INPUT TYPE=TEXT field, or can be put in a select (drop-down) list to enable category searches. If multiple instances are found, they will be concatenated just as if multiple words had been placed in a text field.

The user can place quotes around words to specify that they match as a string. To enable this by default, use the mv_exact_match variable.

If mv_dict_look has a value, and mv_searchspec does not, then mv_searchspec will be set to the value of mv_dict_look.

If the number of instances matches the number of fields specified in the mv_search_field variable, and mv_coordinate is set to true, each search field (in order specified on the form) will be matched with each search spec (again in that order).

mv_searchtype

If set to glimpse, selects the Glimpse search (if Glimpse is defined).

If set to sql, formulates an SQL select statement to return the search list.

If set to db, iterates over every row of the database (not the associated text source file).

If set to text, selects the text-based search.

Defaults to text if Glimpse is not defined, to Glimpse if it is. This can allow use of both search types if that is desirable -- for instance, searching for very common strings is better done by the text-based search. An example might be searching for categories of items instead of individual items.

mv_sort_field

The file field(s) the search is to be sorted on, specified in one of two ways. If the file(s) to be searched have a header line (the first line) that contains delimiter-separated field names, it can be specified by field name. If can also be specified by column number (the code or key is specified with a value of 0, for both types). These can be stacked, if coming from a form, or placed in a single specification separated by commas.

NOTE FOR ADVANCED USERS: If specifying a sort for the product database, mv_field_names must be specified if you will be doing a fieldname-addressed post-sort.

mv_sort_option

The way that each field should be sorted. The flags are r, n, and f -- for reverse, numeric, and case-insensitive respectively. These can be stacked, if coming from a form, or placed in a single specification separated by commas. The stacked options will be applied to the sort fields as they are defined, presuming those are stacked.

mv_spelling_errors

The number of spelling errors that will be tolerated. Ignored unless using Glimpse. If you have a large catalog, you might wish to limit this to two.

mv_substring_match

If mv_substring_match is set to yes, matches on substrings as well as whole words. You would typically want to set this for dictionary-based searches.

If stacked to match the mv_search_field and mv_searchspec variables, and mv_coordinate is set, it will operate only for the corresponding field.

mv_unique

If set to a true value, causes the sort to return only unique results. This operates on whatever the search return is, as defined by mv_return_fields.

mv_value

This is normally only used in the one-click search (va=var=value). It allows setting of a session variable based on the clicked link, which makes for easy definition of headers and other display choices. (If you had trouble using mv_searchspec for this before, this is what you need.)

The Results Page

Once a search has been done, there needs to be a way of presenting the output. By default, the SpecialPage search is used -- it is set to results in the distribution demo -- but any number of search pages can be specified by passing the value in the search form, specified in the variable mv_search_page.

On the search page, some special MiniVend tags are used to format the otherwise standard HTML. Each of the iterative tags is applied to every code returned from the search -- this is normally the product code, but could be a key to any of the arbitrary databases. The value placed by the [item-code] tag is set to the first field returned from the search.

[search-list]

Starts the representation of a search list. MiniVend tags can be embedded in the search list, yielding a table or formatted list of items with part number, description, price, and hyperlinks to order or go to its catalog page.

The set of tags for [item-list] are available, with the exception of tags like [item-modifier], [modifier-name], [item-accessories], and others that access shopping-cart specific elements. Thse include:

[if-item-data table column] [/if-item-data]
[if-item-field column] [/if-item-field]
[item-code]
[item-data table column]
[item-discount]
[item-field column]
[item-price quantity* noformat*]

In fact, any of the MiniVend database access tags can be used, allowing you to pull data from any of the fields in any of your predefined databases. Along with the MiniVend conditional tags, very complex pages can be built for each individual item returned in the search.

[/search-list]

Ends the search list.

[no-match]

Starts the region of the search results page that should be returned if there is no match (and no error) for the search. If this is not on the page, the special page nomatch will be displayed instead.

[/no-match]

Ends the no match region.

[sort database:field:option* database:field:option*]

Sorts the search list return based on database fields. If no options are supplied, sorts according to the return code. See SORTING.

[sort]<options>[/sort]

(This form of sort is deprecated, as it is difficult to use. Use the above method.)

Placed inside the search list. Causes sorting of the search return based on the passed options. The fields that are there to sort are set by mv_return_fields.

The field options passed in either numeric or field name form. If they are field numbers, they are numbered as sent to the search list in the order specified by mv_return_fields, starting from 0 and proceeding upwards. If column names, they are as found in the first record of the searched file (by default the ASCII source for the product database), except for the key or first field. followed by a required colon (:) and the options, if any.

Accepts none, any, or combinations of the flags:

f   case-insensitive sort (folded) (mutually exclusive of n)
n   numeric order (mutually exclusive of f)
r   reverse sort

The <options> are a field number and an optional flag or flags, in a similar fashion to the Unix sort command, and are interpolated for form values before being used. As an example, if you set up the following fields on your search form:

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_return_fields" VALUE="0,title,artist,price">
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="the_sort_field" VALUE="title"> Sort by Title
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="the_sort_field" VALUE="artist"> Sort by Artist
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="the_sort_option" VALUE=""> Forward sort
<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="the_sort_option" VALUE="r"> Reverse sort

NOTE: The 0 refers to the database code/key used for [item-code]

This would combine with the following search result page fragment to sort by either title or artist.

[search-list]
  [sort]
    [value the_sort_field]:[value the_sort_option]
  [/sort]
<B>[item-field title]</B>, by [item-field artist]<BR>
[/search-list]

The [value...] lines will end up looking like artist:r or title:. This could also be specified with 2r or 1.

PERFORMANCE TIP: on heavily trafficked systems, it will pay to use only column numbers rather than named fields, as it reduces processing and may obviate an access to the searched file to find the field names.

[item-change marker]

Active only within [search-list][/search-list].

Along with the companion [/item-change marker], surrounds a region which should only be output when a field (or other repeating value) changes its value. This allows indented lists similar to database reports to be easily formatted. The repeating value must be a tag interpolated in the search process, such as [item-field field] or [item-data database field].

Of course, this will only work as you expect when the search results are properly sorted.

The marker field is mandatory, and is also arbitrary, meaning that you can select any marker you wish as long as it matches the marker associated with [/item-change marker]. The value to be tested is contained within a [condition]value[/condition] tag pair. The [item-change marker] tag also processes an [else] [/else] pair for output when the value does not change. The tags may be nested as long as the markers are different.

Here is a simple example for a search list that has a field category and subcategory associated with each item:

<TABLE>
<TR><TH>Category</TH><TH>Subcategory</TH><TH>Product</TH></TR>
[search-list]
<TR>
   <TD>
        [item-change cat]

        [condition][item-field category][/condition]

                [item-field category]
        [else]
                &nbsp;
        [/else]
        [/item-change cat]
   </TD>
   <TD>
        [item-change subcat]

        [condition][item-field subcategory][/condition]

                [item-field subcategory]
        [else]
                &nbsp;
        [/else]
        [/item-change subcat]
   </TD>
   <TD> [item-field name] </TD>
[/search-list]
</TABLE>

The above should put out a table that only shows the category and subcategory once, while showing the name for every product. (The   will prevent blanked table cells if you use a border.)

[/item-change marker]

Companion to [item-change marker].

[matches]

Replaced with the range of match numbers displayed by the search page. Looks something like "1-50". Make sure you insert this item between a [more-list] and [/more-list] element pair.

[more-list next_img* prev_img* page_img* border* border_current*]

Starts the section of the search page which is only displayed if there are more matches than specified in mv_matchlimit. If there are less matches than the number in mv_matchlimit, all text/html between the [more_list] and [/more_list] elements is stripped.

Use in conjunction with the [more] element to place pointers to additional pages of matches.

If the optional arguments next_img, prev_img, and/or page_img are present, they represent image files that will be inserted instead of the standard 'Next', 'Previous', and page number. If prev_img is none, then no previous link will be output. If page_img is none, then no links to pages of matches will be output. These are URLs, are substituted for with ImageDir and friends, and will be encased in IMG tags. Lastly, border is the border number to put.

In addition, if page_img is used, it will be passed an argument of the digit that is to be represented. This would allow an image generator program to be used, generating page numbers on the fly. The border and border_selected values are integers indicating the border that should be put around images in the page_img selection. The <border_selected> is used for the current page if set.

As an example, if you use [more-list next.gif prev.gif page_num.cgi], the following will be the anchors:

Previous   <IMG SRC="prev.gif">
Page 1     <IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/page_num.cgi?1">
Page 2     <IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/page_num.cgi?2">
Next       <IMG SRC="next.gif">

If you wish to set custom text for the "Previous" and "Next" usually used, then you can define the next_img, prev_img, and page_img with [next-anchor][/next-anchor], [prev-anchor][/prev-anchor] and [page-anchor][/page-anchor]. The string $PAGE$ will be replaced with the page number in the latter. The same example:

[more-list 0 0 0]
[next-anchor] Forward [/next-anchor]
[prev-anchor] Back [/prev-anchor]
[page-anchor] Page $PAGE$ [/page-anchor]
[more]
[/more-list]

will display Forward Page 1 Page 2 Back for 2 pages.

As shown, you must pass a 0 for the arguments of each to tell MiniVend to look for the assignments.

If you have many pages of matches and don't wish to have all displayed at once, you can set [decade-next][/decade-next] and [decade-prev][/decade-prev]. If you set them empty, a search with 31 pages will display pages 21-30 like

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 [more>>] Next

and pages 11-20 like:

Previous [<<more] 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 [more>>] Next

If you set them to [decade-next](higher)[/decade-next] and [decade-prev](lower)[/decade-prev] you will see:

Previous (lower) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (higher) Next

Of course image-based anchors can be used as well.

[/more-list]

Companion to [more-list].

[more]

Inserts a series of hyperlinks that will call up the next matches in a series. They look like this:

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next

The current page will not be a hyperlink. Every time the new link is pressed, the list is re-built to correspond to the current page. If there is no Next or Previous page, that link will not be shown.

See the fr_resul.html or search.html files for examples. Make sure you insert this item between a [more-list] and [/more-list] element pair.

[process-search]

Calls the search with the proper URL, including MiniVend session tags. Used as the ACTION value for the search form.

[process-target frame]

Calls the search with the proper URL, including MiniVend session tags. Used as the ACTION value for the search form if the results are to be targeted to a different window than the one set by SearchFrame (which is "_self" by default).

Updating session variables after a search

You may notice that if you set a scratch variable or reference a variable set in a search routine on the results page, the change does not stay in the user session.

To change this, set the scratch variable mv_put_session on the page in question:

[set mv_put_session]Yes[/set]

This setting is persistent, so it is recommended that you do it once at the beginning of the user session if you wish it to be the default. If you don't want it to be the default, reset it to the empty value (or zero) on another page:

[set mv_put_session][/set]

Using a Search Cache

Each catalog may maintain a search cache, which is enabled by specifying Yes for the SearchCache directive in catalog.cfg. It operates by developing a MD5 key or 3-byte checksum of the combined parameters of a search.

If your catalog frequently specifies category searches in a large catalog, speed of search return can be increased by a large factor, mostly by obviating the need for database lookups.

If you have mostly dynamic session-based content based on user variables, you should not use SearchCache unless you want to give that up. MiniVend will not cache pages with dynamic content, and using cache slows down searches that don't cache.

If you have the MD5 module installed on Perl, it will be used to generate the cache keys. This will guarantee a unique cache ID. If you don't have MD5 installed, a 32-bit checksum will be used to create the cache key. It is conceivable, indeed likely in a large catalog, that two separate searches could generate the same 32-bit checksum and return the same cached search.

The search cache is invalidated when a user hits "RELOAD". It can also be invalidated by a [set mv_no_cache]1[/set] scratch setting, which only takes effect for the next page.

If you change your product database or any other files you search, you should reconfigure or the search returns may be wrong. You also may just remove all files in the tmp/ directory.

Search caching is disabled on a client-by-client basis if the client browser does not have cookie capability, for the generated session numbers would be incorrect otherwise.

Multiple page returns are also cached. If you [set mv_no_count]1[/set] on the calling page, then the user's browser will keep track of the traveled links.

The last search can be recalled with [page href="[data session last_search]"].

THE ORDER PROCESS

MiniVend has a completely flexible order basket and checkout scheme. The simple demo presents a common use of this process, in the directory pages/ord -- the files are:

basket.html      The order basket displayed by default
checkout.html    The form where the customer enters their billing
                 and shipping info
receipt.html     The receipt displayed to the customer
report.html      The order report mailed to you

It is not strictly necessary to display an order basket when an item is ordered. If you specify a different page to be displayed that is fine, but most customers will be confused if you don't give them an indication that the order operation has succeeded.

Any order basket is an HTML FORM. It will have a number of variables on it. At the minimum it must have an [item-list] to loop through the items, and the quantity of each item must be set in some place on that form. Any valid MiniVend tags may be used on the page, and you may use multiple item lists if necessary.

How to set up an order link

On a product display page, use:

[order 00-0011]Order the Mona Lisa[/order]

If coming from a search results or on-the-fly page, you may use the generated [item-code] thusly:

[order [item-code]]Order [item-field name][/order]

Bear in mind that if you have not reached the page via a search or on-the-fly operation, [item-code] means nothing and will cause an error.

How to set up an order button

MiniVend can order via form submission as well. This allows you to order a product (or group of products) via a form button. In its simplest form, it is:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo ACTION=refresh>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011">
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order the Mona Lisa">
</FORM>

The default quantity is one. An initial quantity may be set by the user by adding an mv_order_quantity variable:

Number to order:<INPUT TYPE=text NAME=mv_order_quantity VALUE="1">

You can order multiple items by stacking the variables:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo ACTION=refresh>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011a">
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order the Mona Lisa with frame">
</FORM>

Initial size or color may be set as well, provided UseModifier is set up properly:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_size VALUE="L">

If the order is coming from a generated flypage, loop list, or search results page, you can get a canned select box from the [item-accessories size] or [item-accessories size] tag. See Item Attributes.

How to set up an on-the-fly item

If you enable the catalog directive OnFly, setting it to the name of a tag (possibly a UserTag) that can handle its calls, then MiniVend will add items to the basket that are not in the product database.

The OnFly directive accepts a tag name:

OnFly  onfly

MiniVend supplies the onfly tag which will work with the descriptions below. If your item code is not to be named mv_order_item then you must perform a rename in the Autoload routine.

A basic link can be generated like:

[area form="
        mv_todo=refresh
        mv_order_item=000101
        mv_order_fly=description=An on-the-fly item|price=100.01
"]

The form parameter value mv_order_fly can contain any number of fields which will set corresponding parameters in the item attributes. The fields are separated by the pipe (|) character and contain value-parmeter pairs separated by an = sign. (These are URL-encoded by the [area ...] tag, of course.) You can set a size, color, or any other parameter. If you want to see what the actual URL will look like, put the above example in a page and study it.

The special attribute mv_price can be used in conjunction with the CommonAdjust atom $ to set the price for checkout and display.

The [item-list] sub-tag [item-description], when used with an item-list, will use the item attribute description to display in the basket.

If you wish to set up a UserTag to process on-the-fly items, it should accept a call of

usertag(mv_item_code, mv_item_quantity, mv_order_fly)

The mv_item_code and mv_order_fly parameters are required to trigger MiniVend's add_item routine (along with mv_todo=refresh to set the action).

The item will always act as if SeparateItems or mv_separate_items is set.

Multiple items can be ordered at once by stacking the variables. If there is only one mv_order_item instance, however, you can stack the mv_order_fly variable so that all are concatenated together as with the | symbol. So the above example could be done as:

[area form="
        mv_todo=refresh
        mv_order_item=000101
        mv_order_fly=description=An on-the-fly item
        mv_order_fly=price=100.00
"]

Multiple items would need multiple instances of mv_order_item with a corresponding mv_order_fly for each mv_order_item. You can order both 000101 and 000101 as follows:

   [area form="
       mv_todo=refresh

       mv_order_item=000101
       mv_order_fly=description=An on-the-fly item|price=100.00

       mv_order_item=000102
       mv_order_fly=description=Another on-the-fly item|price=200.00
   "]

The following two forms correspond to the above two examples, in order, with the slight refinement of adding a quantity:

<FORM ACTION="[area process]" METHOD=POST>
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo VALUE="refresh">
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="000101">
      Qty: <INPUT SIZE=2 NAME=mv_order_quantity VALUE="1">
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_fly
              VALUE="description=An on-the-fly item|price=100.00">
      <INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order button">
  </FORM>

 <FORM ACTION="[area process]" METHOD=POST>
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo VALUE="refresh">
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="000101">
      Qty: <INPUT SIZE=2 NAME=mv_order_quantity VALUE="1"><BR>
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_fly
          VALUE="description=An on-the-fly item|price=100.00">
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="000102">
      Qty: <INPUT SIZE=2 NAME=mv_order_quantity VALUE="1"><BR>
      <INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_fly
          VALUE="description=Another on-the-fly item|price=200.00">
      <INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order two different with a button">
  </FORM>

Order Groups

MiniVend allows you to group items together, making a master item and sub-items. This can be used to delete accessories or options when the master item is deleted. In its simplest form, you order just one master item and all subsequent items are sub-items.

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo ACTION=refresh>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_group VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011a">
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order the Mona Lisa with frame">
</FORM>

If you wish to stack more than one master item, then you must define mv_order_group for all items, with either a 1 value (master) or 0 value (sub-item). A master owns all subsequent sub-items until the next master is defined.

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_todo ACTION=refresh>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_group VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_group VALUE="0">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="00-0011a">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_group VALUE="1">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="19-202">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_group VALUE="0">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_order_item VALUE="99-102">
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Order items">
</FORM>

When the master item 00-0011 is deleted from the basket, 00-0011a will be deleted as well. And when 19-202 is deleted, then 99-102 will be deleted from the basket.

NOTE: You cannot use checkboxes for this type of thing, for they do not pass a value when unchecked. Use radio groups or select/drop-down buttons.

The attributes mv_mi and mv_si are set to the group and sub-item status of each item. The group, contained in the attribute mv_mi, is a meaningless yet unique integer. All items in a group will have the same value of mv_mi. The attribute mv_si is set to 0 if the item is a master item, and 1 if it is a sub-item.

Basket display

The basket page(s) are where the items are tracked and adjusted by the customer. It is possible to have an unlimited number of basket pages. It is also possible to have multiple shopping carts, as in buy or sell. This allows a basket/checkout type of ordering scheme, with custom order pages for items which have many accessories.

The name of the page to display can be configured in several ways:

Set the SpecialPage order to the page to display when an item is ordered.
Set the FrameOrderPage directive to the page to use when frames are enabled. This overrides option 1.
Use the [order item cart/page] Order it! [/order] form of order tag to specify an arbitrary order page for an item.
If already on an order page, set the mv_checkout, mv_orderpage, mv_nextpage, mv_successpage, or mv_failpage variables.

The variables mentioned above modify the page display in the following ways:

mv_cartname: The shopping cart (default is main) to be used for this order operation.
mv_checkout: Page to be displayed when checkout is called from the form
mv_failpage: Page to be displayed on a failed order check (see Advanced Multi-level Order Pages)
mv_nextpage: Page to display on a return operation.
mv_orderpage: Page to be displayed on a refresh.
mv_successpage: Page to be displayed on a successful order check (see Advanced Multi-level Order Pages).
mv_order_profile: Order profile to be used if the form action is submit (see Advanced Multi-level Order Pages).

Multiple Shopping Carts

You can maintain multiple shopping carts with MiniVend (2.02 and above). One shopping cart -- main, by name -- is defined when the user session starts. If the user orders item M1212 with the following tag:

[order M1212 layaway] Order this item! [/order]

the order will be placed in the cart named layaway. However, by default you won't see what you want! That is because the default shopping basket page won't display the cart you are thinking it will -- it will show the main cart. So copy the default cart (pages/ord/basket.html in the demos) to a new file, insert a [cart layaway] tag, and submit it as a MiniVend page name addendum to the cart name:

[order M1212 layaway/lay_basket] Order this item! [/order]

Now the contents of the layaway cart will be displayed. If you need to display a different price, you will have to emulate the [subtotal], [item-price], [item-subtotal], etc. fields with [item-list], [calc], and [currency] tags. This snippet emulates the item-price tag for a different price field layaway-price:

[currency] [item-field layaway-price] [/currency]

An item subtotal:

[currency]
    [calc]
        [item-field layaway-price] * [item-quantity]
    [/calc]
[/currency]

A cart subtotal, using the item-list tag:

[currency]
    [calc]
        [item-list layaway]
        ([item-field layaway-price] * [item-quantity]) +
        [/item-list]
        0
    [/calc]
[/currency]

The zero is needed because of the trailing plus sign left by the iterative [item-list] tag.

Shipping and the [nitems] tag will still work properly with a different price.

You can also order items from a form, using the mv_order_item, mv_cartname, and optional mv_order_quantity variables.

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="[process-order]">
<input type=checkbox name="mv_order_item" value="M3243"> Item M3243
<input name="mv_order_quantity" value="1"> Quantity
<input type=hidden name="mv_cartname" value="layaway">
<input type=hidden name="mv_doit" value="refresh">
<input type=submit name="mv_junk" value="Place on Layaway Now!">
</FORM>

Advanced Multi-level Order Pages

An unlimited number of order checking profiles can be defined with the OrderProfile directive, or by defining order profiles in scratch variables. This allows a multi-level ordering process, with checking for format and validity at every stage.

To custom-configure the error message, place it after the format check requirement.

Specifications take the form of an order page variable (like name or address), followed by an equals sign and one of five check types:

required: A non-blank value is required
mandatory: Must be non-blank, and must have been specified on this form, not a saved value from a previous form
phone: The field must look like a phone number, by a very loose specification allowing numbers from all countries
phone_us: Must have US phone number formatting, with area code
state: Must be a US state, including DC and Puerto Rico.
province: Must be a Canadian province or pre-1997 territory.
state_or_province: Must be a US state or Canadian province.
zip: Must have US postal code formatting, with optional ZIP+4. Also called by the alias us_postcode.
ca_postcode: Must have Canadian postal code formatting. Checks for a valid first letter.
postcode: Must have Canadian or US postal code formatting.
true: Field begins with y, 1, or t (Yes, 1, or True) - not case sensitive
false: Field begins with n, 0, or f (No, 0, or False) - not case sensitive
email: Rudimentary email address check, must have an '@' sign, a name, and a minimal domain

Also, there are pragmas that can be used to change behavior:

&charge

Perform a real-time charge operation. If set to any value but "custom", it will use MiniVend's CyberCash routines. To set to something else, use the value "custom ROUTINE". The ROUTINE should be a GlobalSub which will cause the charge operation to occur -- if it returns non-blank, non-zero the profile will have succeeded. If it returns 0 or undef or blank, the profile will return failure.

&credit_card

Checks the mv_credit_card_* variables for validity. If set to "standard", it will use Minivend's encrypt_standard_cc routines. This destroys the CGI value of mv_credit_card_number -- if you don't want that to happen (perhaps to save it for sending to CyberCash) then add the word keep on the end.

