Activating Your Forms Directory

In order for your forms to send output to a file, you will need to make your forms' directory (and any relevant subdirectories) writable by the web server. How you do this depends on which server you are on. Refer to one of the following sections for instructions specific to your server.

Forms on www.bu.edu

For departmental sites you will need to send us a request to activate your directory. You can use our Activate a Directory form to send in this request.

TIP: If you know your forms will require multiple subdirectories (e.g., for several related forms, each with their own output), you can save yourself some time by requesting the directory activation early, before creating the subdirectories. This way each new subdirectory will automatically be writable by the Web server, and you can avoid repeat requests.

Forms on people.bu.edu

Individuals publishing on people.bu.edu will need to change the permissions on the directory for their form's output files, which will specify that the web server (and no other users) can write to that area.

To do this, you must log onto your ACS account, and navigate into your people.bu.edu directory:

telnet acs
cd public_html

Navigate into the subdirectory where your form's output files will be, and then type:

chgrp2www .

NOTE: The period after the space is used to specify the current directory.

Then type:

chmod g+rwx .

NOTE: The period after the space is used to specify the current directory. Your directory is now writable by the web server.

TIP: If you know your forms will require multiple subdirectories (e.g., for several related forms, each with their own output), you can save yourself some time by performing these steps early, before creating the subdirectories. This way each new subdirectory will inherit the same write permissions as the parent directory when you create them (i.e., each will automatically be writable by the web server).