osoc13 / tdt-installer

an installer for The DataTank built at open Summer of code 2013

tdt-Installer

This is an installer for the Datatank.

Requirements

• A web server (Apache is recommended)
• PHP >= 5.3
• A database server (MySQL is recommended)
• Curl
• Git (in your PATH)
• Composer (in your PATH)

Note that if the installer does not detect Git or Composer in your path, try putting it somewhere else in your path (/usr/bin usually works).

Make sure your www user has write permission in the installer's own directory, the settings directory and the installer's parent directory (where the DataTank will be installed). This is checked when you start the installer.

Windows is not supported. The installer has been tested successfully on Linux and OS X.

Installation instructions

To get started, clone this repository to your machine. After that, the installer's dependencies can be installed using Composer. Your copy of the installer will include a composer.json file, so just run a composer update to install all dependencies.

To start the installer, move the directory containing the installer to the directory on your web server where you wish to install the Datatank. Then point your browser to the index.php file of the installer.

If something goes wrong during the installation, it will be written to the installer log file in settings/installer.log.

Authors

• Benjamin Mestdagh
• [Nicolas Dierck] (https://github.com/nicolasdierck "Nicolas Dierck")

Copyright

2013 by OKFN Belgium

tdt-installer's Issues

Composer output

Composer output when downloading packages should scroll down

Initial package download failing

Composer detection error on OSX

Mysql version check

Check out http://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.get-client-version.php to get the mysql version.

EDIT: fixed link

Error handling

Problem

When the installation fails, it shows a lot of php errors and warnings and the installation restarts afterwards. There are steps in the installation process but you cannot return to a certain step. You have to go through all the steps again.

Solution

Give better feedback when an error occurs if possible. If not, make sure that someone can go back in the installation procedure.

Add installer namespace to autoloader

You can add the tdt/installer namespace to the autoloader so that you do not have to include/require files all the time. This adds flexibility and allows "lazy" class-loading.

$loader = require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$loader->add('tdt\\installer\\', ...);

Question about javascript/ajax

What is the advantage of using javascript/ajax for the installer. Would it not be easier to let "render" PHP everything? Or am I missing some cool functionality that requires ajax?

Poke @coreation

Password input fields

Something other than password input fields should be used, since now the browser asks the user to store passwords!

Settings information

The dummy messages should be replaced by information about the settings

Disabling cache settings

When NoCache is selected, other cache settings should be disabled

Redirecting to the startpage

Users should be redirected to the startpage (or the page they viewed latest) when they try to access another page of the installer without following the order of the installer.

Installing in subdir doesn't work

I have tried to install it in a subdir but that didn't work: it instead went straight for the document root.

README.md

Don't forget to complete your README.md file.

Progress

Progress should be shown on top

Caching should be "on" by default

Problem

There is no difference between an installation for development purposes and an installation for production purposes at this moment. Because of this, we should suppose this is a production environment. The default caching configuration is "disabled" and it cannot be turned on.

Fix for now

Make sure memcache is enabled by default and that the user-interface to turn it on and off is fixed.

Input validation

User input has to be validated

Windows support

The installer will not work on Windows.

Avoid using 'settings/temp.json'

I see that you write the location of composer to a temporary file, it is probably better to use the session.

Remove composer.lock from the repository

Add it to .gitignore as well

Some css-styling issues

CSS issue when showing/hiding input fields

On the advanced database pages, there is a styling issue when showing or hiding the input fields!

Make pretty finish page

Only show Start button when JavaScript is enabled

Having js enabled is another requirement for the installer, so it would be practical if users can only start the installer if they have js enabled.

[GUI] The installer does not fit on a single page

Problem

Each step in the installer is fairly small and does not contain a lot of text. Yet, when opening the installer in full screen on a normal resolution display, you still have to scroll vertically before being able to go back.

Solution

Make sure vertical scrolling is not needed by not loosing so much space at the top.