Documentation Mailing Lists FAQ Frequently Asked Questions v2

Answers for: System Administrator

If hitting "Init" on the setup.php3 page just comes back to the same page, then its probably because your php.ini file contains

"register_globals = Off"

set this to On and restart Apache.

See the manual section 3.7 for instructions.

New settings in config.php3

# mkdir perms, set by variable because constants don't work with octal values $FILEMAN_MODE_DIR = 0770; # create file perms $FILEMAN_MODE_FILE = 0664;
define("FILEMAN_BASE_DIR","/www/apc-aa/wizard/");
define("FILEMAN_BASE_URL","http://work.ecn.cz/apc-aa/wizard/");
define("FILEMAN_UPLOAD_TIME_LIMIT",600);


FILEMAN_MODE sets the Unix rights for all files and directories maintained by the File Manager. Specific directories for individual slices are created in FILEMAN_BASE_DIR, specify the name of the directory belonging to a slice in Slice Settings (only superadmins!!). The FILEMAN_BASE_URL is the web path to the FILEMAN_BASE_DIR, and FILEMAN_UPLOAD_TIME_LIMIT (in seconds) is useful when uploading large files.

Slice settings

Superadmins can set for each slice if administrators may access the File Manager and set the directory name. A directory name must be filled in order that administrators may use the File Manager. If the directory does not exist, it is created at the first usage of File Manager.

There is a difference between what a superadmin sees and what a slice administrator sees. The base directory for superadmin is FILEMAN_BASE_DIR, so you see the directory name when entering File Manager and you can jump to the parent directory. But slice administrators have access only to the particular directory and they don't see the directory name.

Templates

You can create templates consisting of several files. Some aliases are defined:

• _#SLICNAME - slice name
• _#SLICE_ID - slice id

Create the templates in directory FILEMAN_BASE_DIR/templates, each in another subdirectory. Use the AA admin / Wizard Templates page to fill info about the templates into database. Write the subdirectory name (without path) and a description.

We have slice data and structure exported to AA.XML file and we want to import it back to the AA. The problem is, that the AA.XML file is 24 MB.

The solution:

The problem could be in PHP setting. Here's what I had to change in php.ini file to get it going:

1. post_max_size: increased from 8M to 32M
2. upload_max_filesize: increased from 2M to 32M

Those first two were key -- from the php log the upload was clearly exceeding both of these parameters. Obviously, if the upload was bigger than 32M (ours was about 24M) this might need to go even bigger.

I also increased these others. I think the upload wouldn't have completed in the default times, but I'm not sure which parts of the operation count towards which of these:

1. max_execution_time: changed from 30 to 120 seconds
2. max_input_time: changed from 30 to 120 seconds
3. memory_limit: changed to 32M There are CSS files in the root directory that you can modify or create a new CSS file and point to it from include/config.php3 (line 139).

Htaccess is updated by AuthMySQL module on the Apache server. The access is granted directly from AA (from auth_group and auth_user tables)

1) Install mod_auth_mysql (http://modauthmysql.sourceforge.net/)

(This module is standard part of RedHat Linux distribution (rpm mod_auth_mysql). Be carefull, because there are at least two different modules with the same name but with different httpd.conf options and features. We need the described one and not the one described by Ram: http://actionapps.org/faq/detail.shtml?x=1673 !!!)

2) Then you need set auth_group...... field in Reader managment slice as described here: http://actionapps.org/apc-aa/doc/reader.html#d0e236

There is script /misc/oldDb2Db/move.php3. Script move.php3 is database trnansformation script, which copies whole slice from ActionApps v1.2- to the new database structure, which is used for ActionApps v1.5+.

1. Go on Admin - Slice structure Import
2. Copy the content of the /misc/oldDb2Db/oldSliceTemplate.txt file to the import area and press 'Send the slices structure' button. (This slice is then used as template for all imported slices. It makes no sence to repeat steps 1) and 2) for importing second slice !!!
3. Modify next few lines in this script and fill the
   
   • OLD_DB credentials to be able to connect to source database
   • owner id
   • old (source) slice id
4. Remove the line just before this coment
5. Run this script (you have to log as SuperAdmin, then)
6. Done

What is Done:

• New slice in new database is created based on oldSliceTemplate (the slice id is the same as in old database)
• old format strings are copied to the new slice
• all fields in new slice are set is in old slice (defaults, visibility, required, ...)
• categories are copied and added to constants as it is obvious in AA v1.5+
• all fields of all items in source slice are copied to the new database
• relation table is updated and feeding relations is stored there

Limitations:

