part of dotLRN
Last updated: $Date: 2002/10/11 18:44:19 $
Contents
Read the dotLRN FAQs
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 documentation. 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:
acs-datetime
acs-developer-support (optional)
acs-events
acs-mail-lite
attachments
bulk-mail
calendar
faq
file-storage
forums
general-comments
news
notifications
ref-timezones
user-preferences
Do not install or, if installed, 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 \
attachments 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 a lot of time in the installation process.
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 forums
acs-api-browser acs-mail acs-util general-comments
acs-bootstrap-installer acs-mail-lite acs-workflow news
acs-content acs-messaging attachments notifications
acs-content-repository acs-notification bulk-mail page
acs-core-docs acs-reference calendar ref-timezones
acs-datetime acs-service-contract CVS search
acs-developer-support acs-subsite faq skin
acs-events acs-tcl file-storage user-preferences
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
(Updated August 29: removed research-portlet and dotlrn-research):
dotlrn
dotlrn-syllabus
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
A few minor modifications of the OpenACS code needs to be done here. First, in the /openacs-4 directory (where you see the bin, CVS, packages ... directories), make sure a directory named content-repository-content-files exists. If not, create it with the same permissions as the other dirs. Second, create a graphics directory inside the www directory. Third, copy all the files in /packages/dotlrn/www/graphics into the graphics directory you just created.
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.
Install the "notifications" and "attachments" packages at the URL "/notifications" and "/attachments"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 the Bug Tracker.
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!
Automatated Installation
(new Oct 11) As an alternative to the manual installation above. Peter Marklund (peter_marklund@fastmail.fm) has developed scripts to automate installation. If you are just starting out with dotlrn, it would be a good idea to go through the manual installation a few times before trying to use the automated scripts. To get the scripts, use the following commandline:
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous:@dotlrn.collaboraid.biz:/cvsroot checkout dotlrn-install
Manual Re-installation
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.
% 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.