As usual, there are many great guides already on the net but getting everything to work usually requires a few of these references and a few additional changes. I will point out where I got the information from where applicable but the aim of this guide is to be complete and comprehensive.

If you follow this guide you should start with a basic CentOS 5 installation with Subversion setup correctly and end up with a working installation of phpUnderControl.

The Environment

I am aiming for the following:

• CentOS 5 with SubVersion installed
• PHP 5.2.X installed
• CruiseControl binary installed, running on Sun JDK 6
• phpUnderControl installed
• A working build process for the example project

Here it is…

Upgrade CentOS 5 with PHP5.2

To get PHP5.2 installed on CentOS 5 (required for phpUC) we need to add an additional repository that has it. I am going to use the Yum Repository provided by Jason Litka. Detailed instructions can be found at his site. In summary, for CentOS 5 this consists of:

rpm --import http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/utterramblings.repo

Add the following lines:

[utterramblings]
name=Jason's Utter Ramblings Repo
baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka

Now Yum can update PHP to 5.2. We also need a few other dependencies for phpUC:

yum install -y php php-pear php-xml

And the latest version of pear:

pear channel-update pear.php.net
pear upgrade pear

Get phpUnderControl

Using pear to install phpUC:

pear config-set preferred_state beta
pear channel-discover components.ez.no
pear channel-discover pear.phpunit.de
pear install --alldeps phpunit/phpUnderControl

This will install phpUC and all required dependencies. It’s a good idea to set pear back to only installing stable (i.e. non beta) packages:

pear config-set preferred_state stable

Sun Java JDK 6

phpUC needs CruiseControl and CruiseControl needs Sun JDK. Again, a full guide for getting this done can be found on the CentOS wiki. The steps I took are:

Set up rpmbuild:

vi ~/.rpmmacros

Make sure the file contents is:

%_topdir /home/<username>/rpmbuild
%_tmppath %{_topdir}/tmp

with <username> replaced with your logon name (if you are using root the path would be /root/rpmbuild).

mkdir -p ~/rpmbuild/{SOURCES,SRPMS,SPECS,RPMS,tmp,BUILD}
yum install -y rpm-build gcc gcc-c++ redhat-rpm-config jpackage-utils

Download JDK6 Update 6 (or the latest version) from java.sun.com. Get the .rpm.bin version. The file I got was called jdk-6u6-linux-i586-rpm.bin.

chmod +x jdk-6u6-linux-i586-rpm.bin
./jdk-6u6-linux-i586-rpm.bin
wget http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/jpackage/1.7/generic/non-free/RPMS/java-1.6.0-sun-compat-1.6.0.06-1jpp.i586.rpm
rpm -Uvh jdk-6u1-linux-i586.rpm java-1.6.0-sun-compat-1.6.0.01-1jpp.i586.rpm

With the JDK successfully installed (hopefully) we use Alternatives to select the Sun JDK:

/usr/sbin/alternatives –config java

Make sure the selected version is along the lines of /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-sun/bin/java.

At this point java -version should give something like:

java version "1.6.0_06"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_06-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 10.0-b22, mixed mode, sharing)

Now to add some environment variables:

vi /etc/profile.d/java.sh

Add the following:

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_06"
export JAVA_PATH="$JAVA_HOME"
export PATH="$PATH:$JAVA_HOME"

Note that JAVA_HOME is not set to “/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_06/bin”. I don’t think this is the standard but it’s an easy way to get CruiseControl to work (see here).

You will also need to restart your session for these changes to take effect or just export the variables directly to the prompt.

Get CruiseControl

Download the latest 2.7.X CruiseControl binary. My version is cruisecontrol-bin-2.7.2.zip.

unzip cruisecontrol-bin-2.7.2.zip -d /opt
ln -s /opt/cruisecontrol-bin-2.7.2/ /opt/cruisecontrol

CruiseControl is bow installed in /opt/cruisecontrol-bin-2.7.2/ which is symlinked by /opt/cruisecontrol/

Setup phpUnderControl and CruiseControl

A more thorough guide can be found in the phpUnderControl Documentation.