Example:

   # Checks credit card number and destroys number after encryption
   # The charge operation can never work

   &credit_card=standard
   &charge=custom authorizenet
 
   # Checks credit card number and keeps number after encryption
   # The charge operation can now work

   &credit_card=standard keep
   &charge=custom authorizenet

You can supply your own check routine with a GlobalSub:

&credit_card=check_cc

The GlobalSub check_cc will be used to check and encrypt the credit card number, and its return value will be used to determine profile success.

&fail

Sets the mv_failpage value.

&fail=page4

If the submit process succeeds, the user will be sent to the page page4.

&fatal

Set to '&fatal=yes' if an error should generate the error page.

&final

Set to '&final=yes' if a successful check should cause the order to be placed.

&return

Causes profile processing to terminate with either a success or failure depending on what follows. If it is non-blank and non-zero, the profile succeeds.

# Success :)
&return 1

# Failure :\
&return 0

Will ignore the &fatal pragma, but &final is still in effect if set.

&set

Set a user session variable to a value, i.e. &set=mv_email [value email]. This will not cause failure if blank or zero.

&setcheck

Set a user session variable to a value, i.e. &set=mv_email [value email]. This will cause failure if set to a blank or zero. It is usually placed at the end after a &fatal pragma would have caused the process to stop if there was an error -- can also be used to determine pass/fail based on a derived value, as it will cause failure if it evaluates to zero or a blank value.

&success

Sets the mv_successpage value. Example:

&success=page5

If the submit process succeeds, the user will be sent to the page page5.

As an added measure of control, the specification is evaluated for the special MiniVend tags to provide conditional setting of order parameters. With the [perl] [/perl] capability, quite complex checks can be done. Also, the name of the page to be displayed on an error can be set in the mv_failpage variable.

The following file specifies a simple check of formatted parameters:

name=required You must give us your name.
address=required Oops! No address.
city=required
state=required
zip=required
email=required
phone_day=phone_us XXX-XXX-XXXX phone-number for US or Canada
&fatal=yes
email=email Email address missing the domain?
&set=mv_email [value email]
&set=mv_successpage ord/shipping

The profile above only performs the &set directives if all of the previous checks have passed -- the &fatal=yes will stop processing after the check of the email address if any of the previous checks failed.

If you want to place multiple order profiles in the same file, separate them with __END__, which must be on a line by itself.

Simple Order Report File

The simple order report file, "report", defines the layout of the order report which gets mailed on the completion of the order. For example,

      Order Date: $date

            Name: $name
   Email address: $email

Shipping address: $addr
Town, State, Zip: $town, $state $zip
         Country: $country

Any input field from the order page can be included using the dollar sign notation.

To prevent a value from being included in the order report, just add it to the ReportIgnore configuration directive.

MiniVend defines some values for use in the search form -- they begin with mv_ and are automatically ignored.

Fully-configurable Order Reports

You can specify a fully-configurable order report by setting the hidden field "mv_order_report" to a legal MiniVend page. This page will be interpolated with all MiniVend tags before sending by email. The order number as set by backend ordering is in the variable mv_order_number, and available for your use.

You could if you wish include HTML in the file, which will be interpreted by many mailers, but you can choose to use standard ASCII format. An example report is provided in the demo file <pages/ord/report.html>.

Order Receipts

If you specify a legal MiniVend page name in the ReceiptPage directive, the user will be sent this page instead of the default "confirmation" file. The file can of course be configured with all MiniVend tags, and will be interpolated for the ordered items before they are deleted from the user record. If you want to have a different receipt for different carts, set the mv_order_receipt variable in the form.

The Order Counter

An order counter can be enabled if the OrderCounter directive is set to a file name. An incrementing count of all orders will be kept and assigned as orders are placed. By default, the number starts at 0, but you can edit the file and change the default starting number at any time.

This capability is made possible by the File::CounterFile module, available (as a part of the fine libwww modules) at the same place you got MiniVend. It is included with the distribution.

Customer Input Fields

On the order (or shopping basket) page, by default order.html, you will have a number of input fields allowing the customer to enter information such as their name and address. You can add more fields simply by putting more input elements on the order.html page, and the information will automatically be included in the order report. Input elements should be written in this way:

<input type="text" name="town" value="[value town]" size=30>

Choose a name for this input field such as "email" for an email address. Set the name attribute to the name you have chosen.

The value attribute specifies the default value to give the field when the page is displayed. Because the customer may enter information on the order page, return to browsing, and come back to the order page, you want the default value to be what was entered the first time. This is done with the [value var] element, which returns the last value of an input field. Thus,

value="[value name]"

will evaluate to the name entered on the previous order screen, such as:

value="Jane Smith"

which will be displayed by the browser.

The size attributes specifies how many characters wide the input field should be on the browser. You do not need to set this to fit the longest possible value since the browser will scroll the field, but you should set it large enough to be comfortable for the customer.

PRODUCT PRICING

MiniVend maintains a price in its database for every product. The price field is the one required field in the product database -- it is necessary to build the price routines.

For speed, MiniVend builds the code that is used to determine a product's price at catalog configuration time. If you choose to change a directive that affects product pricing you must reconfigure the catalog.

Simple pricing

The simplest method is flat pricing based on a fixed value in the products database. If you put that price in a field named price, you don't need to do more. If you want to change pricing based on quantity, size, color or other factors read on.

Price Maintenance with CommonAdjust

As of MiniVend 3.11, a flexible chained pricing scheme is available when the CommonAdjust directive is set.

NOTE: For compatibility with older carts, if both PriceAdjustment and CommonAdjust are set, and CommonAdjust contains a valid database identifier, the CommonAdjust value is used to set pricing adjustments based on item attributes. This is not discussed further in this section; all items below assume PriceAdjustment is not in use.

We talk below about a CommonAdjust string; it will be defined in due time.

A few rules about CommonAdjust, all assuming the PriceField directive is set to price:

If CommonAdjust is set to any value, a valid CommonAdjust string or not, extended price adjustments are enabled. It may also hold the default pricing scheme.
The price field may also hold a CommonAdjust string. It takes precedence over the default.
If the value of the CommonAdjust directive is set to a CommonAdjust string, and the price field is empty or specifically 0, then it will be used to set the price of the items.
If PriceBreaks is in use, it's price will take precedence over the value of CommonAdjust, though it may also contain a CommonAdjust string.
If no CommonAdjust strings are found, then the price will be 0, subject to any later application of discounts.
If another CommonAdjust string is found as the result of an operation, it will be re-parsed and the result applied. Chaining is retained; a fallback may be passed and will take effect.

Prices may be adjusted in several ways, and the individual actions are referred to below as atoms. Price atoms they may be final, chained, or fallback. A final price atom is always applied if it does not evaluate to zero. A chained price atom is subject to further adjustment. A fallback price atom is skipped if a previous chained price was not zero.

Atoms are separated by whitespace, and may be quoted (although there should not normally be whitespace in a setting). A chained item ends with a comma. A fallback item has a leading semi-colon. Final atoms have no comma appended or semi-colon prepended.

A settor is the means by which the price is set. There are There are eight different types of price settors. All settors can then yield another CommonAdjust string.

It is quite possible to create endless loops, so the maximum number of initial CommonAdjust strings is set to 16, and there may be only 20 iterations before the price will return zero on an error.

NOTE: Common needs are easily shown but not so easily explained; skip to the examples if the reference below if your vision starts to blur when reading the next section. 8-)

USAGE: Optional items below have asterisks appended. The asterisk should not be used in the actual string. Optional base or table always defaults to the active products database table. The optional key defaults to the item code except in a special case for the attribute-based lookup. The field name is not optional except in the case of an attribute lookup.

N.NN or -N.NN

where N is a digit. A number which is applied directly; for instance 10 will yield a price of 10. May be a positive or negative number.

N.NN%

where N is a digit. A number which is applied as a percentage of the current price value. May be a positive or negative number. For example, if the price is 10 and -8% is applied, the next price value will be 9.20.

table*:column:key*

Causes a straight lookup in a database table. The optional table defaults to the main products database table for the item (subject of course to multiple product files). The column must always be present. The optional key defaults to the item code except in a special case for the attribute-based lookup. The return value is then re-parsed as another price settor.

table*:col1..col5,col10:key*

Causes a quantity lookup in database table table (which defaults to the products database), with a set of comma-separated fields, looked up by the optional key. (Key defaults to the item code, of course). If ranges are specified with .., each column in the sequence will be used; Therefore

pricing:p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p10:

is the same as

pricing:p1..p5,p10:

Leading non-digits are stripped, and the item quantity is compared with the numerical portion of the column name. The price is set to the value of the database column (numeric portion) that is at least equal to it but doesn't yet reach the next break.

WARNING: If the field at the appropriate quantity level is blank, a zero cost will be returned from the atom. It is important to have all columns populated.

==attribute:table*:column*:key*

Does an attribute-based adjustment. The attribute is looked up in the database table, with the optional column defaulting to the same name as the value of the attribute. If the column is not left blank, the key is set to the value of the attribute if blank.

& CODE

The leading & sign is stripped and the code is passed to the equivalent of a [calc] tag. No MiniVend tags can be used, but the &tag_data routine is available, the current value of the price and quantity are available as $s, and the current item (code, quantity, price, and any attributes) are available as $item, all forced to the package Vend::Interpolate. That means that in a UserTag:

$Vend::Interpolate::item          is the current item
$Vend::Interpolate::item->{code}  gives key for current item
$Vend::Interpolate::item->{size}  gives size for current item (if there)
$Vend::Interpolate::item->{mv_ib} gives database ordered from

[valid minivend tags]

If the settor begins with a square bracket ([) or underscore, it is parsed for MiniVend tags with variable substitution (but no Locale substitution). You may define a price in a Variable in this fashion. The string is re-submitted as an atom, so it may yield yet another settor.

$

Tells MiniVend to look in the mv_price attribute of the shopping cart, and apply that price as the final price, if it exists. The attribute must be a numerical value.

>>word

Tells the routine to return word directly as the result. This is not useful in pricing, as it will evaluate to zero. But when CommonAdjust is used for shipping, it is a way of re-directing shipping modes.

word

The value of word, which must not match any of the other settors, is available as a key for the next lookup (only). If the next settor is a database lookup, and it contains a dollar sign ($) the word will be substituted; i.e. table:column:$ becomes table:column:word.

( settor )

The value returned by settor will be used as a key for the next lookup, as above.

CommonAdjust Examples

Most examples below use an outboard database table named pricing, but any valid table including the products table can be used. We will refer to this pricing table:

code    common  q1     q5     q10    XL    S      red
99-102          10     9      8      1     -0.50  0.75
00-343                               2
red      0.75

The simplest case is a straight lookup on an attribute; size in this case.

10.00, ==size:pricing

With this value in the price field, a base price of 10.00 will be adjusted with the value of the size attribute. If size for the item 99-102 is set to XL then 1.00 will be added for a total price of 11.00; if it is S then .50 will be subtracted for a total price of 9.50; for any other value of size no further adjustment would be made. 00-343 would be adjusted up 2.00 only for XL.

10.00, ==size:pricing, ==color:pricing

This is the same as above, except both size and color are adjusted for. A color value of red for item code 99-102 would add 0.75 to the price. For 00-343 it would have no effect.

10.00, ==size:pricing, ==color:pricing:common

Here price is set based on a common column, keyed by the value of the color attribute. Any item with a color value of red would have 0.75 added to the base price.

pricing:q1,q5,q10:, ;10.00, ==size:pricing, ==color:pricing:common

Here is a quantity price lookup, with a fallback price setting. If there is a valid price found at the quantity of 1, 5, or 10, depending on item quantity, then it will be used. The fallback of 10.00 only applies if no non-zero/non-blank price was found at the quantity lookup. In either case, size/color adjustment is applied.

pricing:q1,q5,q10:, ;10.00 ==size:pricing, ==color:pricing:common

Removing the comma from the end of the fallback string stops color/size lookup if it reaches that point. If a quantity price was found, then size and color are chained.

pricing:q1,q5,q10:, ;products:list_price, ==size:pricing, ==color:pricing

The value of the database column list_price is used as a fallback instead of the fixed 10.00 value. The above value might be a nice one to use as the default for a typical retail catalog that has items with colors and sizes.

PriceBreaks, discounts, and PriceAdjustment

There are several ways that MiniVend can modify the price of a product during normal catalog operation. Several of them require that the pricing.asc file be present, and that you define a pricing database. You do that by placing the following directive in catalog.cfg:

Database  pricing pricing.asc 1

NOTE: PriceAdjustment is slightly deprecated by CommonAdjust, but will remain in use at least through the end of Version 3 of MiniVend.

Configurable directives and tags with regard to pricing:

Quantity price breaks are configured by means of the PriceBreaks and MixMatch directives. They require a field named specifically price in the pricing database. The price field contains a space-separated list of prices that correspond to the quantity levels defined in the PriceBreaks directive. If quantity is to be applied to all items in the shopping cart (as opposed to quantity of just that item) then the MixMatch directive should be set to Yes.
Individual line-item prices can be adjusted according to the value of their attributes. See PriceAdjustment and CommonAdjust. The pricing database must be defined unless you define the CommonAdjust behavior.
Product discounts for individual products, specific product codes, all products, or the entire order can be configured with the [discount ...] tag. Discounts are applied on a per-user basis -- you can gate the discount based on membership in a club or other arbitrary means. See Product Discounts.

For example, if you decided to adjust the price of T-shirt part number 99-102 up 1.00 when the size is extra large and down 1.00 when the size is small, you would have the following directives defined in <catalog.cfg>:

Database          pricing pricing.asc 1
UseModifier       size
PriceAdjustment   size

To enable automatic modifier handling, you define a size field in products.txt:

code    description   price    size
99-102  T-Shirt       10.00    S=Small, M=Medium, L=Large*, XL=Extra Large

You would place the proper tag within your [item-list] on the shopping-basket or order page:

[item-accessories size]

In the pricing.asc database source, you would need:

code      S       XL
99-102    -1.00   1.00

As of MiniVend 3.06, if you want to assign a price based on the option, precede the number with an equals sign:

code    S       M       L       XL
99-102  =9.00   =10     =10     =11

IMPORTANT NOTE: Price adjustments occur AFTER quantity price breaks, so the above would negate anything set with the PriceBreaks directive/option.

Numbers that begin with an equals sign (=) are used as absolute prices and are interpolated for MiniVend tags first, so you can use subroutines to set the price. To facilite coordination with the subroutine, the session variables item_code and item_quantity are set to the code and quantity of the item being evaluated. They would be accessed in a global subroutine with $Vend::Session->{item_code} and $Vend::Session->{item_quantity}.

The pricing information must always come from a database because of security.

Item Attributes

MiniVend allows item attributes to be set for each ordered item. This allows a size, color, or other modifier to be attached to a common part number. If multiple attributes are set, then they should be separated by commas. Previous attribute values can be saved by means of a hidden field on a form, and multiple attributes for each item can be stacked on top of each other.

The configuration file directive UseModifier is used to set the name of the modifier or modifiers. For example

UseModifier        size,color

will attach both a size and color attribute to each item code that is ordered.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You may not use the following names for attributes:

item  group  quantity  code  mv_ib  mv_mi  mv_si

You can also set it in scratch with the mv_UseModifier scratch variable -- [set mv_UseModifier]size color[/set] has the same effect as above. This allows multiple options to be set for products. Whichever one is in effect at order time will be used. Be careful, you cannot set it more than once on the same page. Setting the mv_separate_items or global directive SeparateItems places each ordered item on a separate line, simplifying attribute handling. The scratch setting for mv_separate_items has the same effect.

The modifier value is accessed in the [item-list] loop with the [item-modifier attribute] tag, and form input fields are placed with the [modifier-name attribute] tag. This is similar to the way that quantity is handled, except that attributes can be "stacked" by setting multiple values in an input form.

You cannot define a modifier name of code or quantity, as they are already used. You must be sure that no fields in your forms have digits appended to their names if the variable is the same name as the attribute name you select, as the [modifier-name size] variables will be placed in the user session as the form variables size0, size1, size2, etc.

You can use the [loop arg="item item item"] list to reference multiple display or selection fields for modifiers (in MiniVend 3.0, you can have it automatically generated --see below). The modifier value can then be used to select data from an arbitrary database for attribute selection and display.

Below is a fragment from a shopping basket display form which shows a selectable size with "sticky" setting. Note that this would always be contained within the [item_list] [/item-list] pair.

<SELECT NAME="[modifier-name size]">
<OPTION  [selected [modifier-name size] S]> S
<OPTION  [selected [modifier-name size] M]> M
<OPTION  [selected [modifier-name size] L]> L
<OPTION [selected [modifier-name size] XL]> XL
</SELECT>

It could just as easily be done with a radio button group combined with the [checked ...] tag.

MiniVend 3.0 will automatically generate the above select box when the [accessories <code size]> or [item-accessories size] tags are called. They have the syntax:

 [item_accessories attribute*, type*, field*, database*, name*, outboard*]

 [accessories code attribute*, type*, field*, database*, name*, outboard*]

code

Not needed for item-accessories, this is the product code of the item to reference.

attribute

The item attribute as specified in the UseModifier configuration directive. Typical are size or color.

type

The action to be taken. One of:

 select          Builds a dropdown <SELECT> menu for the attribute.
                 NOTE: This is the default.

 multiple        Builds a multiple dropdown <SELECT> menu for the
                 attribute.  The size is equal to the number of
                 option choices.
                  
 display         Shows the label text for *only the selected option*.
  
 show            Shows the option choices (no labels) for the option.
  
 radio           Builds a radio box group for the item, with spaces
                 separating the elements.
                  
 radio nbsp      Builds a radio box group for the item, with &nbsp;
                 separating the elements.
                  
 radio left n    Builds a radio box group for the item, inside a
                 table, with the checkbox on the left side. If "n"
                 is present and is a digit from 2 to 9, it will align
                 the options in that many columns.
                  
 radio right n   Builds a radio box group for the item, inside a
                 table, with the checkbox on the right side. If "n"
                 is present and is a digit from 2 to 9, it will align
                 the options in that many columns.

  
 check           Builds a checkbox group for the item, with spaces
                 separating the elements.
                  
 check nbsp      Builds a checkbox group for the item, with &nbsp;
                 separating the elements.
                  
 check left n    Builds a checkbox group for the item, inside a
                 table, with the checkbox on the left side. If "n"
                 is present and is a digit from 2 to 9, it will align
                 the options in that many columns.
                  
 check right n   Builds a checkbox group for the item, inside a
                 table, with the checkbox on the right side. If "n"
                 is present and is a digit from 2 to 9, it will align
                 the options in that many columns.

The default is 'select', which builds an HTML select form entry for the attribute. Also recognized is 'multiple', which generates a multiple-selection drop down list, 'show', which shows the list of possible attributes, and 'display', which shows the label text for the selected option only.

field

The database field name to be used to build the entry (usually a field in the products database). Defaults to a field named the same as the attribute.

database

The database to find field in, defaults to the first products file where the item code is found.

name

Name of the form variable to use if a form is being built. Defaults to mv_order_attribute -- i.e. if the attribute is size, the form variable will be named mv_order_size.

outboard

If calling the item-accessories tag, and you wish to select from an outboard database, you can pass the key to use to find the accessory data.

When called with an attribute, the database is consulted and looks for a comma-separated list of attribute options. They take the form:

name=Label Text, name=Label Text*

The label text is optional -- if none is given, the name will be used.

If an asterisk is the last character of the label text, the item is the default selection. If no default is specified, the first will be the default. An example:

[item_accessories color]

This will search the product database for a field named "color". If an entry "beige=Almond, gold=Harvest Gold, White*, green=Avocado" is found, a select box like this will be built:

<SELECT NAME="mv_order_color">
<OPTION VALUE="beige">Almond
<OPTION VALUE="gold">Harvest Gold
<OPTION SELECTED>White
<OPTION VALUE="green">Avocado
</SELECT>

In combination with the mv_order_item and mv_order_quantity variables this can be used to allow entry of an attribute at time of order.

If used in an item list, and the user has changed the value, the generated select box will automatically retain the current value the user has selected.

The value can then be displayed with [item-modifier size] on the order report, order receipt, or any other page containing an [item-list].

Product Discounts

Product discounts can be set upon display of any page. The discounts apply only to the customer receiving them, and are of one of three types:

1. A discount for one particular item code (key is the item-code)
2. A discount applying to all item codes (key is ALL_ITEMS)
3. A discount for an individual line item (set the mv_disount attribute
   with embedded Perl)
4. A discount applied after all items are totaled
   (key is ENTIRE_ORDER)

The discounts are specified via a formula. The formula is scanned for the variables $q and $s, which are substituted for with the item quantity and subtotal respectively. The variable $s is saved between iterations, so the discounts are cumulative. In the case of the item and all items discount, the formula must evaluate to a new subtotal for all items of that code that are ordered. The discount for the entire order is applied to the entire order, and would normally be a monetary amount to subtract or a flat percentage discount.

Discounts are applied to the effective price of the product, including any quantity discounts or price adjustments.

To apply a straight 20% discount to all items:

[discount ALL_ITEMS] $s * .8 [/discount]

or with named attributes:

[discount code=ALL_ITEMS] $s * .8 [/discount]

To take 25% off of only item 00-342:

[discount 00-342] $s * .75 [/discount]

To subtract $5.00 from the customer's order:

[discount ENTIRE_ORDER] $s - 5 [/discount]

To reset a discount, set it to the empty string:

[discount ALL_ITEMS][/discount]

Perl code can be used to apply the discounts, and variables are saved between items and are shared with the [calc] tag. This example gives 10% off if two items are ordered, with 5% more for each additional up to a maximum of 30% discount:

[calc] 
    [item-list]
        $totalq{"[item-code]"} += [item-quantity];
    [/item-list]
        return '';
[/calc]

[item-list]
    [discount code="[item-code]"]
        return ($s)       if $totalq{"[item-code]"} == 1;
        return ($s * .70) if $totalq{"[item-code]"} > 6;
        return ($s * ( 1 - 0.05 * $totalq{"[item-code]"} ));
    [/discount]
[/item-list]

Here is an example of a special discount for item code 00-343 which prices the second one ordered at 1 cent:

[discount 00-343]
return $s if $q == 1;
my $p = $s/$q;
my $t = ($q - 1) * $p;
$t .= 0.01;
return $t;
[/discount]

If you want to display the discount amount, use the [item-discount] tag.

[item-list]
Discount for [item-code]: [item-discount]
[/item-list]

Finally, if you want to display the discounted subtotal, you need to use the [calc] capability:

[item-list]
Discounted subtotal for [item-code]: [currency][calc]
                                        [item-price] * [item-quantity]
                                        [/calc][/currency]
[/item-list]

Sales Tax

MiniVend allows calculation of sales tax on a straight percentage basis, with certain items allowed to be tax-exempt. To enable this feature, the directive SalesTax is initialized with the name of a field (or fields) on the order form. Commonly, this is zipcode and/or state:

SalesTax    zip,state

This being done, MiniVend assumes the presence of a file salestax.asc, which contains a database with the percentages. Each line of salestax.asc should be a code (again, usually a five-digit zip or a two letter state) followed by a tab, then a percentage. Example:

45056   .0525
61821   .0725
61801   .075
IL      .0625
OH      .0525
VAT     .15
WA      .08

Based on the user's entry of information in the order form, MiniVend will look up (for our example SalesTax directive) first the zip, then the state, and apply the percentage to the SUBTOTAL of the order. The subtotal will include any taxable items, and will also include the shipping cost if the state/zip is included in the TaxShipping directive. It will add the percentage, then make that available with the [salestax] tag for display on the order form. If no match is found, the entry 'default' is applied -- that is normally 0, but can be anything.

