interchange / interchange

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                           I N T E R C H A N G E

Interchange 5.0.0

Copyright (C) 2002-2003 Interchange Development Group
Copyright (C) 1996-2002 Red Hat, Inc.

Originally based on Vend 0.2 and 0.3, copyright 1995-96 by Andrew M. Wilcox.

This program is offered without warranty of any kind.
See the file LICENSE for redistribution terms.

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Interchange is a full-featured web application server with
online ordering; real-time credit card processing hooks; high-end
database access and retrieval with SQL support; product categorizing,
merchandising, and discounting; basic customer relationship management;
dynamic content presentation; content management; internationalization
and localization support; real-time tax and shipping hooks; reporting;
and web-based administration.

Interchange absolutely REQUIRES Perl 5.6.0 or later on a Unix-like operating
system.

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More information is in the following files and directories:

LICENSE          The text of the GNU General Public License (GPL) under which
                 Interchange is supplied.

README.rpm-dist  Notes on using Interchange when installed from RPM packages.

README.debian    Notes on using Interchange when installed from Debian packages.

README.cvs       How to access the CVS repository to track ongoing development.

WHATSNEW         Changes per version for this version family.

UPGRADE          Instructions on how to upgrade from an earlier Interchange
                 version.

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Major files/directories in the distribution:

Makefile.PL    Script to create a Makefile, used for installation.

dist/          The distribution files, exclusive of executable
               files and modules. Includes:

               interchange.cfg.dist   Distribution interchange.cfg
               foundation/            Demo catalog skeleton, used by makecat
               src/                   C and Perl code for CGI links
               lib/                   Back-end administrative interface
               code/                  Usertags and other customizable code

extra/         Some not-always-needed Perl libraries.

hints.pl       OS-specific configuration settings. None currently used.

lib/           The library modules needed to run Interchange.

scripts/       The executable files, relocated to bin/ in the install
               directory.

relocate.pl    Script that adjusts paths in scripts/ for installation into
               bin/.

test.pl        The installation test script.

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                          I N S T A L L A T I O N

You can install Interchange as root for a multi-user system-wide setup, or
as an unprivileged user who will be the only one modifying Interchange files.

Here is the quick installation summary:

gzip -dc interchange-5.0.0.tar.gz | tar xvf -
cd interchange-5.0.0
./configure

The configure script asks where you'd like to install Interchange, and
(against common practice) also install it.

The Interchange server doesn't do much if it isn't servicing one or more
actual catalogs, so you next need to make your first Interchange catalog,
as described in the next section.

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                                 D E M O

There is a demo catalog skeleton included called 'foundation'.

To build your own catalog from the demo, go to the directory where you
installed Interchange (default is "interchange" in your home directory,
/usr/local/interchange for root installations, or /usr/lib/interchange
for RPM installations) and run:

bin/makecat

Follow the prompts and after restarting the Interchange server you
should be able to access the demo catalog.

Please note that some functionality (notably the reporting features)
may not be available if you are not using an SQL database such as
MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Visit http://demo.icdevgroup.org/ to try out a live demo.

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                         D O C U M E N T A T I O N

A documentation package is available, with documentation in many different
formats. This and other information is available at the Interchange home on
the web:

http://www.icdevgroup.org/

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                         C O M P A T I B I L I T Y

Interchange is regularly tested on various Linux distributions and FreeBSD.
It has also been used on Mac OS X, Solaris, OpenBSD, Digital UNIX/Tru64, SCO,
AIX, and other Unix variants. It should work on any Unix with Perl 5.6.0 or
higher and the necessary Perl modules.

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