Forum Installation

Before you can install the forum, it is necessary to have 2 tablespaces.

• Data tablespace
• Temporary tablespace.
• Index tablespace (that can be the one dedicated to the datas)

It is mandatory to get a user with the Oracle DBA privileges.

We will see the different steps needed to deploy the application forum.

1. Log in with the DBA user.
2. Run the script FORUM_INSTALL.sql

 SQL> @c:\forum\installer\FORUM_INSTALL.sql 

The script will need the inputs for the following informations

• Log Section
  • A directory to write the log file of the installation.
• PORTAL Section
  • The portal objects owner (PORTAL by default)
  • The password of the portal objects owner
  • Cconnection information to the database. (Aka TNSNAMES)
  • Information on your version (if your version is more recent than 9.0.4.0 then enter TRUE)
• Forum user Section
  • User name that will own the new forum objects
  • His password
  • His default tablespace
  • His temporary tablespace
  • His index tablespace
• Forum configuration Section
  • The URL to access the website (for example: http://localhost)
  • The Dad's portal (eg /portal/pls/portal for a Portal 10gR2)
  • The URL to access the SSO (eg http://sso.localhost:7777/pls/orasso)
  • The directory on the server containing images of the forum (directory must be a subdirectory of the directory $MIDTIER_HOME/portal/images)
  • The path that will be necessary to take to enter the forum (eg /forums)
• Forum customization Section
  • Page Title
  • Forum administrator group
  • The default language of the forum

Entering this information will be followed by the execution of the scripts and the necessary basic configuration.

At the end of the installation, the installation script will provide the Rewriting rules for Apache server.

Here are the steps to follow to install them :

• Open log file generated during installation (forum_installation.log). The informations are at step 20 ( “Creating mod_rewrite part”)
• Copy these rules at the end of the httpd.conf file of the Midtier.
• Restart the http Midtier process to take into account the new rules.

The final step is to configure WebCache server with those steps

• Go to the site of the midtier website (eg http://localhost:18101)
• Click on WebCache component
• Click on administration link
• Click on the Rules link
• Click on the Create button
• Important information must be entered in the Chooser part.
• In the “url” part, select Regular expression and then put ”/forums|/portal/pls/portal/forum_app” (where /forums is the path that you provide during the install, and forum_app is the forum objects owner)
• Select the option “Do not cache”
• Select the option “Expires: As specified in the header HTTP, Regenerate: Immediately”
• SSelect the option “Compress for all browsers, except Netscape 4.X”
• Click on Ok
• Move this rule to the first position
• Restart Webcache