Forum OpenACS Q&A: Install

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Posted by Lars Pind on
Could we put up a page on OpenACS.org with links to the canonical source for the recommended version of all the software the we rely on?

This should be a "Download" page, and should be a link on the top nav bar, next to "News", "Forums', "Community", etc.

Example: After Don's change last night, stuff broke, and it seems that I need a new version of nsxml. Great. Couldn't find a link from an openacs.org download page.

Google gave me this:

http://acs-misc.sourceforge.net/nsxml.html

When I checked out, all I got was a README file that said the repository had moved. Any chance we could update the acs-misc page to say that, instead of only having that message in the CVS repository? Who's maintaining that page?

Right now, the OpenACS download page is using the 'download' module, and it's under
/projects/openacs/download. There's also a /software page, which offers links to a seemingly quite random collection of things.

I'll be happy to take on the job of streamlining this a bit, if we can agree on what the structure should be.

Where should the "here are all the things you need to get started with OpenACS" including links to install documentation, etc., page live?

/Lars

/Lars

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2: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on
Maybe the "unleash OpenACS now" button on the front page should go somewhere other than the download page for OpenACS 4?  A page that points to all the pieces, includes a quick description of what you need, including the actual OpenACS tarball?

Is that graphic obvious enough?  It's cute but kinda lost on the page IMO.

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3: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Jonathan Ellis on
I agree that it could use more prominent placement.
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4: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on
Alright, then.

If anybody wants to take a stab at this, please do. Otherwise I'll try and get time to look at it next week. Altough I already have lots of stuff scheduled for next week ..

/Lars

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5: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on
  1. I think this should be a canonical list per version of OpenACS. The reason is that, if not everything is backwards compatible (like, say, PostGreSQL 7.2 vs 7.3), you can easily get into the table-leg failure mode. (When one table leg is longer than the others, so you saw it down, but now it's shorter, so you saw down the other three, but they're still not exactly right, and you keep going until you have a one-inch-high table). That is, you can be forced to upgrade a lot of interlinked components.

    So this means that the list lives in the documentation in the OpenACS tarball. Currently OpenACS.org publishes the documentation for the version of OpenACS that it's running; I think it should instead link to documentation from each release.

  2. As a starting point for the list, I offer my list from my own install doc, which I was already planning to integrate into the official documentation. I ned people to send me things it's missing. It's missing stuff like nsxml because my doc assumed you would get all that stuff from Red Hat 8.0. Which brings me to my next bullet point:
  3. Reference Platforms. A reference platform is a complete list of software, sources for that software, file locations, settings, and instructions to put it all together. Its purpose is, well, to be a reference. It lets you reproduce the documented setup reliably, and if your platform differs, it will differ from a constant instead of a variable (or, worse, an "undef"). I think this deserves a seperate forum post.
  4. Escrow. Lars' request, which just having a list of sources doesn't address, is how to ensure availability for all the sources even if their authors stop providing support. I propose (and built, for my own nefarious purposes), a Reference Platform Tarball (and ISO) that, license permitting, collects all the required software and stores it on openacs.org in conjunction with the matching OpenACS tarball.
  5. What about HEAD? When people change software requirements for HEAD, where do they document that? I suggest that goes into the HEAD version of the core doc.
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6: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Dave Bauer on
Joel,

OpenACS.org publishes the docs for 4.6, 3.2.5 and the currently installed docs from openacs.org/doc/.

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7: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on
I've merged the existing list of sources from the 4.6 doc with my own list, and come up with this. (ROUGH DRAFT)
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8: Re: Install (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on
For the record, Joel's continued this discussion in a new thread:

https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=82934