ArsDigita Community System FAQ

Spam will allow you to maintain mailing lists
LUSENET will run a discussion group for you
BooHoo link manager will allow your users to post related links
Loquacious will allow your users to post comments
clickthrough.net will track how many people follow links from your site to sites that you recommend
Uptime will monitor your server and notify you when it is unreachable
Vox Populi will allow you to add polls to your site
Telegraph will allow forms on your site to send email

Sean Yamamoto's Building an RDBMS-backed Linux Web Server provides the following guides for those taking the Linux (free) route:

Nathan Wallace's guides:

Other resources:

Along this process, you will use the following guides

When upgrading, you should grab the latest utilities.tcl file.

The One day web course will be offered in several cities. (Latest schedule and registration)
ArsDigita Community System Conventions are held quarterly in Cambridge and San Franscisco. (Latest schedule and registration)
We conduct 3-5 week boot camps covering the core skills needed to install, configure and extend the ArsDigita Community System and the ArsDigita Server Architecture. These are available to people who:
1. are planning to do something for a non-profit organization
2. are willing to commit their time to support or extend the ArsDigita Community System and its community
3. are MIT students
4. are considering employment at ArsDigita
If interested, please mail your application (reason you want to attend, resume, and plans for using ACS) to teadams@mit.edu.
Software Engineering for Web Applications is taught by ArsDigita at MIT and Caltech. Students cover several problem sets and then complete a gallery of student projects. Materials for this course may be used at other Universities or for other programs at no charge.

Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
SQL for Web Nerds (tutorial for the SQL language; links into online Oracle docs for completeness)
Tcl for Web Nerds (tutorial for the Tcl language; in rough shape right now and you might consider using the Welch book (below))
Common errors made by database backed web developers
Tips for using Oracle
Problem Set 1 (basic db-backed Web sites; AOLserver, Tcl, SQL) Question and answer forum
Problem Set 2 (extending the ArsDigita Community System, Web sites to support collaboration) Question and answer forum
Problem Set 3 (content management) Question and answer forum
coming soon: two more psets
coming soon: project ideas
Using the LCS Web/db computing facility (helps your sysadmin/dbadmin set up the server and then helps students get through the mechanics of logging in, connecting to Oracle, etc.)

Other online resources

Recommended purchases

Unix Power Tools (helps students with the mechanics of the Unix shell and Emacs)
Oracle 8: The Complete Reference (more concise than the online Oracle docs)
Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk (Brent Welch 1997; Prentice-Hall;)
Visual Explanations : Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (Edward Tufte 1997; Graphics Press; order directly by calling (800) 822-2454) - general design principles

We know that this list isn't complete; send email to Tracy to add yourself.

Please contact teadams@mit.edu if you would like to contribute. We need:

ACS buddies: Many interested users need a little help with the first installation and initial questions.
Module experts: We need experts for both existing and modules in development to suggest extensions, test new releases, write documentation and answers questions.
Module creators: John Lowry has already created and publicized new modules.
Teachers: Use our teaching materials to teach your company, friends, or at a University.