AWBot 1.1 Documentation

  


Frequently Asked Questions + Troubleshooting


ABOUT QUESTIONS:

SETUP or ERROR QUESTIONS:
Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have to install/setup AWBot.

COMMON SUPPORT QUESTIONS:
Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have when using AWBot.





FAQ-ABO100 : WHICH WEB SERVER OR OS ARE SUPPORTED ?
AWBot is just a particular Web Browser like IE or Netscape so it can test/works on all web servers. Because AWBot is in Perl, it can works on all Operating Systems.
Examples of used platforms (bold means 'tested by author', others were reported by AWBot users to work correctly) :
OS:
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Linux, Macintosh, Solaris, Aix, BeOS, ...
Web/Wap/Proxy servers
Apache, IIS 5.0, WebStar, WebLogic, Squid, Roxen, IPlanet, IceCast, Zope, ...
Perl interpreters:
ActivePerl 5.6, Perl for unix 5.0


FAQ-ABO200 : WHICH LANGUAGES ARE AVAILABLE ?
AWBot is only available in English.


FAQ-ABO250 : CAN I USE AWBOT ON HTTPS SITES ?
In most cases, you can use https urls like you use http url in your AWBot config file. If it doesn't work, it probably means that Perl module Crypt-SSLeay is not installed. So this is how you can use AWBot to test an https url:
- Check that Crypt-SSLeay Perl package is installed.
If not, you can find it on CPAN or if you are using Perl ActiveState, you can install it with the following commands:
> ppm rep add Theory http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppmpackages/
> install Crypt-SSLeay
- Add in your config file an entry GET or POST that contains an url starting with https instead of http:
GET "https://$SERVER/mypage.html"


FAQ-ABO300 : ABOUT AWBOT HISTORY
AWBot was initialy designed for my own use to test my personal web sites or other projects i worked on (www.chiensderace.com, www.chatsderace.com, www.lesbonnesannonces.com, www.pourmaplanete.com, www.dolibarr.org, and www.destailleur.fr)
Then I decided to put it on sourceforge in year 2003. Then I add some minor changes until today. See changelog for full history of changes.



FAQ-SET550 : HOW TO RUN AWBOT FREQUENTLY
PROBLEM: I want to run AWBot frequently to detect a response time decrease accross time. How can I do this ?
SOLUTION:

With Windows, you can use the internal task scheduler. The use of this tool is not an AWBot related problem, so please take a look at your Windows manual. Warning, if you use "awbot.pl -config=myfile.conf" in your scheduled task, you might experience problem of failing task. Try this instead
"C:\WINNT\system32\CMD.EXE /C C:\[AWBot_path]\awbot.pl -config=myfile.conf"
or
"C:\[perl_path]\perl.exe C:\[AWBot_path]\awbot.pl -config=myfile.conf"
A lot of other open-source schedulers (avoid sharewares or freewares) are very good.

With unix-like operating systems, you can use the "crontab".
This is examples of lines you can add in the cron file (see your unix reference manual for cron) :
To run update every day at 04:00, use :
0 4 * * * /opt/awbot/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awbot.pl -config=myfile.conf
To run update every hour, use :
0 * * * * /opt/awbot/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awbot.pl -config=myfile.conf