admin/install/libdata_install.txt



File:   libdata_install.txt
Title:  LibData Installation 
Author: Paul F. Bramscher brams006@umn.edu
Date:   November 21, 2003


==============================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
==============================================================================

1.0  Infrastructure
2.0  Architecture
3.0  Installation Procedures
4.0  Troubleshooting

==============================================================================
1.0     INFRASTRUCTURE
==============================================================================

Hardware                Developed and tested on generic intel-based Linux
                        servers and Sun servers.  Other hardware (Macintosh)
                        might be possible with some code modifications.
                        Queries can be complex and frequent to render pages.
                        A 2 GHz+ server with 1 GB RAM is recommended for a modest
                        installation in a production environment.
                        Disk footprint for the PHP code itself is well under 5 MB.
                        Additional disk requirements due to database size depends
                        on your local utilization and data growth rate -- and
                        should be monitored as it grows.  However, LibData is
                        strongly normalized and unlikely to ever present a disk
                        space issue.

Operating System        Developed and tested on both Red Hat Linux 9 and Solaris
                        unix.  Other operating systems (BSD, Mac OS X, etc.)
                        might be possible with varying degrees of modification.
                        Extensive modification would likely be required to run
                        LibData on a Windows-based computer with an Apache, PHP,
                        and mySQL installation (NOT recommended).
                        
Web Server              Apache.  It is possible to run LibData on a server
                        without a DNS name, although it must be a routable
                        IP.  It is strongly recommended to split LibData into
                        two directories, one serving public interfaces, and the
                        other in an SSL location (refer to installation steps
                        below).
                        
Database                mySQL.  Note that LibData was initially developed on a
                        version of mySQL without support for transactions, and this
                        substantially affects the atomicity of the SQL code (lacking
                        the rollback feature).  Future versions of LibData will most
                        likely be written with transactions in mind, and much more
                        optimized SQL.

Programming Language    Written exclusively in PHP.  Coding is structured/function
                        based for simplicity, using PHP object encapsulation only for
                        security (session-related) purposes.  As this is version 1.0,
                        without outside grants or special funding, code has certainly not
                        been optimized.  However, it is highly self-documented and
                        meaningful variable names have generally been used throughout.

Recommended Browsers    Note that no client-side programming was done (other than HTML
                        and modest usage of CSS).  Therefore LibData ought to be quite
                        widely viewable by most any browser available.  Additionally,
                        there are no frames to contend with.  Viewing is best at 1024 x 768,
                        particularly in the authoring/administrative environments, though
                        800 x 600 is also supported.  In keeping with the spirit of open
                        source, we recommend Mozilla which renders HTML cleaner than
                        MSIE (for example, no extra spaces when a FORM tag is within a
                        table cell).  LibData was developed with Mozilla specifically in mind.

==============================================================================
2.0     ARCHITECTURE
==============================================================================

-------------------
Directory Locations
-------------------
The system requires two directories, one serving up the public interfaces
(hereafter referred to as "public libdata"), another which contains the
administration and authoring side ("administration libdata").  General
directory path information and other variables may be customized in a file
named global_vars.php.  This file must be in either (a) BOTH the libdata
administration directory AND public directory or (b) in the Apache-defined
default location for server-side inclusions.  Check with Apache and/or PHP
documentation for this.  The "include" subdirectory below the libdata
administration directory must always be a subdirectory below administration
and cannot currently be renamed or moved without some program modifications.
(Although an additional Apache-defined include location for the
global_vars.php file may be anywhere).  Following is an example arrangement:

-----------------
Public interfaces
-----------------
        /htdocs/www/libdata
        
                /images
                /styles
        
-------------------------
Administration interfaces
-------------------------
        /htdocs/www-ssl/libdata_admin
        
                /docs
                /images
                /include
                /install (but should be moved elsewhere at installation Step #11.)

