OSSWEB: Web Development Framework for NaviServer 4.x
Release 2.0

OSSWEB is a Web Application Framework which makes life much easier
in creating and deploying Web applications. The system consists from
several parts:

  - security layer
  - templating manager
  - database layer
  - connection manager

Security paradigm is described in the User Guide,
briefly it is general purpose mechanism for access restrictions
in Web applications.

Templating manager provides additional tags that can be used
in the html pages and ability to create custom tags to make Web pages
simpler and more readable.

Database layer is a high level functions which covers most typical
database access methods and performs all type/variable conversions between
database and Tcl. Many functions are similar in functionality with
OpenACS database functions.

Connection manager performs all work with query parsing,
Tcl variables initializing and request routing. The system implements
request state machine whereby each request launches corresponding
Tcl callback.

OSSWEB is being developed using PostgreSQL 8.x and has no other database
support at this time. 


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To install Tcl if it is not installed:

  make install_tcl



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To install PostgreSQL if it is not installed:

You need to be root to create user postgres and run server as 
user postgres. If you want to run server as user postgres run
these commands first, otherwise skip this section:

  su
  useradd postgres
  su - postgres

Then compile and install the database server:

  make install_pgsql


If PostgreSQL is already installed, make sure it is compiled with Tcl 
language support for stored procedures. To check run this command:

  ls -l `pg_config --pkglibdir`/pl*

  It should produce output like this:

  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 148641 Jun  4 10:19 /usr/lib/postgresql/plpgsql.so
  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  34277 Jun  4 10:19 /usr/lib/postgresql/pltcl.so

If you do not see pltcl.so, then your PostgreSQL server compiled without Tcl, 
OSSWEB requires it, so it needs to be recompiled with --with-tcl option for 
configure. In this case using make install_pgsql could be easier way but this will
install second copy of the server in the /usr/local/ns and will require changing
startup script to start correct PostgreSQL version on boot.



Before you proceed with OSSWEB instalation, make sure PostgreSQL server is up and running

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To install Naviserver and only core OSSWEB modules:

  make install_core_world



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To install Naviserver and OSSWEB and all modules:

  make install_world


By default all make commands above will install binaries into 
/usr/local/ns.

To install them into different directory specify prefix=otherdir
for every or any make commands, like:

  make install_tcl prefix=/usr/local
  make install_pgsql prefix=/usr/local/pgsql
  make install_workd prefix=/opt/ns


In case when for example Tcl is installed in some unusual directory, you can pass
configure parameters:

  make install_world configure="--with-tcl=/usr/local/tcl"

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Manually Install OSSWEB

OSSWEB installation include several steps: database creation,
data model installation, web application installation. Once you have
database up and running, OSSWEB installation simply requires the
following command.

  make create_db
  make install_db
  make install

 - create_db creates database 'ossweb', default database owner is postgres

   NOTE: OSSWEB requires tsearch2 module from PostgreSQL contrib, it will try
   to autodetect and install it if contrib modules have been compiled and installed
   with PostgresQL. If PostgreSQL is installed in non-starndard directory, add path
   to binaries to PATH environment, so make will be able to find psql and pg_config
   utilities:

     export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/pgsql/bin
     make create_db

 - install_db creates all tables and functions for each application.

   NOTE: If you want to install any particular module separately, then you need
   to use make install_sql command.

   For example:

     cd ossmon && make install_sql install

   will install ossmon db schema and all files

 - install creates directory structure and copies all tcl and adp files

   By default all modules will be installed, each make command can accept
   modules=modlist parameters which tells which modules to install.

   For example to install core and task tool use:

   make install_core

   which is equivalent to

   make install_db install modules="ossweb conf bin js css images index pub main admin styles doc"


NOTE: If the PostgreSQL installation owner is not user postgres, then add
dbuser=username to all make commands:

   make create_db dbuser=username
   make install_db dbuser=username



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OSSWEB NaviServer directory structure is:

  bin           - naviserver binaries and modules
  conf          - nsd.tcl configuration
  logs          - log files
  tcl           - standard tcl procs
     ossweb     - core procs and modules
  styles        - templates, GUI abstraction layer
  xql           - xql files, SQL abstraction layer
  pages
     ossweb     - project with applications in each directory
        admin   - administrative web pages
        main    - main application pages
        pub     - public pages, login page
        index   - common master index templates
        ...
     css        - CSS stylesheets
     js         - common javascript functions
     img        - icons and images



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Configuration

nsd.tcl installed in /usr/local/ns/conf has several
options which may be customized. By default server will listen on
port 8080. To start server enter

  /usr/local/ns/bin/nsd

  By default it will try to use /usr/local/ns/conf/nsd.tcl but if it is not
  exists then you need to start server with full path to the config file:

  /usr/local/ns/bin/nsd -t /usr/local/ns/conf/nsd-config.tcl

and then point your browser to

  http://localhost:8080/ossweb/

Default OSSWEB administrative user is admin with password admin

Database configuration includes the following parameters that may be
modified:

ns_section      "ns/server/${server}/ossweb"
ns_param        server:database         ossweb

  tells which database pool to be used for OSSWEB. Database pool 'ossweb'
  is configured as local database 'ossweb' with PostgreSQL running on the same
  machine.



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Archlinux specific notes

PostresSQL for Archlinux is compiled without Tcl, so it needs to be recompiled.
go to archlinux/postgresql subdirectyory and type:

makepkg

Then install the package as:

pacman -U postgresql-8.2.5-5.pkg.tar.gz



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Development environment

To create development environment whereby all sources stay in the local
repository and are used by Naviserver without making install every time
the source file is changed, issue the following commands:

make install_devel
cp conf/nsd.tcl /usr/local/ns/conf
sudo /bin/bash -c "cat conf/inittab >> /etc/inittab"

Latest development snapshot can be always retrieved from SVN:

svn co svn://www.crystalballinc.com/ossweb

Authors

  Vlad Seryakov vlad@crystalballinc.com