Tag Archives: Project Services

Objective

Project Services is an integration of software and doman knowledge. Data Management & Warehousing has an approach to building data warehouses. This approach includes a number of templates and white papers including approaches to architecture, governance and documentation.

In order to run a project using this approach it is useful to have a change control system, a task and issue tracking system, a wiki, etc. This document describes how to build the software aspects of the solution

Installed Software Solution

The objective is to build a system using the following packages:

Server

• Subversion
  http://subversion.tigris.org/
• Trac
  http://trac.edgewall.org/
• ViewVC
  http://www.viewvc.org/
• User_Manage
  http://stein.cshl.org/~lstein/user_manage/

Client

• Tortoise SVN
  http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Installed Software

The Data Management & Warehousing system used the following software

• CentOS 4.5 fully up-to-date
• Additional RPMs from http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/
  • subversion-perl-1.4.4-0.1.el4.rf
  • subversion-1.4.4-0.1.el4.rf
  • subversion-devel-1.4.4-0.1.el4.rf
  • python-clearsilver-0.10.4-2.el4.rf
  • clearsilver-devel-0.10.4-2.el4.rf
  • clearsilver-0.10.4-2.el4.rf
  • perl-ClearSilver-0.10.4-2.el4.rf
  • python-clearsilver-0.10.4-2.el4.rf
• Source code downloads
  • trac-0.10.4.tar.gz
  • viewvc-1.0.4.tar.gz
  • user_manage.tar.gz

Naming conventions used

Wherever there is a name or path that needs to be set it is written in uppercase and should be substitued appropriately

CMS_PAGE: A location of a CMS managed page e.g. http://www.datamgmt.com/?PAGE=&47
DISK_ROOT: A location not visible to the webserver e.g. /hosting/datamgmt.com/projects
DOMAIN: The domain e.g. datamgmt.com
IPADDRESS: The IP Address e.g. 10.10.10.10
PORT: The IP port e.g. 80
SUBDOMAIN: The subdomain where the projects are hosted e.g. projects.datamgmt.com
WEB_ROOT: A location visible to the webserver e.g. /hosting/datamgmt.com/website/projects

Text prefixed with a hash ‘#’ it is a unix command to be typed.
Text in italics should be edited into the appropriate file

To set up an additional project the steps in red text need to be repeated for the new project.

Mail Alias

Create a e-mail alias for the project administrators that can be used in the configuration and directed as appropriate e.g.

projects-admin@DOMAIN

Create the Subversion Repository

Install ViewVC

# mkdir DISK_ROOT/cgi-bin  
# cp /usr/local/viewvc-1.0.4/bin/cgi/viewvc.cgi DISK_ROOT/cgi-bin

Then update the /usr/local/viewvc-1.0.4/viewvc.conf file with the following lines:

#cvs_roots 
svn_roots = PROJECT: DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/svn
default_root = svn
address = Projects Administration

Install user_manage

# cp user_manage WEB_ROOT/cgi-bin

Edit the user_manage script as follows:

$CONFIG_FILE = 'DISK_ROOT/etc/realms.conf';

# mkdir DISK_ROOT/etc

Create and edit the file DISK_ROOT/etc/realms.conf:

<Realm projects.datamgmt.com/PROJECT>
        Users      DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc/passwd.http
        Groups     DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc/group.http
        Type       Text
</Realm>

# cd DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc

# htpasswd -cb passwd.http USERNAME PASSWORD

Create and edit the file DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc/group.http

administrators: USERNAME
users: USERNAME

Configure Trac

# mkdir DISK_ROOT/tmp
# chown apache.apache DISK_ROOT/tmp
# chmod 775 DISK_ROOT/tmp

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac initenv

Accept default values except

Project Name [My Project]> PROJECT 

Path to repository [/path/to/repos]> DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/svn

Edit the configuration file DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac/conf/trac.ini

[header_logo] 

 link = http://SUBDOMAIN 

 src = /img/yourlogo.png 

[notification] 

 always_notify_owner = true 

 always_notify_reporter = true 

 smtp_default_domain = DOMAIN 

 smtp_from = projects-admin@DOMAIN 

 smtp_replyto = projects-admin@DOMAIN 

 smtp_enabled = true 

[project] 

 descr = PROJECT 

 name = PROJECT 

 url = http://SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT/trac 

[trac] 

 base_url = http://SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT/trac

Configure .htaccess files

Add the following .htaccess files

Redirect the DOMAIN homepage to the main website Content Management System page for requests (This rule re-directs requests / and index.html requests)

Create and edit WEB_ROOT/.htaccess

RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^$ CMS_PAGE RewriteRule ^index.html$ CMS_PAGE 