• permissions for slice is not copied in case you are using SQL version of permission system (in fact, the oermission is not copied in LDAP version too, but it is obvious, that old AA and new AA share the same LDAP tree, so the copy of permissions is not needed)
• field names are allways the same and it comes from en_news_lang.php3 (see Admin - Fields for change the names)
• Show on URL (redirect) field is copied to the new database, but alias (_#HDLN_URL, ...) do not count with this field. You should set the new alias in order you get the same result as in old database
• the defaut expiry date can be set different in old and new database in some cases (see Admin - Fields - Expiry date Edit - Default)
• automatical search form is not implemented in AA v1.5+ - all search settings are removed

After import you have to change the include lines in the pages in order the new slice is called - for example change old line in *.shtml file:

<!--#include virtual="/aa12/slice.php3?slice_id=4e6577735f454e5f746d706c2e2e2e2e"-->

to point to new AAv2.0 installation directory:

<!--#include virtual="/aa20/slice.php3?slice_id=4e6577735f454e5f746d706c2e2e2e2e"-->

The slice id is the same. After that, you shoud review all public pages to make you sure, it works as expected. I do not expect many problems. All features of AAv1.2- as possible to implement in AAv2.0. The biggest problem should be the search form, but it is quite easy to create it manually.

If you get the error: "No slice found for you" after logging into AA after doing a CVS update, then you may have forgotten to fill in the AA_ID in the config.php3 file

If you were a loser (like I have been) and did back-up your AA_ID, it can be retrieved from the AA database...

Using phpMyAdmin or your excellent MySQL skills:
Look for entries in "perms" table that have aa in "object_type" column, "objectid" is your installation ID.

The hit is counted in this cases:

1) with slice.php3
   - if you will display an item with x=24425 url parameter
   - if you will display an item with sh_itm=42567a8736342562782abe782c
   - if you will use banner url parameter (banner=2-38)

2) with view.php3
   - if you display an item with cmd[22]=x-22-24425
     Note 1: if you use more than one item with x command
             (like cmd[23]=x-22-24425-24461-23612) only first
             item is counted)
     Note 2: if you want to display an item and do not want to count
             hit for such item, use 'o' command
             (like cmd[23]=o-22-24425), which works exactly in the same
             way as 'x', but it do not count hits.
   - if you use random parameter (ie. set[23]=random-1)

For speedup of database operations we use log table for hits count, from
which it is time to time copied to item table. You can configure this
behavior in include/constants.php3:

// CountHit probability - how offen write logged hits to item table
define ("COUNTHIT_PROBABILITY", 50);

This means that after 50 hits (approximately) (in whole AA) the hits are
written to item table (= displayed to users).

For more info see CountHit() function in include/util.php3

• sliceID - ID of slice into which you want to import
• fileName - name of the file being imported
• separator - the string which separates the field values
• actions - an array describing how to import - see further
• postedBy - to be inserted into the postedBy and editedBy fields, the SQL user number or LDAP string (for LDAP users)
• fire - if true, writes the data into the database, if false (default), only shows the data in their final shape
• timeLimit - how many seconds may the script work before the server considers it unavailable (default=120)
• statusCode - where to put the item: 1 (default) - Active items, 2 - Hold Bin
• publishDate - if set to 0 (default), fills in the current date, otherwise fills in given value. Use a Unix time-stamp, i.e. number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).
• expiryDate - if set to 0 (default), fills in 200 years after publishDate, otherwise fills in given value. Use a Unix time-stamp, i.e. number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT).
• maxRowLength - max length of one line (default = 50000)

Actions

• store - simply stores the content of "from". Params:
  • from - name of a field in the text file
• storeparsemulti - splits content of "from" and stores the result as a multi-value. In our example, Johny Bravo will be in both the categories "VIP" and "fools". Params:
  • from - name of a field in the text file
  • delimiter - string which separates the values
• storetrans - translates the content and stores it. In our example, France Newman will have "english" as his language. Params:
  • from - name of a field in the text file
  • trans - array containing translations
• storeasmulti - takes the values of several fields and stores them as one multi-value. Params:
  • from - array of fields to be stored together. E.g. "from" => array ("Name","Middle Name","Surname")
• storemultiasone - takes the values of several fields nad stores them as a single value seperated by the delimiter. Params:
  • from - array of fields to be stored together. E.g. "from" => array ("Name","Middle Name","Surname")
  • delimiter - string to put between fields e.g. "delimiter" => ", "
• bool - stores "1" if the given field contains "1", nothing else. Params:
  • from - name of a field in the text file
• web - adds "http://" to the field if not beginning with "http" and not empty. Params:
  • from - name of a field in the text file
• storeboolarray - stores constants if the given fields contain "1". Stores the result as one multi-value.
  • from - array of fields and assigned constants. E.g.: "from" => array ("Bool1" => "Bold", "Bool2" => "Italic", "Bool3" => "Underline")

