Using newsgen.pl script to generate a test newsdat.txt



What it does

------------



This is a perl script that generates a dummy database to

use when testing Coranto.



How to Use newsgen.pl

---------------------



Open newsgen.pl in a text editor



Change the perl shebang line at the top of the file to point to your

perl directory (open a script that works that is in the same location

and copy that shebang line if you are not sure)



Edit the values at the top of the file to suit your needs.



You can set the number of items, number of words in each item,

the minimum and maximum numbers of letters in each word, the name of

'fake user', the category that the items will be listed in, and text

of the items subject line.



Save your changes



Place newsgen.pl in the same directory as your Coranto installation



run newsgen.pl from the command line



in windows it looks like this:



w:\somedirectory>perl newsgen.pl



To run the script using this method on a remote server you need telnet

or shell access to the server.



OR call the script in your browser like this:



http://www.yoursite.com/pathtoscript/gennews.pl



If there is an existing newsdat.txt file it will be renamed by adding an

underscore character and four random letters to the name.



Revisions

---------



This is a revision of the gennws4.pl script available at:



http://coranto.org/go/download/other



Creates newsids that are like the ones Coranto creates



Uses random lengths for the 'words' created



Tests for the existence of newsdat.txt and renames the file if

it exists.



uses crcfg.dat not crcfg.pl which does not exist

in current Coranto versions



Adds more user settings using the variables at the top of

the script.