If business is being done on a national basis, it is now common to have to collect sales tax for multiple states. If you are doing so, it is possible to subscribe to a service which issues regular updates of the sales tax percentages -- usually by quarterly or monthly subscription. Such a database should be easily converted to MiniVend format -- but some systems are rather convoluted, and it will be well to check and see if the program can export to a flat ASCII file format based on zip code.

If some items are not taxable, then you must set up a field in your database which indicates that. You then place the name of that field in the NonTaxableField directive. If the field for that item evaluates true on a yes-no basis (i.e. is set to yes, y, 1, or the like), sales tax will not be applied to the item. If it evaluates false, it will be taxed.

If your state taxes shipping, use the TaxShipping directive. Utah and Nevada are known to tax shipping -- there may be others.

If you want to set a fixed tax for all orders, as might occur for VAT in some countries, just set the SalesTax directive to a value like tax_code, and define a variable in the user session to reflect the proper entry in the salestax.asc file. To set it to 15% with the above salestax.asc file, you would put in a form:

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=tax_code VALUE="VAT">

or to do it without submitting a form:

[perl] $Values->{tax_code} = 'VAT'; return; [/perl]

Using CyberCash

MiniVend will directly interface with Perl libraries provided by CyberCash, Inc. This allows direct card billing at the time the order is placed. If using CyberCash 2, the module is called CCLib.pm and its version should be 1.3 or greater. If the library is found at startup, the message "CyberCash 2 module found" will be displayed.

MiniVend 3.11 and above support CyberCash 3; see the section below for differences when using CyberCash 3.

To use CyberCash 2, you must first have a CyberCash Secure Merchant Payment Server (SMPS) running on your system. It must be fully enabled, and should be tested OK with the CyberCash test suite. This capability has been tested to work with SMPS-2.1.x in mauthcapture and mauthonly modes. Any modes supported by CyberCash should work.

The special mode minivend_test will cause the transaction to complete successfully and the information that would have been sent to the CyberCash server to be logged in the catalog error.log file.

The CyberCash Perl library module must be available to MiniVend -- if you cannot install it in the main Perl library then the Minivend software directory lib/ will suffice. If it is found at MiniVend startup, a message will be displayed.

MiniVend only will charge CyberCash in the final phase of the order process, i.e. at the time the receipt and order report are generated. The full amount as shown by the [total-cost] tag will be billed -- if you need to do partial charges you will have to manage multiple shopping carts.

The process of enabling CyberCash processing is something like this:

Turn off CreditCardAuto by setting the catalog directive to No. This would normally be done right in catalog.cfg, but it also can be done in a mv_click subroutine if you wish to mix transaction types:

<INPUT TYPE=checkbox NAME=mv_click VALUE=CyberCash> Use CyberCash
[set CyberCash]
    [perl]
        $Config->{CreditCardAuto} = 0;
        $Config->{CyberCash} = 1;
        return '';
    [/perl]
mv_cyber_mode=mauthcapture
[/set]

Enable the CyberCash directive in catalog.cfg (or with the technique above). Also set the catalog Variable value CYBER_SECRET to the "secret" for your payment server. If you are not using the default values of localhost and 8000 for your server and port, set the Variables CYBER_HOST and CYBER_PORT as well. In the catalog.cfg file it would look like:
```
CreditCardAuto   No
CyberCash        Yes
Variable         CYBER_SECRET  first-natl
Variable         CYBER_PORT    8000
Variable         CYBER_HOST    localhost
```
Set your final order screen to accept the user form fields mv_credit_card_number (contains the actual card number), mv_credit_card_exp_month and mv_credit_card_exp_year (the expiration date month and year), and the fields containing name, address, city, state, and country. And you must define the form field mv_cyber_mode on the submitting form to enable the processing.

The order mode must be final, either by omitting an order profile entirely or by defining an order profile that contains &final=yes.

The fields containing name and address information should be the same as on the standard MiniVend demo order pages:

b_name       Billing name      takes priority
name         Shipping name     used if b_name empty
b_address    Billing address   takes priority
address      Shipping address  used if b_address empty
b_city       Billing city      takes priority
city         Shipping city     used if b_city empty
b_state      Billing state     takes priority
state        Shipping state    used if b_state empty
b_country    Billing country   takes priority
country      Shipping country  used if b_country empty

If you must use other values, they can be redefined in catalog.cfg with the Variable CYBER_REMAP like so:

Variable CYBER_REMAP  name=my_name address=my_address

or like so:

Variable <<EOF
CYBER_REMAP
b_name   my_bname
name     my_name
address  processed_address
city     parsed_city
EOF

NOTE: As always when using the <<EOF (here document) capability, the EOF must be on a line by itself, with no leading or trailing white space. That includes carriage returns, Windows devotees. Upload in ASCII mode!

If you have defined the directive EncryptProgram to be something containing the value pgp, then the CreditCardAuto method will be used to encrypt the mv_credit_card_number value before it is wiped from memory. (Errors in that process will be silently ignored.) It will never be written to the user session, at least by MiniVend itself, so attempts to recall it on future forms will be in vain.

If the authorization fails, the special page failed will be displayed, and passed the CyberCash error message for display with the [subject] tag. The order will not complete, i.e. the cart will still be intact and no receipt or order report will be generated. The error itself is always available as [data session cybercash_error].

If successful, the receipt page will be displayed, the order report emailed, and the cart will be emptied. If you wish to display the order-id returned from CyberCash on the receipt, it is available in [data session cybercash_id]. If the order is successful, but is detected as a "success-duplicate", [data session cybercash_error] will contain the message returned from CyberCash.

CyberCash 3.2

MiniVend 3.11 supports CyberCash 3 with the CCMckDirectLib3_2.pm CCMckLib3_2.pm modules. If those modules are in place in your Perl include path (you can use VendRoot/lib as a home if you wish), using CyberCash 3.2 is the same as with CyberCash 2 server except:

CyberCash 3 maintains a configuration file (merchant.conf) for each merchant. This needs to be set in the variable CYBER_CONFIGFILE as in:
```
Variable CYBER_CONFIGFILE  /home/you/mck-lib/conf/merchant.conf
```
In all likelihood, this will make the values of CYBER_HOST, CYBER_PORT, and CYBER_SECRET moot. It will not hurt anything if they remain set.
The variables CYBER_VERSION needs to be set to a numeric value of 3 or greater:
```
Variable CYBER_VERSION  3.2
```
This allows CyberCash 2 and 3 implementations to coexist on the same machine.

SORTING

MiniVend has standard sorting options for sorting the search lists, loop lists, and item lists based on the contents of database fields. In addition, adds list slices for limiting the displayed entries based on a start value and chunk size (or start and end value, from which a chunk size is determined). All accept a standard format sort tag which must be directly after the list call:

   [loop 4 3 2 1]
   [sort -2 +2]
       [loop-code]
   [/loop]

   [search-list]
   [sort products:category:f]
       [item-price] [item-description]<BR>
   [/search-list]

   [item-list]
   [sort products:price:rn]
       [item-price] [item-code]<BR>
   [/item-list]

   [tag each products]
   [sort products:category products:title]
   [loop-field category] [loop-field title] <BR>
   [/tag]

All sort situations -- [search list] , [loop list] , [tag each table], and [item-list], take options of the form:

[sort database:field:option* -n +n =n-n ... ]

database

The MiniVend database identifier. This must be supplied, and should normally be 'products' if you are using the default name for the database.

field

The field (column) of the database to be sorted on.

option

None, any, or combinations of the options:

f   case-insensitive sort (folded) (mutually exclusive of n)
n   numeric order (mutually exclusive of f)
r   reverse sort

-n

The starting point of the list to be displayed, beginning at 1 for the first entry.

+n

The number of entries to display in this list segment.

=n-n

The starting and ending point of the list display -- this is an alternative to -n and +n. You should specify in only one form -- if both are specified the last one will take effect.

...

Don't really put ... in. This just means that you may specify as many sort levels as you wish. Lots of sort levels with large databases will be quite slow.

Multiple levels of sort are supported, and you can cross database boundaries on different sort levels. Cross-database sorts on the same level are not supported, so if you use multiple product databases you will have to sort with embedded Perl. This is actually a feature in some cases, since you can then display all items in a used database before or after your new ones in products.

Examples, all based on the simple demo:

Loop list

   [loop 00-0011 19-202 34-101 99-102]
   [sort products:title]
       [loop-code] [loop-field title]<BR>
   [/loop]

Will display:

34-101 Family Portrait
00-0011 Mona Lisa
19-202 Radioactive Cats
99-102 The Art Store T-Shirt

If you instead do:

   [loop 00-0011 19-202 34-101 99-102]
   [sort products:title -3 +2]
       [loop-code] [loop-field title]<BR>
   [/loop]

you will see:

19-202 Radioactive Cats
99-102 The Art Store T-Shirt

The tag [sort products:title =3-4] is equivalent to the above.

Search list

A search of all products (i.e. http://yoursystem.com/cgi-bin/simple/scan/ra=yes):

   [search-list]
   [sort products:artist products:title:rf]
       [item-field artist] [item-field title]<BR>
   [/search-list]

will display:

Gilded Frame
Grant Wood American Gothic
Jean Langan Family Portrait
Leonardo Da Vinci Mona Lisa
Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory
Sandy Skoglund Radioactive Cats
The Art Store The Art Store T-Shirt
Vincent Van Gogh The Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers

Note the reversed order of the title for Van Gogh, and the presence of the accessory item Gilded Frame at the front of the list (it has no artist field, and as such sorts first).

Adding a slice option:

   [search-list]
   [sort products:artist products:title:rf =6-10]
       [item-field artist] [item-field title]<BR>
   [/search-list]

will display:

Sandy Skoglund Radioactive Cats
The Art Store The Art Store T-Shirt
Vincent Van Gogh The Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers

If the end value/chunk size exceeds the size of the list, only the elements that exist will be displayed, starting from the start value.

Shopping cart

   [item-list]
   [sort products:price:rn]
       [item-price] [item-code]<BR>
   [/item-list]

will display the items in your shopping cart sorted on their price, with the most expensive shown first. (Note that this is based on the database field, and doesn't take quantity price breaks or discounts into effect.) NOTE: You cannot sort on modifier values or quantities.

Complete database contents

[tag each products]
[sort products:category products:title]
[loop-field category] [loop-field title] <BR>
[/tag]

A two level sort, that will sort products based first on their category then on their title within the category.

Note that large lists may take some time to sort -- if you have a product database with many thousands of items, it is not recommended that you use the [tag each products] sort unless you are planning on caching or statically building your pages.

SHIPPING

MiniVend has a powerful custom shipping facility that performs UPS and other shipper lookups, as well as a flexible rule-based facility for figuring cost by other methods.

Shipping Cost Database

The shipping cost database (located in ProductDir/shipping.asc) is a tab-separated ASCII file with six fields -- code, text description, criteria (quantity or weight, for example), minimum number, maximum number, and cost. None of the fields are case-sensitive.

If you want to define the shipping database in your catalog configuration file, set the Variable MV_SHIPPING to what would be its contents.

To set the file to be something other than shipping.asc in the products directory, set the Special directive:

Special  shipping.asc  /home/user/somewhere/shipping_defs

There are two styles of setting, which can be mixed in the same file. The first is line-based, and expects 6 or more TAB-separated fields. They would look like:

default No shipping weight 0 99999999 0

upsg UPS Ground weight 0 0 e Nothing to ship! upsg UPS Ground weight 0 150 u Ground [default zip 98366] 3.00 upsg UPS Ground weight 150 999999 e @@TOTAL@@ lbs too heavy for UPS

The second is a freeform method, with a mode: Description text introducing the mode line, and the special encoding called out by indented parameters. The below is identical to the above:

upsg: UPS Ground
    criteria    weight
    min         0
    max         0
    cost        e Nothing to ship!
    
    min         0
    max         150
    cost        u
    table       2ndDayAir
    geo         zip
    default_geo 98366
    adder       3

    min         150
    max         999999
    cost        e @@TOTAL@@ lbs too heavy for UPS

The second format has several advantages. You can span multiple lines with the <<HERE document format, like so:

upsg: UPS Ground
    criteria    <<EOF
[perl]
    return 'weight' if $Values->{country} eq 'US';
    return 'weight' if ! $Values->{country};
    # Return blank, don't want UPS
    return '';
[/perl]
EOF

The defineable fields are, in order for the tab-separated format:

MODE

The unique identifier for that shipping method. It may be repeated as many times as needed.

DESCRIPTION

Text to describe the method (can be accessed on a page with the [shipping-description] element).

CRITERIA

Whether shipping is based on weight, quantity, price, etc. Valid MiniVend tags can be placed in the field to do a dynamic lookup -- if a number is returned, that is used as the accumulated criteria -- that is, the total of weight, quantity, or price as applied to all items in the shopping cart.

See Criteria Determination below.

MINIMUM

The low bound of quantity/weight/criteria this entry applies to.

MAXIMUM

The high bound of quantity/weight/criteria this entry applies to. The first found entry is used in case of ties.

COST

The method of developing cost. It can be a number which will be used directly as the shipping cost, or a function, determined by a single character at the beginning of the field:

f       Formula (MML tags OK, evaluated as Perl)
x       Multiplied by a number
[uA-Z]  UPS-style lookup
m       MiniVend chained cost lookup (all items summed together)
i       MiniVend chained cost lookup (items summed individually)

NEXT

The next field supplies an alternative shipping mode to substitute if the cost of the current one is zero.

ZONE

The UPS zone that is being defined.

QUERY

MiniVend tags which will return a SQL query to select lines matching this specification. The current mode is replaced with this selection. If there is a query parameter of ?, it will be replaced with the mode name.

QUAL

The geographic qualification (if any) for this mode.

PERL

Perl code that is read and determines the criterion, not the cost. Use the cost option with "f " as the prelim to supply Perl code to determine cost.

TOTAL

Set to the accumulated criterion before passing to Perl.

OPT

Used to maintain UPS and freeform options. Normally these are set by separate lines in the shipping definition.

Criteria determination

The criteria field varies according to whether it is the first field in the shipping file exactly matching the mode identifier. In that case, it is called the main criterion. If it is in subsidiary shipping lines matching the mode (with optional appended digits) then it is called a qualifying criterion. The difference is that the main criterion returns the basis for the calculation (i.e. weight or quantity) while the qualifying criterion determines whether the individual line may match the conditions.

The return must be one of:

quantity: quantity -- The literal value quantity as the main criterion will simply count the number of items in the shopping cart and return it as the accumulated criteria. If you want to use a database table field named quantity then use the table::field notation.
o <field name> or <table>::<field name>: A valid database field (column) name as main criterion will cause the number of items in the shopping cart to be multiplied by the value of the field for each item to obtain the accumulated criteria. If the table is not supplied, defaults to the first ProductFiles table.
o n.nn: where n.nn is any number. It will be directly used as the accumulated criteria. This can be effectively returned from a Perl subroutine or MiniVend [calc][item-list] ... [/item-list][/calc] to create custom shipping routines.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The above only applies to the first field that matches the shipping mode exactly. Following criteria fields contain qualifier matching strings.

Shipping Calculation modes

There are 8 ways that shipping cost may be calculated. The method used depends on the first character of the cost field in the shipping database.

N.NN (digits): If the first character is a digit, then a number is assumed and read directly as the shipping cost.
e: If the first character is an e, a cost of zero is returned and an error message is placed in the session value ship_message (i.e. [data session ship_message] or $Session->{ship_message}).
f: If the character f is the first, MiniVend will first interpret the text for any MiniVend tags and then interpret the result as a formula. It is really as Perl code; so you may reference the entire set of MiniVend objects with the code.
i: Specifies a chained shipping lookup which will be applied to each item in the shopping cart.
m: Specifies a chained shipping lookup which will be applied to the entire shopping cart.
u: Calls the UPS-style lookup. You can pre-define as many as you wish, though if you want to do the hundreds available it is best done on the fly.
x: If an x is first, a number is expected and is applied as a fixed multiplier for the accumulated criterion (@@TOTAL@@).
A-Z: If the first character is a capital letter, calls one of the 26 secondary UPS-style lookup zones. (Deprecated now that zones can be named directly).

How shipping is calculated

The base code is selected by reading the value of mv_shipmode in the user session. If it has not been explicitly set, either by means of the DefaultShipping directive or by setting the variable on a form (or in an order profile), it will be default.

The mv_shipmode must be in the character class [A-Za-z0-9_]. If there are spaces, commas, or nulls in the value they will be read as multiple shipping modes.
The modes are selected from the d =item 1

The criterion field is found -- if it is quantity, then it is the total quantity of items on the order form. If it is any other name, then the criterion is calculated by multiplying the return value from the product database field for each item in the shopping cart, multiplied by its quantity. (If the lookup fails due to the column or row not existing, a zero cost will be returned, and an error is sent to the catalog error log.) If a number is returned from a MiniVend tag, then that number is used directly.
Entries in the shipping database that begin with the same string as the shipping mode are examined. If none is found, a zero cost is returned and an error is sent to the catalog error log.

NOTE: You may use the same mode name for all lines in the same group, but the first one will contain the main criteria.
The value of the accumulated criteria is examined, and if it falls with in the minimum and maximum, the cost is then applied.
If the cost is fixed, it is simply added.
If the cost field begins with an x, the cost is multiplied by the accumulated criterion -- price, weight, etc.
If the cost field begins with f, the formula following is applied. Use @@TOTAL@@ as the value of the accumulated criterion.
If the cost field begins with u or a single letter from A-Z, a UPS-style lookup is done.
If the cost field begins with s, a Perl subroutine call is made.
If the cost field begins with e, zero cost is returned and an error placed in the session ship_message field, available as [data session ship_message].

Here is an example shipping file using all of the methods of determining shipping cost.

NOTE: The columns are lined up for your reading convenience, the actual entries should have ONE tab between fields.

global Option   n/a                 0   0      g PriceDivide

rpsg   RPS      quantity            0   0      R RPS products/rps.csv
rpsg   RPS      quantity            0   5      7.00
rpsg   RPS      quantity            6   10     10.00
rpsg   RPS      quantity            11  150    x .95
 
usps   US Post  price               0   0      0
usps   US Post  price               0   50     f 7 + (1 * @@TOTAL@@ / 10)
usps   US Post  price               50  100    f 12 + (.90 * @@TOTAL@@ / 10)
usps   US Post  price               100 99999  f @@TOTAL@@ * .05

upsg   UPS      weight [value state]  0   0      e Nothing to ship.
upsg   UPS      AK HI               0   150    u upsg [default zip 980] 12.00 round
upsg   UPS                          0   150    u Ground [default zip 980] 2.00 round
upsg   UPS                          150 9999   e @@TOTAL@@ lb too heavy for UPS

upsca  UPS/CA   weight              0   0      c C UPS_Canada products/can.csv
upsca  UPS/CA   weight              -1   -1    o PriceDivide=0
upsca  UPS/CA   weight              0   150    C upsca [default zip A7G] 5.00
upsca  UPS/CA   weight              150 99999  e @@TOTAL@@ lb too heavy for UPS

fedex  FedEx    quantity            1   9999   s fedex_cost ;[value country]

global

This is a global option setting, called out by the g at the beginning. PriceDivide tells the shipping routines to multiply all shipping settings by the PriceDivide factor -- except those explicitly set differently with the o individual modifier. This allows currency conversion. (Currently the only option is PriceDivide.)

rpsg

If the user selected RPS, (code rpsg), and the quantity on the order was 3, the cost of 7.00 from the second rpsg line would be applied. If the quantity were 7, the next entry from the third rpsg line would be selected, for a cost of 10.00. If the quantity were 15, the last rpsg would be selected, and the quantity of 15 multiplied by 0.95, for a total cost of 14.25.

usps

The next mode, usps, is a more complicated formula -- using price as the criteria. If the total price of all items in the shopping cart (same as [subtotal] without quantity price breaks in place) is from 1 to 50, the cost will be 7.00 plus 10% of the order. If the total is from 50.01 to 100, the cost will be 12.00 plus 9% of the order total. If the cost is 100.01 or greater, then 5% of the order total will be used as the shipping cost.

upsg

The next, upsg, is a special case. It specifies a UPS lookup based on your UPS zone and two required values (and two optional arguments):

1. Weight (careful, always use weight for this one!)
2. The zip/postal code of the recipient, of which only
   the first three digits are used.
3. A fixed amount to add to the cost found in the UPS
   tables (use 0 as a placeholder if specifying roundup)
4. If set to 'round', will round the cost up to the next
   integer monetary unit.

If the cost returned is zero, the reason will be placed as an error message in the session variable ship_message (available as [data session ship_message]).

UPS weights are always rounded up if any fraction is present.

The routines use standard UPS lookup tables. First, the UPS Zone file must be present. That is a standard UPS document, specific to your area, that you must obtain from UPS and enter into and make available to MiniVend in TAB-delimited format. (As of March 1997, you can use the standard .csv file distributed by UPS on their web site at www.ups.com.) You specify it with the UpsZoneFile directive -- it is usually named something like NNN.csv, where NNN is the first three digits of the originating zip code. If you place it in your products directory, then the directive would look like:

UPSZoneFile  products/450.csv

Second, you must obtain the cost tables from UPS (again, you can get them from www.ups.com) and place them into a MiniVend database. That database, its identifier specified with the first argument (Ground in the example) of the cost specification, is consulted to determine the UPS cost for that weight and rate schedule.

In the example below, you would want a database specification like:

Database  Ground  Ground.csv  CSV

You can append a simple shipping cost qualification to a UPS lookup. If any additional parameters are present after the five usual ones used for UPS lookup, they will be interpreted as a Perl subroutine call. The syntax is the same as if it was encased in the tag [perl sub] [/perl], but the following substitutions are made prior to the call:

@@COST@@  is replaced with whatever the UPS lookup returned
@@GEO@@   is replaced with the zip (or other geo code)
@@ADDER@@ is replaced with the defined adder
@@TYPE@@  is replaced with the UPS shipping type
@@TOTAL@@ is replaced with the total weight

The example above also illustrates geographic qualification. If the value of the form variable state on the checkout form is AK or HI, the U.S. states Alaska and Hawaii, a $10.00 additional charge (over and above the normal 2.00 handling charge) is made. This can also be used to select on country, product type, or any other qualification that can be encoded in the file.

upsca

The next entry is just like the UPS definition except it defines a different lookup zone file (products/can.csv) and uses a different database, upsca. It also disables the global PriceDivide option for itself only, not allowing currency conversion. Otherwise, the process is the same.

You can define up to 27 different lookup zones in the same fashion. If one of the cost lines (the last field) in the shipping.asc file begins with a "c", it configures another lookup zone, which must be lettered from A to Z. It takes the format:

c X name file* length* multiplier*

where X is the letter from A-Z. The name is used internally as an identifier and must be present. The optional file is relative to the catalog root (like UpsZoneFile is) -- if it is not present the file equal to name in the products directory (ProductDir) will be used as the zone file. If the optional digit length is present, that determines the number of signficant digits in the passed postal/geo code. When the optional multiplier is present, the weight is multiplied by it before doing the table lookup. This allows shipping weights in pounds or kilograms to be adapted to a table using the opposite as the key. Remember, the match on weight must be exact, and MiniVend rounds the weight up to the next even unit.

