[ic] problems getting started

Wed, 28 Feb 2001 15:36:05 +1000

Hi, I'm just installing interchange on my test development box here and
I'm having a few problems with the demo construct catalog. 

Ok a bit of background  onthe system. 

It's a Debian GNU Linux system, running kernel 2.4.1, perl-5.6, apache
1.3.14. 

I am using the pre-packages binaries of interchange from
ftp.minivend.com. 

Ok so first the install, it all goes ok. 

Script started on Wed Feb 28 15:10:39 2001
root@lift:~ #apt-get install interchange interchange-cat-so 
root@lift:~ #[Kapt-get install interchange interchange-cat-s construct interchange-u 
i

Reading Package Lists... 0%

Reading Package Lists... 22%

Reading Package Lists... Done

Building Dependency Tree... 0%

Building Dependency Tree... 50%

Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  interchange interchange-cat-construct interchange-ui 
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0  not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1597kB of archives. After unpacking 6255kB will be used.

Preconfiguring packages ..
Configuring Interchange
-----------------------

Unix mode is is the most secure way to run Interchange, for there is  no way
for systems on the internet to interact with the Interchange server. 

  u. unix mode  i. internet mode  b. both

Start Interchange in Unix mode, Internet mode or both ? [u] u

This determines the user for the interchange server and for file permissions.
Please note that using another user has serious security implications. Don't
choose root, it is not recommended and will be discarded anyway. 

Which is the name of the user to run the interchange server as ? [interchange] interchange

This determines the group for the interchange server and for file permissions.
Please note that using another user has serious security implications. Don't
choose root, it is not recommended and will be discarded anyway. 

Which is the name of the group to run the interchange server as ? [interchange] interchange

Selecting previously deselected package interchange.
(Reading database ... 17766 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking interchange (from .../interchange_4.6.3-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package interchange-cat-construct.
Unpacking interchange-cat-construct (from .../interchange-cat-construct_4.6.3-1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package interchange-ui.
Unpacking interchange-ui (from .../interchange-ui_4.6.3-1_all.deb) ...
Setting up interchange (4.6.3-1) ...
Starting Interchange Server: Low traffic settings.
Calling UI....
...UI is loaded....
Interchange V4.6.3
Interchange server started in UNIX mode(s) (process id 26277)

Setting up interchange-cat-construct (4.6.3-1) ...

Setting up interchange-ui (4.6.3-1) ...
Restarting Interchange Server: interchange.
Low traffic settings.
Calling UI....
...UI is loaded....
Interchange V4.6.3
Interchange server started in UNIX mode(s) (process id 26294)

Script done on Wed Feb 28 15:14:36 2001

So we are fine up to that point. 

Now I'll run makecat and set up the demo catalog.

Script started on Wed Feb 28 15:17:36 2001
root@lift:~ #makecat

Select a short, mnemonic name for the catalog. This will be
used to set the defaults for naming the catalog, executable,
and directory, so you will have to type in this name frequently.

NOTE: This will be the name of 'vlink' or 'tlink', the link CGI
program. Depending on your CGI setup, it may also have the 
extension .cgi added.

If you are doing the demo for the first time, you might use "construct".

Catalog name? construct
makecat -- Interchange catalog installation program.

*** We will be making a catalog named 'construct'. ***

If you are using the Apache or NCSA web server, Interchange can set
some of the default parameters for you by reading the file.

If you use the Netscape Enterprise server or other non-NCSA HTTP server,
enter 'none' -- the information, if any, will not be useful.

This information may not be that useful to you, since you don't
have the Term::ReadLine module installed. If the default setting
presented is not correct, you will have to know the information.
C'est la vie.

Enter path to httpd.conf file: [/etc/apache/httpd.conf] /etc/apache/httpd.conf
######### BEGINNING CATALOG CONFIGURATION #########
# The server name, something like: www.company.com
#                                  www.company.com:8000
#                                  www.company.com/~yourname
#
Server name? [duende] lift.warpspeed.net.au

# The type of demo catalog to use. The standard one distributed is:
#
#    construct
#
# If you have defined your own custom template catalog,
# you can enter its name.
#
# If you are new to Interchange and not a sophisticated web designer,
# use "construct" to start with.

DemoType? [construct] construct

# The type of permission structure for multiple user catalogs.
# Select M for each user in own group (with interchange user in group)
#        G for all users in group of interchange user
#        U for all catalogs owned by interchange user (must be catuser as well)
#
#        M is recommended, G works for most installations.

permtype? m

# The user name the Interchange server runs under on this machine. This
# should not be the same as the user that runs the HTTP server (i.e.
# NOT nobody).
#

InterchangeUser? [interchange] interchange

#
# The user name the catalog will be owned by.
#

CatUser? mjs

# The group name the server-owned files should be set to.  This is
# only important if Interchange catalogs will be owned by multiple users
# and the group to be used is not the default for the catalog user.
#
# Normally this is left blank.
# 

InterchangeGroup? u 

# The email address where orders for this catalog should go.
# To have a secure catalog, either this should be a local user name and
# not go over the Internet -- or use the PGP option.
#

