setup

• put everything under /var/www/twiki
  • in addition, create /var/www/twiki/httpd, which mimics /etc/httpd. Setup as follows:

    conf	primary apache config dir for twiki	ref'd by startup script
    	httpd.conf	main apache server config file
    	mime.types	ascii text file for use by mod_mime
    	magic	ascii text file for use by mod_mime_magic
    conf.d	secondary apache config dir for twiki	included by conf/httpd.conf
    	twiki.conf	main twiki apache config file
    	twiki.full-server	included by twiki.conf
    	ssl.conf	general config info for mod_ssl
    run	symbolic link to /var/run	for "PidFile run/twiki.pid" directive
    logs	symbolic link to /var/log/twiki	apache logs for twiki server
    modules	symbolic link to /usr/lib/httpd/modules	for LoadModule directives

    note that /var/www/twiki/httpd is owned by root, not the webserver User/Group.
• use mod_rewrite to redirect traffic that isn't to userdirs (that is what else is on the machine) to the twiki server
  • slightly different twiki.conf and twiki.full-server files that reverse the usual rules, i.e., don't allow access to top directory (/var/www/twiki), but explicitly grant permission to particular directories below.

design constraints

common to both target production environment and development environment

• we're running in a university environment, so don't provide our own dns. we tend to avoid solutions that involve multiple fqdns (fully-qualified domain names) on one box, as that involves a lot of interfacing with central IT, and can slow things down. we prefer not to make extra work for our overworked IT colleagues when we can avoid it!
• security is a major concern. we have the freedom we have because we aren't a source of ongoing headaches for central IT.

Really, 2 subversion repos involved -

• source repo for the TWiki code
• our repo for our development and production twiki sites.

Like to handle that as smoothly as possible. Looks like using SVK might be the answer, as it does not put .svn directories, etc., in the checked out copies, and works and plays well with SVN. Installed SVK on development machine, reading up about it in Version Control with SVK, a free online book.

development environment only

• not using a dedicated development box - it's also in use for other stuff
• web server is in use for other stuff too, although nothing mission critical, as the box is a development box
• want to keep the development environment for twiki encapsulated as possible!

target production environment only

• minimize downtime

specific to our twiki install

• their ANT clone testing system is certainly interesting, but in general instrumenting code is to be avoided, so plan to use WWW::Mechanize::CGI instead
• using ShorterUrls
• using SSL

references

• Using SVN to access the TWiki codebase
• Codev notes on Installing TWiki from SVN
• How to use Unit::TestCase (design loosely based Carp::Assert)
• TWiki svn repository, branches

• OnDBCacheContrib
• CreatingInstallAhatSkin

-- HilaryHolz - 12 Aug 2008