These are basic installation instructions for COMAS. They were tested
on a Debian/sarge machine, but would ideally be usefull for any
Unix-like system. Please send any corrections or comments.

COMAS requires Apache, mod_perl, PostgreSQL and some Perl
modules. They should be already up and running before attempting a
COMAS install.

This instructions were tested with the following versions of
software. The third column is the debian package name for each.

     Apache     1.3.29    apache
     PostgreSQL 7.3.4     postgresql
     Mod_perl   1.29.0.1  libapache-mod-perl

In addition, the following perl modules are required

Apache::Comas requires
     Apache::Request            1.1    libapache-request-perl
     Apache::Cookie             1.1    libapache-request-perl
     Apache::Session            1.54   libapache-session-perl
     Config::Simple             4.55   libconfig-simple-perl

Comas::HTML requires
     Data::FormValidator        3.50   libdata-formvalidator-perl
     HTML::FromText             1.005  libhtml-fromtext-perl
     PDF::API2                  0.3r77 libpdf-api2-perl  

Comas backend requires
     Date::Calc			5.3    libdate-calc-perl
     Date::Parse		1.1600 libtimedate-perl
     DBI			1.41   libdbi-perl
     DBD::Pg			1.32   libdbd-pg-perl

The COMAS modules can be placed in a directory perl searches for
modules, such as /usr/local/lib/site_perl in Debian. In that case copy
the contents of the perl subcirectory in the COMAS source
distribution.

Alternatively, you can place the modules anywhere you like, and add
their location to perl's @INC. 

To do that, create a file /etc/apache/startup.pl with at least the
following content

-- /etc/apache/startup.pl --
# Path to COMAS modules
use lib qw(/path/to/comas/perl);

#Return True
1;
-- END --

The file needs to return 'true' upon import.

Then add a 
PerlRequire /etc/apache/startup.pl
to your httpd.conf before any other use of mod_perl.

We create the file /etc/apache/conf.d/comas_httpd.conf, which will be
read by the apache httpd.conf. Its contetns could be placed in the
main apache config file, but we split it for modularity.

-- /etc/apache/conf.d/comas_httpd.conf --
<IfModule mod_perl.c>

  <Location /comas>
     SetHandler perl-script
     PerlHandler Apache::Comas
     PerlSetVar comas_config_file /path/to/your/comas.conf
     PerlSetVar comas_instance    instance_name
  </Location>
</IfModule>

-- END --

and copy examples/conf/comas.conf from the COMAS source distribution
to your chosen path. Change the section name at the begining to
whatever you put as comas_instance, and adjust the database paswords
to your liking.

Now, we need to create the database.

Connect to postgres as a superuser.

Create two database users named 'comas' and 'comas_adm'. They don't
need to create databases or users. Set a password for them.

CREATE USER comas WITH NOCREATEDB NOCREATEUSER PASSWORD 'password1';
CREATE USER comas_adm WITH NOCREATEDB NOCREATEUSER PASSWORD 'password2';

The comas_adm user will have power to change the database
arbitrarily. The other user will be more restricted. You need to use
these names, as they are wired into the schema.sql and function.sql
scripts.

Create a database. For simplicity we name it comas. Set it to be owned
by comas_adm. Set a proper character encoding. In our case 'latin1'.

CREATE DATABASE comas WITH OWNER comas_adm ENCODING 'latin1';

From a terminal run the createlang script to create the plpgsql
language in this database. Alternatively create it on template1
*before* creating the comas database.

Give proper access to this users in pg_hba.conf. Don't use trust or
ident authentication. Trust authentication is too weak. Ident doesn't
work, because comas will always connect as the user apache runs as.
Reload postgres' configuration (/etc/init.d/postgresql reload or send
a HUP to the postmaster process)

Connect to the comas database as the comas_adm user. Execute the
schema.sql and functions.sql scripts in the sql subdir.

Insert appropiate starting data. Use sample_data.sql as a guide. At a
minimum insert values into the config table as described by that file.
Insert also a row with name 'prop_files_path' and value a path in your
server where to store the material sent by the authors of the
proposals. This directory should have write permissions for the user
under which the Web server runs (typically www-data, www, apache or
something like that).

Beware the rest of the data in the file, some rows are not in sync
with the database. The room table, for example.
***FIXME: This last paragraph means we have to fix it ;-)

Reload apache's config. Any change to the comas.conf file requires an
apache config reload.

Point your browser to http://your.server.address/comas and enjoy!

$Id: Install.txt,v 1.6 2004/06/01 00:12:59 gwolf Exp $