Note that the administration side here is piped through SSL (defined by
Apache configuration).  It is strongly recommended that this portion be
SSL, since authentication and user management is handled by this portion
of libdata.  At the very least, a self-signed server certificate can be
created without cost.  If this is not possible, then the public and
administration portions will likely need to have separate directory names
(for example "libdata" for public and "libdata_admin" for the
administrative side).

If your site is not configured for SSL, you need it only for LibData, and don't
mind staff having to click (one time) that they trust the server certificate,
following are instructions for creating a self-signed certificate on Red Hat 9:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/s1-secureserver-overview-certs.html

Another good tool, usable for other Linux distributions (tested on SuSE) is TinyCA:
http://tinyca.sm-zone.net/

==============================================================================
3.0     INSTALLATION PROCEDURES
==============================================================================

-------------
Initial Setup
-------------
Before proceeding to the installation steps, it is necessary to configure
PHP and Apache for the following:

(A)     Interpretation of both .php and .phtml file extensions by the php
        engine.  Changing this setting may vary depending on your installation.
        (try /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf with a default Red Hat 9 install).
(B)     "register_globals = On" should be set in your php.ini file
        (try /etc/php.ini with a default Red Hat 9 install).
(C)     Also in the php.ini file, make sure that "magic_quotes_gpc = Off".
        gpc stands for get/post/cookie, and turning quote escaping on will
        create problems for interaction at various layers between HTML,
        PHP and mySQL.  Things might get double-escaped, or not escaped at all
        depending on whether the string has made the "round trip" to the client
        and back, has been stored in mySQL, etc.  Many PHP developers recommend
        turning this setting off, and LibData has been created with this in mind.
        If it must be turned on, some work will need to be done with textInmySQL()
        and textSearchmySQL() to prevent mySQL errors in app_controls.php.
(D)     Apache SSL should be +StdEnvVars for the SSL port.
(E)     Server side Includes should be allowed.

There may be additional tweaking based on your installation, but the
previous are minimal required settings.

-------------------------------------------
(1) Build the Public LibData html directory
-------------------------------------------
LibData comes as two tar.gz files.  One is named libdata_pos10.tar.gz.  This tar
contains all of the public HTML and PHP code.  The "p" in this package refers to
the "public" side of LibData.  Extracting the tar will produce a libdata_pos
directory which should be moved to a web-servable location on an Apache instance.

It's possible to rename this directory to something more meaningful to your
installation.  Whatever directory name is chosen, changes will need to be made in
Step #3 below to configure LibData to recognize it.  It's possible to rename the
directories after LibData is fully populated with data as well -- the directory names
are hardcoded in only two configuration files (refer to Step #3 for further details).
Changes are simple and go into effect immediately.  So feel free to rename libdata_pos
to something more useful.

The public and administration portions of LibData should have different directory names.
It's possible (but not recommended) to give them the same name if the public portion
is in a directory like /www/html/libdata and the administrative resides in
/www-ssl/html/libdata.  But to avoid confusion, we recommend giving them differing names
(as well as locations).

File permissions and ownerships should be tweaked by a unix administrator as necessary.

---------------------------------------------------
(2) Build the Administration LibData html directory
---------------------------------------------------
The administration/staff modules are contained in libdata_aos10.tar.gz.  The "a" in
this package refers to the "administrative" side of LibData.  Extracting the tar will
produce a libdata_aos directory which should be moved to a web-servable location on
an Apache instance as with the previous step -- but it is HIGHLY recommended that this
directory be in an SSL-served location, since passwords and other information will
be sent.

As with the public portion of LibData, it's possible to rename this directory to something
more meaningful to your installation.  Whatever directory name is chosen, changes will
need to be made in Step #3 below to configure LibData to recognize it.

File permissions and ownerships should be tweaked by a unix administrator as necessary.

