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What else do I need to run MiniVend?

MiniVend is a complex system requiring the services of other complex pieces of hardware and software. While it can be very easy to install, it is not always. You must look at the ongoing environment as well as just the initial installation.

Perl

First of all, you need a recent Perl. MiniVend 4 will not run on anything less than Perl 5.005.

Perl modules

MiniVend will run with a stock Perl, but to use some features of MiniVend (like the MiniMate interface) you will need some extra modules. If you are on UNIX you can use the CPAN module and run:

    perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::Minivend'

and it should install all of the modules necessary except the DBM/DBI ones.

These modules are strongly recommended:

    MD5
    MIME::Base64
    SQL::Statement
    URI::URL
    Safe::Hole
    GDBM or DB_File (comes with most i386 Perls)

These are definitely recommended:

    Storable
    Bundle::LWP (contains MIME::Base64 and URI::URL)

These are nice to have but are not essential:

    Business::UPS (comes with MiniVend)
    Term::ReadLine::Perl
    Term::ReadKey

You will need the DBI module if using SQL, along with the appropriate DBD module for your database.

The recommended packages for ActiveState Perl for Windows are:

    MD5
    MIME::Base64
    LWP
    SQL_Statement
    DB_File

FUTURE: The MiniVend setup program will attempt to use ppm.pl, the ActivePerl package manager, to install them at installation time.

Operating System

UNIX is best. The Windows version, while perhaps more than just a toy, is not suitable for high-volume catalog serving. This is mostly due to NT not fitting the UNIX fork() model which works so well with MiniVend.

A catalog designed on a Windows machine should just move over to a UNIX machine with no changes, so Windows might be a suitable development environment.

Mac OS is not supported. If the time comes when it starts to reasonably support normal POSIX services, then an attempt to port will be made. This is not likely, in my estimation. MiniVend does run fine on OS/X.

Machine

The server should be fast and have lots of memory. A 200MHz Pentium Pro or equivalent with 128MB of RAM works well and can serve many catalogs if that is all it does.

If you are located on a machine with many hundreds of domains, as sometimes happens with low-cost hosting operations, you can expect some problems. It is difficult to maintain a stable environment with that many users.

MiniVend will run about as well as the platform beneath it. It routinely runs for months non-stop in a stable environment.

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