I’ve just noticed that Redmine version 0.8.5 was released last week, while this HOWTO should still be valid, I have not yet tested it so please report any issues you experience with new installs in the comments and I’ll look into them and amend the HOWTO where necessary

[Updated 3rd June 2009]

So since Assembla changed it’s strategy and forced a monetised service or your once private projects were to become public after some date in February I decided to set up my own subversion repos / web management interface.

I never really used the Assembla service to its full potential however and all I really needed was a basic SVN setup with a webinterface to show the diffs in an eye-friendly format. The only two real choices were Trac and Redmine. I’d already used Trac on Assembla and countless other project sites so I was more drawn to Redmine due to it’s good interface design (imo, the Trac interface looks like it’s stuck together with Lego pieces), its features are more integrated and well, I fancied a change. The only problem was that Redmine runs on Ruby on Rails which I’ve heard very bad things about. So I decided to take a plunge and find out wtf the hassle was all about. It turns out there weren’t any up-to-date, well written and well maintained HOWTO’s out there detailing how to get a functional RoR environment configured on CentOS / RHEL. So I wrote my own (after hitting several brick walls)…

HOWTO: Install Subversion, Ruby on Rails and Redmine on CentOS5 (& RHEL5)

NOTES

• This HOWTO is written for CentOS 5.2 [updates for 5.3 in purple text]
• Replace [FQDN] with either your IP address or the hostname (or FQDN) which you’ll be using to access the interface.
• Replace [user] with the username under whom’s home directory the Subversion repository database will be located. e.g. /home/[user]/svn-repos

• This HOWTO will be using the following variables:

• You already have the “httpd” (apache) package installed
• You will be running apache as the user ‘apache’
• The subversion repository root folder will be under /home/[user]/subversion/
• The vhost’s folder locationg will be /var/www/svn
• The subversion repository to be created will be called ‘example-repo’

Install and set up Subversion

yum install mod_dav_svn subversion

Add the group [user] to the user apache and make the subversion base URL readable and writable…

usermod -aG [user] apache
chmod g+x /home/[user]
mkdir /home/[user]/subversion
chmod g+rwx /home/[user]/subversion
chown -R [user]:[user] /home/[user]/subversion

Make the web directory:

mkdir /var/www/svn
chown apache.apache /var/www/svn

Put the following into /etc/httpd/conf.d/svn.conf (this is for a sub-repo called ‘example-repo’)

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot "/var/www/svn"
        ServerName [FQDN]
        <Location /example-repo>
                DAV svn
                SVNPath /home/[user]/subversion/example-repo
                AuthType Basic
                AuthName "Subversion repo"
                AuthUserFile /var/www/passwd
                Require valid-user
        </Location>

        <Directory "/var/www/svn">
        allow from all
        Options +Indexes
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Add an HTTP auth user…

htpasswd -cm /var/www/passwd [user]

Create a proper SVN repository

cd /home/[user]/subversion
su [user] -c "svnadmin create example-repo"

Import any SVN repos by doing:

su [user] -c "svnadmin load example-repo < /path/to/repo/dump/file"

Make sure the permissions are correct

chmod g+rwx /home/[user]/subversion
chown -R [user].[user] /home/[user]

Install Ruby on Rails

*NOTE: Ruby on Rails installation requires the EPEL yum repository (at time of writing).

su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-3.noarch.rpm'

Let’s get Ruby up and running first… [NOTE: not on an SElinux environment cba with that]

yum install httpd httpd-devel apr make gcc-c++ mysql-server mysql ruby ruby-devel ruby-docs ruby-ri \
ruby-libs ruby-mode ruby-tcltk ruby-irb ruby-rdoc fcgi fcgi-devel mod_fcgid rubygems subversion-ruby

Now we’ll install passenger (aka mod_rails)

gem install passenger
passenger-install-apache2-module

Create and insert this text into /etc/httpd/conf.d/rails.conf (or alternatively edit the existing svn.conf created when we set up subversion)
NOTE:

