System and Network Requirements
 
Operating Systems
The e-Madness Auction Tool is a web-based software package that has been tested on the following operating systems for the local host computer:
Local Web Server and Database Services
The e-Madness Auction Tool is a collection of files implemented using various web-based technologies that run on top of a local web server and database services. These services are not included with the e-Madness Auction Tool and require the local host computer to provide the following:
The e-Madness Auction Tool software has not been tested with older versions of the above services. If the local host computer does not currently provide these services, or the indicated version of these services, they are freely available as user installable packages from the following sources:
XAMPP Installation Notes:
  1. Unless you know what you’re doing, just use the default settings for the XAMPP installation.
  2. Once the XAMPP installer completes, start the XAMPP Control Panel from the installed Desktop shortcut, or the Start menu.
  3. Once the XAMPP Control Panel is up and running, start the Apache Web Server and  start the MySql server from the Control Panel.
  4. You can browse to the XAMPP main page at: http://localhost/xampp
  5. For MacOSX, use MAMP available at:  http://www.mamp.info/en/index.php
  6. Unless you know what you’re doing, just use the default settings for the MAMP installation.
  7. Once the MAMP installer completes, start the MAMP application by double clicking on the MAMP application icon in your /Applications folder.
  8. Once the MAMP Control Panel is up and running, start the Apache Web Server and  start the MySql server from the Control Panel.
  9. The MAMP main page should come up automatically when you start MAMP. Or you can browse to: http://localhost:8888/MAMP

Complete the installation of your local web server and database (either existing, XAMPP, or MAMP) prior to installing the e-Madness Auction Tool software on the local host computer.

 

Browser Services

The e-Madness Auction Tool is a web-based software package that is accessed by the Auction Host and any Auction Participants with a web browser. The e-Madness Auction Tool has been tested with the following web browsers:

While we cannot verify correct operation or formatting with all available web browsers, any HTML-compliant browser should work with the e-Madness Auction Tool.

 

Networking Services

In order for your Auction Participants to participate in your e-Madness auction from the internet, you must provide access to the internal web server that is being used to host the e-Madness Auction Tool on your host computer.

 

Figure 1 shows how the e-Madness Auction Tool can be used to manage a multi-participant auction from your local computer within a local network or over the internet.

Figure 1 - Network Layout for Hosting an e-Madness Auction

Each of the following items must be addressed in order to allow Auction Participants access to the e-Madness Auction Tool running on an internal web server.
  1. The internet connection to the computer hosting the e-Madness Auction Tool must be an “always on” broadband connection.
  2. The computer hosting the e-Madness Auction Tool must not enter “sleep” mode while hosting an active auction unless you have designated specific hours for auction activities to your auction participants.
  3. Obtain the WAN address to the computer hosting the e-Madness Auction Tool.
    • The e-Madness Auction Tool will attempt to retrieve your host computer’s WAN address during the creation of a new auction. The WAN address, that is, your computer’s address as seen by the computers outside of your network, is used to create a link for all Auction Participants to access the e-Madness Auction Tool on the host computer in order to participate in the auction. If the e-Madness Auction Tool is not able to retrieve the host computer WAN address, the host will be required to enter the appropriate address manually in the Auction Participant invitation email at the completion of setting up a new auction.
  4. Open the appropriate ports to allow access to the HTTP/HTTPS server (applicable only if you have a hardware and/or software firewall). If you currently host other web pages from the host computer, then you have already taken care of this step.
    • Specifically, if you are using a hardware and/or a software firewall to protect the host computer from outside access, you will need to ensure the following ports are open to allow access to the auction software from the Auction Participants. For Windows, managing the software firewall is performed under Control Panel->Security Center. For Mac OSX, managing the software firewall is performed under System Preferences->Sharing.
    Windows XP using XAMPP:
        - Standard HTTP port is port 80, an alternate port is 8080
        - Standard HTTPS port is port 443
        - Standard MySQL Server port is port 3306
    MacOSX using MAMP:
        - Standard HTTP port is port 8888
        - Standard MySQL server port is port 8889

If you are using a web server from a source other than XAMPP or MAMP, or you have reconfigured the Apache web server to serve to a different port, then you must open your firewall to allow access to that port so that your Auction Participants can access the  auction user pages.

  1. Enable IP Forwarding to the computer hosting the e-Madness Auction Tool for the ports used by the HTTP/HTTPS server (applicable only if the host computer is on a local area network managed by a router). This is necessary when you are using a single WAN (external network address) to serve as a connection to the internet for a network of more than one computer. In this configuration, you are using a router to route network traffic to the appropriate computer on the network. IP forwarding will notify the router to forward any traffic coming to the WAN address on a specific port, for example port 80 as identified above for the Apache web server, to be routed to the computer hosting the e-Madness Auction Tool. The approach for configuring the IP Forwarding feature on each router is different. For more information please visit the following site: http://www.portforward.com/

 

Installation Instructions for the Auction Software on the Host Computer
 
The e-Madness Auction Tool is a web-based software package that allows an Auction Host to create, initiate, and maintain an auction on a local computer. All auction participants can join the auction from other computers on the local network, or from across the internet.

The e-Madness Auction Tool software is only installed on the host computer. All Auction Participants use their standard web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox, to access the auction user screens. This way, no new software needs to be loaded on an Auction Participant’s computer in order for them to participate in the auction.

An installer program is used to install the e-Madness Auction Tool software onto the host computer. An installer program is a software program that is downloaded from the e-Madness web site onto the computer that will be used to host the auctions. The installer program contains all of the e-Madness Auction Tool software files in a compressed format and, when the installer program is invoked, the e-Madness Auction Tool files will be uncompressed and loaded into the directory designated by the person installing the e-Madness Auction Tool.

A separate installer program exists for each Operating System supported by the e-Madness Auction Tool. That means there are currently two installers available from the e-Madness web site; one for Windows XP, and one for MacOSX. Please make sure you download the correct installer for the Operating System running on your targeted host computer.

The following diagram shows the steps involved in installing the e-Madness Auction Tool using one of the provided installers. The person installing the e-Madness Auction Tool must be aware of the following:
  1. The installer program requests the directory path for the e-Madness Auction Tool software files to be installed to. The default directory path provided by the installer program is the “htdocs” folder for XAMPP (for Windows XP) and MAMP (for MacOSX). If you install XAMPP or MAMP as your Apache/PHP/MySQL environment from which to run the e-Madness Auction Tool software, then the default directory path should suffice. If you are using a different web server environment to host the e-Madness Auction Tool, then you will need to provide the correct directory path during installation.
  2. The Windows XP installer includes a script, or program, that will overwrite the default XAMPP configuration file for the PHP interpreter, specifically the “php.ini” file. You need to be aware of this if you’ve made any modifications to the standard PHP configuration.

 
At this point you have successfully installed the e-Madness Auction Tool software!

At this point, we must stop, and then restart the Apache web server through the XAMPP or MAMP control panel in order for the new configuration files to take effect.

You can now create and launch your first auction. Please refer to the tutorial video “Hosting an Auction with e-Madness” for detailed information on how to proceed with setting up your auction.

To get to the Host Log-in page, enter the following into your browser window:

http:\\localhost\e-Madness\HostScreens1\home.php