To define the exact equivalent of the UPS lookup zone, you would do:

c U UPS products/450.csv 3 1

The only difference is that the beginning code to call the lookup is upper-case U instead of lower-case u.

fedex

The last entry, fedex, uses a named subroutine. The example is designed to work with this subroutine defined in catalog.cfg:

Sub <<EOF
sub fedex_cost {
    my($country) = @_;
    my $cost;
    if($country =~ /^usa?$/i) {
        $cost = 20;
    }
    else {
        $cost = 50;
    }
    return $cost;
}
EOF

NOTE: The text above appears indented, but in the catalog.cfg file it must begin at the beginning of the line. Also, make sure you upload in ASCII mode -- carriage returns are not tolerated.

It will simply return a cost of 20 if the country the user has entered is US or USA -- and return 50 otherwise. Obviously much more complicated routines can be defined. Read the following only if you know Perl well and/or are not of faint heart.

You can call named subroutines with any of the methods, defined with [set name] your_perl_code_here [/set], Sub, or GlobalSub.

If parameters are specified, separated by commas, they will be taken as either fixed values or as database fields to be sent to the subroutine in an anonymous hash keyed on the item code (for each item in the *current* shopping cart).

If a database other than the products database is to be used, the database name should be prepended with a colon (:) separator. If a key other than the item code is to be used, it should be appended with a semi-colon separator.

To send fixed value to the subroutine (appended to the call reference as an array of fixed scalar parameters), begin the parameter with a semicolon. They will be appended globally after the hash reference.

Examples

 # Sends the weight of each item from the products database
 
 weight 
 
 
 # Sends the value of the handling field from the
 # special database for each item
 
 special:handling 
 
  
 # Sends the value of the 'adder' field from the special
 # database, for the value the user has entered for 'country'
 # The spaces around the separators are OK

 special : adder ; [value country] 
 

 # Sends a fixed parameter of 20 to the subroutine
 
 ;20

The parameters are interpreted for MiniVend tags before being parsed. Here is a complete example:

 s item_cost weight,modes:[value mv_shipmode];[value country], ;20, ;25

items in the shopping cart:  00-0011 19=202

------- product database  ----

code    weight   description      price
00-0011   8      The Mona Lisa    1000
19-202    12     American Gothic  800


------- modes database  ----

code    upsg  upsb  upsr  postal_air postal_surface
UK        0    0     0       1            1

will call the subroutine item_cost, and will send the weight of each item, along with the value of the modes database column corresponding to the shipping mode the user has selected, keyed with the value of country on their order form. If the user has selected mode postal_air, and is in the country coded as UK, the subroutine will be called as if it was:

item_cost( {
              '00-0011' => {postal_air => '1', weight => '8'}, 
              '19-202' => {postal_air => '1', weight => '12'},
           }, 20, 25 )

If the undefined value is returned by the routine, the next shipping mode will be tried. If a non-numeric string value is returned, its value will be placed as an error message in the session variable ship_message (available as [data session ship_message]) and a zero cost will be returned. If any number or the empty string is returned, it will be used as the shipping cost (even 0).

More on UPS-style lookup

The UPS-style lookup uses two files for its purposes, both of which need to be in a format like UPS distributes for US shippers.

The zone file is a file that is usually specific to the originating location. For US shippers shipping to US locations, it is named for the first three digits of the originating zip code with a CSV extenstion -- for example, 450.csv.

It has a format similar to:

low - high, zone,zone,zone,zone

The low entry is the low bound of the geographic location -- high is the high bound. (By geographic location we mean zip code.) If the first digits of the zip code, compared alphanumerically, fall between the low and high values, that zone is used as the column name for a lookup in the rate database. The weight is used as the row key.

The first operative row of the zone file (one without leading quotes) is used to determine the zone column name. In the US, it looks something like

Dest. ZIP,Ground,3 Day Select,2nd Day Air,2nd Day Air A.M.,Next Day Air Saver,Next Day Air

MiniVend strips all non-alpha characters and comes up with:

DestZIP,Ground,3DaySelect,2ndDayAir,2ndDayAirAM,NextDayAirSaver,NextDayAir

Therefore, the zone column (shipping type) that you would use use for UPS ground would be "Ground", and that is what the database should be named. To support the above, you would want a shipping.asc line that reads:

upsg  UPS Ground  weight  0  150  u Ground [default zip 983]

and a catalog.cfg database callout of:

Database  Ground  Ground.csv  CSV

You can change these column names as long as they correspond to the identifier of your rate database.

The rate database is a standard MiniVend database. For US shippers, UPS distributes their rates in a fairly standard comma-separated value format, with weight being the first (or key) column and the remainder of the columns corresponding to the zone -- which you obtain from the lookup in the zone file.

To adapt other shipper zone files to MiniVend's lookup, you will need to make it fit the UPS US format. (Most of the UPS international files don't follow the US format). For example, the 1998 Ohio-US to Canada file begins:

   Canada Standard Zone Charts from Ohio
   Locate the zone by cross-refrencing the first three
   characters of the destination Postal Code in the Postal
   Range column.

   Postal Range  Zone
   A0A  A9Z      54
   B0A  B9Z      54
   C0A  C9Z      54
   E0A  E9Z      54
   G0A  G0A      51
   G0B  G0L      54
   G0M  G0S      51
   G0T  G0W      54

You need to change it to

Destination,canstnd
A0A-A9Z, 54
B0A-B9Z, 54
C0A-C9Z, 54
E0A-E9Z, 54
G0A-G0A, 51
G0B-G0L, 54
G0M-G0S, 51
G0T-G0W, 54

and match it with a canstnd CSV database that looks like

Weight,51,52,53,54,55,56
1,7.00,7.05,7.10,11.40,11.45,11.50
2,7.55,7.65,7.75,11.95,12.05,12.10
3,8.10,8.15,8.40,12.60,12.70,12.85
4,8.65,8.70,9.00,13.20,13.30,13.55
5,9.20,9.25,9.75,13.85,13.85,14.20
6,9.70,9.85,10.35,14.45,14.50,14.90
7,10.25,10.40,11.10,15.15,15.15,15.70
8,10.80,10.95,11.70,15.70,15.75,16.35
9,11.35,11.55,12.30,16.40,16.45,17.20

and is called out in catalog.cfg with:

Database canstnd canstnd.csv CSV

With the above, a 4-pound shipment to postal code E5C 4TL would yield a cost of 13.20.

Geographic qualification

If the return value in the main criterion includes whitespace, the remaining information in the field is used as a qualifier for the subsidiary shipping modes. This can be used to create geographic qualifications for shipping, as in:

upsg   UPS Ground   weight [value state]   0     0     e No items selected
upsg   UPS Ground   AK HI                  0     150   u Ground [value zip] 12.00
upsg   UPS Ground                          0     150   u Ground [value zip] 3.00

If upsg is the mode selected, the value of the user session variable state is examined to see if it matches the geographic qualification on a whole-word boundary. If it is AK or HI, then UPS Ground with an adder of 12 will be selected; if it "falls through", then UPS Ground with an adder of 3 will be selected.

Handling charges

Additional handling charges can be defined in the shipping file by setting the form variable mv_handling to a space, comma, or null-separated set of valid shipping modes. The lookup and charges are done in the same fashion, and the additional charges are added to the order. (The user is responsible for displaying the charge on the order report or receipt with a [shipping handling] tag or the like.) All of the shipping modes found in mv_handling will be applied -- if multiple instances are found on a form, the accordingly null-separated values will all be applied. Careful! This should not be done in an item-list unless you take care to account for multiple setting of the variables.

If you wished only to process a handling charge once, you could do safely:

[item-list]
[if-item-field very_heavy]
[perl values]
    return '' if $Values->{mv_handling} =~ /very_heavy/;
    return "<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_handling VALUE=very_heavy>";
[/perl]
[/if-item-field]
[/item-list]

A non-blank/non-zero value in the database field very_heavy will then trigger Perl code which will only set mv_handling once.

Default Shipping Mode

If a default shipping mode other than default is desired, enter it into the DefaultShipping directive:

DefaultShipping     upsg

This will make the entry on the order form checked by default when the user starts the order process, if it is put in the form:

<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME=mv_shipmode VALUE=upsg [checked mv_shipmode upsg]>

To force a choice by the user, you can make mv_shipmode a required form variable (with RequiredFields or in an order profile) and set DefaultShipping to zero.

USER DATABASE

MiniVend has a user database function which allows customers to save any pertinent values from their session. It also allows the setting of database or file access control lists for use in controlling access to pages and databases on a user-by-user basis.

The database field names in the user database correspond with the form variable names in the user session. If you have a column named address, then when the user logs in the contents of that field will be placed in the form variable address, and will then be availabe for display with [value address]. Similarly, the database value is available with [data table=userdb column=address key=username].

The ASCII file for the database will not reflect changes unless you export the file with [tag export userdb][/tag]. It is not advisable to edit the ASCII file, as it will overwrite the real data that is in the DBM table; user logins and changes would be lost. (This would not happen with SQL, but editing the ASCII file would have no effect.) You should probably set the NoImport configuration directive accordingly.

This section describes the user database in MiniVend 3.12. Prior to 3.12, the user database was a demonstration add-on module with a global subroutine interface. Some of the concepts were the same; the module interface is much the same; and page code based on the previous version should work if the userdb.cfg file is still there.

The field names to be used are not set in concrete; they may be changed with options, and fields may be added or subtracted at any time. Most users will choose to keep the default demo fields for simplicity sake, as they cover most common needs. As distributed in the demo, the fields are:

code
accounts
acl
address
address_book
b_address
b_city
b_country
b_name
b_nickname
b_phone
b_state
b_zip
carts
city
country
db_acl
email
email_copy
fax
fax_order
file_acl
mv_credit_card_exp_month
mv_credit_card_exp_year
mv_credit_card_info
mv_credit_card_type
mv_shipmode
name
order_numbers
p_nickname
password
phone_day
phone_night
preferences
s_nickname
state
time
zip

A few of those fields are special in naming, though all can be changed via an option. A couple of the fields are reserved for Minivend's use.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are not running with PGP or other encryption for your credit card numbers, which should NEVER be done anyway, then it is important that you remove the mv_credit_card_info field from the database.

The special database fields are:

accounts         Storage for billing accounts book
address_book     Storage for shipping address book
b_nickname       Nickname of current billing account
carts            Storage for shopping carts
p_nickname       Nickname for current preferences
preferences      Storage for preferences
s_nickname       Nickname for current shipping address
db_acl           Storage for database access control lists
file_acl         Storage for file access control lists
acl              Storage for simple integrated access control

If not defined, the corresponding capability is not available.

NOTE: The fields accounts, address_book, carts, and preferences should be defined as a BLOB type if you are using SQL. This is also suggested for the acl fields if those lists could be large.

Reserved fields include:

code        The username (key for the database)
password    Password storage
time        Last time of login

The [userdb ...] tag

MiniVend provides a [userdb ...] tag to access the UserDB functions.

[userdb
       function=function_name
       username="username"*
       assign_username=1
       username_mask=REGEX*
       password="password"*
       verify="password"*
       oldpass="old password"*
       crypt="1|0"*
       shipping="fields for shipping save"
       billing="fields for billing save"
       preferences="fields for preferences save"
       ignore_case="1|0"*
       force_lower=1
       param1=value*
       param2=value*
       ...
       ]

* Optional

It is normally called in an mv_click or mv_check setting, as in:

[set Login]
mv_todo=return
mv_nextpage=welcome
[userdb function=login]
[/set]

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_click VALUE=Login>
Username <INPUT NAME=mv_username SIZE=10>
Password <INPUT NAME=mv_password SIZE=10>
</FORM>

There are several global parameters that apply to any use of the userdb functions. Most importantly, by default the database table is set to be userdb. If you must use another table name, then you should include a database=table parameter with any call to userdb. The global parameters (default in parens):

database     Sets user database table (userdb)
show         Show the return value of certain functions
             or the error message, if any (0)
force_lower  Force possibly upper-case database fields
             to lower case session variable names (0)
billing      Set the billing fields (see Accounts)
shipping     Set the shipping fields (see Address Book)
preferences  Set the preferences fields (see Preferences)
bill_field   Set field name for accounts (accounts)
addr_field   Set field name for address book (address_book)
pref_field   Set field name for preferences (preferences)
cart_field   Set field name for cart storage (carts)
pass_field   Set field name for password (password)
time_field   Set field for storing last login time (time)
expire_field Set field for expiration date (expire_date)
acl          Set field for simple access control storage (acl)
file_acl     Set field for file access control storage (file_acl)
db_acl       Set field for database access control storage (db_acl)

By default the system crypt() call will be used to compare the password. This is best for security, but the passwords in the user database will not be human readable.

If you don't keep critical information and don't do MiniVend administration via the UserDB capability, then you may wish to use the <UserDB> directive (described below) to set encryption off by default:

UserDB   default   crypt   0

That will set encryption off by default. You can still set encryption on by passing crypt=1 with any call to a new_account, change_pass, or login call.

Setting defaults with the UserDB directive

The UserDB directive provides a way to set defaults for the user database. For example, if you always wanted to save and recall the scratch variable tickets in the user database instead of the form variable tickets, you could set:

UserDB   default   scratch  tickets

That makes every call to [userdb function=login] be equivalent to [userdb function=login scratch=tickets].

If you wish to override that default for one call only, you can use [userdb function=login scratch="passes"].

If you wish to log failed access authorizations, set the UserDB profile parameter log_failed true:

UserDB  default  log_failed 1

To disable logging of failed access authorizations (the default), set the UserDB profile parameter log_failed to 0:

UserDB  default  log_failed 0

The UserDB directive uses the same key-value pair settings as the Locale and Route directives, and you may have more than one set of defaults. You can set them in a hash structure:

UserDB  crypt_case  <<EOF
{
    'scratch'        => 'tickets',
    'crypt'          => '1',
    'ignore_case'    => '0',
}
EOF

UserDB  default  <<EOF
{
    'scratch'        => 'tickets',
    'crypt'          => '1',
    'ignore_case'    => '1',
}
EOF

NOTE: The usual here-document caveats apply -- the EOF must be on a line by itself with no leading/trailing whitespace.

The last one to be set becomes the default.

The option profile selects the set to use. So if you wanted usernames and passwords to be case sensitive with no encryption, you could pass this call:

[userdb function=new_account profile=case_crypt]

The username and password will be stored as typed in, and the password will be encrypted in the database.

User Database functions

The user database features are implemented as a series of functions attached to the userdb tag. The functions are:

login

Active parameters: username, password, crypt, pass_field, ignore_case

Log in to Minivend. By default, the username is contained in the form variable mv_username and the password in mv_password. If the login is successful, the session value username ([data session username]) will be set to the user name.

This will recall the values of all non-special fields in the user database and place them in their corresponding user form variables.

The CookieLogin directive (catalog.cfg) allows users to save their username/password in a cookie. Expiration time is set by SaveExpire, renewed every time they log in. To cause the cookie to be generated originally, the form variable mv_cookie_password or mv_cookie_username must be set in the login form. The former causes both username and password to be saved, the latter just the username.

logout

Log out of Minivend. No additional parameters are needed.

new_account

Active parameters: username, password, verify, assign_username, username_mask, ignore_case

Create a new account. It requires the username, password, and verify parameters, which are by default contained in the form variables mv_username, mv_password, mv_verify respectively.

If you set the assign_username parameter, then UserDB will assign a sequential username. The counter parameter can be used to set the filename (must be absolute), or you can accept the default of CATALOG_DIR/etc/username.counter. The first username will be "U0001" if the counter doesn't exist already.

The ignore_case parameter forces the username and password to lower case in the database, in effect rendering the username and password case-insensitive.

If you set username_mask to a valid Perl regular expression (without the surrounding / /) then any username containing a matching string will not be allowed for use. For example, to screen out order numbers from being used by a random user:

[userdb function=new_account
        username_mask="^[A-Z]*[0-9]"
        ]

If you want to automatically create an account for every order, you can do in the OrderReport file:

[userdb function=new_account
        username="[value mv_order_number]"
        password="[value zip]"
        verify="[value zip]"
        database="orders"
        ]

This would be coupled with a login form that asked for order number and zip code; thereupon allowing you to display the contents of a transaction database with (presumably updated) order status information or a shipping company tracking number.

change_pass

Active parameters: username, password, verify, oldpass

Change the password on the currently logged-in account. It requires the username, password, verify, and oldpass parameters, which are by default contained in the form variables mv_username, mv_password, mv_verify, mv_password_old respectively.

set_shipping

Active parameters: nickname, shipping, ship_field

Place an entry in the shipping Address book. Example:

[userdb function=set_shipping nickname=Dad]

See Address Book below.

get_shipping

Active parameters: nickname, shipping, ship_field

Recall an entry from the shipping Address book. Example:

[userdb function=get_shipping nickname=Dad]

See Address Book below.

get_shipping_names

Active parameters: ship_field

Gets the names of shipping address book entries and places them in the variable address_book. By default, it does not return the values; if you wish them to be returned you can set the parameter show to 1, as in:

[set name=shipping_nicknames
     interpolate=1]
  [userdb function=get_shipping_names show=1]
[/set]

set_billing

Active parameters: nickname, billing, bill_field

Place an entry in the billing accounts book. Example:

[userdb function=set_billing nickname=discover]

See Accounts Book below.

get_billing

Active parameters: nickname, billing, bill_field

Recall an entry from the billing accounts book. Example:

[userdb function=get_billing nickname=visa]

See Accounts Book below.

save

Saves all non-special form values that have columns in the user database.

set_cart

Save the contents of a shopping cart.

[userdb function=set_cart nickname=christmas]

See Carts below.

get_cart

Active parameters: nickname, carts_field, target

Recall a saved shopping cart.

[userdb function=get_cart nickname=mom_birthday]

Setting target saves to a different shopping cart than the default main cart. The carts_field controls the database field used for storage.

set_acl

Active parameters: location, acl_field, delete

Set a simple acl. Example:

[userdb function=set_acl location=cartcfg/editcart]

This allows the current user to access the page "cartcfg/editcart" if it is access-protected.

To delete access, do:

[userdb function=set_acl location=cartcfg/editcart delete=1]

To display the setting at the same time as setting use the show attribute:

[userdb function=set_acl location=cartcf/editcart show=1]

check_acl

Active parameters: location, acl_field

Checks the simple access control listing for a location, returning 1 if allowed and the empty string if not allowed.

[if type=explicit
    compare="[userdb
                function=check_acl
                location=cartcfg/editcart]"
]
[page cartcfg/editcart]Edit your cart configuration[/page]
[/if]

set_file_acl, set_db_acl

Active parameters: location, mode, db_acl_field, file_acl_field, delete

Sets a complex access control value. Takes the form:

[userdb function=set_file_acl
        mode=rw
        location=products/inventory.txt]

where mode is any value you wish to check for with check_file_acl. As with the simple ACL, you can use delete=1 to delete the location entirely.

check_file_acl, check_db_acl

Active parameters: location, mode, db_acl_field, file_acl_field

Checks a complex access control value and returns a true/false (1/0) value. Takes the form:

[userdb function=check_db_acl
        mode=w
        location=inventory]

where mode is any value you wish to check for with check_file_acl. It will return true if the mode string is contained within the entry for that location. Example:

[if type=explicit
    compare="[userdb
                function=check_db_acl
                mode=w
                location=inventory]"
]
[userdb function=set_acl location=cartcfg/edit_inventory]
[page cartcfg/edit_inventory]You may edit the inventory database[/page]
[else]
[userdb function=set_acl location=cartcfg/edit_inventory delete=1]
Sorry, you can't edit inventory.
[/if]

Address Book

address_book is a shipping address book. The shipping address book saves information relevant to shipping the order. In its simplest form, this can be the only address book needed. By default these form values are included:

s_nickname
name
fname
lname
address
address1
address2
address3
city
state
zip
country
phone_day
mv_shipmode

The first field is always the name of the form variable that contains the key for the entry.

The values are saved with the [userdb function=set_shipping] tag call, and are recalled with [userdb function=get_shipping]. A list of the keys available is kept in the form value address_book, suitable for iteration in an HTML select box or in a set of links.

You can get the names of a the addresses with the get_shipping_names function:

[userdb function=get_shipping_names]

By default, they are placed in the variable address_book. Here is a little snippet that builds a select box:

<FORM ACTION="[process-target]" METHOD=POST>
[userdb function=get_shipping_names]
[if value address_book]
<SELECT NAME="s_nickname">
[loop arg="[value address_book]"] <OPTION> [loop-code] [/loop]
</SELECT>
<INPUT TYPE=submit NAME=mv_check VALUE="Recall Shipping">
</FORM>

The same principle works with accounts , carts, and preferences.

To restore a cart based on the above, you can place in an mv_check routine:

[set Recall Shipping]
mv_todo=return
mv_nextpage=ord/basket
[userdb function=get_shipping nickname="[value s_nickname]"]
[/set]

When the mv_check variable is encountered, the contents of the scratch variable Recall Shipping are processed and the shipping address information inserted into the user form values. This is destructive of any current values of those user session variables, of course.

If you want to change the fields that are recalled or saved, you can use the shipping parameter:

[userdb function=get_shipping
        nickname=city_and_state
        shipping="city state"]

Only the values of the city and state variables will be replaced.

Accounts Book

The accounts book saves information relevant to billing the order. By default these form values are included:

b_nickname
b_name
b_fname
b_lname
b_address
b_address1
b_address2
b_address3
b_city
b_state
b_zip
b_country
b_phone
purchase_order
mv_credit_card_type
mv_credit_card_exp_month
mv_credit_card_exp_year
mv_credit_card_info

The values are saved with the [userdb function=set_billing] tag call, and are recalled with [userdb function=get_billing]. A list of the keys available is kept in the form value accounts, suitable for iteration in an HTML select box or in a set of links.

Preferences

Preferences are miscellaneous session information. They include by default the fields:

email
fax
phone_night
fax_order
email_copy

The field p_nickname acts as a key to select the preference set. You can change the values that are included with the preferences parameter:

[userdb function=set_preferences
        preferences="email_copy email fax_order fax"]

or in catalog.cfg:

UserDB default preferences "mail_list email fax_order music_genre"

Carts

You may save or recall the contents of shopping carts in much the same fashion. See the simple demo application ord/basket.html page for an example.

Controlling page access with UserDB

You can implement a simple access control scheme with the MiniVend user database. Controlled pages must reside in a directory which has a file named .access that is zero bytes in length. (If it is more than 0 bytes, then only the RemoteUser or MasterHost may access files in that directory.)

Set the following variables in catalog.cfg:

Variable   MV_USERDB_ACL_TABLE  userdb
Variable   MV_USERDB_ACL_COLUMN acl

The MV_USERDB_ACL_TABLE is the table which controls access, and likewise the MV_USERDB_ACL_TABLE names the column in that database which will be checked for authorization.

The database entry should contain the complete MiniVend-style page name of the page to be allowed. It will not match substrings.

