Installation
From Chasers_wiki
These instructions should be accurate for installing chasers_gpl_snapshot_1a. If you downloaded the original snapshot_1, please use chasers_gpl_snapshot_1a instead.
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Overview of Installing CHASERS
Installing CHASERS will involve installing Linux, and then possibly installing additional software needed for CHASERS, and installing CHASERS itself.
Installing Linux
Linux comes in lots of different flavors and varieties, known as "distributions." We don't have an opinion about which is best. We're using "Fedora", which is a very widely used distribution. The instructions we're providing here will most closely match with Fedora, so if you're just starting out and want to make things easy for yourself, you should probably use the current stable version of Fedora. The Fedora home page is at http://fedora.redhat.com/.
Documenting the installation of Fedora is beyond the scope of this Wiki. It is very likely, however, that you will find this to be a fairly easy process, and roughly comparable to installing Windows. During the installation process, if you check the "Server" option, most of the software you need for CHASERS will be automatically installed and configured, including Apache (Web Server), Postgres (SQL Database), and PHP (Scripting language).
After You Have Installed Linux
Install Required Software
- Install the required software.
Configure php.ini
- Change this line in /etc/php.ini from:
allow_call_time_pass_reference = Off
to
allow_call_time_pass_reference = On
- For testing purposes you might want to temporarily change display_errors in /etc/php.ini to log errors
Securing Your Web Connections
- If you want to require SSL connections (recommended), and have installed mod_ssl, add the following lines to your Apache configuration file (/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf)
<Directory /var/www/html/chasers>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
(This means you will only be able to access CHASERS by https:, not http:)
Auto Start PostgreSQL and Web Server
- To automatically start PostgreSQL and your web server when starting your computer, type the following in a command line:
chkconfig --list postgresql chkconfig --level 345 postgresql on chkconfig --list httpd chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
If you want to try this before rebooting, you'll need to manually start postgresql and httpd:
/sbin/service postgresql initdb /sbin/service postgresql start /sbin/service httpd start
Configure Postgres to Allow Localhost Access
(There are a lot of ways to configure access. This is one way that should work.)
- Edit /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf by adding these two lines before any others:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5 host all all ::1/128 md5
- Reload the Postgres configuration
/sbin/service postgresql reload
CHASERS Install
Now that you've got the preliminary stuff out of the way, you're ready to install CHASERS. Just follow these steps:
Configure Error Logging
- create appropriate error logging directory and touch the file
mkdir /var/log/chasers touch /var/log/chasers/chasers_error.log
Create Database and User
Change to the CHASERS database directory:
cd /var/www/html/chasers/database/pg/client
- Edit install.db.sql. Find this section, near the top:
/* --UNCOMMENT THIS SECTION TO CREATE DB AND DB USER
CREATE USER {USER} PASSWORD '{PASSWORD}' NOCREATEDB NOCREATEUSER;
CREATE DATABASE "{DATABASE}" OWNER "{USER}";
\c {DATABASE}
*/
Replace {USER} with the desired username, {PASSWORD} with the desired password and {DATABASE} with the desired database name. You also need to uncomment this section, by removing the first and last lines.
- If email notification is desired, download pgmail if you haven't already, and edit the pgmail function in install.db.sql by replacing the placeholder function:
/* replace this function with your actual email sending function (eg, pgmail) */
CREATE FUNCTION pgmail(text,text,text,text) RETURNS INTEGER AS $$
BEGIN
RETURN 1;
END;$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
with the contents of pgMail.sql. You will need to fill in these two lines appropriately:
set myHost "<ENTER YOUR MAILSERVER HERE>" puts $mySock "helo <ENTER YOUR DATABASESERVER HERE>"
- Switch user (su) to postgres user and run the install.db.sql script:
su postgres psql template1 \i install.db.sql \q exit
Create Initial Tables and Database Objects
- Edit the password in add.initial_user.sql
INSERT INTO tbl_staff_password (staff_id,staff_password_md5,added_by,changed_by)
VALUES (2,md5('PASSWORD' /*CHANGE THIS TO THE DESIRED PASSWORD */),1,1);
(This should be a different username and password than the db user / password).
For more details on customizing the collection of installed CHASERS objects, see Installing Database Objects.
- Run psql as the newly created user (from first step above):
psql -h localhost -U {USER} {DATABASE}
(replacing {USER} and {DATABASE} with the values you just chose.)
Enter the password you just chose.
Type the following commands:
\i install.sql \q
Customize Local Configuration File
- Copy chasers_config_local.sample to chasers_config_local.php
cd /var/www/html/chasers cp chasers_config_local.sample chasers_config_local.php
and edit to indicate the user, database and password. You want to do this in the Postgres (not Mysql) section, so change these lines to match the database, username and password you specified before (you do not need to change the server line):
//Postgres: $db_server["pg"] = "localhost"; $db_user_name["pg"] = "Chasers"; $db_password["pg"] = ""; $database["pg"] = "Chasers";
Since chasers_config_local.php has your password in it, is is a good idea to make it only readable by Apache.
chown apache chasers_config_local.php chmod 400 chasers_config_local.php
Access CHASERS
- Browse to the appropriate url. If you installed CHASERS in /var/www/html, you should browse to https://localhost/chasers
- You will see a link to configure the engine array. Click it.
- Return to the CHASERS page: https://localhost/chasers
You can now log in as super_user, with the password you specified earlier in add.initial_user.sql
Initial Steps in CHASERS
Housekeeping
- Click on the link for the "CHASERS Administration" page, and find the "Database Maintenance" section.
- Click the "enable table logging" link, which will allow "Revision History" tracking.
- Click the "enable changed_at" link, which will make sure the modification times in your database are accurate
Add yourself as a new CHASERS user
- Click on the "Add a new staff account" link (also on the CHASERS Administration page)
- Fill in the appropriate values, and press submit
- Review your record, and enter your password
- You will now be on the staff page for your newly-created user
- Click on the "change password" link to set your password
Make yourself a Super User
- Click "Show Empty Records"
- Click "Add a permission"
- Choose "CHASERS Super User" as the permission type, fill in the rest of the form, and complete the record.
- You can now log out as the "super_user," and log in as yourself