• The below configuration is specific to the installation of redmine (hence the DocumentRoot)

LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.0.6/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
   PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.0.6
   PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby

NameVirtualHost *:80

   <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName 192.168.10.17
     DocumentRoot /var/www/rails/redmine/public
   </VirtualHost>

Now on to Redmine itself

Get Redmine 0.8 from http://www.redmine.org/wiki/redmine/Download

cd /usr/src
svn co http://redmine.rubyforge.org/svn/branches/0.8-stable redmine-0.8
mkdir /var/www/rails/
cd /var/www/rails/
cp -r /usr/src/redmine-0.8/ redmine/
chown -R apache.apache redmine
cd redmine

Create a clean backup of source files

tar czf Redmine0.8-clean.tar.gz .

Initialise mySQL:

service mysqld start

To secure mysql:

mysql_secure_installation

Create a mysql database for redmine…

mysql -u[username] -p

At the prompt enter:

create database redmine character set utf8;

Quit with:

quit

Copy the example database file to the “live” location

cd /var/www/rails/redmine
cp config/database.yml.example config/database.yml

Enter the appropriate settings for the [production] section ensuring that host is set to 127.0.0.1

vim /var/www/rails/redmine/config/database.yml

Set up email

cd /var/www/rails/redmine
cp config/email.yml.example config/email.yml

Enter the appropriate settings for the [production] section ensuring that “address” is set to the IP address of the SMTP host

vim /var/www/rails/redmine/config/email.yml

Install rails for redmine using gem…

cd /var/www/rails/redmine/app/
gem install -v=2.1.2 rails

Import the redmine database into the live database specified in the above config file

cd /var/www/rails/redmine/app/
rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV="production"

Install default configuration data in database (this is entirely optional, but recommended).

cd /var/www/rails/redmine/app/
rake redmine:load_default_data RAILS_ENV="production"

Bring up the testing webserver, once loaded check your config by browsing to http://[FQDN]:3000

cd /var/www/rails/redmine/
ruby script/server -e production

Make sure your apache config file edits are ok and that the services will start at boot by doing:

service httpd configtest
service httpd restart
chkconfig httpd on
chkconfig mysqld on

[Optional:] Add the following to your crontab which will create a database backup in the /home/[user] directory

/usr/bin/mysqldump -u <user> -p <password> <database> | gzip > /home/[user]/redmine_`date +%y_%m_%d`.gz

Make your subversion server configuration accessible to redmine by doing the following:

mkdir /etc/subversion
cp -r /root/.subversion/* /etc/subversion/
vim /var/www/rails/redmine/lib/redmine/scm/adapters/subversion_adapter.rb

Change the line:

SVN_BIN = "svn"

to:

SVN_BIN = "svn --config-dir /etc/subversion"

Then restart apache:

service httpd restart

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

P.S. The error was actually caused by a non-standard character in the filename (+). I’ll be filing a bug with eXtplorer for that

Documentation (Wiki) can also be found here.

NOTE: Replace [user] with the username under which the Dropbox folder is located.
NOTE: Replace [FQDN] with either your IP address or the hostname (or FQDN) which you’ll be using to access the interface.

NOTE: This HOWTO assumes that you will be running apache as the user ‘apache’ and that you have already set up your Dropbox account syncing to your /home/[user]/Dropbox folder

To get Dropbox running with apache and extplorer you need to get the following packages:

yum install php httpd

Make the VirtualHost director and get permissions / groups correct:

mkdir /var/www/dropbox
chown apache:apache /var/www/dropbox
usermod -aG [user] apache
usermod -aG apache [user]

Now create and populate an apache virtualhost config file:

vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/dropbox.conf

Populate it with the following text:

NameVirtualHost *:80
    <VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot "/var/www/dropbox"
        ServerName [FQDN]
        <Directory "/var/www/dropbox">
            allow from all
            Options +Indexes
            AuthType Basic
            AuthName "Dropbox"
            AuthUserFile /var/www/passwd
            Require valid-user
        </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>