MailOrderTo? [mjs] mjs

# Where the Interchange files for this catalog will go, pages,
# products, config and all.  This should not be in HTML document
# space! Usually a 'catalogs' directory below your home directory
# works well. Remember, you will want a test catalog and an online
# catalog.
#

CatRoot? [/home/users/mjs/catalogs/construct] 

# The location of the normal CGI directory. This is a
# file path, not a script alias.
#
# If all of your CGI programs must end in .cgi, this is
# should be the same as your HTML directory.
#

CgiDir? [/usr/lib/cgi-bin/ic] /var/www/cgi-bin

# The URL location of the CGI program, without the http://
# or server name.
#
# http://www.virtual.com/cgi-bin/prog
#                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#
# http://www.virtual.com/program.cgi
#                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^
#

CgiUrl? [/construct.cgi] /cgi-bin/construct.cgi

#
# Additional URL locations for the CGI program, as with CgiUrl.
# This is used when calling the catalog from more than one place,
# perhaps because your secure server is not the same name as the
# non-secure one.
#
# http://www.secure.domain/secure-bin/prog
#                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#
# We set it to the name of the catalog by default to enable the
# internal HTTP server.
#

Aliases? [/construct] 

# The base directory for HTML for this (possibly virtual) domain.
# This is a directory path name, not a URL -- it is your HTML
# directory.
#

DocumentRoot? [/var/www] /var/www/html

# Where the sample HTML files (not Interchange pages) should be installed.
# There is a difference. Usually a subdirectory of your HTML directory.
#

SampleHtml? [/var/www/ic] /var/www/html/ic

# Where the image files should be copied. A directory path
# name, not a URL.
#

ImageDir? [/var/www/html/ic/images] /var/www/html/images

# The URL base for the sample images. Sets the ImageDir
# directive in the catalog configuration file. This is a URL
# fragment, not a directory or file name.
#
#         <IMG SRC="/construct/images/icon.gif">
#                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#

ImageUrl? [/construct/images] /images
Checking directories........................................mkdir /home/users/mjs/catalogs
mkdir /home/users/mjs/catalogs/construct
mkdir /var/www/html/ic
mkdir /var/www/html/images
done.
Copying demo files..........................................found more to ask.

Your company name: ...............................[Construct Something] Warpspeed Internet Solutions

Interchange has a workable internal database, but many things will
work better (and a few worse) if you use a SQL database. Interchange
can configure MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle in a test configuration.

Set to 1 if you want to use MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle: ..

You can use Interchange's companion configuration
interface, to do upload/download of files, manipulation of
the database, reconfiguration of the catalog, and much more.

To enable the UI, you will need a "super-user" account
name that has full access.

The initial password is "pass". CHANGE IT! You can do this
by going to the admin menu and selecting the superuser and
then "Change password".

Account name that will control this catalog: .....[interchange] interchange
Administrative password: .........................[pass] vkl402j

Found system commands to run.

done.
Moving link program to /var/www/cgi-bin/construct.cgi.......done.
Copying share/ files to ....................................
Error installing share/ files: 
chdir 'share': No such file or directory

Moving HTML files to /var/www/html/ic.......................done.
Moving image files to /var/www/html/images..................done.

Found additional system commands to run.

To enable image upload feature, you need to make a symbolic
link of the image base directory into your catalog directory.

run "ln -s /var/www/html/images /home/users/mjs/catalogs/construct"? [y] 
Add catalog to interchange.cfg? [y] 

No catalog previously defined. Adding construct at top.

Done with installation. If my reading of your input is correct, you
should be able to access the demo catalog with the following URL:

	http://lift.warpspeed.net.au/ic

In any case, you should get direct access at:

	http://lift.warpspeed.net.au/cgi-bin/construct.cgi

That is, after you START or RESTART the Interchange server.  8-)
It is best done with:

	su -c "/usr/lib/interchange/bin/interchange -r" interchange

For session expiration, you might want to place a line like this in your
crontab:

44 4 * * * /usr/lib/interchange/bin/expireall -r

It will prevent the session databases from getting too large.

Good luck with Interchange!

Script done on Wed Feb 28 15:20:56 2001

The only thign that looks wierd in there is the share files not copying propally.

Any ideas on this one?

So now if I restart interchange ...

Script started on Wed Feb 28 15:21:31 2001
root@lift:~ #/etc/ini[K/etc/init.d/interchange  restart
Restarting Interchange Server: interchange.
Low traffic settings.
Calling UI....
...UI is loaded....
Interchange V4.6.3
Configuring catalog construct...construct config error: Couldn't open '/home/users/mjs/catalogs/construct/products/variable.txt' read/write: Permission denied

construct: error in configuration. Skipping.
construct: config error. Skipping.
Interchange server started in UNIX mode(s) (process id 26421)

Script done on Wed Feb 28 15:22:53 2001

Now that doesn't look good to me at all. 

No this file doesn't exist, is makecat meant to generate it 
or should it get copied 
or have I missed some important part in the documentation that tells me how to make it?

Any comments/advice welcome please.

Thanks.

-- 
Mitchell Smith

Blitz Technology

mjs@blitz-technology.net

Computers are not intelligent.  They only think they are.