CERN DOCUMENT SERVER SOFTWARE (CDSware) INSTALLATION
====================================================
Revision: $Id$
About
=====
This document specifies how to build, customize, and install the CERN
Document Server Software (CDSware). (See 'UNINSTALL' file if you look
for information on how to uninstall the system!)
Contents
========
0. Prerequisites
1. Quick instructions for the impatient CDSware admin
2. Detailed instructions for the patient CDSware admin
3. Configuration philosophy explained and elucidated
0. Prerequisites
================
Here is the software you need to have around before you
start installing CDSware:
a) Unix-like operating system. The main development and
production platform for CDSware at CERN is Debian GNU/Linux,
but any Unix system supporting the software listed below
should do.
b) MySQL server (may be on a remote machine), and MySQL client
(must be available locally too). Version 4.1.0 and above is
recommended due to its UTF-8 support. Please set the variable
max_allowed_packet to at least 4M in your my.cnf.
c) Apache 2 server, with support for loading DSO modules.
Tested mainly with version 2.0.43 and above. Apache 2 is
required for the mod_python module (see below).
d) Python v2.2.2 or above, featuring recent MySQLdb module
(v0.9.2), and Numeric module (v21 and above). We recommended
to use Python v2.3.2 and above. Also, we recommend to
optionally install the Psyco module that increases performance
of some Pythonic operations. (Note though that CDSware will
work fine even without Psyco.)
e) mod_python Apache module. Tested mainly with versions
3.0BETA4 and above. mod_python 3.x is required for Apache 2.
Previous versions (as well as Apache 1 ones) exhibited some
problems with MySQL connectivity in our experience.
f) PHP compiled as Apache module, including MySQL support.
Tested mainly with PHP version 4.3.0 and above.
g) PHP compiled as a standalone command-line executable (CLI)
(in addition to Apache module) is required, too. As of PHP
4.3.0 you'll obtain the CLI executable by default, so you
don't have to compile it separately. Note that PHP CLI should
be compiled with the process control support (--enable-pcntl)
and the compression library (--with-zlib).
h) WML - Website META Language. Tested mainly with versions
2.0.8 and 2.0.9. Note that on Red Hat Linux 9 the WML 2.0.9
compiled with Perl 5.8.0 exhibits problems, so you better use
downgraded/upgraded Perl for compiling WML on that platform.
i) If you want to be able to search for words in the fulltext files
(i.e. to have fulltext indexing), then you need as well to install
some of the following tools:
* for PDF files: pdftotext or pstotext
* for PostScript files: pstotext or ps2ascii
* for MS Word files: antiword, catdoc, or wvText
* for MS PowerPoint files: pptHtml and html2text
* for MS Excel files: xlhtml and html2text
Note that the configure script checks whether you have all
the prerequisite software installed and that it won't let
you to continue unless everything is in order. It also warns you
if it cannot find some optional, but recommended software.
1. Quick instructions for the impatient CDSware admin
=====================================================
$ cd /usr/local/src/
$ wget http://cdsware.cern.ch/download/cdsware-0.9.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz cdsware-0.9.tar.gz
$ cd cdsware-0.9
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/cdsware-DEMO \
--with-webdir=/var/www/DEMO \
--with-weburl=http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO \
--with-dbhost=sqlserver.domain.com \
--with-dbname=cdsware \
--with-dbuser=cdsware \
--with-dbpass=myp1ss \
--with-python=/opt/python/bin/python2.3
$ vi ./config/config.wml ## optional, but strongly recommended
$ make
$ mysql -h sqlserver.domain.com -u root -p mysql
mysql> CREATE DATABASE cdsware;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cdsware.* TO cdsware@webserver.domain.com IDENTIFIED BY 'myp1ss';
$ sudo vi /path/to/apache/conf/httpd.conf ## see below in part 2
$ sudo vi /path/to/php/conf/php.ini ## see below in part 2
$ sudo /path/to/apache/bin/apachectl graceful
$ make create-tables ## optional
$ make install
$ sudo chown -R www-data /usr/local/cdsware-DEMO/var
$ make create-demo-site ## optional
$ make load-demo-records ## optional
$ make remove-demo-records ## optional
$ make drop-demo-site ## optional
$ netscape http://webserver.domain.com/cdsware/admin/ ## optional
2. Detailed instructions for the patient CDSware admin
======================================================
The CERN Document Server Software (CDSware) uses standard GNU autoconf
method to build and install its files. This means that you proceed
as follows:
$ cd /usr/local/src/
Change to a directory where we will configure and build the
CDS Software. (The built files will be installed into
different "target" directories later.)
$ wget http://cdsware.cern.ch/download/cdsware-0.9.tar.gz
Fetch CDSware package from the CDSware distribution server.
$ tar xvfz cdsware-0.9.tar.gz
Untar the distriburion tarball.
$ cd cdsware-0.9
Go to the source directory.