Now add a username / password to access your interface via HTTP auth:

htpasswd -cm /var/www/passwd yourusername
chown apache.apache /var/www/passwd

Make sure that apache has full group access to your Dropbox folder.

chmod g+x /home/[user]
chmod g+rw /home/[user]/Dropbox
find /home/[user]/Dropbox -type d -exec chmod g+x {} ;

Download the latest version of eXtplorer from http://extplorer.sourceforge.net/

cd /var/www/dropbox
wget http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/extplorer/eXtplorer_2.0.1.zip
unzip eXtplorer*.zip

Check we haven’t made any mistakes and set the services up:

service httpd configtest
service httpd restart
chkconfig httpd on

You can now log into http://[FQDN] using a browser and the default credentials (admin/admin) and set up your user, pointing the user’s “Home directory:” at /home/[user]Dropbox. Once you have set up your user you have the choice to remove the HTTP authentication which we included in the VirtualHost configuration above. Simply comment out (or delete) the following lines from your /etc/httpd/conf.d/dropbox.conf file:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Dropbox"
AuthUserFile /var/www/passwd
Require valid-user

That’s it, you’re done!

So without further ado:

#!/bin/bash

INSTALLED=/tmp/yum-installed

LIST=/tmp/list

EXECUTABLE=/home/rob/yum

USER=rob

GROUP=$USER

UNATTENDED_INSTALL=yes #yes/no

cat /dev/null > $EXECUTABLE

sudo yum clean all;sudo yum list installed | awk -F' ' '{print $1}' | sed 1d | sed 1d | sed s/.i386// &> $INSTALLED

exec 3< $INSTALLED

while read <&3

do

echo -n "$REPLY " >> $LIST

done

exec 3>&-

# Create the yum installation script file

if [ $UNATTENDED_INSTALL = "yes" ]

then

OPTION="-y"

fi

echo "#!/bin/bash" >> $EXECUTABLE

echo -n "$REPLY " >> $LIST

echo "sudo yum clean all;sudo yum install $OPTION `cat $LIST`" >> $EXECUTABLE

# Set correct perms

chmod +x $EXECUTABLE

chown $USER.$GROUP $EXECUTABLE

# Cleanup

rm -f $LIST

rm -f $INSTALLED

Obviously edit the vars at the top to suit your setup etc - then just sudo (or execute as root) the $EXECUTABLE

e107forge.org has been put in place to provide a single, easy-to-access location for e107 developers, plugin writers and theme coders to store and keep track of their projects, code and releases while working in conjunction with plugins.e107.org.

So what’s the difference between plugins.e107.org and e107forge.org?
The difference is the audience, while plugins.e107.org is aimed entirely at the end user who wants to be able to find a plugin easily and isn’t necessarily interested in the code behind the plugin. On the flipside, e107forge.org is all about the code and the developers, SVN and CVS access is available while providing a fully featured, easy-to-manage project page and allowing coders to collaborate together to work on a plugin. Rather than one developer writing a plugin and then another user making code changes and re-submitting the plugin, we can have collaborative developers drawn together by a particular plugin.

If you’re a developer wanting to get your code or project online but need some help along the way e107forge.org is here to help. If you’re a theme developer who’s keen to have a versioning system take care of the headaches of making minute changes here and there, e107forge.org is for you. We can provide SVN and CVS versioning control as well as bug trackers / issues / feature requests etc. It really is up to you when it comes to which features you want to use.

Then one day I was just having a general mooch on sourceforge and noticed a project called CRM-CTT in the recent news block on the front page. Now, the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) part of the title threw me a bit, but I was intrigued and went further. Turned out they (actually, it seems like a one-man dev project, the main guy is a guy called Hidde Fennema) had just released a mile-stone version release and they had a VMware (<3 btw) Virtual Appliance for download. Since I already have VMware installed on just about every server we have I pulled the image down to our backup server and started it up. Despite being based on slackware (bare-bones distro by nature) it seemed pretty solid, and usable. Then I got really stuck in and realised to my sheer GLEE that it was EXACTLY what we needed.