For example, if the user flycat followed this link:

<A HREF="[area cartcfg/master_edit]">Edit</A>

Access would be allowed if the contents of the userdb were:

code    acl
flycat  cartcfg/master_edit

and disallowed if it were:

code    acl
flycat  cartcfg/master_editor

You can enable access with:

[userdb function=set_acl location="cartcfg/master_edit"]

and disallow access with:

[userdb function=set_acl
        delete=1
        location="cartcfg/master_edit"]

Of course a pre-existing database with the ACL values will work as well; it need not be in the UserDB setup.

TRACKING AND BACKEND ORDER ENTRY

MiniVend allows the entry of orders into a system via one of several methods. The AsciiBackend capability allows submittal of parameters to an external order entry script. Support for SQL allows entry of orders directly into an SQL database. Orders can be written to an ASCII file. They can be formatted precisely for email-based systems. The orders can be placed in a DBM file. Finally, embedded Perl allows completely flexible order entry, including real-time credit-card verification and settlement.

ASCII Backup Order Tracking

If you set AsciiTrack to a legal file name (based in VendRoot unless it has a leading "/"), a copy of the order will be saved there as well as being emailed.

If the file name string begins with a pipe "|", a program will be run and the output "piped" to that program. This allows easy backend entry of orders with an external program.

Database Tracking

Once the order report is processed, you can be sure the order will complete. Therefore it is the perfect place to put MiniVend tags that make order entries in database tables.

A good model is to place a single record in a database summarizing the order, and a series of lines that correspond to each line item in the order. This can be in the same database table; if the order number itself is the key for the summary, you can append a line number to the order number to show each line of the order.

The following would summarize a sample order number S00001 for part number 00-0011 and 99-102:

code     order_number part_number  quantity   price    shipping  tax
S00001   S00001                    3          2010     12.72     100.50
S00001-1 S00001       00-0011      2          1000     UPS       yes
S00001-2 S00001       99-102       1          10       UPS       yes

You can add fields as appropriate, perhaps with order status, shipping tracking number, address, customer number, or other information.

The above can be easily done with MiniVend's [import ....] tag using the convenient NOTES format:

  [set import_status]
  [import table=orders type=LINE continue=NOTES]

  code: [value mv_order_number]
  order_number: [value mv_order_number]
  quantity: [nitems]
  price: [subtotal noformat=1]
  shipping: [shipping noformat=1]
  tax: [salestax noformat=1]

  [/import]

  [item-list]
  [import table=orders type=LINE continue=NOTES]

  code: [value mv_order_number]-[item-increment]
  order_number: [value mv_order_number]
  quantity: [item-quantity]
  price: [item-price noformat=1]
  shipping: [shipping-description]
  tax: [if-item-field nontaxable]No[else]Yes[/else][/if]

  [/import][/item-list]

Custom Order Routing

MiniVend can send order emails and perform custom credit card charges and/or logging for each individual item. The Route directive is used to control this behavior, along with the mv_order_route item attribute and mv_order_route form variable.

Routes are established with the Route directive, which is similar to the Locale directive. Each route is like a locale, in that you can set key-value pairs. Here is an example setting:

Route  VEN  pgp_key         0x67798115
Route  VEN  email           orders@minivend.com
Route  VEN  reply           service@minivend.com
Route  VEN  encrypt         1
Route  VEN  encrypt_program "/usr/bin/pgpe -fat -q -r %s"
Route  VEN  report          etc/report_mail

This route would be used whenever the value VEN was contained in the form variable mv_order_route.

The last route that is defined provides the defaults for all other routes. For example, if encrypt_program is set there then the same value will be the default for all routes.

The attributes that can be set are:

attach

Determines whether the order report should be attached to the main order report email. This is useful if you must print certain items separately from others, perhaps for FAX to a fulfilment house.

counter

The location of a counter file which should be used instead of OrderCounter for this route. It will generate a different value for mv_order_number for the route.

credit_card

Determines whether credit card encryption should be done for this order. Either this or encrypt should always be set.

cybermode

If this is set, enables CyberCash for the route. You can also set the variables CYBER_CONFIGFILE, CYBER_SECRET, and all other normal CYBERCASH variables. For example:

Route VEN cybermode         mauthonly
Route VEN CYBER_CONFIGFILE  config/vendor1_cfg
Route VEN CYBER_VERSION     3.2

email

The email address(es) where the order should be sent. Set just like the MailOrderTo directive, which is also the default.

encrypt

Whether the entire order should be encrypted with the encrypt_program. If credit_card is set, then the credit card will first be encrypted, then the entire order encrypted.

encrypt_program

The encryption program incantaton which should be used. Set identically to the EncryptProgram directive, except that %s will be replaced with the pgp_key. Default is pgpe -fat -r %s.

errors_to

Sets the Errors-To: email header so that bounced orders will go to the proper address. Default is the same as MailOrderTo.

increment

Whether the order number should be incremented as a result of this result. Default is not to increment, as the order number should usually be the same for different routes within the same customer order.

individual_track

A directory where individual order tracking files will be placed. The file name will correspond to the value of mv_order_number. This can be useful for batching orders via download.

individual_track_ext

The extension that will be added to the file name for individual_track. Must contain a period (.) if that is desired.

individual_track_ext     .pgp

pgp_cc_key

The PGP key selector that is used to determine which public key is used for encryption of credit cards only. With PGP 5 and 6, you can see appropriate values by using the command pgpk -l.

pgp_key

The PGP key selector that is used to determine which public key is used for encryption. If pgp_cc_key is set, that key will be used for credit card encryption instead of pgp_key. With PGP 5 and 6, you can see appropriate values by using the command pgpk -l.

profile

The custom order profile which should be performed to check the order. If it fails, then the route will not be performed. See OrderProfile and mv_order_profile.

receipt

The receipt page that should be used for this routing. This only makes sense if supplant is set for the route.

report

The report page that should be used for this routing. If attach is defined, then the contents of the report will be placed in a MIME attachment in the main order report.

reply

The Reply-To header that should be set. Default is the same as email.

If there are only word characters (A-Za-z0-9 and underscore) then it describes a MiniVend variable name where the address can be found.

supplant

Whether this route should supplant the main order report. If set, the AsciiTrack operation will use this route and the normal MiniVend order email sequence will not be performed.

track

The name of a file which should be used for tracking. If the supplant attribute is set, then the normal order tracking will be used as well.

track

A number representing the mode to change either track or individual_track files to.

An individual item routing causes all items labeld with that route to be placed in a special sub-cart which will be used for the order report. This means that the [item-list] LIST [/item-list] will only contain those items, allowing operations to be performed on subsets of the complete order.

Here is an example of an order routing:

   Route  HARD  pgp_key          0x67798115
   Route  HARD  email            hardgoods@minivend.com
   Route  HARD  reply            service@minivend.com
   Route  HARD  encrypt          1
   Route  HARD  encrypt_program  "/usr/bin/pgpe -fat -q -r %s"
   Route  HARD  report           etc/report_mail
                                
   Route  SOFT  email            ""
   Route  SOFT  profile          create_download_link
   Route  SOFT  empty            1

   Route  main  cybermode        mauthonly
   Route  main  CYBER_VERSION    3.2
   Route  main  CYBER_CONFIGFILE etc/cybercash.cfg
   Route  main  pgp_key          0x67798115
   Route  main  email            orders@minivend.com
   Route  main  reply            service@minivend.com
   Route  main  encrypt          1
   Route  main  encrypt_program  "/usr/bin/pgpe -fat -q -r %s"
   Route  main  report           etc/report_all

To tell MiniVend that order routing is in effect, the variable mv_order_route is set on the final order submission form:

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="mv_order_route" VALUE="main">

To set the order routing for individual items, some method of determining their status must be made and the mv_order_route attribute must be set. This could be set at the time of the item being placed in the basket, or you can have a database field called goods_type set to the appropriate value. We will use this Perl routine on the final order form:

[perl arg=carts interpolate=1]
   my $string = <<'EOF';
[item-list][item-code]  [item-field goods_type]
[/item-list]
EOF
   my @items;
   my %route;
   @items = grep /\S/, split /\n+/, $string;
   for(@items) {
       my ($code, $keycode) = split /\t/, $_;
      $route{$code} = $keycode;
   }
   my $cart = $Carts->{'main'};
   my $item;
   foreach $item ( @{ $Carts->{'main'} } ) {
       $item->{mv_order_route} = $route{$item->{'code'}} || undef;
   }
   return '';
[/perl]

Now the individual items are labeled with a mv_order_route value which will cause their inclusion in the appropriate order routing.

Upon submission of the order form, any item labeled HARD will be accumulated and sent to the email address hardgoods@minivend.com, where presumably the item will be pulled from inventory and shipped.

Any item labeled SOFT will be passed to the order profile create_download_link, which will place it in a staging area for customer download. (This would be supported by a link on the receipt, perhaps by reading a value set in the profile).

The main order routing will use CyberCash to charge the order, and will be completely encrypted for emailing.

MINIVEND SECURITY

SSL support

MiniVend has several features that enable secure ordering via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Despite their mystique, SSL servers are actually quite easy to operate. The difference between the standard HTTP server and the SSL HTTPS server, from the standpoint of the user, is only in the encryption and the specification of the URL -- https: is used for the URL protocol specification instead of the usual http: designation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: MiniVend attempts to perform operations securely, but no guarantees or warranties of any kind are made! Since MiniVend comes with Perl source, it is possible to modify the program to create bad security problems. One way to minimize this possibility is to record digital signatures, using MD5 or PGP, of minivend, minivend.cfg, and all modules included in minivend. Check them on a regular basis to ensure they have not been changed.

MiniVend uses the SecureURL directive to set the base URL for secure transactions, and the VendURL directive for normal non-secure transactions. Secure URLs can be enabled for forms through a form action of [process-target secure=1]. An individual page can be displayed via SSL with [page href=mvstyle_pagename secure=1]. A certain page can be set to be always secure with the AlwaysSecure catalog.cfg directive.

MiniVend incorporates additional security for credit card numbers. The field mv_credit_card_number will not ever be written to disk.

To enable automated encryption of the credit card information, you need to define the directive CreditCardAuto to yes. EncryptProgram also needs to be defined with some value, one which will, with hope, encrypt the number. PGP is now recommended above all other encryption program. The entries should look something like:

CreditCardAuto   Yes
EncryptProgram   /usr/bin/pgpe -fat -r sales@company.com

See CreditCardAuto for more information on how to set the form variables.

Administrative Pages

With MiniVend's GlobalSub capability, very complex add-on schemes can be implemented with Perl subroutines. And with the new writable database, pages that modify the catalog data can be made. If you mark a page as an AdminPage, only the catalog administrator may use it. See MasterHost, RemoteUser, and Password.

In addition, you can create a file in any MiniVend page subdirectory called .access. If that file is present and non-zero in size, any pages in that directory are only available to the catalog administrator.

Controlling access to certain pages

If the directory containing the page has a file .access and that file is zero bytes long, then access can be gated in one of several ways.

If the file .access_gate is present, it will be read and scanned for page-based access. The file has the form:
```
page: condition
*: condition
```
The page is the file name of the file to be controlled (the .html extension is optional); the condition is either a literal Yes/No or MiniVend tags which would produce a Yes or No (1/0 work just fine, as do true/false).

The entry for * sets the default action if the page name is not found. If you want pages to be allowed by default, set it to 1 or Yes. If you want pages to be denied by default in this directory, leave blank or set to No. Here is an example, for the directory controlled, having the following files:
```
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike            0 Jan  8 14:19 .access
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike          185 Jan  8 16:00 .access_gate
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike          121 Jan  8 14:59 any.html
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike          104 Jan  8 14:19 bar.html
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike          104 Jan  8 14:19 baz.html
-rw-rw-r--   1 mike     mike          104 Jan  8 14:19 foo.html
```
The contents of .access_gate:
```
foo.html: [if session username eq 'flycat']
            Yes
          [/if]
bar:      [if session username eq 'flycat']
          [or scratch allow_bar]
            Yes
          [/if]
baz:      yes
*:        [data session logged_in]
```
The page controlled/foo is only allowed for the logged-in user flycat.

The page controlled/bar is allowed for the logged-in user flycat, or if the scratch variable allow_bar is set to a non-blank, non-zero value.

The page controlled/baz is always allowed for display.

The page controlled/any (or any other page in the directory not named in .access_gate) will be allowed for any user logged in via UserDB.

NOTE: The .access_gate scheme is available for database access checking if the database is defined as an AdminDatabase. The .access_gate file is located in ProductDir.
If the Variable MV_USERDB_REMOTE_USER is set (non-zero and non-blank) then any user logged in via the UserDB feature will receive access to all pages in the directory.

NOTE: If there is a .access_gate file, it overrides this.
If the variables MV_USERDB_ACL_TABLE is set to a valid database identifier, the UserDB module can control access with simple ACL logic. See USER DATABASE.

NOTE: If there is a .access_gate file, it overrides this. Also, if MV_USERDB_REMOTE_USER is set, then this capability is not available.

INTERNATIONALIZATION

MiniVend has a rich set of I18N features to allow conditional message display, differing price formats, different currency definitions, price factoring, sorting, and other settings.

The definitions are maintained in the catalog.cfg file through the use of built in POSIX support and MiniVend's Locale directive.

All settings are independent for each catalog and each user of that catalog -- you can have customers accessing the same catalog in any of an unlimited number of languages and currencies.

Setting the locale

The locale could be set to fr_FR (French for France) in one of two ways:

[setlocale locale=locale* currency=locale* persist=1*]

This tag is for new-style tags only and will not work for [old].

Immediately sets the locale to locale, and will cause it to persist in future user pages if the persist is set to a non-zero, non-blank value. If the currency attribute is set, modifies the pricing and currency-specific locale keys and MiniVend configuration directives to that locale. If there are no arguments, sets it back to the user's default locale as defined in the scratch variables mv_locale and mv_currency.

This allows:

Dollar Pricing:

[setlocale en_US]
[item-list]
[item-code]: [item-price]<BR>
[/item-list]

Franc Pricing:

[setlocale fr_FR]
[item-list]
[item-code]: [item-price]<BR>
[/item-list]

[comment] Return to the user's default locale [/comment]
[setlocale]

This tag is only available in new mode ("NewTags Yes" or [new]).

[page process/locale/fr_FR/page/catalog]

This is the same as [page catalog], except when the link is followed it will set the locale to fr_FR before displaying the page. This is persistent.

[page process/locale/fr_FR/currency/en_US/page/catalog]

This is the same as [page catalog], except when the link is followed it will set the locale to fr_FR and the pricing/number display to the locale en_US before displaying the page. This is persistent.

Once the locale is persistently set for a user, it is in effect for the duration of their session.

MiniVend Locale Settings

The Locale directive has many possible settings, allowing complete internationalization of page sets and currencies. The Locale directive is defined in a series of key/value pairs, with a key (which contains word characters only) followed by a value. The value should be surrounded with double quotes if it contains whitespace. In this example, the key is Value setting.

Locale fr_FR "Value setting" "Configuration de valeur"
Locale de_DE "Value setting" Werteinstellung

When accessed via the special tag [L]Value setting[/L], the value Configuration de valeur will be displayed only if the locale is set to fr_FR. If the locale is set to de_DE, the string Werteinstellung will be displayed. If it is neither, the default value of Value setting will be displayed.

The [L] and [/L] must be capitalized -- this is done for speed of processing as well as easy differentiation in text.

Another, perhaps better, way to do this is right in the page. The [LC] ... [/LC] pragma pair allows you to specify locale-dependent text.

[LC]
          This is the default text.
  [fr_FR] Text for the fr_FR locale. [/fr_FR]
  [de_DE] Text for the de_DE locale. [/de_DE]
[/LC]

Or you can place an entire new page in place of the default one if you define the locale key. When locale is in force, and a key named HTMLsuffix is set to the locale, MiniVend first looks for a page with a suffix corresponding to the locale. For example:

<A HREF="[area index]">Catalog home page</A>

If a page index.html exists, it will be the default. If the current locale is fr_FR, a page "index.fr_FR" exists, and you have in Locale:

Locale fr_FR HTMLsuffix  fr_FR

then the .fr_FR page will be used instead of the .html page.

For longer series of strings, the configuration file recognizes:

Locale fr_FR <<EOF
{
    "Value setting",
    "Configuration de valeur",

    "Search",
    "Recherche"
}
EOF

The above sets two string substitutions. As long as this is valid Perl syntax describing a series of settings, the text will be matched. It can contain any arbitrary set of characters that don't contain [L] and [/L]. If using double quotes, string literals like \n and \t are recognized.

You can also use a database to set locale information. It is added to any in the catalog.cfg file, and values in it will overwrite previous settings. See LocaleDatabase.

The [L]default text[/L] is set before any other page processing. It is equivalent to the characters "default text" or the appropriate Locale translation for all intents and purposes. Minivend tags and Variable values can be embedded.

Since the [L] message [/L] substitution is done before any tag processing, you cannot do [L][item-data table field][/L] and expect success. There is an add-on [loc] message [/loc] UserTag supplied with the distribution beginning at V3.09. It does the same thing as [L] [/L] except after all tag substitution is done. See minivend.cfg.dist for the definition.

You will need to be quite careful in editing pages with localization information. Changing even one character of the message will change the key value and invalidate the message for other languages. To prevent this, you can instead use:

[L key]The default.[/L]

The key msg_key will then be used to index the message. This may be preferable for many applications.

A localize script is included with minivend. It will parse files included on the command line and produce output that can be easily edited to produce localized information. Given an existing file, it will merge new information where appropriate.

Special Locale keys for price representation

MiniVend honors the standard POSIX keys:

mon_decimal_point decimal_point 
mon_thousands_sep thousands_sep 
currency_symbol   int_currency_symbol
frac_digits       p_cs_precedes

See the POSIX setlocale(3) man page for more information.

These will be used for formatting prices and will approximate the number format used in most countries. To set the price format to something that is exactly how you want it, you can use the special keys:

price_picture

MiniVend will format a currency number based on a "picture" given to it. The basic form is:

Locale en_US price_picture "$ ###,###,###.##"

This is the presumably for locale en_US, the United States, and it would display 4452.3 as $ 4,445.30.

The same display can be achieved with:

Locale en_US mon_thousands_sep ,
Locale en_US mon_decimal_point .
Locale en_US p_cs_precedes     1
Locale en_US currency_symbol   $

A common price_picture for European countries would be ###.###.###,##, which would display the same number as 4.452,30. To add a franc notation at the end for the locale fr_FR, you would use the setting:

Locale fr_FR price_picture "##.###,## fr"

IMPORTANT NOTE: The decimal point in use, set by mon_decimal_point, and the thousands separator mon_thousands_sep must match the settings in the picture. The frac_digits setting is not used in this case -- it is derived from the location of the decimal (if any).

The same setting for fr_FR above can be achieved with:

Locale fr_FR mon_thousands_sep .
Locale fr_FR mon_decimal_point ,
Locale fr_FR p_cs_precedes     0
Locale fr_FR currency_symbol   fr

If the number of digits is greater than the # locations in the picture, the digits will be changed to asterisks. An overflow number above would show as **.***,** fr.

picture

Same as price_picture, but sets the value returned if the [currency] tag is not used.

If the number of digits is greater than the # locations in the picture, the digits will be changed to asterisks, displaying something like **,***.**.

Dynamic locale directive changes

If you set Locale keys corresponding to some MiniVend catalog.cfg directives, those values will be set when setting the locale.

PageDir

To use a different page directory for different locales, set the PageDir key. To have two separate language page sets, French and English, you would set:

# Establish the default at startup
PageDir   english
Locale fr_FR  PageDir  francais
Locale en_US  PageDir  english

ImageDir

To use a different image directory for different locales, set the ImageDir key. To have two separate language button sets, French and English, you would set:

# Establish the default at startup
ImageDir   /images/english/
Locale fr_FR  ImageDir   /images/francais/
Locale en_US  ImageDir   /images/english/

ImageDirSecure

Same as ImageDir.

PriceField

To use a different field in the products database for pricing based on locale, set the PriceField locale setting.

# Establish the default at startup
PriceField    price
Locale fr_FR  PriceField  prix

The default will always be price, but if the locale fr_FR is set, the PriceField directive will change to prix to give prices in francs instead of dollars.

If PriceBreaks is enabled, then the field prix from the pricing database will be used to develop the quantity pricing. NOTE: If no Locale settings are present, it will always be price, irrespective of the PriceField setting. Otherwise it will always match PriceField.

PriceDivide

Normally used to enable penny pricing with a setting of 100, this can be used to do an automatic conversion factor based on locale.

# Default at startup is 1 if not set
# Franc is strong these days!
Locale fr_FR  PriceDivide  .20

The price will now be divided by .20, yielding franc prices five times that of the dollar.

PriceCommas

Perhaps this isn't a good name anymore, but it controls whether the mon_thousands_sep will be used for standard currency formatting. Ignored if using price_picture. Set to 1 or 0, to enable and disable respectively. DO NOT USE Yes and No.

# Default at startup is Yes if not set
PriceCommas  Yes
Locale fr_FR  PriceCommas  0
Locale en_US  PriceCommas  1

UseModifier

Changes the fields from that set shopping cart options.

# Default at startup is 1 if not set
# Franc is strong these days!
UseModifier format
Locale fr_FR  UseModifier formats

If a previous setting was made for an item based on another locale, it will be maintained.

PriceAdjustment

Changes the fields from UseModifier that will be used to adjust pricing. used to do an automatic conversion factor based on locale.

# Default at startup
PriceAdjustment  format
Locale fr_FR  PriceAdjustment  formats

TaxShipping,SalesTax

Same as the standard directives.

DescriptionField

This changes the field accessed by default with the [item-description] and [description code] tags.

# Establish the default at startup
DescriptionField    description
Locale fr_FR  DescriptionField desc_fr

The [locale] tag

You can set standard error messages based on Locale settings. Make sure you don't use any of the predefined keys -- it will be safe if you begin the key with msg_ or such. The default message is set between the [locale key] and [/locale] tags. See the example above.

Sorting based on Locale

The MiniVend [sort database:field] keys will use the LC_COLLATE setting for a locale provided that:

Your operating system and C compiler have such support for POSIX, and you have the locale definitions set.
The locale setting matches one of your configured locales.

It is beyond the scope of this document to discuss these issues, and you should contact your system administrator or local wizard to help you set up locales on your system. NOTE: Windows locales are not supported for sorting.

