Help File for Picvu.pl, version 1.41
version completed December 12, 2000
Copyright 2000 by Michael K. Goode
For new versions of this script, and 
other scripts, please visit the GodotWEB 
Script Archive, at www.mikegoode.com/web/scripts/



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okay, this script is pretty simple to work with. First, you must configure all the variables. Here I give an overview of all the variables that you need to configure.


$bgcolor = "ececec";
-- This is the background color for the pages this script creates
	in hexadecimal code. FFFFFF is white; the default I have is a light gray


$border = "0";
--- This is the size of the border you want around the images. Borders are annoying, 	so I recommend leaving this at zero.


$program = "http://www.mikegoode.com/cgi-bin/picvu.pl";
---This is the absolute url location of the picvu program on your computer
	do not put a slash after the file extension (.pl). So if your cgi directory
	is bin/, then this would be "http://wwww.yourdomainname.com/bin/picvu.pl"



$small_multiplier = .25;
$medium_multiplier = .50;
$large_multiplier = .75;

these are the proportions of the full size image that you will multiply the dimensions by to get the different size images use decimals, and not fractions

--I recommend leaving these as they are at first, to see how they fit your picture
sizes, and then playing around to get the best outcome.



$default_picture_size = 'medium';
---set the default picture size to 'small' , 'medium' , 'large' , or 'full', with 
	these using the fractions of the full sized image set above.


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Now, you are not yet done with configuring the program. There
are two more sections in the program, marked $header and $footer, 
and you just put standard html in these sections for what you 
want displayed at the top, and at the bottom

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After you have configured the variables, make sure the extension of the
program is .pl or .cgi, then upload the script to your server's cgi-bin,
and chmod it to world executable.

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Then, pick the images that you want to use this for, and then either use an image
utility, or maybe my picsize_finder.pl to find the sizes in pixels of these images. 
Then link the thumbnail in a standard html page of yours to the program. Here is how
to do it:

To call this program to view a certain image, link to it like this: http://www.mikegoode.com/cgi-bin/picvu.pl?http://www.mikegoode.com/photo/gallery/mike4/cara-true.jpg&343&435&Cara&medium

the first part (before the ?) is the URL location of the picvu.pl program. 
(already in the $program variable)

Then is a '?', and then the absolute url location of the image

After that, an ampersand (&), and then the width in pixels, then another '&', then the height of the image, in pixels

and after the next ampersand is the title of the image

after that, you can put another & and then the size to display the image at, or you can put nothing, and the image will be displayed at the default size



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Problems with running the program
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Problems:

1.	Program will not run -- says "you do not have permission to access
	/cgi-bin/" or something like that -- you need to chmod the program
	to world executeable

2.	Also, if your server is running a brain-damaged OS, such as anything by Microsoft, this program may not run. Sorry. Get UNIX or LINUX.

3.	For almost any other problem, you probably linked to the program or file wrongly. Check to make sure you did it right.


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As with all my programs, feel free to change the html look of the program, 
or anything else.