Within an afternoon I had drafted a work-flow for our supply chain – with trigger-based automation and status / assignee ability and custom form design. It was heavenly. So, if you’re looking for a work-flow app that truely has not only the end-user in mind, but also real-world implementation ability and more importantly, flexibility then I strongly suggest trying it out. For an example of it’s flexibility, this last week I’ve just been asked to roll out an implementation of the same system but this time to control and regulate the business non-stock purchase ordering. So, from managing a supply chain (from order placing, through data entry to processing by goods-in) to managing purchase orders and the admin attached (from quote gathering to invoicing) it quite literally blew my mind.

Next I’ll try to cover the hunt for the best priced economical web-hosting control panel (upon which this server runs).

—————-
Now playing: Groove Armada – Get Down on Amarok

I remember the first time I was confronted with being forced to use the command line to administer a remote server. I was shitting my pants. I’d heard all the horror stories of people doing an rm -rf * in the wrong directory and losing everything on the box. So, looking back at all that and I realise now how far I’ve come since that day. I can now quite happily setup and break a system (on purpose) and try to fix it confidently on a live system.

To tell the truth I’m nervous and excited at the same time about this course. I really have no idea what the exam on Friday will entail and probably won’t have a full appreciation of it until the day itself. Wish me luck (even though I don’t really need it! hehe)

[center][/center]

So I got friendly with [link=http://www.greasespot.net/]Greasemonkey[/link] and wrote a little script for Firefox users which overrides the CSS styles used in the Be forums to make my eyes’ life a little easier – and hopefully a few other peoples’ too. It’s almost like a pair of sunglasses for the forums.

Directions:

• Use [link=http://getfirefox.com]Firefox[/link] – if you aren’t already then give yourself a little slap[size=9][i]*[/i][/size] and then install it.
• Install the [link=https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748]Greasemonkey Add-On from mozilla.org[/link]
• Then install the script that I wrote from [link=http://iamawake.co.uk/media/Bethere-forum-colour-fix.user.js]here[/link] or from [link=http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8824]here[/link]
• Mosey on over to the [link=www.bethere.co.uk]www.bethere.co.uk[/link] forums and you should see something a bit more retina friendly, like this…

[center][/center]

[size=8][i]*slap optional[/i][/size]
P.S. If you’re paranoid (and you should be) – you can view the source of my script [link=http://userscripts.org/scripts/source/8824]here[/link]. Please beware that I release this script under the GPL license but any modifications must include the original copyright info. kthxbai

For the past two weeks I’ve been living and breathing work. I’ve worked pretty much 10 hour days for 14 days solid (yes, that includes weekends). Right about now I’m ready to drop and just chill out. Work has been busy with Christmas orders, something which I hate. I’ve never truly liked Christmas, to me it’s always been a pain in the arse, the whole idea of it is ridiculous. The “Season of Goodwill”? Fuck off and don’t make me laugh! People are becoming conditioned more and more into the psyche that at Christmas they can really make a difference to the world by being festive for a month of the year, by spending money and becoming more and more in debt , in turn becoming more and more enslaved, and more and more malleable to the globalists. Call me a scrooge? i prefer enlightened. If people really want to make a difference, wake up and start questioning who is really in control of your life every day, is it you? Is it your soul? Or is it the pre-assumed conditioning that has been drilled into you since the before you were even able to comprehend language, the conditioning which is being controlled by people with incredibly malicious intentions? To quote Faithless “Fear is a Weapon of Mass Destruction”, or should I say Distraction? A weapon the Globalists will be only too happy to wield.

