<%= [dotlrn_header "Installing dotLRN - OpenForce"] %>

Installing dotLRN

part of dotLRN

Last updated: $Date: 2002/06/21 18:09:36 $

Contents

Read the dotLRN FAQ

Especially important is the State of dotLRN Development section.

Get and Install OpenACS from development CVS

If you have a working OpenACS installation from the latest development CVS, make sure that you have all the packages required below then skip to the next section.

If you are installing OpenACS, follow the extensive installation documenation. Stop at the point where the OpenACS installation instructions tell you to "download OpenACS". Don't use the "Quick Downloads"! Continue on with this document. 

      
      cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@openacs.org:/cvsroot login
      (just hit return for the password)
      cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout acs-core

CVS commandlines are given in terms of anonymous users, if you have an account on openacs.org, use your login where appropriate. Don't forget to set the CVS_RSH variable in your shell envrioment to "ssh".

dotLRN requires some more modules that are not in acs-core, but not all of the packages in the OpenACS source tree. Next are the commands to get these modules.

Here's the current list of non-core packages needed for dotlrn:

NEW! (June 19) notifications is a new service package that is used by the new forums package. The new forums package will not conflict with the bboard package. The bboard package is not reqiured for dotlrn. 

      acs-datetime
      acs-developer-support (optional)
      acs-events
      acs-mail-lite
      bulk-mail
      calendar
      faq
      file-storage
      forums
      general-comments
      news
      notifications
      ref-timezones
      user-preferences

Do not install or remove these packages since they conflict with dotlrn packages: portal (conflicts with new-portal) and spam (conflicts with bulk-mail)

cd to the newly created /openacs-4/packages directory before the next command. 

 
      cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@openacs.org:/cvsroot co \
      acs-datetime acs-developer-support acs-events acs-mail-lite \
      bulk-mail calendar faq file-storage forums general-comments news \
      notifications ref-timezones user-preferences

Installation timesaver: In the /packages/ref-timezones/sql/common/ directory, cut down the files to a few insert statements apiece. This is fine for test system, and will save you alot of time in the installation process.

NEW! (June 16) You have to make one minor modification to the OpenACS sources for dotlrn to work properly. Comment out the file_storage_post_instantiation procedure in /packages/file-storage/tcl/file-storage-init.tcl

Why do you need to do this? It's a temporary fix for the fact that the file-storage-init.tcl file creates a new root folder per instance of file-storage, but for dotlrn we need to create our own per instance root folder with the instance's pretty name, etc. And since you can't have two root folders for one instance of file-storage, if you don't edit this file you will get a UNIQUE CONSTRAINT VIOLATION error. Hence commenting out the init-time root folder creation. We are working on a permanent solution to this.

You will now have an /openacs-4 directory with all of OpenACS required by dotLRN. To double check, your /openacs-4/packages directory should look similar to this: 

        $ ls
        acs-admin		 acs-kernel	       acs-templating  general-comments
        acs-api-browser		 acs-mail	       acs-util        news
        acs-bootstrap-installer  acs-mail-lite	       acs-workflow    notifications
        acs-content		 acs-messaging	       bulk-mail       page
        acs-content-repository	 acs-notification      calendar        ref-timezones
        acs-core-docs		 acs-reference	       CVS	       search
        acs-datetime		 acs-service-contract  faq	       skin
        acs-developer-support	 acs-subsite	       file-storage    user-preferences
        acs-events		 acs-tcl	       forums

Get dotLRN from CVS

Getting dotLRN from CVS is just like getting OpenACS from CVS with a different CVSROOT.

Change to your /openacs-4/packages directory issue the following commands: 

      cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@dotlrn.openforce.net:/dotlrn-cvsroot login
      (hit return for prompted for password)
      cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anonymous@dotlrn.openforce.net:/dotlrn-cvsroot co dotlrn-core

This will fetch the following packages to your /openacs-4/packages directory: 

        dotlrn
        dotlrn-syllabus
        dotlrn-research
        new-portal
        profile-provider
        user-profile
        bm-portlet 
        dotlrn-bm
        calendar-portlet
        dotlrn-calendar
        dotlrn-portlet
        dotlrn-dotlrn
        faq-portlet
        dotlrn-faq
	forums-portlet
	dotlrn-forums
        fs-portlet
        dotlrn-fs
        news-portlet
        dotlrn-news
        static-portlet
        dotlrn-static

Next, copy the /openacs-4 directory to where ever you prefer your webserver root to be, traditionally /web. Now you can continue with the OACS installation document at the third bullet point. Continue with the standard OACS installation process until your reach the "Congratulations!" front page, then return here.

Install dotLRN on your system

Go the the "ACS Package Manager" (APM) on your system at http://yourserver/acs-admin/apm and hit the "Install packages" link. After the installer loads, you will see a list of the packages you just got from CVS. Click the button at the bottom of the page to Install them. You do not have to restart your server at ths point.

Next go to the "Site Map" on your system at http://yourserver/admin/site-map. Click the "new sub folder" link to the right of the "Main Site" link at the top of the table. Enter dotlrn in the textbox, and hit the button.

There will be a new entry in the URL column for "dotlrn" with "(none)" in the application column, to the right of this, click the "New Application" link. Enter dotlrn into the textbox and select "dotLRN" from the drop-down list and hit the button.

There will now be "dotlrn" in the application column to the right of the "dotlrn/" URL.

NEW! (June 20) Install the "notifications" application at the URL "/notifications" the same way you installed "dotlrn"

Next you must set some parameters from the Site Map page.

You must now restart your server, wait a few minutes, and reload the "Site Map" page in your browser After the server restarts, refresh the "Site Map". You will see a "(+)" to the left of the dotlrn/ URL and a new URL: "portal/" with application "new-portal".

Aren't seeing the "(+)" beside dotlrn/? Something went wrong. Did you restart your server? Restart again while doing a tail -f of the error log with debug turned on in your AOLServer configuration. Please report all errors you encounter to dotlrn@openforce.net

Explore dotLRN

Go to dotLRN Administration at http://yourserver/dotlrn/admin. Make some dotLRN users, terms, departments, classes.

Here are some suggestions for things to check out in dotlrn:

Goto /dotlrn your "workspace". Click the "Control Panel" link at the top and try the "Customize this portal" link there. Goto the admin pages for a class or community and try the "Manage Membership" link. Create a new sugroup for a class or community. Edit or create new "Custom Portlets".

Enjoy!

Reinstalling dotLRN

Sometimes you have to dump your DB. Here's the dotLRN reinstall process.

Important note:If you have the dotlrn-survey, and/or survey-portlet directories on your system, please delete them as they are no longer part of the dotlrn-core packages. If you are not using simple-survey aside from dotlrn, you can delete that too.

  1. Stop aolserver and any open sqlplus sessions
  2. Create a drop/create user script. Lars has a swift tool to help you create one.
  3. In a shell, type: 
               % sqlplus internal < my-drop-create-script.sql
    Verify that your database user was droped and created successfully. If you get an error saying: Cannot drop a user that is currently connected, close all open sqlplus sessions and repeat the command above.
  4. Now would be a good time to cvs update OpenACS and dotLRN
  5. Re-start aolserver, wait 20 seconds or so, and do the standard OpenACS installation.
  6. Go to the Install dotLRN on your system section of this document and continue from there.
<%= [dotlrn_footer] %>