-------------------------
(3) Tweak global_vars.php
-------------------------
There are initially two instances of this file in your installation, one in
libdata administration and one in libdata public.  The files are initially
identical, and should always remain identical.  Note that with PHP it's possible to
configure a single, default server-side include location.  So it's possible to
delete one of these files, and move the other to that default include location.
(This requires minor tweaking with Apache and/or PHP configuration files.)  But it's
recommended that you worry about this later -- first get LibData up and running.

Both files should be tweaked with information specific to your installation:
server name, LibData "system" name, administrator, e-mail contact information, etc. and
installation directory locations. Take note of the existing format -- don't add or subtract
trailing backslashes.  These files can be tweaked any time, during installation or with a
fully-populated production LibData.  Changes go into effect immediately, there is no
process to start/restart, etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) Create the LibData databases (libdata, libstats, and libsession)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

*** IMPORTANT ****************************************************************
Ensure that there are NO existing mysql databases named libdata, libstats or
libsession on your server.  They will be DESTROYED by the next step.  Running
the following script will DROP all existing LibData references to ensure a
clean install of the databases, a base data set, and mysql users.
******************************************************************************

Refer to the install directory in the libdata administrative directory.

Run the script named libload.pl, and follow the instructions given.  The script
must be run on the server hosting the mySQL daemon, and the mySQL root account is
probably the best account for this procedure to avoid access denial issues (though
if you have another account capable of dropping/adding databases, making changes
to the mysql grants table, and reloading/refreshing them, you may use that account
instead.)

If you encounter errors with this step, double-check the following:
(1)     The location of the Perl interpreter might not necessarily be
        /usr/bin/perl.  Please adjust the reference in libload.pl accordingly.
        Also, make sure that this file is executable (chmod +x libload.pl).
(1)     The mySQL daemon is initialized (for the first time), up and running.
(2)     The mySQL account/password you supplied is valid, and may access the
        mySQL command-line client with permissions required to perform the actions
        listed above.

Keep this script in a secure place, since it contains default mySQL password
information.  Don't re-run it without backing up all data in libdata, libstats,
or libsession that you wish to keep!

----------------------------------
(5) Examine mySQL user permissions
----------------------------------
This section refers to the "users" that PHP will use in interacting with mySQL
LibData databases (libdata, libstats, and libsession).  These users are not to
be confused with authoring staff accounts -- those are maintained from within
LibData itself (and not stored here).

Use whichever mySQL client you are most comfortable with (command-line,
phpMyAdmin, mySQL Control Center, etc.) access the internal "mysql"
system database.

In the mysql.user table the libload.pl script (previous step above)
should have created basic libdata and libsession accounts with the following
rights.  Following is an example of entering the rows manually:

INSERT INTO user VALUES (%, libdata, password(t0ught0gu355),
Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, N, N, N,N,N,N,N,N,N);

INSERT INTO user VALUES (%, libsession, password(3v3nt0gh3r),
N, N, N, N, N, N, N, N,N,N,N,N,N,N);

Changing passwords is trivial, and you ought to do it now.  For example:

UPDATE user SET password = password('newpass') WHERE user = 'libdata';
UPDATE user SET password = password('anotherone') WHERE user = 'libsession';

Passwords must be 6 characters minimum or you won't be able to login -- LibData's
login mechanism will reject even valid passwords under 6 characters in length.
Be sure to pick a mixture of numbers and letters, and alternate some upper and
lower case.

*** Note that making changes to the libdata or libsession usernames or
passwords will require corresponding changes in the following files (the
username and password must match what exists in the database).  Since they
appear as plain-text in the PHP scripts below, you'll need to manage
unix user access to these files carefully:

LibData administration path:
include/db_connect.php  (general libdata database connection include)
include/accessClass.php (determines access rights for current user session)
include/sessionClass.php (creates, logs out, and validates existing sessions)

LibData public path:
db_connect.php (general libdata database connection include)

*** Changing the passwords on a scheduled basis is recommended, and should
be part of an overall security plan.  In fact, they should be changed
immediately after installing LibData for the first time so you're not
running with default and/or known passwords.

