Table of Contents
By running through the acceptance tests below, you'll verify that your new ACS 4 instance is running nominally, and get acquainted with the major administration features of the system.
You should have followed the steps for installing ACS 4; assuming the installation proceeded correctly, your server instance should be up and running, and the root URL (http://foo.com/) should show a login page asking for your email address and password. Proceed to test registration below.
You should test basic registration and the login process. Suggested method:
Go to the index page for the Main Site; typically the URL is simply yourserver.com/
Login with a new email address, and walk through registering as a new user.
Assuming new accounts are approved immediately, after registration you'll be on the Workspace page for the user, where you can see and edit personal data.
Click the "Log out" link on the Workspace page.
Try going back to /pvt/home.tcl again; you'll be redirected. Login as the same user just created.
You should test adding a user, searching for users, modifying user data, banning or deleting a user, and spamming a class of users. Suggested method:
Use the email/password combo you created during the installation process, and login as an administrator. Go to /acs-admin/users
Once you're at /acs-admin/users, click on "Add a user." Create a test user. Return to user administration, /acs-admin/users, when done.
Do a quick search for the newly created user, and verify that entering part of the test user's name returns the user.
View the list of matching users and edit the user data for the new test user.
Delete the test user.
Ban the test user.
The ACS Package Management system (APM) is central to operating your ACS server, allowing you to manage ACS Applications and Services. Applications are typically user-driven web systems such as Bboard or News, while ACS Services are fundamental components such as the Object System, Permissions, and the APM itself. Let's verify the functionality of the APM by installing and enabling the Bboard application, which your site will almost certainly need.
Logged in as an administrator, go to /acs-admin/apm
You'll see the "ACS Package Manager Administration" page; this is where you can view and manage all packages on your server. Assuming Bboard is not already installed (make sure you're looking at Package Type: Applications), click on "Load a new package from a URL or local directory"
You will see the "Load a New Package" page, and a form field where you can enter a package URL. In a separate browser window, go to the ArsDigita Package Repository, http://www.arsdigita.com/acs-repository/, and look for ACS 4.x packages. You should see the Bboard package available - note the directions in the Help section as to the correct URL to enter in the "Load a New Package" page. Enter the URL and edit it as needed, and click on "Load."
On the following page, the APM will visit the URL you supplied, grab the package file, and extract it on your server's filesystem. There should be a message saying the package is now extracted into your filesystem. You should then follow the "install" link at the bottom of the page to continue.
On the "Package Installation" page, you should both install and enable the Bboard package - ensure the checkboxes to do so are selected , and click on the "Check Dependencies" button.
The next page deals with installing the data model for the package; you should see one or more SQL files with checkboxes next to each one slated for installation. Make sure they're all checked and click on the "Install Packages" button.
On the final page of installation sequence, you should see "Installing Packages," followed by messages saying the package was enabled and installation finished. Restart the server as directed.
One of the most flexible and powerful new features of ACS 4 is the Site Map facility that exists for every subsite in the system. The Site Map allows you to arbitrarily associate user-visible URLs with packages instances, instead of having to change the underlying filesystem directory structure. Applications can thus be deployed as an administrator sees fit; to have a new bboard instance mapped to foo.com/bar/bboard in addition to foo.com/fnord/bboard, she would not need shell access to the server, nor need to copy directory trees. For the next acceptance test, we'll "mount" an instance of the bboard package under the Main Site (the default subsite).
Assuming you've installed and enabled the bboard package, and restarted the server as directed, go to the admin page again, /acs-admin/
We'll be working with the default subsite, Main Site, so click on the "Main Site Administration" link.
On the Main Site Administration page, click on the "Site Map" link.
You'll now see the principal Site Map page; notice how three subfolders of the site root "/" are preinstalled: "/acs-admin" which you've been using thus far, "/api-doc" where developers can get detailed information on API calls, and "/doc" which is probably where you're reading this Acceptance Test document from.
To keep things simple, let's have our bboard instance be mapped to a sub-folder of the root "/" level. On the first row which starts with "/" click on the "new sub folder" link.
You'll see a form field asking for the name of the sub folder. Type in "test-bboard" and click the "New" button.
You should now see "test-bboard" in the list of URLs for the Main Site. Click on the "new application" link in the same row to begin creating an instance of the bboard package on "test-bboard"
You'll now see a field where the package instance can be named, and a drop-down menu of packages. Call the instance "Test Bboard" and select bboard from the list of packages, and click "New" to continue.
A Bboard instance is now running on the URL "/test-bboard" on your site! To go there, just click on the link "Test Bboard" under the Application column on the Site Map page, or visit the URL directly in your browser.
This covers the basics of getting a user-visible application up on ACS 4 - you can now install and deploy more packages, drop mappings, and otherwise configure the functionality and organization of your site as you see fit.