If you had this arbitrary database named letters:

code        letter
00-0011     f
99-102      é
19-202      a

and this loop:

[loop 19-202 00-0011 99-102]
[sort letters:letter]
[loop-data letters letter]   [loop-code]
[/loop]

Using the default C setting for LC_COLLATE it would display:

a  19-202
f  00-0011
é  99-102

If the proper LC_COLLATE settings for locale fr_FR were in effect, then it would become:

a  19-202
é  99-102
f  00-0011

Placing Locale information in a Database

MiniVend has the capability to read its locale information from a database, named with the LocaleDatabase directive. The database can be of any valid MiniVend type. The locales are in columns, and the keys are in rows. So to set up price information:

key                 en_US   fr_FR   de_DE
PriceDivide         1       .1590   .58
mon_decimal_point   .       ,       ,
mon_thousands_sep   ,       .        
currency_symbol     $        frs    DM 
ps_cs_precedes      1       0       0

That would translate exactly into:

Locale en_US PriceDivide         1
Locale en_US mon_decimal_point   .
Locale en_US mon_thousands_sep   ,
Locale en_US currency_symbol     $
Locale en_US ps_cs_precedes      1

Locale fr_FR PriceDivide         .1590
Locale fr_FR mon_decimal_point   ,
Locale fr_FR mon_thousands_sep   .
Locale fr_FR currency_symbol     " frs"
Locale fr_FR ps_cs_precedes      0

Locale de_DE PriceDivide         .58
Locale de_DE mon_decimal_point   ,
Locale de_DE mon_thousands_sep   " "
Locale de_DE currency_symbol     "DM "
Locale de_DE ps_cs_precedes      1

These settings add on to but overwrite any that are set in the catalog configuration files, including any #include files.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The information is only read on catalog configuration. It is not reasonable to access a database for translation or currency conversion in the normal course of events.

MINIVEND CONFIGURATION FILES

MiniVend can and usually does run multiple catalogs on the same server. If no Catalog directives are present in the main minivend.cfg file, the server will read only a single catalog's information from the one minivend.cfg file, just as in early versions of the program.

You normally call configuration directives with the directive as the first word on the line, with it's value or values following. Leading whitespace is stripped from the value.

You may call additional files with a rudimentary #include file statement. The directives called with includes are always appended at the end of the main configuration file. Though order is rarely important in the configuration files, you must define any directory settings in the main configuration file near the top if they are to be used to base the file calls of subsequent directives. Files are relative to the catalog directory (or MiniVend software directory, if in the main minivend.cfg file).

You can also use a type of "here document" to specify MiniVend directives, with the usual <<MARKER syntax. No semicolon is used to terminate the marker.

MINIVEND.CFG

The VendRoot directory, specified in the main program minivend, is the default location of all of the MiniVend program, configuration, special, and library files. Unless changed in minivend, the main MiniVend server configuration file will be minivend.cfg in the VendRoot directory.

If no Catalog directives are present, only the special MiniVend admin catalog will be started.

The directives defined in minivend.cfg affect the entire MiniVend server and all catalogs running under it; though you may run multiple MiniVend servers on the same machine with totally independent operation.

ActionMap

Specifies an action for use as a default. If the same action is specified in catalog.cfg, it will pertain. See ActionMap in that section.

AddDirective

Adds a configuration directive that will be parsed for every catalog.cfg file.

Accepts three parameters -- the name of the directive, the name of the parser (if any), and the default value (if any). The following definition would add a directive "Foo", with parser "parse_bar", and a default value of "Hello, world!":

AddDirective  Foo  bar "Hello, world!"

If the parser is not defined, the directive value will be scalar and the same as what the user passes in the config file. If defined, the parser must be extant before it can be referenced, is always resident in Vend::Config, and begines with the string parse_; the above example would use. Examples can be found in the files in the distribution software directory compat/.

AdminSub

Marks a global subroutine for use only by catalogs that are set to AllowGlobal below. Normally global subroutines can be referenced (in embedded Perl) by any catalog.

AdminSub  dangerous

AllowGlobal

Specifies catalog identifiers that may define subroutines and UserTag entries that can operate with the full permissions of the server. DON'T USE THIS UNLESS YOU TRUST THE CATALOG USER IMPLICITLY. Default is blank.

AllowGlobal  simple

Catalog

Specifies a catalog that can run using this MiniVend server. There are three required parameters, separated by spaces and/or tabs.

The first is the name of the catalog -- it will be referred to as that name in error, warning, and informational messages. It must contain only alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores.

The second is the base directory of the catalog. If the directory does not contain a catalog.cfg file, the server will report an error and refuse to start.

The third directive is very important to get right -- it is the SCRIPT_NAME of the vlink program that runs the catalog. It must be unique from other CGI program paths that run on this server -- that is how the catalog is selected for operation.

Catalog  simple /home/minivend/simple /cgi-bin/simple /simple

You can specify any number of alias script names as additional parameters. This allows the calling path to be different while still calling the same catalog -- it is most probably useful when calling an SSL server or a members-only executable that requires a username/password via HTTP Basic authorization. All branched links will be called using the aliased URL.

Optionally, you can call individual Catalog lines that specify the different parameters. The equivalent of the above is:

Catalog simple directory /home/minivend/simple
Catalog simple script    /cgi-bin/simple
Catalog simple alias     /simple

You can also specify global directives that will change for that catalog only. This is mostly useful for ErrorFile and DisplayErrors:

Catalog simple directive ErrorFile /var/log/mvend/simple_error.log

CheckHTML

Set to the name of an external program that will check the users HTML when they set [flag checkhtml] or [tag flag checkhtml][/tag] in their page.

CheckHTML  /usr/local/bin/weblint

DisplayErrors

While all errors are reported in the error log file, you can also have errors displayed by the browser. This is convenient while you are testing your configuration. Unless this is set, the DisplayErrors setting in the user catalogs will have no effect. Default is No.

DisplayErrors       Yes

NOTE: This changes the value of $SIG{__DIE__} and may have other effects on program operation. This should never be used for normal operation.

DomainTail

Implements the domain/IP session qualifiers so that only the major domain is used to qualify the session ID. This is a compromise on security, but it allows non-cookie-accepting browsers to use multiple proxy servers in the same domain.

Default is yes.

DomainTail No

If you are encrypting your credit cards with PGP or GPG, or are using a payment service like CyberCash, you may want to look at the WideOpen directive, which enables more browser compatibility at the cost of some security.

DumpStructure

Tells Minivend to dump the structure of catalogs and the minivend server to a file with the catalog name and the extension .structure. You can use this to see what directives are really getting set to.

Environment

Environment variables to inherit from the calling CGI link program. And example might be PGPPATH, used to set the directory which PGP will use to find its key ring.

Environment  MOD_PERL REMOTE_USER PGPPATH

ErrorFile

Sets the name of the global error log -- the default is error.log in the MiniVend software directory.

ErrorFile  /var/log/mvendlog

Of course the user ID running the MiniVend server must have permission to write that file.

You can set up syslog(8) error logging as well. See SysLog.

FormAction

Allows you to set up a form action (like the standard ones return, submit, refresh, etc.). It requires a Perl subroutine as a target:

FormAction foo <<EOR
sub {
    $CGI->{mv_nextpage} = 'bar';
}
EOR

If it returns a true (non-zero, non-empty) value, MiniVend will display the page defined in $CGI->{mv_nextpage}. Otherwise, MiniVend will not display any page (assuming you took care of that in your routine).

You can override the default MiniVend actions if you desire.

There is also a catalog-specific version of this directive, which overrides any action of the same name.

FullUrl

Normally MiniVend determines which catalog to call by determining the SCRIPT_NAME from the CGI call. This means that different (and maybe virtual) hosts cannot use the same SCRIPT_NAME to call different catalogs. Set FullUrl to Yes to differentiate based on the calling host. You must then set the server name in the Catalog directive accordingly, i.e. yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/simple. A yes/no directive, the default is No.

FullUrl  Yes

If you set it in this fashion, you must define all catalogs in this fashion. NOTE: The individual catalog setting will not work, as this is used before the catalog name is known.

GlobalSub

Defines a global subroutine for use by the [perl sub] subname arg [/perl] construct. Use the "here document" capability of MiniVend configuration files to make it easy to define:

GlobalSub <<EOF

sub count_orders {
    my $counter = new File::CounterFile "/tmp/count_orders", '1';
    my $number = $counter->inc();
    return "There have been $number orders placed.\n";
}
EOF

As with Perl "here documents", the EOF (or other end marker) must be the ONLY thing on the line, with no leading or trailing white space. Do not append a semicolon to the marker. (The above appears indented -- it should not be that way in the file!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: These global subroutines are not subject to security checks -- they can do most anything! For most purposes, scratch subroutines or catalog subroutines (also Sub) are better.

GlobalSub routines are subject to full Perl use strict checking, so you will get errors if you do not use lexical variables or complete package qualifications for your variables.

HammerLock

The number of seconds after which a locked session could be considered to be lost due to malfunction. This will kill the lock on the session. Only here for monitoring of session hand-off, if this error shows up in the error log the system setup should be examined. Default is 30.

HammerLock          60

HouseKeeping

How often, in seconds, the MiniVend server will "wake up" and look for user reconfiguration requests and hung search processes. On some systems, this wakeup is the only time the server will terminate in response to a stop command. Default is 60.

HouseKeeping    5

IpHead

Implements the domain/IP session qualifiers so that only the first IpQuad dot-quads of the IP address are used to qualify the session ID. The default is 1. This is a slight compromise on security, but it allows non-cookie-accepting browsers like AOL's V2.0 to use multiple proxy servers.

DomainTail is preferable unless one of your HTTP servers does not do host name lookups.

Default is No, and DomainTail must be set to No for it to operate.

IpHead Yes

IpQuad

The number of dot-quads that IpHead will look at. Default is 1.

IpQuad  2

Legacy

Makes a few optimizations for newer catalogs. Set to Yes for the maximum compatibility with older MiniVend catalogs.

Locale

Sets the global Locale for use in error messages.

LockoutCommand

The name of a command (as you would enter it from the shell) that will lock out the host IP of an offending system. The IP address will be substituted for the first occurrence of the string %s.

This will be executed with the user ID that MiniVend runs under, so any commands that require root access will have to be wrapped with an SUID program.

On Linux, you might lock out a host with:

ipfwadm -I -i deny -S %s

This would require root permissions, however, under normal circumstances. You can use sudo or another method to wrap and allow the command.

You can write a script which modifies an appropriate access control file, such as .htaccess for your CGI directory, to do another level of lockout. A simple command line containing perl -0777 -npi -e 's/deny/deny from %s\ndeny/' /home/me/cgi-bin/.htaccess would work as well (remember, the %s will become the IP address of the offending user).

LockoutCommand   lockout %s

Mall

Set to Yes to issue cookies only for the current catalog's script. By default, when MiniVend issues a cookie it does so for the base domain. This will allow multiple catalogs to operate on the same domain without interfering with each others session ID.

A yes/no directive.

MaxServers

The maximum number of servers that will be spawned to handle page requests. If more than MaxServers requests are pending, they will be queued (within the defined capability of the operating system, usually 5 pending requests) until the number of active servers goes below that value.

MaxServers     4

Default is 10.

NoAbsolute

Whether MiniVend [file ...] and other tags can read any file on the system (that is readable by the user id running the MiniVend daemon). The default is No, which allows any file to be read -- this should be changed in a multi-user environment to minimize security problems.

NoAbsolute     Yes

PIDcheck

If non-zero, enables a check of running MiniVend processes during the housekeeping routine. If a process has been running (or is hung) for longer than PIDcheck seconds then a kill -9 will be issued and the server count decremented.

During the housekeeping routine, the number of servers checked by MaxServers will be recounted based on PID files.

Default is 0, disabling the check. It is recommended that you use this only for MiniVend 3.12 or higher, and it is recommended that you do use it for that version.

PIDcheck   300

If you have long-running database builds, you will need to disable this, set it to a high value (perhaps 600, for 10 minutes), or use the offline script.

PIDfile

The file which will contain the MiniVend server process ID -- so that it can be read to determine which proces should be sent a signal for stopping or reconfiguring the server.

PIDfile  /var/run/mvend/minivend.pid

This file must be writable by the MiniVend server user ID, of course.

SafeUntrap

Sets the codes that will be untrapped in the Safe.pm module, used for embedded Perl and conditional operations. You can see the Safe.pm documentation by typing perldoc Safe at the command prompt. The default is 249 148 for Perl 5.003, and ftfile sort for Perl 5.003_20 and above, which untraps the file existence test operator and the sort operator. Define it as blank to not allow any besides the default restrictive operators.

SafeUntrap     ftfile sort ftewrite

SendMailProgram

Specifies the program used to send email. Defaults to '/usr/lib/sendmail'. If it is not found at startup, MiniVend will complain and refuse to start.

SendMailProgram     /bin/mailer

A value of 'none' will disable the sending of emailed orders. Orders must be read from a tracking file, log, or by other means.

SocketFile

The name of the file which is used for UNIX-domain socket communications. Must be in a directory where the MiniVend user has write permission.

SocketFile  /var/run/mvend/minivend.socket

Default is etc/socket or the value of the environment variable MINIVEND_SOCKET. If set, it will override the environment. You can set it on the command line as well:

bin/minivend -r SocketFile=/tmp/mv.socket

SocketPerms

The permissions (prepend a 0 to use octal notation) that should be used for the UNIX-domain socket. You might temporarily set this to 666 on the command line to debug a permission problem on vlink.

bin/minivend -r SocketPerms=0666

SubCatalog

Allows definition of a catalog which shares most of the characteristics of another catalog. Only the directives that are changed from the base catalog are added. The parameters are 1) the catalog ID 2) the base catalog ID, 3) the directory to use (typically the same as the base catalog), and 4) the SCRIPT_NAME that will trigger the catalog. Any additional parameters are aliases for the SCRIPT_NAME.

The main reason that this would be used would be to conserve memory in a series of stores that share most of the same pages or databases.

SubCatalog   sample2 sample /usr/catalogs/sample /cgi-bin/sample2

SysLog

Allows you to set up syslog(8) error logging for MiniVend.

SysLog  command  /usr/bin/logger
SysLog  tag      mv1
SysLog  alert    local3.warn
SysLog  warn     local3.info
SysLog  info     local3.info

This would cause global errors to be logged with the command:

/usr/bin/logger -t mv1 -p local3.alert

and cause system log entries something like:

Oct 26 17:30:11 bill mv1: Config 'co' at server startup 
Oct 26 17:30:11 bill mv1: Config 'homefn' at server startup 
Oct 26 17:30:11 bill mv1: Config 'simple' at server startup 
Oct 26 17:30:11 bill mv1: Config 'test' at server startup 
Oct 26 17:30:13 bill mv1: START server (2345) (INET and UNIX)

Of course you can wrap your own wrapper around it to get it to behave how you want.

TcpHost

When running in INET mode, using tlink, specifies the hosts that are allowed to send/receive transactions from any catalog on this MiniVend server. Can be either an name or IP number, and multiple hosts can be specified in a space-separated list. Default is localhost.

TcpHost         localhost secure.domain.com

TcpMap

When running in INET mode, using tlink or the internal HTTP server, specifies the port(s) which will be monitored. by the MiniVend server. Default is 7786>

To use the internal HTTP server (perhaps only for password-protected queries), you can map a catalog to a port. If you had three catalogs running on the server www.minivend.com, named simple, sample, and search, you might have in the directive:

TcpMap    7786 -  7787 simple 7788 sample 7789 search

NOTE: To map large numbers of ports, you can use the <<MARKER here document notation in minivend.cfg.

With this in effect, the internal HTTP server would map the following addresses:

http://www.minivend.com:7786   mv_admin
http://www.minivend.com:7787   simple
http://www.minivend.com:7788   sample
http://www.minivend.com:7789   search

NOTE: This does not pertain to the use of tlink, which still relies on the CGI SCRIPT_PATH.

To enable this, the SCRIPT_PATH aliases /simple, /sample, etc. must be set in the Catalog directive. This would look like:

Catalog  simple  /home/minivend/catalogs/simple /cgi-bin/simple /simple

TemplateDir

Sets a directory which will be searched for pages if not found in the users pages directory. MiniMate uses this; you could use it to supply some default pages so the user will not have them in their directory.

TemplateDir    /usr/local/minivend/default_pages

The user's page, if it exists, will take precedence. There is also a catalog-specific version of this directive; if a page is found in that directory (or directories) then it will take precedence.

UserTag

This defines a UserTag which is global in nature, meaning not limited by the Safe.pm module, and which tag is available to all MiniVend catalogs running on the server. Otherwise this is the same as a catalog UserTag.

Variable

Defines a global variable that will be available in all catalogs with the notation @@Variable@@. Variable identifiers must begin with a capital letter, and can contain only word characters (A-Z,a-z,0-9 and underscore) -- they are case-sensitive. If using the ParseVariables directive, only variables in ALL CAPS will be parsed. These are substituted first in any MiniVend page, and can contain any valid MiniVend tags including catalog variables.

Variable   DOCUMENT_ROOT   /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs

There are several standard variables which you should not use:

MV_FILE: Name of the last file read in, as in [file ...] or an externally located perl routine
MV_NO_CRYPT: Set this to 1 to disable encrypted passwords for the AdminUser.
MV_PAGE: Name of the last page read in, as in the page called with mv_nextpage or mv_orderpage
CURRENCY: The current locale for currency
LANG: The current locale for language

VarName

Sets the names of variables that will be remapped to and from the URL when MiniVend writes it. For instance, if you wanted the variable mv_session_id to display as session in the users URL:

VarName   mv_session_id  session

The default can also be set in the etc/varnames file after the first time MiniVend is run. Setting it in minivend.cfg is probably better for clarity.

There is also a catalog-specific version of this setting.

CATALOG.CFG

If multiple catalogs are to be run, each must have a catalog.cfg file located in the catalog base directory. It contains most of the configurable parameters for MiniVend -- each is independent from catalog to catalog.

In the catalog configuration file, the directives MailOrderTo and VendURL are required. They are not defined with defaults, and no catalog will operate unless and until they are set with a value.

Many powerful procedures are available in the catalog.cfg file. First, you can set a Variable and use its results in a subsequent configuration setting if ParseVariables is on:

  Variable   SERVER_NAME  www.minivend.com
  Variable   CGI_URL      /cgi-bin/demo

  ParseVariables Yes
  VendURL    http://__SERVER_NAME____CGI_URL__
  ParseVariables No

You can define values in multiline form by using the <<HERE document method:

Variable MYSTUFF <<EOF
    This is my stuff, and I
    am pretty proud of it.
EOF

As with all here documents, the terminating string must be the ONLY THING ON THE LINE. No leading or trailing characters are allowed, even whitespace.

Include single setting from file

You can pull a value from a file with <file:

Variable MYSTUFF <file

This works well for includes that must be of the highest possible performance -- they can be simply placed in a page with __VARIABLE__.

Include multiple settings from file

You can set common settings in one file:

#include common.cfg

Or all files in one directory

#include usertag/*

#ifdef and #ifndef

You can use #ifdef / #endif and #ifndef / #endif pairs:

  Variable ORDERS_TO email_address

  #ifdef ORDERS_TO
  ParseVariables Yes
  MailOrderTo __ORDERS_TO__
  ParseVariables No
  #endif

  #ifdef ORDERS_TO =~ /foo.com/
  # Send all orders at foo.com to one place now
  # Set ORDERS_TO to stop default setting
  Variable  ORDERS_TO  1
  MailOrderTo   orders@foo.com
  #endif

  #ifdef ORDERS_TO eq 'nobody@nowhere.com'
  # Better change to something else, set ORDERS_TO to stop default
  Variable  ORDERS_TO  1
  MailOrderTo   someone@somewhere.com
  #endif

  #ifndef ORDERS_TO
  #Needs to go somewhere....
  MailOrderTo  webmaster@localhost
  #endif

Define subroutine watches

You can set up almost any configuration variable to be tied to a subroutine if you have the Tie::Watch module installed. It uses a notation like the <<HERE document, but <&HERE is the notation. See MiniVend Programming for details.

Programming watch points in catalog.cfg

Here is a simple case:

   MailOrderTo orders@minivend.com

   MailOrderTo <&EOF
   sub {
       my($self, $default) = @_;
       if($Values->{special_handling}) {
           return 'vip@minivend.com';
       }
       else {
           return $default;
       }
   }
   EOF

When the order is mailed out, if the user has a variable called special_handling set in their session (from UserDB, perhaps) then the order will be sent to 'vip@minivend.com'. (Note the single quotes to prevent problems with the @ sign.) Otherwise, they will get sent to the previously defined value of orders@minivend.com.

If the configuration value being watched is a SCALAR, the subroutine gets the following call:

&{$subref}(SELF, PREVIOUS_VALUE)

The subroutine should simply return the proper value.

SELF is a reference to the Tie::Watch object (read its documentation for what all it can do) and PREVIOUS_VALUE is the previously set value for the directive. (If you set it after you set up the watch, it will simply have the effect of destroying the watch and having unpredictable effects. In the future, you may be able to set up a "Store" routine that can subsequently set values).

If the configuration value being watched is an ARRAY, the subroutine gets the following call:

&{$subref}(SELF, INDEX, PREVIOUS_VALUE)

INDEX is the index of the array element being accessed. Setting up watch points on array values is not recommended -- most MiniVend subroutines call arrays in their list context, and no access method is provided for that.

If the configuration value being watched is a HASH, the subroutine gets the following call:

&{$subref}(SELF, KEY, PREVIOUS_VALUE)

KEY is the index into the hash. An example of HASH type MiniVend configuration values

NOTE: The following is not recommended for performance reasons -- the Variable is a commonly used thing and should not bear the extra overhead -- but it illustrates the power quite nicely:

  Variable TESTIT Unwatch worked.

  Variable <&EOV
  sub {
      my ($self, $key, $orig) = @_;
      if($key eq 'TESTIT') {
          # only the first time
          if($Scratch->{$key}++) {
              $self->Unwatch();
              return $orig->{TESTIT};
          }
          else {
              return "Tie::Watch works! -- name=$Values->{name}";
          }
      }
      else {
          return $orig->{$key};
      }
  }
  EOV

The first time __TESTIT__ is called for a particular user, it will return the string "Tie::Watch works! -- name=" along with their name set in the session (if that exists). Any other variables will receive the value that they were set to previously. Once the TESTIT key has been accessed for that user, the watch is dropped upon the next access.

Configuration Directives in catalog.cfg

All directives except MailOrderTo and VendURL have default values and are optional, though most catalogs will want to configure some of them.

ActionMap

Allows setting of MiniVend actions, usually with a Perl subroutine of your choice. Actions are page names like:

process  Perform a processing function
order    Order items
scan     Search based on path info
search   Search based on submitted form variables

These are the standard supplied actions for MiniVend. You can overwrite them with your own version if you wish. For instance, if you wanted to ignore the order action, you could do:

ActionMap  order  sub { return 1 }

When the leading part of the incoming path is equal to order, it will trigger your action. The page name will be shifted up, and the order stripped from the page name. So this custome order action would essentially perform a no-op, and a URL like:

<A HREF="[area order/nextpage]"> Go to the next page </A>

would be the equivalent of "[area nextpage]". If the action does not return a true (non-zero, non-blank) status then no page will be displayed by MiniVend, not even the special missing page. You can of course generate your own response if you wish via Perl or MVASP.

The standard process action has a number of associated FormAction settings.

Besides using Perl, you can use MML tags in an action, though that is not nearly as efficient.

AlwaysSecure

Determines whether checkout page operations should always be secure. Set it to the pages that should always be secure, separated by spaces and/or tabs.

AlwaysSecure    ord/checkout

AsciiTrack

A file name to log formatted orders in. Unless preceded by a leading '/', will be placed relative to the catalog directory. Disabled by default.

AsciiTrack     etc/tracking.asc

If you have a Route set up to supplant, then this is ignored.

AutoModifier

Sets an attribute in a shopping cart entry to the field of the same name in the ProductsFile pertaining to this item.