Note that this may be tweaked further.  If, for example, the PHP scripts will
be run on the same server as the mySQL daemon, then the "%" in the first column
might be tweaked to include only that DNS/IP address.  This prevents the accounts
from accessing your mySQL server from any other server.  The usernames themselves
(libdata and libsession) may also be renamed, so long as changes are made in the
files discussed in this section (and the next).  But this isn't recommended at
this stage.  LibData may be fine-tuned later -- and there's little reason to
rename them anyway.

-----------------------------------------------
(6) Examine the mySQL database/host permissions
-----------------------------------------------
Next, the db table should be examined with regard to similar issues.  Following
is an example of a manual INSERT into them:

INSERT INTO db VALUES (%, libdata, libdata,
Y, Y, N, N, N, N, N, N, N, N);

INSERT INTO db VALUES (%, libsession, libsession,
Y, Y, Y, Y, N, N, N, N, N, N);

Again, note that the initial "%" in the first column might be tweaked to
limit to your particular hostname.

If you've renamed the libdata and libsession users (Step #5 above) you'll need
to rename them here as well.

------------------------------------
(7) Configure PHP connection strings
------------------------------------
If you've made any changes to the libdata and libsession mysql user passwords
(hopefully you have!) double-check that they are correctly referenced in the
following files.

You'll also need to change the database server strings in each of the files,
with an IP or valid DNS name appropriate to the server hosting your instance
of LibData:

LibData administration path:
include/db_connect.php  (general libdata database connection include)
include/accessClass.php (determines access rights for current user session)
include/sessionClass.php (creates, destroys and validates existing session)

LibData public path:
db_connect.php (general libdata database connection include)

---------------------------------------------------------
(8) Reload and refresh the mySQL grant/permissions tables
---------------------------------------------------------
The mySQL grants tables should be refreshed and reloaded at this point.  This
can be done with the mySQL command-line client by the following:

mysqladmin -uroot -p reload
mysqladmin -uroot -p refresh

After each command, it will prompt for the administrator password.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(9) The LibData system should now be functional.  Login as administrator.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go to the appropriate url and login as administrator.  For example:
https://www.yourlibrary.edu/libdata/login.phtml

default username: admin
default password: libd4t4

(a)     Follow the Manager Functions link on the bottom of the main console.
(b)     Click "Manage Staff List" toward the bottom of the Manager Function menu.
(c)     Select the radio button for Administrator, System to edit that account.
(d)     Change the administrator password as desired.
        
Note that passwords, for security purposes, are never displayed on any of
the forms.  Also, passwords for any account may be purged to NULL.  This
automatically renders the account inactive (accounts without passwords may
not login).  Be sure not to purge the password for the admin account, or
you'll need to enter mySQL manually, and execute a query like this:

UPDATE libdata.staff SET password = password('n3wpassw0rd') WHERE staff_id = 2;

or some such in order to log back into the system as administrator.

-------------------------------------
(10) Test mySQL single-quote escaping
-------------------------------------

Assuming your LibData configuration is now functional, it's a good idea to
test proper escaping of single-quotes.  Refer to 3.0 Installation Initial Setup
Part C above on why magic_quotes_gpc must be turned Off.

On the main authoring console, attempt to enter a resource with a
single-quote in the title.  For example, Here's a Title.  (Also note
that it is necessary to select some initial master subject or master
information type -- refer to the user manuals on why this functionality
was programmed).  Pick anything from either drop-down box.  Failing to
do this will result in a screen why it's (as currently programmed) necessary
to pick something.

On the resource entry form, click the Save New Resource button.  Then
update the title field by pulling out the quote, for example: Heres a Title.
Click the Update Resource button.  Then go back and add the single-quote one
more time, Here's a Title.  Click Update Resource again.  This will test both
the insert and update SQL functionality.

