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OpenACS Core Documentation
Table of Contents
I. OpenACS For Everyone
1. High level information: What is OpenACS?
Overview
OpenACS Release Notes
II. Administrator's Guide
2. Installation Overview
Basic Steps
Prerequisite Software
3. Complete Installation
Install a Unix-like system and supporting software
Install Oracle 8.1.7
Install PostgreSQL
Install AOLserver 4
Install OpenACS 5.9.0
OpenACS Installation Guide for Windows
OpenACS Installation Guide for macOS
4. Configuring a new OpenACS Site
Installing OpenACS packages
Mounting OpenACS packages
Configuring an OpenACS package
Setting Permissions on an OpenACS package
How Do I?
5. Upgrading
Overview
Upgrading 4.5 or higher to 4.6.3
Upgrading OpenACS 4.6.3 to 5.0
Upgrading an OpenACS 5.0.0 or greater installation
Upgrading the OpenACS files
Upgrading Platform components
6. Production Environments
Starting and Stopping an OpenACS instance.
AOLserver keepalive with inittab
Running multiple services on one machine
High Availability/High Performance Configurations
Staged Deployment for Production Networks
Installing SSL Support for an OpenACS service
Set up Log Analysis Reports
External uptime validation
Diagnosing Performance Problems
7. Database Management
Running a PostgreSQL database on another server
Deleting a tablespace
Vacuum Postgres nightly
8. Backup and Recovery
Backup Strategy
Manual backup and recovery
Automated Backup
Using CVS for backup-recovery
A. Install Red Hat 8/9
B. Install additional supporting software
Unpack the OpenACS tarball
Initialize CVS (OPTIONAL)
Add PSGML commands to emacs init file (OPTIONAL)
Install Daemontools (OPTIONAL)
Install qmail (OPTIONAL)
Install Analog web file analyzer
Install nspam
Install Full Text Search using Tsearch2
Install nsopenssl
Install tclwebtest.
Install PHP for use in AOLserver
Install Squirrelmail for use as a webmail system for OpenACS
Install PAM Radius for use as external authentication
Install LDAP for use as external authentication
Install AOLserver 3.3oacs1
C. Credits
Where did this document come from?
Linux Install Guides
Security Information
Resources
III. For OpenACS Package Developers
9. Development Tutorial
Creating an Application Package
Setting Up Database Objects
Creating Web Pages
Debugging and Automated Testing
10. Advanced Topics
Write the Requirements and Design Specs
Add the new package to CVS
OpenACS Edit This Page Templates
Adding Comments
Admin Pages
Categories
Profile your code
Prepare the package for distribution.
Distributing upgrades of your package
Notifications
Hierarchical data
Using .vuh files for pretty URLs
Laying out a page with CSS instead of tables
Sending HTML email from your application
Basic Caching
Scheduled Procedures
Enabling WYSIWYG
Adding in parameters for your package
Writing upgrade scripts
Connect to a second database
Future Topics
11. Development Reference
OpenACS Packages
OpenACS Data Models and the Object System
The Request Processor
The OpenACS Database Access API
Using Templates in OpenACS
Groups, Context, Permissions
Writing OpenACS Application Pages
Parties in OpenACS
OpenACS Permissions Tediously Explained
Object Identity
Programming with AOLserver
Using Form Builder: building html forms dynamically
12. Engineering Standards
OpenACS Style Guide
CVS Guidelines
Release Version Numbering
Constraint naming standard
ACS File Naming and Formatting Standards
PL/SQL Standards
Variables
Automated Testing
13. Documentation Standards
OpenACS Documentation Guide
Using PSGML mode in Emacs
Using nXML mode in Emacs
Detailed Design Documentation Template
System/Application Requirements Template
14. Internationalization
Internationalization and Localization Overview
How Internationalization/Localization works in OpenACS
How to Internationalize a Package
Design Notes
Translator's Guide
D. Using CVS with an OpenACS Site
IV. For OpenACS Platform Developers
15. Kernel Documentation
Overview
Object Model Requirements
Object Model Design
Permissions Requirements
Permissions Design
Groups Requirements
Groups Design
Subsites Requirements
Subsites Design Document
Package Manager Requirements
Package Manager Design
Database Access API
OpenACS Internationalization Requirements
Security Requirements
Security Design
Security Notes
Request Processor Requirements
Request Processor Design
Documenting Tcl Files: Page Contracts and Libraries
Bootstrapping OpenACS
External Authentication Requirements
16. Releasing OpenACS
OpenACS Core and .LRN
How to Update the OpenACS.org repository
How to package and release an OpenACS Package
How to Update the translations
Index
List of Figures
4.1.
Site Templates
4.2.
Granting Permissions
4.3.
Granting Permissions in 5.0
5.1.
Upgrading with the APM
5.2.
Upgrading a local CVS repository
6.1.
Multiple-server configuration
6.2.
Simple A/B Deployment - Step 1
6.3.
Simple A/B Deployment - Step 2
6.4.
Simple A/B Deployment - Step 3
6.5.
Complex A/B Deployment - Step 1
6.6.
Complex A/B Deployment - Step 2
6.7.
Complex A/B Deployment - Step 3
6.8.
Query Analysis example
8.1.
Backup and Recovery Strategy
9.1.
Assumptions in this section
9.2.
Tutorial Data Model
9.3.
The Database Creation Script
9.4.
Database Deletion Script
9.5.
Page Map
10.1.
Upgrading a local CVS repository
11.1.
Server file layout diagram
11.2.
Package file layout diagram
List of Tables
2.1.
Default directories for a standard install
2.2.
Version Compatibility Matrix
5.1.
Assumptions in this section
6.1.
How it Works
10.1.
table showing ETP layout
11.1.
Package files
11.2.
Context Hierarchy Example
11.3.
acs_objects example data
14.1.
Internationalization and Localization Overview
List of Examples
12.1.
Getting datetime from the database ANSI-style
