Operational Assistance, Hints, and Tips

Login Screen

To create your New Flash message you must login to the submission form. To do this,
run the news.cgi script from your browser as follows:

http://your.domain.name/cgi-bin/newsflash/news.cgi
(Be sure to substitute your real domain name for "your.domain.name".

Create News Flash Message

Topic: Enter the subject of your News Flash

Your Name: Enter a name or alias. If you are the webmaster making announcement you might use "Webmaster".

News: Enter your News Flash message.

Now click Submit

Preview your News Flash

Your are presented with a preview of your News Flash. By clicking on "Click here to view news" you will see the message as it appears on the page your have chosen for you message display, i.e., news.html.

Adding Comments

If you have chosen to allow comments these will be added by clicking on "View/Add Comments" at the bottom of the current message.

Edit Settings

To edit setting in your vars_main.pl file, click on the "Click here to edit settings" link. Then save your changes when done.

That's it!

Hints and Tips

Use frames to display the same message on more than one page using a single install of News Flash.

You may install multiple instances of News Flash and display a different message on different pages. For example, your first installation would be /cgi-bin/newsflash and your second /cgi-bin/newsflash2. You get the idea.

You may also choose to display multiple messages instead of just one. Simply change the "Number of news items to be shown" to accomplish this.