Forum OpenACS Q&A: Installation Guide, downloads

Collapse
1: Installation Guide, downloads
Posted by Smooth Operator2 on 07/22/00 12:19 PM
I read the notice dated July 4 that the security updates were being
worked on.  Is that why I am not able to see the documentation and
most of the stuff for OpenACS, or am I looking in the wrong place?

I managed to download OpenACS 3.2.2.b3 ... but besides that, I really
haven't done much else with Open (although my ISP was kind enough to
install PostgreSQL for me).

It will take me a few months before I start implementing ACS, and
from what I see on this site, it does not seem as if classic and Open
would be too different to learn and operate.

I went ahead and downloaded Oracle (about a 20 minute download), and
I have all the much-improved documentation for AOLServer
administration and Classic ACS Installation printed out and stapled
with a megastapler (3 thick packets)...

I guess my question is, if I learn on Classic ACS, and start building
a closed site with it (using the database to create a new service for
a particular group), would it be too much of a shift to transfer the
site to the license-free OpenACS?  The reason I am asking is because
I only have about six months to a year in my current job as a
paralegal and I want to get started right away with databases (right
now I am mostly working on learning Red Hat administration)... in
addition to doing things with ACS I want to be knowledgable enough
within a short time to ace certification tests for both system
administration and databases (and doing good with the former so far
with the 60 or more hours I put in a week).

Thanks in advance for the response.

Collapse
2: Response to Installation Guide, downloads (response to 1)
Posted by Smooth Operator2 on 07/22/00 12:23 PM
<i>would it be too much of a shift to transfer the site to the license-free OpenACS?</i>

Before you flame me... I meant "Free OpenACS".

Collapse
3: Response to Installation Guide, downloads (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 07/22/00 02:59 PM
Just take care in defining tables and writing SQL queries in your customization work, and moving code shouldn't be difficult.  Moving data might be a pain, though, since the Oracle version using CLOBs for  everything interesting (like forum posts) and we just use lztext (a compressed text type) in Postgres (which doesn't support CLOB).

Read the guide on porting from Oracle to Postgres to get an idea for what you should avoid in terms of language features, i.e. outer joins and some other stuff.