To patch the CruiseControl installation you should be able to simply to:

phpuc install /opt/cruisecontrol

If not, try this:

cd /opt/
svn co svn://www.phpunit.de/browser/phpUnderControl/tags/0.4.2 phpundercontrol
phpundercontrol/bin/phpuc.php install /opt/cruisecontrol

And that’s pretty much it! I’ll just set up the example project so you can see it all in action:

phpuc example /opt/cruisecontrol

And to start cruisecontrol:

cd /opt/cruisecontrol/
./cruisecontrol.sh

Give it a while to setup. Once it’s all done you should be able to access the interface at:

http://localhost:8080/

By now you should have a working phpUC setup on your CentOS 5 machine and the example project failing the build process. Setting up your own projects is a bit more involved – follow the guide in the documentation for more details. As for the best way to make use of phpUC and optimal project layouts etc. I will have to get back to you as I haven’t yet played around much.

Please let me know if this helped you. If you come across any problems I will be happy to try and help.

Resources

• Setting up SVN (and optionally Trac) on CentOS 5
• Alternative PHP5.2 and phpUC Setup
• Jason Litka’s Yum Repository
• Detailed guide to installing Java on CentOS
• phpUnderControl documentation

I will be posting more of these short guides on using MooTools in the upcoming weeks. Each will focus on a small problem and solve it with MooTools with the aim of being a useful way to learn the framework.

Chaining you say!

Chaining is very powerful and whilst it is similar to Effect.Queue in Script.aculo.us, it can do much more! The aim of this brief tutorial is to show you how to use MooTools Chaining in the context of queueing effects coupled with other arbitrary actions. However, you will see that you can easily apply Chaining to do much more than that.

From the MooTools 1.2 Docs:

A Utility Class which executes functions one after another, with each function firing after completion of the previous. Its methods can be implemented with Class:implement into any Class, and it is currently implemented in Fx and Request. In Fx, for example, it is used to create custom, complex animations.

Chain can be used as a stand-alone class but becomes much more powerful if you implement it into classes of your own.

In this tutorial I will be creating a class which implements Chain. The Chain class belongs to the Class.Extras component so you will need to make sure that you select Class.Extras and all its dependencies when downloading MooTools.

Implementing Chain

First of all we need to implement the methods and properties of the Chain class into our own class:

var ChainExample = new Class({

  Implements: [Chain]

});

Our class now has the following methods available to it:

• Chain::chain – Pass any number of functions to add them to the bottom of the call stack.
• Chain::callChain – Pops a function off the top of the call stack and executes it.
• Chain::clearChain – Removes all functions from the call stack without executing any.

Using Chain to Execute Actions in Order

Now we have implemented Chain into our ChainExample class we are ready to make use of the functionality it provides.

The ChainExample class will add events to three button elements. When a button element is clicked a corresponding panel will appear. Before this happens all other panels will be faded out. Chaining is used to make sure that these events happen in the order we want.

The full code for ChainExample is:

/**

 * Add events to buttons. Clicking a button will hide all panels before showing the panel corresponding to that button

 */

var ChainExample = new Class({

    Implements: [Chain],

    /**

     * Define the element ID of the button and the element ID of the corresponding panel

     */

    actions: new Hash({

        'button-one': 'panel-one',

        'button-two': 'panel-two',

        'button-three': 'panel-three'

    }),

    /**

     * An Array to store an effect instance for each panel

     */

    effects: [],

    initialize: function()

    {

        /**

         * Add an onclick event to each button. Clicking a button calls the showPanel method

         */

        this.actions.getKeys().each(function(buttonId) {

            $(buttonId).addEvent('click', this.showPanel.bindWithEvent(this));

        },this);

        /**

         * Create an Fx object for each panel

         */

         this.actions.getValues().each(function(panelId) {

            this.effects[panelId] = new Fx.Tween($(panelId), 'opacity', { duration: 'short', onComplete: function() { this.callChain();}.bind(this)});

         }, this);         /**

          * Initialize by hiding all panels, note the call to callChain to cause stuff to happen

          */

        this.hideAll();

        this.callChain();

    },

    /**

     * Add the a actions required to hide all panels to the Chain call stack

     */

    hideAll: function()

    {

        /**

         * loop each panel and Chain: 1. fade the panel, 2. set the display property to "none" after the effect has finished.

