Installing IGSuite 3.2 (Document expired)

Introduction

IGSuite is a powerful business applications "suite" with a web-based interface making it easy to use and deploy. It includes a package of applications which provide a customizable multiuser e-workplace covering such business requirements such as customer relationship, document management, resource and planning management.

To access these powerful business applications, the user simply needs use a new generation browser (with Javascript CSS2 and Cookies support). As an organization actively involved in the open source community we support the use of the open source browsers such as Safari, Mozilla, Firefox and Opera and will also work on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6. IGSuite has not been tested on any beta version of any browser currently released.

Thanks to the user management and authentication system, when you connect to your server a personalized session will be opened and an environment where it is possible to manage and personalize your "virtual" workplace is presented. All with the preferred look and feel (preferred skin), the chosen language, numerous personal preferences and the possibility to set user privileges per procedure.

Installation Requirements

IGSuite is a group of cgi written in Perl that take advantage exclusively from an external module support (N.B you have to install if it is not present in your system yet) in order to connect to a RDBMS (PostgreSQl, MySQL or SQLite). There are plans to support other databases.

Requirements are:

[http://www.perl.org|Perl]

There is nothing to special about Perl (minimal version 5.003); IGSuite uses some Perl standard modules, the so-called "Core", and others not are not standard. Non standard modules are only used to connect to the Database like Pg (for PostgreSQL) ; DBI with DBD::mysql for MySQL or DBD::sqlite for SQLite for which we ask you to read the relative documentation.

[http://www.postgresql.org |PostgreSQL] or [http://www.mysql.com|MySQL ]

These are two of the most manageable Database currently available. During our job we have tested the performances of both and sure MySQL offers greater speed performances, but the entire project of IGSuite is native for PostgreSQL and it is on this database that IGSuite has been mainly tested.

[http://search.cpan.org/~msergeant/DBD-SQLite-1.12/lib/DBD/SQLite.pm | SQLite]

This incredible database is extremely powerful and useful but only and exclusively when you want to test the Suite or you want to use it for unimportant amounts of data. The implementation of SQLite is very recent and not recommended for use in production server environment.

As far as the RDBMS configuration it will need to have or to create a user who has the permissions to create tables and database. If you have problems please read HowTo or [Indice delle Faq|FAQ] section in the official documentation. You can also sign to the mailing list or choose some commercial support available.

N.B. THE GREATER NUMBER OF THE PROBLEMS DURING IGSUITE INSTALLATION ARE DUE TO THE INCORRECT SETTING OF USERS RIGHTS FOR THE DATABASE AND TABLE CREATION WITHIN THE RDBMS.

[http://www.cpan.org|PG.pm or DBI with DBD::mysql or DBD::SQLite]

These are modules that allow Perl to interact with the database. It is important to ensure that the one installed is compatible with the version of the database that is being used.

If you use Linux we refer you back to the documentation of the respective distribution in use. In fact for some distributions the modules installation happens thanks to an inner packages manager (E.g. for Suse it is Yast) for other distributions will be necessary to leverage the packages offered by http://www.cpan.org

If you use Windows, you can download Perl from ActivePerl http://www.activeperl.com a distribution of Active State. Inside of ActivePerl distribution you can find documentation relative to PPM (Perl Package Manager) in order to install the cited modules on. On the IGSuite site in the Howto section there is available a mini-howto that explains how to install modules under Windows.

N.B. The Pg.pm Perl interface module necessary to connect PostgreSQL to IGSuite is not the same one as DBI/DBD::Pg!!

Linux (Any Distribution) - Windows (98 98SE XP NT 2000)

We choose to write IGSuite applications so that they are portable and can be run on almost every platform. This allows the customer the freedom to run the platform of their choice.

Make you sure that requirements list is compatible with the platform you want to use for the installation of IGSuite and all should work without any problems.

Currently we have tested IGSuite on following systems: Suse, RedHat, Mandriva, Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Win98, Win2000 Server, Win XP.