This is useful when doing shipping calculations or other embedded Perl that is based on item attributes. To set whether an item is defined as "heavy" and requires truck shipment, you can do:

AutoModifier  heavy

When an item is added to the shopping cart using MiniVend's routines, the heavy attribute will be set to the value of the heavy field in the products database. In the default demo that would be products; any changes to ProductFiles would affect that, of course.

Some values are used by MiniVend and are not legal:

mv_mi
mv_si
mv_ib
group
code 
quantity
item

Autoload

Sets an action that is automatically performed for every access. It is performed before any page parsing occurs, and before the action or page is even determined.

As an example, if you wanted to remap any mv_nextpage accesses to the private subdirectory of pages, you might do:

Autoload   [perl] $CGI->{mv_nextpage} =~ s:^private/:public/:; [/perl]

CommonAdjust

Settings for MiniVend pricing. See Chained pricing.

CommonAdjust    pricing:q2,q5,q10,q25, ;products:price, ==size:pricing

ConfigDir

The default directory where directive values will be read from when using the <file notation. Default is config. The name is relative to the catalog directory unless preceded by a /.

ConfigDir      variables

You can change this several times in the catalog.cfg file to pick up values from more than one directory. Another possibility is to use a Variable setting to use different templates based on a setting:

Variable   TEMPLATE   blue

ParseVariables Yes
ConfigDir  templates/__TEMPLATE__
ParseVariables No
Variable   MENUBAR   <menubar
Variable   LEFTSIDE  <leftside
Variable   BOTTOM    <bottom
ConfigDir config

This will pick the templates/blue template -- if you set TEMPLATE to red, it would read the variables from templates/red.

CookieDomain

Allows you to set a domain so that multiple servers can handle traffic. For example, if you wanted to use server addresses of secure.yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com then you could set it to:

CookieDomain    .yourdomain.com

More than one domain can be set. It must have at least two periods or browsers will ignore it. (You wouldn't want a cookie being set to .com, would you?)

CookieLogin

Allows users to save their username/password (for Vend::UserDB) in a cookie. Expiration set by SaveExpire, renewed every time they log in. To cause the cookie to be generated originally, the CGI variable mv_cookie_password or mv_cookie_username must be set. The former causes both username and password to be saved, the latter just the username.

CookieLogin  Yes

Default is No.

Cookies

Determines whether we will send (and read back) a cookie to get the session ID for links that go outside the catalog. Allows arbitrary HREF links to be placed in MiniVend pages, while still saving the contents of the session. The default is Yes.

Cookies         Yes

If the Cookies directive is enabled, and mv_save_session is set upon submission of a user form (or in the CGI variables through a perl GlobalSub), the cookie will be persistent for the period defined by SaveExpire.

NOTE: You almost always want this to be "Yes".

Caching, timed builds, and static page building will never be in effect unless this directive is enabled.

CreditCardAuto

If set to Yes, enables the automatic encryption and saving of credit card information. In order for this to work properly, the EncryptProgram directive must be set to properly encode the field. The best way to set EncryptProgram is with PGP in the ASCII armor mode.

This option uses the following standard fields on MiniVend order processing forms:

mv_credit_card_number: The actual credit card number, which will be wiped from memory after checking to see if it is a valid Amex, Visa, MC, or Discover card number. This variable will never be carried forward in the user session.
mv_credit_card_exp_all: The expiration date, as a text field in the form MM/YY (will take a four-digit year as well). If it is not present, the fields mv_credit_card_exp_month and mv_credit_card_exp_year are looked at. It is set by MiniVend when the card validation returns, if not previously set.
mv_credit_card_exp_month: The expiration date month, used if the mv_credit_card_exp_all field is not present. It is set by MiniVend when the card validation returns, if not previously set.
mv_credit_card_exp_year: The expiration date year, used if the mv_credit_card_exp_all field is not present. It is set by MiniVend when the card validation returns, if not previously set.
mv_credit_card_error: Set by MiniVend to indicate the error if the card does not validate properly. The error message is not too enlightening if validation is the problem.
mv_credit_card_force: Set this value to 1 to force MiniVend to encrypt the card despite its idea of validity. Will still set the flag for validity to 0 if the number/date does not validate. Still won't accept badly formatted expiration dates.
mv_credit_card_separate: Set this value to 1 to cause MiniVend encrypt only the card number and not accompany it with the expiration date and card type.
mv_credit_card_info: Set by MiniVend to the encrypted card information if the card validates properly. If PGP is used in ASCII armor mode, this field can be placed on the order report and embedded in the order email, replete with markers. This allows a secure order to be read for content, without exposing the credit card number to risk.
mv_credit_card_valid: Set by Minivend to true, or 1, if the the card validates properly. Set to 0 otherwise.

PGP is recommended as the encryption program, though you should remember that US commercial organizations may require a license for RSA. MiniVend will work with GPG, the Gnu Privacy Guard.

CreditCardAuto     Yes

This should be turned off if using CyberCash.

CustomShipping

If not blank, causes an error log entry if the shipping file entry is not found. Not otherwise used for shipping; see SHIPPING for how you go about doing that.

CustomShipping      Yes

CyberCash

A yes/no directive, default no. Enables CyberCash payment protocols -- see Using CyberCash.

CyberCash           Yes

Database

Definition of an arbitrary database, in the form "Database database file type", where "file" is the name of an ASCII file in the same format as the products database. The file is relative to VendRoot, and is put in DataDir if no path is provided. Records can be accessed with the [data database field key] tag. Database names are restricted to the alphanumeric characters (including the underscore), and it is recommended that you always use all lower or all upper case. See DATABASES.

Database      reviews  reviews.txt  CSV

DefaultShipping

This sets the default shipping mode by initializing the variable mv_ship_mode. If not set in catalog.cfg, it is default.

DefaultShipping     UPS

Somewhat deprecated, as you can achieve the same thing with

ValuesDefault   mv_shipmode UPS

DescriptionField

The field that will be accessed with the [item-description] element.

DescriptionField    description

Default is description. It is not a fatal error if this field does not exist.

This is especially important for on-the-fly items; if there is an attribute set to the same name as DescriptionField this will be used for display.

DisplayErrors

If the administrator has enabled DisplayErrors globally, then setting this to "Yes" will display the error returned from MiniVend in case something is wrong with embedded Perl programs, tags, or (horrors!) MiniVend itself. Usually you will only want to use this during development or debugging -- default is no.

DisplayErrors       Yes

DynamicData

When set to one or more MiniVend database identifiers, any pages using data items from the specified database(s) will not be cached or built statically. This allows dynamic updating of certain arbitrary (or even product) databases while still allowing static/cached page performance gains on pages not using those data items.

DynamicData         inventory

Overridden by [tag flag build][/tag], depending on context.

EncryptProgram

Contains a program command line specification that indicates how an external encryption program will work. Two placeholders, %p and %f, are defined, which are replaced at encryption time with the password and temporary file name respectively. See Order Security.

This is separate from the PGP directive, which enables PGP encryption of the entire order.

If PGP is the encryption program (MiniVend determines this by searching for the string pgp in the command string), no password field or file field need be used -- the field mv_credit_card_number will never be written to disk in that case.

EncryptProgram      /usr/local/bin/pgp -feat sales@company.com

If you use order Route method of sending orders (default in the demo) this sets the default value of the encrypt_program attribute.

ErrorFile

This is where MiniVend will write its runtime errors for THIS CATALOG ONLY. It can be shared with other catalogs or the main MiniVend error log, but if you make it root-based, be careful that you have permission to write the file, or bad things will happen.

ErrorFile   /home/minivend/error.log

ExtraSecure

Disallows access to pages which are marked with AlwaysSecure unless the browser is in HTTPS mode. A yes/no directive -- default is 'No'.

ExtraSecure  Yes

FormAction

Allows you to set up a form action (like the standard ones return, submit, refresh, etc.). It requires a Perl subroutine as a target:

FormAction foo <<EOR
sub {
    $CGI->{mv_nextpage} = 'bar';
}
EOR

You can override the default MiniVend actions if you desire.

There is also a global version of this directive, which is overridden if a catalog-specific action exists.

FormIgnore

Set to the name(s) of variables that should not be carried in the user session values. Must match exactly and are case sensitive.

FormIgnore    mv_searchtype

FractionalItems

Whether items in the shopping cart should be allowed to be fractional, i.e. 2.5 or 1.25. Default is no.

FractionalItems     Yes

Glimpse

The pathname for the glimpse command, used if glimpse searches are to be enabled. If you wish to use glimpseserver, you must include the -C, -J, and -K tags if they are needed.

Glimpse  /usr/local/bin/glimpse -C -J srch_engine -K2345

HTMLsuffix

The file extension that will be seen as a page in the pages directory. Default is .html.

HTMLsuffix .htm

ImageAlias

Aliases for images, ala Apache/NCSA ScriptAlias and Alias directives. Relocates images based in a particular directory to another for MiniVend use -- operates after ImageDir. Useful for editing MiniVend pages with an HTML editor. Default is blank.

ImageAlias  /images/  /thiscatalog/images/

ImageDir

The directory where all relative IMG and INPUT source file specifications are based. IT MUST HAVE A TRAILING / TO WORK. If the images are to be in the DocumentRoot (of the HTTP server or virtual server) subdirectory images, for example, you would use the ImageDir specification '/images/'. This would change SRC="order.gif" to SRC="/images/order.gif" in IMG and INPUT tags. It has no effect on other SRC tags.

ImageDir /images/

Can be set in the Locale settings to allow different image sets for different locales (MV3.07 and up).

ImageDirInternal

A value for ImageDir only when the internal HTTP server is in use. It must have a trailing / to work, and should always begin with a fully-qualified path starting with http://.

ImageDirInternal http://www.server.name/images/

ImageDirSecure

A value for ImageDir only the pages are being served via HTTPS. It must have a trailing / to work, and should always begin with a fully-qualified path starting with http://.

ImageDirSecure   /secure/images/

This is useful if you are using a separate HTTPS and HTTP server, and cannot make the image directory path heads match.

Locale

Sets the special locale array. Tries to use POSIX setlocale based on the value of itself, then tries to accept a custom setting with the proper definitions of mon_decimal_point, thousands_sep, and frac_digits, which are the the only international settings required. Default if not set is to use US-English settings.

Example of the custom setting:

Locale     custom mon_decimal_point , mon_thousands_sep . frac_digits 0

Example of POSIX setlocale for France, if properly aliased:

Locale     fr

See setlocale(3) for more information. If embedded Perl code is used to sort search returns, then the setlocale() will carry through to string collation.

See Internationalization.

LocaleDatabase

Set to the MiniVend database identifier of a table that contains Locale settings. These settings add on to and overwrite any that are set in the catalog configuration files, including any #include files.

Database       locale  locale.asc  TAB
LocaleDatabase locale

MailOrderTo

Specifies the email address to mail completed orders to.

MailOrderTo  orders@xyzcorp.com

If you specify 'none', no emailed order will be sent.

NoCache

The names of MiniVend pages that are not to be built statically if STATIC PAGE BUILDING is in use. If the name is a directory, then no pages in that directory (or any below it) be cached or built statically.

NoCache    ord
NoCache    special

NoImport

When set to one or more MiniVend database identifiers, those database(s) will never be subject to import. Useful for SQL databases, or databases that will *never* change.

NoImport   inventory

NonTaxableField

The name of the field in the products database that is set (to 1 or yes) if an item is not to be taxed. Will log an error and tax it anyway if the field doesn't exist in the database. Blank by default, disabling the feature.

NonTaxableField    wholesale

OfflineDir

The location of the offline database files for use with the MiniVend offline database build command. Set to "offline" as the default, and is relative to VendRoot if there is no leading slash.

OfflineDir          /usr/data/minivend/offline

OnFly

Enables on-the-fly item additions to the shopping cart. If set to the name of a valid UserTag, that tag definition will be used to parse and format the item with the following call:

$item = Vend::Parse::do_tag($Vend::Cfg->{OnFly},
                                $code,
                                $quantity,
                                $fly[$j],
                            );

$fly[$j] is the value of mv_order_fly for that item. An onfly tag is provided by MiniVend -- see <On-the-fly> ordering.

OrderCounter

The name of the file (relative to catalog root if no leading /) that maintains the order number counter. If not set, the order will be assigned a string based on the time of the order and the user's session number.

OrderCounter       etc/order.number

Bear in mind that MiniVend provides the order number as a convenience for display, and that no internal functions depend on it. You may define and use your own order number routines without fear of consequences.

If you have a Route set up to supplant and the counter attribute is set there, then this is ignored.

OrderLineLimit

The number of items that the user is allowed to place in the shopping cart. Some poorly-mannered robots may "attack" your site by following all links one after another. Some even ignore any robots.txt file you may have created. If one of these bad robots orders several dozen or more items, then the time required to save and restore the shopping cart from the user session may become excessive.

If the limit is exceeded, then the command defined in the Global directive LockoutCommand will be executed and the shopping cart will be emptied. The default is 0, disabling the check. Set it to a number greater than the number of line items you ever expect a user to order.

OrderLineLimit   50

OrderProfile

Allows an unlimited number of profiles to be set up, specifying complex checks to be performed at each of the steps in the checkout process. The files specified can be located anywhere -- if relative paths are used, they are relative to the catalog root directory.

OrderProfile    etc/profiles.order etc/profiles.login

The actions defined here are also used for mv_click actions if there is no action defined in scratch space.

They are accessed by setting the mv_order_profile variable to the name of the order profile. Multiple profiles can reside in the same file, if separated by __END__ tokens, which must be on a line by themselves.

The profile is named by placing a name following a __NAME__ pragma:

__NAME__ billing

The __NAME__ must begin the line, and be followed by whitespace and then the name. The search profile can then be accessed by mv_order_profile="billing". See Advanced Multi-level Order Pages.

OrderReport

The location of the simple order report file. Defaults to etc/report.

OrderReport          /data/order-form

PageDir

Location of catalog pages. Defaults to the pages subdirectory in the VendRoot directory.

PageDir    /data/catalog/pages

Can be set in the Locale settings to allow different page sets for different locales.

PageSelectField

Sets a products database column which can be used to select the on-the-fly template page. This allows multiple on-the-fly pages to be defined. If the field is empty (no spaces, either!) then the default <flypage> will be used.

PageSelectField    display_page

ParseVariables

Determines whether global and catalog variables will be parsed in the configuration file. Should be set to No until parsing is needed, turned on for the parsed directives, then set back to No. Default is No.

Variable STORE_ID  topshop
ParseVariables Yes
StaticDir  /home/__STORE_ID__/www/cat
ParseVariables No

Password

The encrypted or unencrypted password (depending on Variable MV_NO_CRYPT) that will cause internal authorization checks for RemoteUser to allow access.

Below is the encrypted setting for a blank password.

Password                bAWoVkuzphOX.

PGP

If credit card information is to be accepted, and the emailed order will go over an insecure network to reach its destination, PGP security should be used. The key ring to be used must be for the user that is running the MiniVend server, or defined by the environment variable PGPPATH, and the key user specified must have a key on the public key ring of that user.

PGP        /usr/local/bin/pgp -feat orders@company.com

If this directive is non-null, the PGP command string as specified will be used to encrypt the entire order -- in addition to any encryption done as a result if CreditCardAuto, If for some reason an error comes from PGP, the customer will be given the special page failed.

If you have a Route set up to supplant then this is ignored.

Pragma

Sets the default value of a MiniVend pragma. The only one to date is:

no_html_parse: Disallows HTML tag parsing. This is a BIG parser performance gain and is enabled in the demo catalog.

If you want to enable a pragma for only a particular page, do anywhere in the page:

[pragma no_html_parse]

If you want to disable a pragma for a particular page, do anywhere in the page:

[pragma no_html_parse 0]

If you know what a DTD is, that is a good place to put this.

PriceCommas

If you desire no commas in your price numbers (for the [item-price] tag) set this to no. The default is to use commas (or whatever is the thousands separator for your locale).

PriceCommas         no

This is overridden if a Locale price_picture is set.

PriceDivide

The number the price should be divided by to get the price in units (dollars or such). The default is one -- if you use penny pricing you can set it to 100.

PriceDivide         100

Can be set in the Locale settings to allow a price adjustment factor for different currencies.

PriceField

The field in the product database that will be accessed with the [item-price] element. Default is "price".

PriceField          ProductPrice

Can be set in the Locale settings to allow different price fields for different currencies.

ProductDir

Location of the database files. Defaults to the products subdirectory of the VendRoot directory. May not be set to an absolute directory unless NoAbsolute is defined as No.

ProductDir          /data/catalog/for-sale

Most people never set this directive and use the default of products.

ProductFiles

Database tables that should be seen as the "products" database.

ProductFiles    vendor_a vendor_b

The key thing about this is that each will be searched in sequence for a product code to order or an [item-field ....] or [loop-field ...] to insert. The main difference between [item-field ....] and [item-data table ...] is this fall-through behavior.

Default is products.

ReadPermission and WritePermission

By default, only the user account that MiniVend runs under (as set by the setuid permission on vlink) can read and write files created by MiniVend. WritePermission and ReadPermission can be set to user, group, or 'world'.

ReadPermission      group
WritePermission     group

RemoteUser

The value of the HTTP environment variable REMOTE_USER that will enable catalog reconfiguration. You need to enable HTTP basic authentication for this to work. Default is blank, disabling this check.

RemoteUser   minivend

Replace

Causes a directive to be emptied and re-set (to its default if no value is specified). Useful for directives that add to the value by default.

Replace NoCache ord special multi reconfig query

Capitalization must be exact on the directive.

Require

Forces a global UserTag or GlobalSub to be present before the catalog will configure. This is useful when transporting catalogs to make sure that you will have all needed facilities.

Require usertag   email
Require globalsub form_mail

RobotLimit

The RobotLimit directive defines the number of consecutive pages a user session may access without a 30 second pause. If the limit is exceeded, then the command defined in the Global directive LockoutCommand will be executed. The default is 0, disabling the check.

RobotLimit  200

Route

Sets up order routes. See Custom Order Routing; there are examples in the demo simple.

SalesTax

If non-blank, enables automatic addition of sales tax based on the order form. The value is a comma-separated list of the field names (as placed in order.html), in priority order, which should be used to look up sales tax percentage in the salestax.asc database. This database is not supplied with MiniVend -- it is typically received from a third party by quarterly or monthly subscription.

SalesTax            zip state

SalesTaxFunction

A Perl subroutine that will return a hash reference with the sales tax settings. This can be used to query a database for the tax for a particular vendor:

SalesTaxFunction  <<EOR
sub {
    my $vendor_id = $Session->{source};
    my $tax = $TextSearch->hash( {
                        se => $vendor_id,
                        fi => 'salestax.asc',
                        sf => 'vendor_code',
                        ml => 1000,
                        } );
    $tax = {} if ! $tax;
    $tax->{DEFAULT} = 0.0;
    return $tax;
}
EOR

or simply produce a table:

SalesTaxFunction  <<EOR
sub {
    return {
        DEFAULT => 0.0,
        IL => 0.075,
        OH => 0.065,
    };
}
EOR

A DEFAULT value must always be returned or the function will be ignored.

SaveExpire

The default amount of time that a cookie will be valid for (other than the MV_SESSION_ID cookie). The ones used in MiniVend by default are MV_USERNAME and MV_PASSWORD, for the CookieLogin feature.

Specified the same as SessionExpire, with an integer number followed by one of minutes or hours or days or weeks.

SaveExpire 52 weeks

Default is 30 days.

ScratchDefault

The default scratch variable settings the user will start with when their session is initialized. To disable placing URL rewrite strings after the user has given a cookie, you can do:

ScratchDefault  mv_no_session_id  1
ScratchDefault  mv_no_count       1
ScratchDefault  mv_add_dot_html   1

ScratchDir

The directory where temporary files will be written, notably cached searches and retired session IDs. Defaults to tmp in the catalog directory.

ScratchDir          /tmp

SearchProfile

Allows an unlimited number of search profiles to be set up, specifying complex searches based on a single click. The directive accepts a file name, based in the catalog directory if the path is relative:

SearchProfile    etc/search.profiles

As an added measure of control, the specification is evaluated with the special MiniVend tag syntax to provide conditional setting of search parameters.

The following file specifies a dictionary-based search in the file 'dict.product':

__NAME__ dict_search
mv_search_file=dict.product
mv_return_fields=1
[if value fast_search]
  mv_dict_limit=-1
  mv_last=1
[/if]
__END__

The __NAME__ is the value you will specify in the mv_profile variable on the search form, as in

<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=mv_profile VALUE="dict_search">

or with mp=profile in the one-click search.

[page scan se=Renaissance/mp=dict_search]Renaissance Art[/page]

Multiple profiles can reside in the same file, if separated by __END__ tokens. __NAME__ tokens should be left-aligned, and __END__ must be on a line by itself with no leading or trailing whitespace.

SecureURL

The base URL for secure forms/page transmissions. Normally it is the same as VendURL except for the https: protocol definition. Default is blank, disabling secure access.

SecureURL   https://machine.com/xyzcorp/cgi-bin/vlink

SendMailProgram

The location of the sendmail binary, needed for mailing orders. Must be found at startup. This often needs to be set for FreeBSD or BSDI.

SendMailProgram    /usr/sbin/sendmail

If set to none, no mail can be sent by standard MiniVend facilities.

The default is the value in MINIVEND.CFG and varies depending on operating system.

SeparateItems

Changes the default when ordering an item via MiniVend to allowing multiple lines on the order form for each item. The default, No, puts all orders with the same part number on the same line.

Setting SeparateItems to Yes allows the item attributes to be easily set for different instances of the same part number, allowing easy setting of things such as size or color.

SeparateItems       Yes

Can be overridden with the mv_separate_items variables (both scratch and values).

SessionDatabase

When storing sessions, specify the name of the directory or DBM file to use. The file extensions of .db, or .gdbm (depending on the DBM implementation used) will be appended; if the default file-based sessions are used, then it is the name of the directory.

SessionDatabase     session-data

Can be an absolute path name if desired.

It is possible for multiple catalogs to share the same session file, and very possible for multiple MiniVend servers to serve the same catalogs. If you are serving a massively busy store, multiple parallel MiniVend servers can share the same NFS-based file system and serve users in a "ping-pong" fashion using the file-based sessions. On very, very, large systems you might want to change the level of directory hashing -- by default only 48 * 48 hashing is done. See the source for SessionFile.pm -- if you can't find the setting you have no business running that large a site. 8-)

SessionDB

The name of the MiniVend database to be used for sessions if DBI is specified as the session type. You don't want to use this.

SessionExpire

A customer can exit their browser or leave the catalog pages at any time, and no indication is given to the HTTPD server aside from the lack of further requests that have the same session id. Old session information needs to be periodically expired. The SessionExpire specifies the minimum time to keep track of session information. Defaults to one day. Format is an integer number, followed by s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), d(ays), or w(eeks).

SessionExpire       20 minutes

If CookieLogin is in use, this can be a small value.

SessionLockFile

The file to use for locking coordination of the sessions.

SessionLockFile     session-data.lock

This only applies when using DBM-based sessions. It is possible for multiple catalogs to share the same session file. You will also need to set SessionDatabase appropriately if the database is to be shared. Defaults to session.lock, which is appropriate for separate session files (and therefore standalone catalogs). Can be an absolute path name if desired.

