Stand-Alone Demo

Rev. 22-Dec-1997

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This page is of interest to those members of the concom who need to load a copy of this web site onto a laptop or other computer, typically in order to demonstrate the web page at a sales table. If this doesn't apply to you, please move along, there's nothing to see here.

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The zips directory on the web site has everything you need.

What is this?

The zip files are created fresh every Wednesday morning, about 1:00 AM Pacific Time. If you've already downloaded one set, there may not be anything new in the zip files - check the What's New log if you're not sure what's changed.

The web page files take up about 5 MB. The zip files put together run about 1.7 MB, and the unzipped files add up to about 3 MB.

How do you use it?

1. Prepare a directory for the zip files you're about to download. You might use \WEBDEMO, for example. Please make sure you have at least 5 MB free disk space, over and above whatever you need to leave permanently available for swap files and so forth. If you've installed this demo before, you can over-write the old files.
2. Download all the zip files. Everything that ends with ".zip" needs to be downloaded from the zips directory. Save them all in the same directory. If you're in a rush, or if you're re-downloading the page (and you don't care if we've updated the bid page archive), just get chiweb.zip. I have them broken up into chunks to make it easier to copy them onto floppies, in case you have to transfer them from one computer to another.
3. Note for MS-DOS/Windows users: get the batch file CLEANUP.BAT too, so you can run it after everything's unzipped.
4. Are you running Windows 3.XX? You may want MOZOCK.DLL, which by the way comes courtesy of Netscape. Save it someplace safe.
5. Do you have PKUNZIP, UNZIP, WINZIP, or equivalent on your computer? If not, you can get PKUNZIP (pk204g.exe) here, or you can get UNZIP from Info-Zip [www]. Note that UNZIP is available for all kinds of computers, including Macintosh and Unix.
6. When you've got UNZIP or equivalent, and if you already have a working web browser on your computer, you're done downloading. You can go off-line now. This is the point at which you can stop, and copy everything onto floppies or onto another computer and install everything there if you wish.
7. You'll want to take whatever steps are necessary to install your unzipper, if needed. Either make sure it's reachable in your 'path', or copy the executables to the web page demo directory.
8. Go to the web page demo directory on your computer and unzip all of the zip files into it. They'll create a subdirectory CHICON, if it's not there already, and the web pages themselves will be installed in a subdirectory tree.
   • If you're using Windows: open up an MS-DOS window.
   • If you can get to an MS-DOS prompt, you'll want to do something like this:
     CD \WEBDEMO
     PKUNZIP -OD CHI*.ZIP
     CLEANUP.BAT
     
   • If you're using some other unzipper, use whatever works. The idea is to unzip everything into your designated directory. The "-OD" option sets up the CHICON subdirectory tree, and overwrites existing files so you can do this again when you download an updated version.
   • If you're tight for space, you can delete the zip files once they've been unzipped.
9. You'll need a browser that doesn't mind running offline.
   • Depending on your browser, you may not have any trouble at all. Some browsers have an option box that you can select, which determines whether or not it lets you run the browser off-line. Here's how you test it: When you're not online, and you start your browser program, does it automatically try to connect (i.e. dial out)? If not, you don't have a problem.
   • If you're using Windows 3.XX and a Winsock (such as Trumpet Winsock) you may find that it immediately tries to dial out when you launch your browser (such as Netscape 2.0). You can fake out the Winsock by pressing ESC to interrupt it, which should display PPP ENABLED or SLIP ENABLED even though there isn't a live connection.
   • If you're comfortable playing around with Winsock scripts, you can make a "dial" script that doesn't actually dial out.
   • Another approach would be to temporarily replace the Winsock with another winsock that doesn't do anything - that is, a "Nullsock." Netscape has one available, called MOZOCK.DLL. You'll want to save your working WINSOCK.DLL before renaming or copying the nullsock, of course. You can also accomplish the same thing by renaming MOZOCK.DLL to WINSOCK.DLL and keeping the two different WINSOCK.DLL files in different directories - and rearranging your path to include one directory but not the other.
   • Can't remember which one is which? The nullsock is 5K, while Trumpet Winsock is about 145K. The size of the file should give it away. If you're worried about it, you should probably make a backup copy of the real Winsock now, just in case.
10. Launch your browser off-line. Go to the CHICON subdirectory, and select the file demo.htm. You might even consider making the demo page or the Frames Page your "Home Page." (So if somone selects the "Home" button, it'll go back to the top.)
11. If you've got a laptop with a "save/resume" mode, select it. This is where you can turn off your computer, and when you turn it back on you're right where you were - no waiting for the re-boot process.
12. If you've got a screen-saver scrolling-message option, select it, and put in a message that says something like "Chicon 2000 Web Page."

That's really all there is to it. If you have any trouble, send me e-mail, or in a pinch call me up. I'm in the book.

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