Anyway, I got a little side-tracked there…. whoosh-back-on-track-now. So yeah, I’ve been busy at work. In addition to e-commercing my work’s christmas orders, I’ve also been developing a corporate intranet, to enable better organisation and communication within the business. All in all it’s been two months in the making, and I’m wanting to pilot the system next week, so that’s a bit hectic. I based it pretty much on the Yakuzas system, from my good ole days of Live, it has changed a lot since it’s early days and now it’s damn near a marketable product, a product that some companys will be willing to pay silly money for. To be honest, I don’t want silly money for it, I want a decent amount, and for my work to be truely appreciated and utilised. Sadly these things are not being fulfilled at my present position. I’m being paid a lousy amount for the system that I’ve developed and the people whom I’m developing it for do not realise the time and effort that has gone into it. Cut a long story short if I don’t get a raise and a change in job title then I’m walking. Don’t get me wrong, I really do appreciate the experience that they have given me, the valuable insights into the running of a business etc. But I’m not a mug, and I’m not about to develop an addition to the system worth potentially tens of thousands of pounds on the salary I’m currently on. For example, the company I work for paid in the region of £5000 to £8000 for a company to design their customer / company website which is basically shit. If they’re willing to pay that amount of money for that kind of system then I’m in the wrong job, a matter which I plan on changing soon.

So, that’s the work side of my life covered. Now, I mentioned in my second to last post that I get on well with Klara, anyway, the day after I made that post the two of us went to lunch together (at work, not a social thing), cut a long story short a woman who works with Klara started a rumour saying that something was going on between Klara and I because we went for lunch and we get on with each other and have a laugh. Now, if I were to say the phrase “mothers meeting”, I think most people would understand what I mean. Imagine a “mothers meeting”, but with about 20 “mothers” and in a work environment. That’s right you get “gossip”, something which only idle minds engage in. Unfortunately there are more than a few idle minds where I work. Needless to say the rumour spread quickly and Klara and I soon became the focus of attention. Klara and I had quite a few chats about it and we both thought it was rather funny. I made it clear to a few select people that there was indeed nothing going on between Klara and I and that we are just friends, after that the rumours seemed to die down. However, there’s another girl I work with, called Caroline. She’s a loverly girl Anyway, I really do like her, in a romantic sense. To describe the situation I need to start at the beginning….

So, here goes…. I first saw Caroline when I came in to work on a Saturday a month or so ago, the moment I saw her I was attracted to her. It was hard not to be, she’s a very attractive girl, and she looks a lot like a tall Keira Knightly. Anyway, I saw her and thought she was a weekend bod (I only work mon-fri usually so I don’t have much contact with “weekenders”) and carried on with what I was doing. A few weeks later I went outside to speak to Sue (a colleague) and saw her again, only this time it was on a weekday, wow! I asked Sue who she was and what her name was, it wasn’t anything obvious or anything but Sue must’ve clocked the fact that I seemed to like her. Anyway, I saw Caroline again a few days later, and Sue told me that she’s working weekdays during the summer so she was virtually a full-timer. Now, Sue and I get on, and we have chats about life and stuff, Sue fancied some guy she met on a trip and was asking my advice on how to deal with it and I gave her as much guidance as I could. Sue and I bonded with that little counselling session and I felt that I could tell her that I was interested in Caroline and asked her to do some covert research as to whether or not she’s single etc.

Sue came back and told me that she was single and stuff which was rather good. Sue and Caroline work in the same department and Sue is essentially her immediate boss. As it happened Sue was having problems with a printer in one of the offices (in which Caroline and Sue work in) and I had to go out nearly every day to sort it out. Also, Sue was producing some information leaflets and had assigned Caroline to do most of the inputting which meant I got the chance to get to talk to her every time there was a problem with the printer. To be perfectly honest, and if I can’t be honest on my own blog, where can I be? I started to think of reasons to go down to that office, all of them were legitimate, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have ulterior reason for going to that office. I wanted to get to know Caroline more Anyway, it was around this time that the afore-to-mentioned rumour started spreading about Klara and I. One time when I was in the office I mentioned Klara in general conversation and Caroline picked up on it and asked what was going on with her and I, so I told her under no uncertain terms that nothing was going on. With no disrespect to Klara I just didn’t want Caroline to think there was any truth to the rumours, so I mentioned to Klara that Caroline had mentioned the rumour and that I wanted to make sure that she didnt get the wrong impression about Klara and I. A few hours later I saw Caroline again and she said that Klara had had a word with her to tell her that nothing was going on. Great! Now that’s getting a bit obvious! I tell Caroline that nothing’s going on and then Klara comes along straight afterwards and tells her the same thing. :s So anyway, after that the subject kinda died off along with the rumour.