SessionType

The type of session management to be used; one of:

DB_File     Berkeley DB
DBI         DBI (don't use this!)
File        File-based sessions (the default)
GDBM        GDBM

The default is file-based sessions, which provides the best performance and reliablility in most environments.

SpecialPage

Sets a special page to other than its default value. Can be set as many times as necessary -- will have no effect if not one of the MiniVend Required Pages.

SpecialPage         checkout ord/checkout
SpecialPage         failed special/error_on_order
SpecialPage         interact special/browser_problem
SpecialPage         noproduct special/no_product_found
SpecialPage         order  ord/basket
SpecialPage         search srch/results

SpecialPageDir

The directory where special pages are kept. Defaults to special_pages in the catalog directory.

SpecialPageDir      pages/special

Static

A yes/no directive. Enables static page building and display features. Default is no.

Static   Yes

StaticAll

A yes/no directive. Tells MiniVend to try and build all pages in the catalog statically when called with the static page build option. This is subject to the settings of StaticFly, StaticPath, and NoCache. Default is No. (Of course pages that have dynamic elements will not be built statically, though that may be overridden with [tag flag build][/tag] on the page in question.)

StaticAll   Yes

StaticDepth

The number of levels of static search building that will be done if a search results page contains a search. Default is one -- beware that it could be very long if you set it higher. Set to 0 to disable re-scanning of search results pages.

StaticDepth 2

StaticDir

The absolute path of the directory which should be used as the root for static pages. The user ID executing MiniVend must have write permission on the directory (and all files within) if this is to work.

StaticDir   /home/you/www/catalog

StaticFly

A yes/no directive. If set to Yes, static builds will attempt to generate a page for every part number in the database using the on-the-fly page build capability. If pages are already present with those names, they will be overwritten. The default is No.

StaticFly   Yes

StaticPage

Tells MiniVend to build the named page (or pages, whitespace separated) when employing the static page-building capability of MiniVend. Not necessary if using StaticAll.

StaticPage   info/about_us  info/terms_and_conditions

StaticPath

The path (relative to HTTP document root) which should be used in pages built with the static page-building capability of MiniVend.

StaticPath    /catalog

StaticPattern

A perl regular expression which is used to qualify pages that are to be built statically. The default is blank, which means all pages qualify.

StaticPattern  ^info|^help

StaticSuffix

The extension to be appended to a normal MiniVend page name when building statically. Default is .html. Also affects the name of pages in the MiniVend page directory -- if set to .htm the pages must be named with that extension.

StaticSuffix   .htm

Sub

Defines a catalog subroutine for use by the [perl][/perl] or [mvasp] embedded perl languages. Use the "here document" capability of MiniVend configuration files to make it easy to define:

Sub <<EOF
sub sort_cart_by_quantity {
    my($items) = @_;
    $items = $Items if ! $items;
    my $out = '<TABLE BORDER=1>';
    @$items = sort { $a->{quantity} <=> $b->{quantity} } @$items;
    foreach $item (@$items) {
        my $code = $item->{code};
        $out .= '<TR><TD>';
        $out .= $code;
        $out .= '</TD><TD>';
        $out .= $Tag->data('products', 'name', $code);
        $out .= '</TD><TD>';
        $out .= $Tag->data('products', 'price', $code);
        $out .= '</TD></TR>';
    }
    $out .= '&lt/TABLE>';
    return $out;
}
EOF

As with Perl "here documents", the EOF (or other end marker) must be the ONLY thing on the line, with no leading or trailing white space. Do not append a semicolon to the marker.

The above would be called with:

[perl]
    my $cart = $Carts->{main};
    return sort_cart($cart);
[/perl]

and will display an HTML table of the items in the current shopping cart, sorted by the quantity. Syntax errors will be reported at catalog startup time.

Catalog subroutines may not perform unsafe operations -- the Safe.pm module enforces this unless global operations are allowed for the catalog. See AllowGlobal.

TaxShipping

A comma or space separated list of states or jurisdictions that tax shipping cost, i.e. UT. Blank by default, never taxing shipping.

TaxShipping         UT,NV,94024

UpsZoneFile

The file containing the UPS zone information, specified relative to the catalog directory unless it begins with a /. It can be in the format distributed by UPS (this is true until the year 2000 at least) -- or can be in a tab-delimited format, with the three-letter zip prefix of the customer used to determine the zone. It interpolates based on the value in mv_shipmode. A user database named the same as the mv_shipmode variable must be present or the lookup will return zero.

<IMPORTANT NOTE:> You must obtain the zone information and updated pricing from UPS in order for this to work properly. The zone information is specific to your region!

UpsZoneFile         /usr/minivend/data/ups_zone.asc

UseModifier

Determines whether any attributes, the modifiers specified in the directive, can be attached to the item. See Item Attributes. The default is no modifier. Don't use a value of quantity -- it will not do what you want.

UseModifier         size,color

Some values are used by MiniVend and are not legal:

mv_mi
mv_si
mv_ib
group
code 
quantity
item

ValuesDefault

Sets the initial state of the user values, i.e. [value key] or $Values->{key}.

ValuesDefault   fname  New
ValuesDefault   lname  User

When the user session starts, [value fname] [value lname] will be "New User".

Variable

Defines a catalog variable that will be available in the current catalog with the notation __Variable__. Variable identifiers must begin with a capital letter, and can contain only word characters (A-Z,a-z,0-9 and underscore). These are substituted second (right after global Variables) in any MiniVend page, and can contain any valid MiniVend tags except global variables.

Variable   DOCUMENT_ROOT   /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs

VariableDatabase

The name of a database containing a field Variable which will be used to set MiniVend variable values. For example, a database defined as:

Database  var var.asc TAB

and containing

code    Variable
HELLO   Hi!

would cause __HELLO__ to appear as Hi!.

The values set here override those set in catalog.cfg.

VendURL

Specifies the base URL that will run vlink as a cgi-bin program.

VendURL  http://machine.company.com/cgi-bin/vlink

WideOpen

Disables IP qualification of user sessions. THIS DEGRADES CATALOG SECURITY. Do not use unless you use PGP/CreditCardAuto or CyberCash.

ADMINISTERING MINIVEND

Some utilities are supplied in the VendRoot/bin directory:

compile_link Compiles a MiniVend vlink or tlink CGI link
dump         Dumps the session file for a particular catalog
expire       Expires sessions for a particular catalog
expireall    Expires all catalogs
offline      Does offline build of the database(s)
update       Does in-place update of the database(s)
makecat      Make catalog

Some example scripts for other functions are in the eg/ directory of the software distribution; see the readme file there.

Some thought should be given to where the databases, error logs, and session files should be located, especially on an ISP that might have multiple users sharing a MiniVend server. In particular, you might put all of the session files and logs in a directory that is not writable by the user -- if the directory or file is corrupted the catalog may go down.

To test the format of user catalog configuration files before restarting the server, you can do (from VendRoot):

bin/minivend -test

That will check all configuration files for syntax errors, which might otherwise prevent a catalog from coming up. Once a catalog configures properly, user reconfiguration will not crash it, just cause an error. But it must come up when the server is started.

Starting, Stopping, and Re-starting the Servers

The following commands need to have VENDROOT changed to the main directory where you installed MiniVend. If you made /home/minivend/mvend your MiniVend base directory, the start command would be /home/minivend/mvend/bin/minivend.

Do a perldoc VENDROOT/bin/minivend for full documentation.

To start the server with default settings:

VENDROOT/bin/minivend

It is usually best to issue a restart, otherwise the server will not run anew if a server is already running.

VENDROOT/bin/minivend -restart

Assuming the server starts correctly, you will see the names of catalogs as they are configured, along with a message stating the process ID it is running under.

To re-start the server:

VENDROOT/bin/minivend -restart

-r is the same as -restart.

This is typically done to force MiniVend to re-read its configuration. You will see a message stating that a TERM signal has been sent to the process ID the servers are running under -- that information is also sent to /home/minivend/error.log. Check the error.log file for confirmation that the server has restarted properly.

To stop the server:

VENDROOT/bin/minivend -stop

You will see a message stating that a TERM signal has been sent to the process ID the server is running under -- that information is also sent to /home/minivend/error.log.

Because processes waiting for selection on some operating systems block signals, they may have to wait for HouseKeeping seconds to stop. The default is 60.

To terminate the MiniVend server with prejudice, in case it will not stop:

VENDROOT/bin/minivend -kill

UNIX and INET modes

Both UNIX-domain and INET-domain sockets can be used for communication. INET domain sockets are useful when more than one server, connected via a local-area network (LAN), is used for accessing a MiniVend server.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When sending sensitive information like credit card numbers over a network, always ensure that the data is secured by a firewall, or that the MiniVend server runs on the same machine as any SSL-based server used for encryption.

If you only want to run with one method of communication, use the -i and -u flags.

# Start only in UNIX mode
VENDROOT/bin/minivend -r -u

# Start only in INET mode
VENDROOT/bin/minivend -r -i

User reconfiguration

The individual catalogs can be reconfigured by the user by running the [reconfig] support tag. This should be protected by one of the several forms of MiniVend authentication. preferably by HTTP basic authorization (see RemoteUser).

You can reconfigure from the command line (as the MiniVend user) with:

VENDROOT/bin/minivend -reconfig <catalog>

It is easy to manually reconfigure a catalog if you are the administrator. MiniVend simply looks for a file etc/reconfig (based in the MiniVend software directory) at HouseKeeping time. If it finds a script name that matches one of the catalogs, it will reconfigure that catalog.

Making the Product Database

The DBM product databases can be built offline with the offline command. The directory to be used for output is specified either on the command line with the -d option, or is taken from the catalog.cfg directive OfflineDir -- offline in the catalog directory by default. The directory must exist. The source ASCII files should be present in that directory, and the DBM files are created there. Existing files will be overwritten.

offline -c catalog [-d offline_dir]

Do a perldoc VENDROOT/bin/offline for full documentation.

Updating Individual Records

If you have a very large DBM database that takes a long time to build, you may want to use the bin/update script to change just one field in a record, or to add from a corrections list.

The following updates the products database price field for item 19-202 with the new value 25.00

update -c catalog -f price 25.00

More than one field can be updated on a single command line

update -c catalog -f price -f comment 25.00 "That pitchfork couple"

The following takes input from file, which must be formatted exactly like the original database and adds/corrects any records contained therein.

update -c catalog -i file

Invoke the command without any arguments for a usage message describing the options.

Expiring Sessions

If you have DBM capability and MiniVend is using it to store the sessions, you should periodically expire old sessions to keep the session database file from growing too large.

expire -c catalog

There is also an expireall script which reads all catalog entries in minivend.cfg and runs expire on them.

The expire script accepts a -r option which tells it to recover lost disk space.

On UNIX, you could add a crontab entry such as the following:

# once a day at 4:40 am
40 4 * * *    perl /home/minivend/bin/expireall -r

MiniVend will wait until the current transaction is finished before expiring, so you can do this at any time without disabling web access. Any search paging files for the affected session (kept in ScratchDir) will be removed as well.

With Windows or other operating systems which don't fork(), you will need to stop the server before running expire -- this will prevent corruption of the database.

If you are not running DBM sessions, you can use a perl script to delete all files not modified in the last one or two days. The following will work if given an argument of your session directory or session files:

#!perl
# expire_sessions.pl -- delete files 2 days old or older

my @files;
my $dir;
foreach $dir (@ARGV) {
    # just push files on the list
    if (-f $dir) { push @files, $_; next; }

    next unless -d $dir;
    
    # get all the file names in the directory
    opendir DIR, $dir or die "opendir $dir: $!\n";
    push @files, ( map { "$dir/$_" } grep(! /^\.\.?$/, readdir DIR) ) ;
}

for (@files) {
    unless (-f $_) {
        warn "skipping $_, not a file.\n";
        next;
    }
    next unless -M $_ >= 2;
    unlink $_ or die "unlink $_: $!\n";
}

It would be run with a command invocation like:

perl expire_sessions.pl /home/you/catalogs/simple/session

You can give it multiple directory names if you have more than one catalog.

You can adjust this script to do what you wish, of course. Refinements might include reading the file to "eval" the session reference and expire only customers who are not members.

DEBUGGING

No debug is provided by default. You can edit the source files and uncomment '::logDebug(SOMETHING)' statements there, and set the value of DebugFile to a file that will be written to:

DebugFile /tmp/mvdebug

MANUAL INSTALLATION OF CATALOGS

A MiniVend installation is complex, and requires quite a few distinct steps. That is why there is an interactive configuration script that is included with MiniVend -- it merely does automatically what is described below. It makes the process much easier, and will install the demo catalog. This configuration script has been tested on many UNIX systems.

The installation program (makecat) can be used to install your own custom catalog template. See the supplied demo template simple for examples.

Needed Directories

The MiniVend program, and its supporting libraries, should all go into one directory as installed by the installation program.

User catalog pages, user databases, and user configuration files should all go into their private directories. Because the catalog pages are served through the MiniVend cgi-bin program and contain nonstandard elements, they should not be put into a public WWW directory, nor do they need to have world-readable file permissions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since catalogs are all run under one server, permissions are complex and very important. Please let the MiniVend configuration program do the work!

You will want a public WWW directory for in-line image graphic files. MiniVend does not serve the images, only the HTML tags calling them. A useful convention is to place all buttonbars, backgrounds, and icons in the /images directory, with the catalog items perhaps located in the /images/catalog directory. It is up to you, but remember that you must use an absolute path -- relative paths will not do. MiniVend 2.0 supports the ImageDir directive, which places that as the absolute path in front of all relative IMG and INPUT SRC specifications.

You will need a cgi-bin directory in which to put the vlink or tlink program.

Setup for HTTP Servers

MiniVend requires a that a web server be installed on your system in the normal course of events; it does have an internal server which can be used for administration, testing, and maintenance, but you will not want to use it to serve in a production environment.

As detailed previously, MiniVend is always running in the background as a daemon, or resident program. It monitors either a UNIX-domain file-based socket or a series of INET-domain sockets. The small CGI link program, called in the demo simple, is run to connect to one of those sockets and provide the link between your browser.

NOTE: Since Apache and other CERN/NCSA-derived servers are the most popular, we will talk in the terms they use. If you use another web server, you may have to translate the terms; for instance on MS Personal web server the standard ScriptAlias is /scripts.

You need to have a ScriptAlias or other CGI execution capability to use the link program. (The default ScriptAlias for many web servers is /cgi-bin.) If you have ExecCGI set for all of your directories, then any program ending in a particular file suffix (usually .cgi) will be seen as a CGI program.

MiniVend, by convention, names the link program the same name as the catalog ID, though this is not required. In the distribution demo, this would yield a program name or SCRIPT_PATH of /cgi-bin/simple or /simple.cgi. This SCRIPT_PATH can be used to determine which MiniVend catalog will be used when the link program is accessed.

UNIX-domain sockets

This is a socket which is not reachable from the Internet directly, but which must come from a request on your own server. The link program vlink is the provided facility for such communication with MiniVend.

This is the most secure way to run your catalog, for there is no way for systems on the Internet to interact with MiniVend except through its link program.

The most important issue with UNIX-domain sockets on MiniVend is the permissions with which the CGI program and the MiniVend server run.

To improve security, MiniVend normally runs with the socket file having 0600 permissions (rw-------), which mandates that the CGI program and the server run as the same user ID. This means that the vlink program must be SUID to the same user ID as the server executes under. (Or that CGIWRAP is used on a single catalog system).

With MiniVend multiple catalog capability, the permissions situation gets a bit tricky. MiniVend comes with a program, makecat, which configures catalogs for a multiple catalog system. It should properly set up ownership and permissions for multiple users if run as the superuser.

INET-domain sockets

These are sockets which are reachable from the Internet directly. The link program tlink is the provided facility for such communication with MiniVend; you may also use your browser to talk to the socket directly if you have it mapped to a catalog with the global TcpMap directive.

To improve security, MiniVend usually checks that the request comes from one of a limited number of systems, defined in the global TcpHost directive. (This check is not made for the internal HTTP server.)

Internal HTTP server

If you contact the socket directly (only for INET-domain sockets), MiniVend will perform the HTTP server function itself, talking directly to the browser. It can monitor any number of ports and map them to a particular catalog; by default it only maps the special catalog mv_admin, which performs administrative functions. The default port is 7786 (ASCII for M an V), which is the default compiled into the distribution tlink program. You can change this port via the TcpMap directive.

To prevent catalogs that do not wish access made in this way from being served from the internal server, MiniVend has a fixed SCRIPT_PATH of /catalogname (/simple for the distribution demo) which needs to be placed as an alias in the Catalog directive to enable access. See TcpMap for more details.

Setting up VLINK and TLINK

The vlink and tlink programs, compiled from vlink.c and tlink.c, are small C programs which contact and interface to a running MiniVend daemon. The vlink executable is normally made setuid to the user account which runs MiniVend, so that the UNIX-domain socket file can be set to secure permissions (user read-write only). It is normally not necessary for the user to do anything -- they will be compiled by the configuration program. If the MiniVend daemon is not running, either will display a message indicating that the server is not available. The following defines in the produced config.h should be set:

LINK_FILE: Set this to the name of the socket file that will be used for configuration, usually "/usr/local/lib/minivend/etc/socket" or the "etc/socket" under the directory you chose for the VendRoot.
LINK_HOST: Set this to the IP number of the host which should be contacted. The default of 127.0.0.1 (the local machine) is probably best for many installations.
LINK_PORT: Set this to the TCP port number that the MiniVend server will monitor. The default is 7786 (the ASCII codes for 'M' and 'V') and does not normally need to be changed.
LINK_TIMEOUT: Set this to the number of seconds vlink or tlink should wait before announcing that the MiniVend server is not running. The default of 45 is probably a reasonable value.

Compiling VLINK and TLINK

There is a compile_link program which will assist with this. Do:

perldoc VENDROOT/bin/compile_link

for its documentation.

Manually compiling VLINK and TLINK

Change directories to the src directory, then run the GNU configure script:

cd src
./configure

You will see some output as the configure script checks your system. Then compile the programs:

perl compile.pl

To compile manually:

cc vlink.c -o vlink
cc tlink.c -o tlink

On manual compiles, you can ensure your C compiler will be invoked properly with this little ditty:

perl -e 'do "syscfg"; system("$CC $LIBS $CFLAGS $DEFS -o tlink tlink.c");'
perl -e 'do "syscfg"; system("$CC $LIBS $CFLAGS $DEFS -o vlink vlink.c");'

On some systems you can make the executable smaller with the strip program. But don't worry about it if strip is not on your system.

strip vlink
strip tlink

If you want MiniVend to run under a different user account than your own, make that user the owner of vlink. (You probably need to be root to do this). Do not make vlink owned by root, because making vlink setuid root is an huge and unnecessary security risk. It should also not normally run as the default WWW user (often nobody or http)).

chown minivend vlink

Move the vlink executable to your cgi-bin directory:

mv vlink /the/cgi-bin/directory

Make vlink setuid:

chmod u+s /the/cgi-bin/directory/vlink

Most systems unset the SUID bit when moving the file, so you should change it after moving.

The SCRIPT_NAME as produced by the HTTP server must match the name of the program. (As usual, you should let the makecat program do the work.)

AUTHOR

Mike Heins, mike@minivend.com.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, to Andrew Wilcox for his 1995 Vend, which inspired MiniVend. There are still a few vestiges of his code in MiniVend, and it would not have happened without it and him. Thanks, Andrew.

My wife Jean has shown immense patience with me, especially when I go into my cave to do a new release. 8-)

There have been many who contributed to Minivend's development, especially with testing and feature content. They include:

Andreas Koenig     
Birgitt Funk       
Bob Jordan         
Brian Bullen       
Bruce Albrecht     
Don Grodecki       
Frank Bonita       
Gunnar Hellekson   
Heinz Wittenbecher
Keiko
Jochen Wiedmann
Larry Leszczynski
Marc Austin
Michael McCune
Mike Frager
Raj Goel
Stefan Hornburg   
Tim Baverstock
William Dan Terry
many others

and, of course, the entire Perl team without whom MiniVend could not exist.

11 POD Errors

The following errors were encountered while parsing the POD:

Around line 1348:: You forgot a '=back' before '=head2'
Around line 1376:: '=item' outside of any '=over'
Around line 1664:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 2'
Around line 1669:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 3'
Around line 1678:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 4'
Around line 7660:: Deleting unknown formatting code U<>
Around line 9746:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 3'
Around line 9783:: You have '=item 9' instead of the expected '=item 10'
Around line 11294:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 2'
Around line 11302:: You have '=item 1' instead of the expected '=item 3'
Around line 11687:: Non-ASCII character seen before =encoding in 'é'. Assuming CP1252

To install IniConf, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm IniConf

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install IniConf

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

	Global
`s`	Focus search bar
`?`	Bring up this help dialog

	GitHub
`g` `p`	Go to pull requests
`g` `i`	go to github issues (only if github is preferred repository)

	POD
`g` `a`	Go to author
`g` `c`	Go to changes
`g` `i`	Go to issues
`g` `d`	Go to dist
`g` `r`	Go to repository/SCM
`g` `s`	Go to source
`g` `b`	Go to file browse

	Search terms
module: (e.g. module:Plugin)
distribution: (e.g. distribution:Dancer auth)
author: (e.g. author:SONGMU Redis)
version: (e.g. version:1.00)

NAME

Version

DESCRIPTION

OVERVIEW OF MINIVEND

The Vend Concept

A typical user session

How MiniVend Manages Sessions

Page Delivery

DISTRIBUTION AND SUPPORT INFORMATION

Where to Download MiniVend

Perl

QUICK START

The Catalog Directory

makecat -- set up a catalog from a template

Setting up multiple catalogs

If something goes wrong

SETTING UP YOUR CATALOG

Start with a database

Features to use

Use the demo catalogs

Tree design

The Essentials

The Demo Catalog

A bit about "simple"

MML -- MiniVend Markup Language

HTML Hypertext links

Images

Cookies

Basic MiniVend Tags

Inserting hyperlinks

[area ...]

How to order an item

Where do I go from here?

DATABASES

A bit about text source files

MiniVend Database Operation

The Product Database

Multiple Database Tables

MiniVend built-in database support

Character usage restrictions

Database Attributes

Dictionary indexing with INDEX

MEMORY for memory-only databases

IMPORT_ONCE

Importing in a page

Exporting from a database

Write Control

Global Databases

SQL SUPPORT

SQL support via DBI

SQL Access Methods

Importing from an ASCII file

MINIVEND TAG REFERENCE

Tag syntax

DATA and FIELD

SET, SETI and SCRATCH

LOOP

IF

TAG -- the catch all

COMMENT

User-defined Tags

PRICE, DESCRIPTION, ACCESSORIES

FILE and INCLUDE

Banner/Ad rotation

Tags for summarizing shopping basket/cart

Item Lists

Embedded Perl Code

ASP-like Perl

MiniVend Perl Objects

On-the-fly Catalog Pages

Special Pages

Checking Page HTML

FORMS AND MINIVEND

Special Form Fields

Form Actions

One-click Multiple Variables

Checks and Selections

Integrated Image Maps

Setting Form Security

Stacking Variables on the Form