A fully functional example script

<?php
$actions = array(
"category.......1" => array("action" => "storeparsemulti", "delimiter" => ";", "from" => "Category"),
"headline........" => array("action" => "store", "from" => "Title"),
"created_by......" => array("action" => "store", "from" => "Author"),
"full_text......." => array("action" => "store", "from" => "Summary", "flag"=>1)
);

require "./importer.php3";

Importer ( "aa65a21b285c25f9fe0d4b662919b4b2", // slice iD
	"./books.txt",                      // file name
	"t",                               // field separator
	$actions,
	"uid=ada01,ou=People,ou=AA",        // posted by (there should be a number for sql permissions)
	true,                               // write to DB?
	600);                               // time limit in seconds
?>

This FAQ assumes you did the original installation from CVS (see Installation of ActionApps Doc )

First, check that you really want to update. There is usually a stable release and a developer release. The instructions below will update to the latest release from CVS - which is what most of the people discussing things on the apc-aa-general mailing list are using. This might not be as stable as a release you may be running.

Back-up Your Files and DB

The CVS will write over your current config file, usually located in /apc-aa/includes/config.php3. The key values you will need to re-enter after updating and may not be able to remember are: AA_ID, DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD. Without these correct values, AA will not work.

You should also back-up all your apc-aa files, encase the update fails and you need revert back.

Once you have done your back-ups, login to shell on you account and cd to the apc-aa directory and run

cvs -n update

This will display the changes and potential conflict - look for lines starting "C" these are conflicts that need a developer to figure out. You'll have to ask this list if you get one of these.

NOTE: It is common to get 'timed out' type errors from the CVS, which is hosted at SourceForge.net. Just keep trying every few minutes

If it all looks good, run

CVS update -dPAC

This will:
-d Build directories, like checkout does. (if there is new directory in the repository, then it is created)
-P Prune empty directories.
-A Reset any sticky tags/date/kopts. (allways load HEAD branch of the CVS)
-C Overwrite locally modified files with clean repository copies.
(For more options try "cvs --help update")

You should then compare the version number at the top of /apc-aa/includes/config.php3 to see if it is newer then your backed up config.php3 file. If not, you can simplly upload your backed-up version over the new one. If the new config file is different, you will need to manually write in your settings, based on the backed-up version.

Access http://yourhost/apc-aa/sql_update.php3, this will update the database to the latest version. The script always refreshes the database structure to the newest version - no matter if you allready have the newest structure.

The script makes a backup of the tables, but there is not yet a documented way to restore the old version, and note that re-running the script overwrites the last copy of the backup.

Warning: Access denied for user: 'aadbuser@xxxxx' (Using password: YES) in /usr/local/web/phplib/db_mysql.inc on line 73 Database error: pconnect(xanadu.cyborganic.org, aa-user, $Password) failed. MySQL Error: 0 () Please contact foobar@somewhere.com and report the exact error message. Session halted.

Typically this means that the DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME setup during editing config.php3 in Install 4.1 don't match the one you gave permissions to in Install4.2. In particular note that if the DB_HOST is absolute e.g. "aa.apc.org" then the permissions are going to have to include the machine name that the Apache server runs on e.g. aadb@bigserver

Requirements for ActionApps Unix Hosting

• Strongly prefer Apache
• Ability to create crontab (but this only needs to be done once, so could be done by the hoster).
• PHP version 4.3+, safe mode turned off, with mail function enabled
• At least one MySQL 3.2x database
• SSIs local to virutal server account
• Shell access (mostly for updating from CVS)

Optional:

• HTACCESS (used for Reader Management permissions)
• Mailman mailing lists with list creation/deletion control (not necessary, but AA Reader Management has some options for admining Mailman list subscriptions.
• SSIs to other virtual server accounts (if you want to share an APC-AA install between different virtual server accounts)
• MysqlAuth (Apache Module) if you want to use Reader Management persmissions

Please add your comments below about AA installs that have and have not worked for you...

The action apps software uses the mysql database engine to store its data. The mysql database system is very very reliable.

If the server is interrupted in the middle of a transaction, it can corrupt the database. For example, the servers at SangoNet had a power failure, and one of the mysql tables got corrupted. This shows itself in the actionapps by one of the pages not working and reporting a mysql error about a corrupted database.

It is usually easy to fix a mysql database that has been corrupted. In this case, I just went to /var/mysql (where databases are stored) and checked to see if there were any errors. Mysql uses a program called isamchk to detect and fix errors. This command checks to see if any of the table in any of the databases is corrupted:

/var/mysql > isamchk -s */*.ISM

In this case, the aadb/pagecache.ISM file had two errors. So I ran isamchk in recover mode to fix pagecache.ISM:

/var/mysql > isamchk -r aadb/pagecache.ISM

This FAQ interface was developed by Jason at Commons.ca

APC ActionApps is a free software content management system initiated by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) APC - Internet and ICTs for social justice and development