For futher information, you can consult these documents: [Installing IGSuite under Windows]

[http://www.apache.org|Apache]

This web server is distributed for all currently tested platforms and only requires a small amount of customization inside of the configuration file (httpd.conf).

Be sure that all folders and of particular note: “DocumentRoot” and “cgi-bin” (or practically the system directory that contains the data files and cgi scripts of IGSuite) they have the read, write and execute permissions (for cgi-bin directory) for the system user who executes Apache.

We recommend that you configure Apache as a in Virtual Host configuration for IGSuite so as not to interfere with other “Web Sites” managed by the Apache web server.

[http://www.hylafax.org|HylaFax (optional)]

Without a doubt this is one of the better open source Fax servers that exists. It does not need any particular attention from within the IGSuite framework. Once it is installed (IGSuite can also be installed without it) you will have to configure a user who has sufficient privileges to access the received fax using the FTP protocol (Please read official documentation of Hylafax for more details).

In order to use all the Hylafax features in IGSuite (on Linux only), it will be necessary to install also the LIBTIFF package on the server where IGSuite is installed.

N.B. At moment there is no version of Hylafax available for Windows, therefore the Hylafax feature is not usable when IGSuite is installed on a Windows platform

[http://www.samba.org|Samba (optional)]

On samba we will simply share the Apache "DocumentRoot" directory, where every user of IGSuite on the client side has privileges to read and write, by mapping the share to a local drive unit letter. (e.g. “L: ” ).

The share will also have to allow reading and writing to the user who executes Apache. This in order to allow IGSuite to create documents and standard templates.

You can consult HowTo section on the IGSuite official site project.

Configuration

If, before installing IGSuite all the installation requirements have not been met then numerous anomalies can be expected which will compromise the execution of the functionalities in the suite.

However as user root/Administrator of the system, you can type “perl install.pl”, and answer all the questions that appear and this will assist you in ensuring you meet all the requirements for a successful installation.

At the moment, in order to configure IGWebMail you will need to manually edit the configuration file cgi_directory/conf/igsuite.conf and to follow the explanations contained in it. For more information, please read this document on [configuring igsuite|How to configure IGSuite].

IGWebMail can receive email messages by taking advantage of a number of mechanisms from the use of the POP3 protocol to the direct reading of the mail spool directory. On Windows systems it will be necessary to use the SMTP and POP3 protocols for the sending and receiving of the email.

Quick Start

When the installation has been successfully completed, you simply have to use a browser (that support HTML 4; CCS; JavaScript; and that is cookies enabled) and point it to the web server address.

You can open the index.html file made by installation script or call "igsuite" script by an address like this:

Example: http://my_server_domain/cgi-bin/igsuite


A form will ask you a Login name and a Password. You have to insert that ones you set up for "administrator of IGSuite" during the installation. Once you have logged in, click on “Staff” item and add others system users or follow the information provided.

On-Line Update

To update IGSuite, you have two possibilities: manual update or automatic update.

Manual Update: Execute from the command line the follow script:

root@server# /directory/of/cgi/igsuited --update-igsuite


Automatic Update: "igsuited" is a daemon, which will take care of numerous operations. One of these is the one to always keeps the system up to date, by the updating of the scripts and also the updating of the tables and the databases needed by IGSuite.

In order to execute it after each system reboot, please refer to the system documentation of your server.

Upgrade from previous versions

  • To update from 3.2.0 to 3.2.1 execute simply "install.pl" The script of new release will update all the scripts and the databases.


Manifest

In order to see the latest release of the Manifest, follow this address

http://www.igsuite.org/cgi-bin/igwiki?action=findexec&keytofind=manifest&fieldtofind=name

Copyright

Copyright (c) 1998-2006. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
perl(1), DBI(3), Mysql(3), Postgres, SQLite, and sure http://www.igsuite.org

Trademarks

Microsft and Internet Explorer are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All trademarks are acknowledged as belonging to their rightful owner/s.