If LibData reports a SQL error, you'll most likely need to make a tweak here:
{libdata admin directory location} include/app_controls.php.

Look for the function textInmySQL().  Most all of LibData's mySQL insert/update
strings are first routed here.  Depending on your mySQL installation, you may need
to escape single-quotes with a backslash as follows: \'.  Comment out the
appropriate pass-through ($outgoing = $incoming) and uncomment the nearby line
above which performs this escaping.  Add additional filters here as desired,
and make sure that the corresponding data entry form (generally stored in
include/forms.php) calls this function for each form field to be filtered for
input or update.

Make the same corresponding change in textSearchmySQL().  This function is
virtually identical, but filters text going into (some) SELECT type statements.
Both textInmySQL() and textSearchmySQL() might be heavily modified for
bullet-proofing, possible security issues, etc.  

Note that double-quotes typically present a problem on many sites in all but
textarea based HTML form fields.  Future versions of LibData may resolve this
(but there are some limits with using HTML as an interface).

One possible mechanism is to convert certain special characters to their HTML hex
equivalents with textInmySQL.  The next step, then, is to convert all search-entry
forms into their hex equivalents as well, so that converted data is searched with
user input in the identical syntax.

Other variants on these themes use the php functions addslashes() stripslashes().
Hopefully everything will be working and you won't need to go down this path.

------------
(11) Cleanup
------------

Assuming you've successfully installed LibData, this step is important from a
security standpoint and should not be neglected.

Move the install subdirectory (currently in the administrative directory) out of
a web-servable location, and give only root users access to it -- since re-running
the install script will DROP a production/populated LibData database.  It's also
recommended to chmod -x libload.pl to prevent a malicious user (or yourself) from
making a grave mistake to a production system...

------------------------------
Tips for further configuration
------------------------------
(1) The public libdata db_connect.php may, alternatively, use a different
username/password from the administrative db_connect.php file.  Furthermore,
the public connection need have only SELECT rights to the libdata database,
and SELECT and INSERT rights to the libstats database.  There are several
strategies to fine-tune security, some of them are related uniquely to your
institution and levels of paranoia.  

==============================================================================
4.0     TROUBLESHOOTING
==============================================================================

Debugging dynamic database applications offers challenges on several fronts.
If there are problems using LibData at this point, there are four main areas
to debug:

(1) Unix.  Are the libdata files set to the appropriate permissions?  Are
they web servable?

(2) Apache.  Is it serving up other web basic HTML pages?

(3) PHP.  Create basic "Hello World" PHP programs with both a .php and .phtml
extension.  Are they being served?  Make sure that Apache is configured to
interpret both .PHP and .PHTML pages through the PHP parser.  Make sure that
the global_vars.php files, in both the public and administration locations,
have the correct information.  It sometimes helps to run the phpinfo() function
(visit the http://www.php.net site for documentation on it) for information
gathering purposes.  Make sure that PHP is configured with register_globals = On
(refer to 3.0 Installation Procedures Initial Setup Step A.).  To test if this
is functioning properly, write a simple .PHTML page with a form POST method to
another .PHTML page.  Collect the value on the recipient .PHTML page and simply
print it for display.  If it comes through properly, then a problem with
variable passing may be ruled out.

(4) mySQL.  Make sure that the affected files (db_connect.php on both the
public and administration sides, accessClass.php, and sessionClass.php) all
have information which corresponds to the name of your mySQL server, and the
correct mySQL accounts and passwords.  Ensure that those accounts have the
appropriate permissions as specified in the installation procedures above.
Be sure to refresh and reload the mySQL grant tables also as specified, since
some changes to the grants table do not always go into effect immediately.

For installation problems or suggestions, please send an e-mail to the
developer, Paul Bramscher (brams006@umn.edu), though neither I nor the
University of Minnesota can make any guarantees or warranties with regard to
LibData or its support.


November 21, 2003
Paul F. Bramscher
brams006@umn.edu
University of Minnesota Libraries