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/cdsware-DEMO \
--with-webdir=/var/www/DEMO \
--with-weburl=http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO \
--with-dbhost=sqlserver.domain.com \
--with-dbname=cdsware \
--with-dbuser=cdsware \
--with-dbpass=myp1ss \
--with-python=/opt/python/bin/python2.3
Configure essential CDSware parameters, with the following
signification:
--prefix=/usr/local/cdsware-DEMO
The CDSware general installation directory, used to
hold command-line binaries and program libraries
containing the core CDSware functionality, but also
to store runtime log and cache information. Several
subdirs like `bin', `lib', and `var' will be created
inside the --prefix directory to this effect. Note
that the --prefix directory should be chosen outside
of the Apache htdocs tree, since no file from this
directory is to be accessible on the Web.
--with-webdir=/var/www/DEMO
The directory holding the web interface to CDSware,
i.e. containing all the callable scripts and web
pages visible to the end user. Must be located
inside Apache htdocs tree. The scripts within this
directory will generally call core CDSware libraries
and binaries installed in the --prefix directory.
--with-weburl=http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO
The URL corresponding to the --with-webdir directory.
It will denote the home URL of your CDSware
installation.
--with-dbhost=sqlserver.domain.com
--with-dbname=cdsware
--with-dbuser=cdsware
--with-dbpass=myp1ss
The database server host, the database name, and the
database user credentials.
--with-python=/opt/python/bin/python2.3
Optionally, specify a path to some specific Python
binary. This is useful if you have more than one
Python installation on your system. If you don't set
this option, then the first Python that will be found
in your PATH will be chosen for running CDSware.
CDSware won't install to any other directory but to the two
mentioned in this configuration line. Do not use trailing
slashes when specifying any of the above values.
This configuration step is mandatory, and is referred to as
"pre-compile time configuration step a)" in the elucidative
explanatory commentary below.
$ vi ./config/config.wml ## optional, but strongly recommended
Optionally, customize your CDSware installation. We
strongly recommend you to edit at least the top of this file
where you can define some very essential CDSware parameters
like the name of your CDSware document server or the email
address of the local CDSware administrator. (The latter is
needed if you want to use administration modules, and you
certainly do!)
The rest of the "config.wml" file enables you to change the
CDSware web page look and feel, and otherwise to influence
its behaviour and default parameters.
This configuration step is optional, but strongly
recommended. It is referred to as "compile time
configuration step b)" in the elucidative explanatory
commentary below.
$ make
Launch the CDSware build. All the pages will be pre-created
based on the config you have edited in the previous step.
Before proceeding further with the CDSware installation, we
have to do some admin-level tasks on the MySQL and Apache
servers.
$ mysql -h sqlserver.domain.com -u root -p mysql
mysql> CREATE DATABASE cdsware;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cdsware.* TO cdsware@webserver.domain.com IDENTIFIED BY 'myp1ss';
You need to create a dedicated database on your MySQL server
that the CDSware can use for its purposes. Please
contact your MySQL administrator and ask him to execute the
above commands that will create the "cdsware" database, a
user called "cdsware" with password "myp1ss", and that will
grant all rights on the "cdsware" database to the "cdsware"
user.
(Of course, you are free to choose your own user credentials
and the database name; the above values were just an
example. See also the configure line below.)
$ sudo vi /path/to/apache/conf/httpd.conf ## see below in part 2
Please ask your webserver administrator to put the following
lines in your "httpd.conf" configuration file:
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
DirectoryIndex index.en.html index.html index.py index.en.php index.php
This is to ensure that the browsers will get UTF-8 as
the default page encoding, that "*.php" files will be
interpreted by the web server as PHP files, and that
"index.py" or "index.en.php" will be considered as directory
index file.
In addition, you have to ask Apache to interpret .py files
in the installation place via mod_python:
AddHandler python-program .py
PythonHandler mod_python.publisher
PythonDebug On
$ sudo vi /path/to/php/conf/php.ini ## see below in part 2
Please ask your webserver administrator to put the following
lines in your "php.ini" configuration file:
log_errors = on
display_errors = off
expose_php = off
max_execution_time = 160
register_globals = on
short_open_tag = on
This will set up some relevant PHP variables.
$ sudo /path/to/apache/bin/apachectl graceful
Please ask your webserver administrator to restart the
Apache server after the above "httpd.conf" and "php.ini"
changes.
After these admin-level tasks to be performed as root, let's
now go back to finish the installation of the CDSware package.
$ make create-tables ## optional
Optionally, create CDSware tables on the MySQL server. You
probably want to do this step only once, i.e. if you have
not created any CDSware database and tables yet.
$ make install
Install the web pages, scripts, utilities and everything
needed for runtime into the respective directories, as
specified earlier by the configure command.
After this step, you should be able to point your browser to
the chosen URL of your local CDSware installation and see it
running!
