Forum OpenACS Development: ]po[ V5.2 on OpenACS 5.10.1 Docker

Thanks a lot for this. I had a detailed look into what you did (including the container-setup-openacs.sh and the other scripts inside the container). I found it interesting how you parsed the docker parameters from within TCL.

I've got one possible improvement for you: I've got timing errors when PostgreSQL took longer to start. So I added a call to the following code in container-setup-openacs.sh before finishing or before executing any DB code:

wait_for_postgres() {
        echo "====== Wait for PG: Waiting up to a minute for PostgreSQL to become available"
	wait_count=0
	wait_max=60
        echo "====== Wait for PG: pg_isready -h ${oacs_db_host} -p ${oacs_db_port} 2>/dev/null"
	while ! pg_isready -h ${oacs_db_host} -p ${oacs_db_port} 2>/dev/null; do
            wait_count=$(($wait_count + 1))
            if [ $wait_count -ge $wait_max ]; then
                echo "====== Wait for PG: PostgreSQL not ready after ${wait_max} attempts. Exiting."
                exit 1
            fi
            echo "====== Wait for PG: Waiting for PostgreSQL to be ready, attempt: ${wait_count}"
            sleep 1
        done
        echo "====== Wait for PG: PostgreSQL ready now with attempt: ${wait_count}"
}

Then I tried to upgrade an existing ]project-open[ installation to OpenACS 5.10. What is the best way to do this? According to the upgrade page (https://openacs.org/xowiki/upgrade-oacs-5-10), I should be able to put a ]po[ backup (based on OpenACS 5.9.1 and PostgreSQL 9), stuff it into the postgres:latest container, start your OpenACS and get a semiautomatic upgrade, isn't that correct?

I tried and NSD seems to start up more or less correctly, but a strange error ("pretty_plural", see below) occurred, see below. After that I also get many "Service contract initialization failed: acs_sc_proc RssGenerationSubscriber lastUpdated fs_rss fs::rss::lastUpdated", followed later by "invalid command name "::acs::dc" which I understand is fatal.

I've tested with the same PostgreSQL container (PG 17.2) on an Ubuntu Server and everything worked. Here are the installation instructions I recorded: https://www.project-open.net/en/install-ubuntu-noble-numbat
I also got some errors in xotcl-core, but the basic installation worked.

At the moment my plan is to look at the PostgreSQL 9 vs. 17 incompatibilities and then try again.

Error: Error sourcing /var/www/openacs/packages/xotcl-core/tcl/05-db-procs.tcl:
projop-1    | :    required argument 'pretty_plural' is missing, should be:
projop-1    | :            ::acs::dc call acs_attribute create_attribute ?-dbn /value/? -object_type /value/ -attribute_name /value/ -datatype /value/ -pretty_name /value/ -pretty_plural /v\
alue/ -table_name /value/ -column_name /value/ -default_value /value/ ?-min_n_values /int32/? ?-max_n_values /int32/? -sort_order /int32/ ?-storage /value/? ?-static_p /value/? ?-create_col\
umn_p /value/? -database_type /value/ -size /value/ ?-null_p /value/? -references /value/ -check_expr /value/ -column_spec /value/
projop-1    | :        while executing
projop-1    | :    "::xo::db::Object contains -object ::xo::db::Object::slot {
projop-1    | :        ::xo::db::Attribute create object_id    -pretty_name "Object ID" -datatype integer

Hi Frank,

sorry that i missed your original posting, I am quite busy with other projects these days.

timing issue

The docker-level healthcheck for the service should take care of this. When developing it, I tested this on multiple environments without problems.

The other points are NOT related with the container, but about upgrading PO.

pretty_plural

Without going deeper, there seems to be a PO data model issue, the metadata model seems incomplete. The function "create_attribute" is only called, when tuples in the OpenACS metadata model are missing.

In OpenACS, one sees:

oacs-head=# select attribute_id, attribute_name,pretty_name from  acs_attributes where attribute_name = 'object_id';
 attribute_id | attribute_name | pretty_name 
--------------+----------------+-------------
           74 | object_id      | Object ID
(1 row)

When the attribute is available in the metadata model, it does not try to create it. Nevertheless, you are right, one should not get errors, when the startup tries to repair a broken meta-data model.

invalid command name "::acs::dc"'.

This command is defined in acs-tcl/tcl/acs-db-00-procs.tcl When the file is sourced, the command will be available - unless some earlier error prevented loading

OID and tsearch

Have you seen: https://openacs.org/xowiki/upgrade-pg96-pg13

These instructions address OID dropping and excluding public.pgts* to avoid tsearch problems when upgrading from very old versions from before OpenACS 8.3 (2014).