To cut an already long story shorter, Caroline and I started getting on really well, we added each other on MSN and she asked me to take a look at her old hard-drive which was damaged by a virus, she showed me her holiday photos and just general stuff really. It turned out that there was nothing I could do for her hard drive but I had a thorough look anyway.

So, that’s pretty much the history of the situation covered. Now, yesterday was exam results day and Caroline did pretty well. She took a certain subject which she was convinced she was going to fail, I however, was more optimistic and said she would pass it. So we decided to have a wee bet, if she failed I’d give her a tenner, and if she passed she’d give me a tenner. Anyway, it turned out that she failed, but it was no big deal because it wasn’t a subject that she was interested in, or needed to get into Uni. So I owe her a tenner. BUT, a few days ago I had an idea about putting some roses in her staff room locker to wish her good luck with her results, but after the bet we placed I decided to hold-fire to see who won the bet. So, today (Thursday) after work I stopped off at Tesco to get some things and as I was walking in there was this big flower display and like a big flashing light there was a bouquet of a dozen red roses shining at me, the last bouquet of roses on the stand!! Now, I couldn’t have created my reality any better than that! I had had the thought of putting roses in her locker to congratulate her on her results, and here, right in front of me was the first step of the plan I was intending on carrying out. I seriously love my Tesco trips sometimes! As I was walking towards the cards section of Tesco, to get a congratualtions card, I see someone I work with. They asked me who the flowers were for and I just said “oooo, just a certain someone” and that was that. Perfect! (you’ll find out why this is perfect in a bit… just stay with me a little while longer!)

So, here’s the plan, I’m going to put the roses and card in Caroline’s locker tomorrow, before lunch. I’m just going to write in the card that I thought about giving her the tenner but I thought she’d like the roses more. So she’ll come into the staff room at lunch, open her locker and find the flowers and card. Hopefully it’ll be a nice surprise, and will brighten her day, I love brightening people’s days! This is just one of those things that I need confirmation from someone that I’m doing the right thing and not being a complete idiot in my own romantisied world, so I gave Klara a call and told her of my plan. She was in full support and went over every detail of it. Klara’s great like that, she gave me the female perspective that I needed and made a few suggestions. I asked her if I should leave the Tesco’s Finest cover on them, she said yes because otherwise it would look like I’d gone especially to a florist and made too much of an effort, but then I said I’d take it off because otherwise it’d look like I hadn’t made enough of an effort. Then (think back a bit) I remembered that I’d seen someone who I work with in Tesco (who happens to work in the same department as Caroline) and realised that she’d mention to her that she’d seen me in Tesco buying those flowers. Mini-circle of reality creation complete!

So, that’s what’s been happening in my life since my last entry! Quite exciting eh? Nah? Ah well, you just wasted ten minutes reading a boring blog entry! Create your reality better!

I’ll keep my blog updated with developments be they good or bad.
‘Till next time, take care of yourself and your soul!

I’m still re-writing my blog, so my attention has been diverted for a while, but I’m thinking of adding a new bit for everyone who was at Glasgow Uni. I might set up a sub-site so everyone who has just graduated from Glasgow and moved all over the country can still keep in touch and exchange photos and stuff. Let me know in the chatbox or by comment if you think it’s a good idea. Cheers