$ sudo chown -R www-data /usr/local/cdsware-DEMO/var
One more superuser step, as we need to enable Apache server
to write some log information and to cache interesting
entities inside the "var" subdirectory of our CDSware
general installation directory.
Here we assume that your Apache server processes are run
under "www-data" group. Change this appropriately for your
system.
$ make create-demo-site ## optional
This step is recommended to test your local CDSware
installation. It should give you our "Atlantis Institute of
Science" demo installation, exactly as you see it at
.
$ make load-demo-records ## optional
Optionally, load some demo records to be able to test
indexing and searching of your local demo CDSware
installation.
$ make remove-demo-records ## optional
Optionally, remove the demo records loaded in the previous
step but otherwise keep the demo collection, submit, format
etc configurations that you may reuse and modify for
production purposes.
$ make drop-demo-site ## optional
Optionally, drop also all the demo configuration so that
you'll have a blank CDSware system for your production
purposes.
$ netscape http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO/admin/ ## optional
Optionally, do further runtime configuration of the CDSware,
like definition of data collections, document types,
document formats, word file tables, etc.
This configuration step is optional, and is referred to as
"runtime configuration step c)" in the elucidative
explanatory commentary below.
3. Configuration philosophy explained and elucidated
====================================================
As you could see from the above, the configuration of the CDSware is
threefold:
(a) pre-compile time configuration phase
[uses command line options / while doing "configure"]
(b) compile time configuration phase
[uses WML / after "configure", while doing "make && make install"]
(c) runtime configuration phase
[uses MySQL / after "make install", while doing "netscape http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO/admin/"]
What is the difference, and why?
(a) pre-compile time configuration phase
[uses command line options / while doing "configure"]
This configures essential CDSware parameters that makes your
CDSware copy installable and runable. The essential parameters
include: general CDSware installation directory containing
(among others) binaries, libraries, and log and cache
directories; install directory for Web scripts and pages;
and MySQL user and server credentials.
This configuration step uses standard GNU autoconf approach,
i.e. you will run the standard "configure" script. Note
that the only arguments that CDSware takes into consideration
are the general "--prefix" one and CDSware-specific
"--with-foo" arguments, see the end of "configure --help"
output.
This configuration step is mandatory. Without knowing
theses essential parameters there is nothing to install and
nothing to run.
Usually, you do this step only once.
(b) compile time configuration phase
[uses WML / after "configure", while doing "make && make install"]
Optionally, you may choose to influence CDSware behaviour, to
set up CDSware system name, to choose its default parameters,
to change its look and feel, to add your local web pages, etc.
This configuration step uses WML, the Website META Language.
The most important configuration file is "config/config.wml"
that you can edit at your will. Optionally, if you are an
advanced user, you may edit other WML files in the
distribution tree.
After that, when you type "make", the CDSware pages will be
pre-generated. We prefer that this configuration step is
done during compile-time and not runtime, because of
multiple reasons: (i) the pre-generated pages impose less
load on the web server and the database server and so they
are served faster to the end user; (ii) we use several
different languages (Python, PHP) and by using independent
compile-time configuration language we can share the same
configuration variables across heterogeneous languages;
(iii) use of WML and page templates enables you to easily
change anything in the CDSware system, even into deep
levels.
If you are changing parameters and/or look and feel
of CDSware pages, you may want to repeat these step several
times:
$ vi config/config.wml
$ make drop-tables
$ make create-tables
$ make create-demo-site
$ make load-demo-records
$ netscape http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO/
[...]
to see what it brings, until you are satisfied with the
result.
(Note that you may as well choose to change these parameters
inside the CDSware library configuration files later on,
during runtime, at least for non-static Python and PHP
pages.)
(c) runtime configuration phase
[uses MySQL / after "make install", while doing "netscape http://webserver.domain.com/DEMO/admin/"]
Optionally, you will most probably want to define specific
data collections, to configure submit and search page for those
collections, to specify search options and word files to
search in, formats how to display data, etc.
This configuration step uses MySQL configuration tables and
is done during the runtime, for your convenience. It means
that after previous configuration step (b), and after
successful "make install", if you are happy with its result
you no longer edit WML files within the CDSware source tree but
rather configure "fully running" CDSware installation via
its Administration web interface.
Usually, you will do this step many times in the future, to
tweak the running installation, to add new collections and
data types, etc.
(Note that if you want to change something "deeper" in a
running CDSware installation, such as look and feel of pages,
or to add some new pages, then you may want to edit library
configuration files for Python and PHP non-static pages, as
noted above. But if you want to do really "deep" changes,
you need to go back to WML source, so you may want to leave
your customized copy of the CDSware WML source tree around.)
We hope that this explains why we have chosen this three-level
configuration model, and that you will find it convenient in real
life.
Good luck, and thanks for choosing the CERN Document Server Software.
- CDS Development Group