Widgets BBS News and new features. Last updated: March 15th 1996

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As of March 15th, Widgets BBS original Web Server that came with Vircom's MajorTCP/IP (the product we use to make MajorBBS/Worldgroup talk to the net) has finally been upgraded. The features this new Web Server includes are:

HTTP 1.0 Compatibility

Our new web server is now fully compatible with the HTTP 1.0 standard. This means that AOL members surfing the net will be able to view your pages. The original web server included with MajorTCP/IP only supported HTTP 0.9 which created some problems with people that didn't have backwards-compatible browsers like the folks at AOL.

Subdirectory Redirection

The original web server that came with MajorTCP/IP had an annoying problem. If someone on the world-wide-web tried to refer to a sub-directory without refering to the index page therein, the browser would find the index.htm from that page, however all references within that index.htm page had to be absolute because the browser didn't know we had changed directories.

Say someone did http://www.widget.com/somedir and somedir is a subdirectory. The browser would return the following page: http://www.widget.com/somedir/index.htm which is essentially correct.

However, if index.htm made references to relative URLs, say, a picture in the same directory as index.htm called picture.gif, the web browser would try to access: http://www.widget.com/somedirpicture.gif. A slash is missing between somedir and picture.gif.

This problem has been fixed in the new web server. Because of this, it will be possible to have folks refer to a subdirectory instead of of the index page of that subdirectory. The index.htm file will be loaded automatically, and any file or object referenced by this index.htm page will be fetched appropriately.

So, basically, instead of having to do: http://www.widget.com/kevin/index.htm, people can now do http://www.widget.com/kevin and index.htm will be loaded automatically. Any reference to other documents within the index page will be accessed properly. Check this link to the wdgtest subdirectory. It should bring up the index.htm page in the wdgtest subdirectory. Once there, you will be able to click on a relative link to a picture in the wdgtest directory. It should load properly.

Combined Log Format

The MajorTCP/IP Web Server is now compatible with the log format standard used by the majority of web servers on the market. This means that statistical packages like Web-Trends will be able to read your server activity log and use the data to create statistical reports. Furthermore, MajorTCP/IP will now work fine with the various Web Counting services on the WWW. Check out the Statistics Page to see an example.

Clickable Image Maps

The web server now supports images maps! If you've clicked on one of the buttons of the main Widgets BBS page, you would've seen that for yourself. If you didn't, go back to Widgets BBS page to try it out.

Form to File Support

We now support fully the FORM GET method. You can specify a file where the data entered will wind up, instead of being stuck with a single log file (TCPWWW.LOG) for all form submits. Check out the Our Staff page to see an anonymous comment submition form in action.

Form to Email support

In addition to the standard Form-to-File support, the New Web server is capable of sending any data entered thru a form to an E-mail using the same legible format used by the Form-To-File system. You can even have the person filling out the form put in something in the "Subject:" line, and the "Mail From:" line. Check out the Register NOW! page for an example of this new capability.

WWW security

Password security is now possible with Vircom's new web server. You can create web pages that are only accessible by users of the BBS via their username and password. You can restrict this access even more by defining specific access keys for each of your pages. Only the key owners will be able to access those pages after typing in a proper username and password. You can also restrict access to a block of IP addresses. Check out this link for a sample. Type in a valid username and password on your system to see the secured web page.

User account information

Any user on your system can now find out their account status through the world-wide-web. It's as easy as typing the appropriate URL. For instance, unless the configuration has been modified on this system, a simple URL like http://www.yoursystem.com/acctstat/ would yield the user's account information. This would be preceded of course by a username and password request. Only people with valid usernames and passwords can check their account information through the world-wide-web.

VRML, JAVA and Plug-In Compatibility

The new web server is capable of handling VRML documents, JAVA Applets and is fully compatible with the Netscape plug-ins on the market, including the Worldgroup 2.0 plug-in. You can see on the bottom of the main widget page index.htm a little bottom scroller written in JavaScript.