Redirect the DOMAIN/PROJECT homepage to the Trac homepage (This rule re-directs requests / and and index.html requests)

Create and edit WEB_ROOT/PROJECT/.htaccess

RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^$ http://DOMAIN/PROJECT/trac RewriteRule ^index.html$ http://DOMAIN/PROJECT/trac 

Set up Trac security

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission list 

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission add USERNAME user 

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission add USERNAME admin 

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission add user TICKET_CREATE TICKET_MODIFY WIKI_CREATE WIKI_MODIFY 

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission add admin CONFIG_VIEW MILESTONE_ADMIN REPORT_ADMIN ROADMAP_ADMIN TICKET_ADMIN TRAC_ADMIN WIKI_ADMIN 

# trac-admin DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac permission remove anonymous TICKET_CREATE TICKET_MODIFY WIKI_CREATE WIKI_MODIFY

Modify other permissions to suit individual requirements

Modifications to the httpd.conf file

<VirtualHost  IPADDRESS:PORT>

ServerAdmin   projects-admin@DOMAIN
DocumentRoot  WEB_ROOT
ServerName    SUBDOMAIN
ErrorLog      WEB_ROOT/logs/errors.log
CustomLog     WEB_ROOT/logs/access.log combined env=!DontLog
ScriptAlias   /cgi-bin  WEB_ROOT/cgi-bin

   AllowOverride All

   Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks

<Directory WEB_ROOT/PROJECT> 

 AuthType Basic 

 AuthName "SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT" 

 AuthUserFile DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc/passwd.http 

 AuthGroupFile DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/etc/group.http 

 Require valid-user 

 AllowOverride All 

</Directory> 

<Location /PROJECT/trac> 

 SetHandler mod_python 

 PythonInterpreter main_interpreter 

 PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend 

 PythonOption TracEnv DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/trac 

 PythonOption TracUriRoot /PROJECT/trac 

 SetEnv PYTHON_EGG_CACHE DISK_ROOT/tmp 

</Location> 

<Location /PROJECT/repository> 

 DAV svn 

 SVNParentPath DISK_ROOT 

</Location>

</VirtualHost>

Completing the installation and testing

After all of the above is done the web server needs to be restarted

# apachectl stop
# apachectl start

http://SUBDOMAIN
This should take you to the CMS page that acts as an introduction to all the projects

http://SUBDOMAIN/cgi-bin/user_manage?realm=SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT
This should take you to the user management page of the sub-domain and project.

http://SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT
This should take you to the wiki page that acts as the front page of the individual project

http://SUBDOMAIN/PROJECT/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi
This should take you to the ViewVC page the views the source code repository

Other useful utilities

There are a number of useful plugins:

http://trac-hacks.org/wiki

Tip: Create a directory (e.g. /tmp/trac_plugins) and carry out the work from there.

Tip: Install the plugins globally using the –prefix=/usr (see below)

Tip: If you are installing a second project copy the trac.ini over after doing all the installs and then simply search and replace the project name instead of doing all the edits.

Tip: Once the ini admin module is installed much of the enabling etc. can be done from here.

Tip: Sometimes after installing a new plugin it does not appear. Try restarting the browser and webserver as stuff might be cached.

Tip: Sometimes the following line
import sys; new=sys.path[sys.__plen:]; del sys.path[sys.__plen:]; p=getattr(sys,’__egginsert’,0); sys.path[p:p]=new; sys.__egginsert = p+len(new)
can be added to the file /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/easy-install.pth causing a Server 500 error. This should be commented out

EZ Setup Utility

# wget http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py 
# python ez_setup.py --prefix=/usr

General Plugin Installation

# svn co http://PLUGIN_SVN_URL
# cd PLUGIN/(0.10)
# python setup.py egg_info
# python setup.py bdist_egg
# cd dist
# easy_install –prefix=/usr *.egg

Edit DISK_ROOT/PROJECT/conf/trac.ini

[components]
PLUGIN.* = enabled

Implemented Plugins

Account Manager

ini Admin

Master Tickets
Also note that the following patch must be applied before building

Nav Add

Rev Tree
Tried to install but have had issues so abandoned

SVN Authz Admin

Test Case Management

TracNav

Web Admin

Other useful plugins not installed

Timing and Estimation

Work Log

Issues

Sometimes after installing a plugin the server issues an error

Editing:

/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/easy-install.pth

and commenting out the line:

#import sys; new=sys.path[sys.__plen:]; del sys.path[sys.__plen:]; p=getattr(sys,’__egginsert’,0); sys.path[p:p]=new; sys.__egginsert = p+len(new)

Appears to fix this