Basic Instructions:

Installation:

  1. Users of Previous Versions of NPDS:
    1. REMOVE all the component packages before continuing with this installation.
    2. Install and run the package NPDS Wiper and allow it to reset your Newton
  2. Use your package installer of choice to install nHTTPd.
    Close your desktop connection, open the Extras drawer, then tap the the nHTTPd Icon to open it.
    This performs some initialization functions required for the rest of the NPDS System.
  3. After* installing nHTTPd, install your choice of these plugins:
    *During their first installation, they rely on functions provided by nHTTPd to verify and update their preference files. nHTTPd MUST be installed before they are or you'll get errors.
    1. NoteServ (Required)
    2. CardServ (Recommended)
    3. DateServ (Recommended)
    4. Tracker Client (Optional)
    5. Web*Pager (Optional.. but VERY FUN)
      1. Web*Pager requires urlCop
    6. GIFServer [+ GIFMaker] (Optional)
    7. NPDS Setup (Recommended)
    8. Script Editor (Optional)
  4. I assume you will be using NoteServ to serve HTML Pages:
    1. Decide upon one folder in your Notepad that you want to use for serving WWW pages (you can change it later).
    2. Make sure there's at least one note filed in that folder.
    3. Open NoteServ and use the folder picker to select that folder.
      (By default, it's set to "Personal")

Serving Your First Web Page:

Starting Up

  1. Open nHTTPd and establish a connection to the WWW by tapping the Start button (A).

    When the connection is established, your server's IP will show up in the area marked "Not Assigned" in the illustration on then left. (D)

    The status indicator (B) will go from "IDLE" to "INIT" and pause while the other parts of the server start up, then to "RDY"
    You'll also notice the Start button has been replaced by a Stop button.

  2. You're now ready to hit your Newton WWW server. In a browser of your choice, go to http://insert.server.ip.here/ and be surprised at what comes up!
  3. What you see is your default page. You can customize it quite readily but you don't have to for NPDS to work nicely.
    I happen to think this default page is quite functional :-)
  4. Now, if you've installed other plugins, you can feel free to explore the various data they display but other than that, you're actually done with the "hard part".

Shutting Down

To shut down your server, tap the Stop button (A). A slip will come up telling yout that the server is disconnecting.

If it doesn't go away in 30 seconds, then the connection actually has been dropped: the operating system just forgot to tell the slip about it (Bug Alert) You may go ahead and close the slip by tapping its close-box.

Other nHTTPd GUI Items:

Hit Counter (C): Offers a display of the total number of files served since the last install of nHTTPd.

Info Button (E): Under this button you can find the Cache Manager, as well as the Standard "About", "Help", and "Prefs" entries.

Plugin Menu (F): Pop-up access to the Prefs/Application screen of all installed Plugins. When it is first tapped, there will be a short delay while the names of all plugins are collected. Don't Panic.

Notify Star: (Not shown in screenshot) Tap the star and nHTTPd will minimize to a small blinking star at the top of your Newton screen.

Recent Hosts: If Access Logging and DNS Lookup are turned on, tapping the Status Indicator (B) will give you a popup list of the last ten clients to visit your server.

Removing NPDS:

OK. So things didn't work out and you want this thing off of your Newton. Let me tell you how to make sure ALL the data from the NPDS installation is gone.

  1. Remove all the packages.
  2. In your storage folder in the Extensions drawer, select NPDS Cache and Delete all the items. This, as you can guess, will remove all your GIFs, cached HTML bits, and other large stored data structures.
  3. Next, tap NPDS Scripts and NPDS Log in the Storage drawer and Delete those items. Those are CGI scripts and Log entries, respectively.
  4. To be complete, use a prefs-cleaner like Standalone's Prefs Cleaner to remove these entries from your Prefs soup.