Twiki | DistributedInformation

Aug 30 2009

Foswiki on a USB stick (updated)

Tag: enterprise, foswiki, new, nextwiki, open source, perl, twiki, twikiapplication, twikifork, wiki, wiki application, windows — Sven Dowideit @ 5:58 pm

I was asked on Friday night if I could make a demo foswiki USB system, and given that its high time we did one, I started to look into it. Initially I thought this would be a great oportunity to try out the HTTPEngine work Gilmar has been doing, but we’re not quite there yet. And so, I started a quick perusal of the existing WebServer on a Stick systems. Ideally, I want to use Strawberry perl, apache, and have the server and a browser start up automatically when the USB stick is inserted into the computer.

MicroApache
Server2Go
XAMPP

MicroApache was the first thing i looked at, as the contact pointed out DokuWikiOnAStick, but that server doesn’t seem to have source, nor is the upstream web site there (last release seems to be 2007, so too old for Strawberry perl too) Server2Go looks nice, but as its not really free in the debian sense, I’ll pass on that unless nothing else works. XAMPP – ~~unzipped it, foswiki and did some minor configurations.~~ unziped, removed everything except apache, added strawberry perl, and wrote a systray icon and menu system for you to control it with. TADA! FoswikiOnAStick ~~v0.1~~v0.3 (running foswiki 1.0.6). please try it out.

FoswikiOnaStick system tray menu

Instructions for use:

download the Foswiki on a Stick zip file
unzip it to the root of your USB key (or any drive)
start the systray app, web server and browser using start_foswiki.bat (goto http://localhost/ if the browser doesn’t start) (unblock / allow apache to get through the windows firewall)

before ejecting the usb key, you need to stop the webserver by running stop_foswiki.bat yes, thats all. Please report any issues or observations to me – SvenDowideit@fosiki.com

the web server runs at the standard port 80, so if there is already a web server running it will fail
when the web server starts, it will probably be blocked by Windows firewall – every time I’ve tested, a dialog pops up, and allows you to unblock it.
….

Warning

I have made no attempt (yet) to reduce the accesses to the disk – so it may use up all the blue smoke in your usbkey, cause your bits to turn green, or one of many other unforseen side effects which may or may not appear amusing if they happen to someone else. I’ve tested this on Windows7rc, Windows Vista, Windows2003server, and Windows XP – if it works for you, excellent .

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Jan 03 2009

Foswiki v1 beta 3 Windows Installer

Tag: enterprise, foswiki, new, open source, perl, twiki, twikifork, wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 10:44 am

Yesterday I uploaded the first Foswiki Installer for windows to Foswiki Downloads. It will install Apache 2.2 (if you don’t already have it) and Strawberry Perl and then configure and install Foswiki v1.0.0 beta 3.

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Dec 12 2008

TWiki: a case study of howto lose users?

Tag: enterprise, foswiki, open source, perl, twiki, twikiapplication, twikifork, wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 5:56 pm

In a clear example of TWiki.NET’s new no-testing policy [1], Their star worker has yesterday un-necessarily uploaded over 300 plugins from the wrong branch in Subversion.

Rather than testing each contrib before uploading, as has been the policy on TWiki.org since the Plugins web was created, TWiki.org is now full of buggy, outdated or just plain wrong packages. The only stable option they have is to revert the uploads using rcs – as many plugins are either not up to date in subversion, or worse, are works in progress in Subversion.

Adding that to the latest TWiki 4.2.4 release, which was released with failing unit tests, and some very dubious changes:
we have already submitted to them an updated exploit that is present in 4.2.4 for the CVE-2008-5304 XSS exploit
- presumably they will release 4.2.5 in the next week?

Its a pretty sad time for those of us with users on TWiki (as Foswiki hasn’t released yet), but it has certainly spurred us along, now we need it more than we ever expected.

[1] Tom Barton: issues … impeding progress: an excessively rigorous approach to testing that actually inhibited less experienced developers from contributing code; …

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Dec 09 2008

Strawberry Perl rocks Windows.

Tag: enterprise, foswiki, nextwiki, open source, twiki, twikiapplication, twikifork, wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 4:22 pm

if you’re working or just running Perl on Windows, drop everything, run, don’t walk, to StrawberryPerl. Adam Kennedy has not only made a real Perl for windows, he’s made a _proper_ Perl . One where CPAN just plain works.

Even better, he’s made a Perl that you can use portably, from your USB stick, so you don’t even need to install Perl on your locked down computer.

To learn about his code, I’m building a FoswikiOnAStick distro based on his code, and then I hope to work out how to extend the concept to other platforms.

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Aug 20 2008

ever had Perl CPAN not work on your debian, even though you installed make etc?

Tag: debian, dtrace, enterprise, new, perl, solaris, twiki — Sven Dowideit @ 4:29 pm

CPAN, while incredibly useful, can be a pain, if you forget that you need to re-configure it after installing essential tools.

For example, if you make the mistake of setting up a basic, non-development Debian virtual machine, configure CPAN, try to use it, and on seeing ‘make’ errors like (from install Bundle::CPAN of all things) :
Running make test Can't test without successful make Running make install make had returned bad status, install seems impossible Running install for module Compress::Raw::Zlib Running make for P/PM/PMQS/Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.012.tar.gz Is already unwrapped into directory /root/.cpan/build/Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.012 Has already been processed within this session Running make test Can't test without successful make Running make install make had returned bad status, install seems impossible Running make for P/PM/PMQS/IO-Compress-Zlib-2.012.tar.gz Is already unwrapped into directory /root/.cpan/build/IO-Compress-Zlib-2.012 Has already been processed within this session Running make test Can't test without successful make Running make install make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

cpan>

You install make apt-get update ; apt-get install build-essential…, only to continue to see the same errors wizz past….

CPAN really truly needs to realise that the make settings are mis configured, and tell you.

What you need to do, is to tell your cpan about it by running:
cpan> o conf init

OR, if you’ve not yet messed (configured) up your cpan, install build-essential first.

And while you’re contemplating using cpan, think hard about trying dh-make-perl instead

Ideally, CPAN should be able to realise that it can’t call make if it does not know where it is – and point this fact out, rather than making it appear as though the package being installed has an issue.

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Jul 25 2008

Debian TWiki repository now with 212 TWiki Plugins, Contribs, Skins and more.

Tag: debian, enterprise, environment, new, twiki, twikiapplication, wiki — Sven Dowideit @ 3:09 pm

I’ve just updated the Experimental TWiki and Plugins repository. It now contains TWiki 4.2.0 and 212 Plugins, Contribs and Skins that you can simply apt-get install

To use them, add the following 2 lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://distributedinformation.com/experimental/ experimental main contrib deb-src http://distributedinformation.com/experimental/ experimental main contrib

then type
apt-get update
to update the available packages.

you can now see all 212 packages with apt-cache search twiki-

and install (assuming you don’t have twiki installed yet)

apt-get install apache2 twiki

and TWiki Contrib installation is as easy as

apt-get install twiki-bugscontrib

You will still need to use configure to enable Plugins.

Please report your experiences to me – bugs, gripes, you name it – its a work in progress. and I need your help!

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