         *

         * Note that this function does not actually cause anything to happen, it simply adds actions to the Chain

         */

        this.actions.getValues().each(function(panelId) {

            this.chain(

                function() { this.effects[panelId].start(0); },

                function() { $(panelId).setStyles({'display': 'none'}); this.callChain(); }

            );

        },this);

    },

    /**

     * Handle a button click by fading and hiding all open panels and then appearing the corresponding panel

     */

    showPanel: function(event)

    {

        this.hideAll();

        var panel = this.actions.get(event.target.get('id'));

        this.chain(

            function() { $(panel).setStyles({'display': 'block', 'opacity': '0'}); this.callChain(); },

            function() { this.effects[panel].start(1); }

        );

        this.callChain(); //this call starts the chain. Since each function in the call also makes a call to callChain the entire stack will be executed

    }

});

window.addEvent('domready',

    function()

    {

        var myChain = new ChainExample();

    }

);

I will only go through the code relevant to chaining in detail. Lets have a look at each important part:

ChainExample::initialize

In the constructor we bind behaviours to the buttons and create Fx objects for the panels. Notice the custom onComplete callback provided for each Fx instance. This tells the internal chain stack to pop the next function and run it right after the effect has finished. We are now able to execute any function as soon as the effect completes.

ChainExample::hideAll

Look at this method carefully. A call to ChainExample::hideAll() does not actually hide the panels. The method adds to the chain stack a set of functions that will fade and hide each panel in order. To get the panels to actually hide we must execute the chain stack using this.callChain().

Notice how the second function passed to this.chain invokes this.callChain(). The function is telling the chain stack to continue onto the next function by itself.

Another important thing to note is that there is no need to bind the function passed to this.chain as this is dealt with internally.

ChainExample::showPanel

This is the event handling function that will show a panel.

First off a call to ChainExample::hideAll() is made. Remember that this method doesn’t cause anything to happen immediately. At this point we have added all the steps needed to hide all the panels to the chain stack. We then proceed to add steps which will show the correct panel.

Once the entire chain stack is set up this.callChain() is executed and the entire stack will be called because each step makes its own call to this.callChain() once it has finished.

That’s the basics of Chain. We have created a class which allows us to combine any number of effects and arbitrary functions and ensure that the are executed in the order we want. Hence the basic idea of Chain is to create a stack of functions and execute them in the order you please whenever you please.

Downloadable Demo

I have put together a quick demo so that you can see the code in action. Download the demo here.

Further Considerations

In my example, every function in the chain stack makes a call to this.callChain() once is has completed. This means that as soon as the first function is executed (by manually invoking this.callChain()) the entire stack will run from start to finish automatically. Chain can be used in a different fashion where Chain::callChain() is always invoked externally. As a crude modification to my example, every click on a button could invoke this.callChain(). Thus each button click takes one further step to completion of the actions.

If you need to add timings and delays consider using Function:delay to delay the invocation of Chain::callChain().

It is also possible to use multiple chains in the same class for even more complex behaviour. This would involve using separate instances of the Chain class directly.

There are many guides and plenty of help on the net to help you setup such a system. However, when I tried to do it I came across a few problems and I hope this post may help at least a few people trying to do the same as me. I am not going to rewrite the great tutorials out there, I will just point you to them and note what things I did differently.

This ‘guide’ should get you from a fresh install of CentOS 5 linux to one or more working Subversion (SVN) repositories and associated Trac wiki’s. Apache/WebDAV is used as the network layer. I have only tested this on a fresh install of CentOS 5.

The Environment

I am aiming for the following:

• CentOS 5, SVN installed. Apache2 as the network layer using mod_dav_svn.
• Trac running on Apache with mod_python
• SVN repositories located at: /srv/svn (e.g. /srv/svn/my-project), accessible via http://server/svn/my-project
• Trac projects located at: /srv/trac (e.g /srv/trac/my-project) accessible via http://server/trac/my-project

How I did it

Not all the steps are vital (probably) but this is how I got it working. Feel free to skip any non-relevant steps (i.e. there is probably no need for a fresh install). Replace any occurence of <project> with the name of your first project.

1. Fresh install of CentOS. I followed most of the Perfect Setup Guide, except the mail and ISPConfig stuff. The important part is setting up the Apache2 web server.

2. Make sure SVN and mod_dav_svn are installed. As root:

yum install subversion mod_dav_svn

vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

If the following two lines are not present, add them:

LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so
LoadModule authz_svn_module modules/mod_authz_svn.so

3. Install Trac: Follow Nick’s guide with the alternative Clearsilver installation below. Skip the Apache Configuration part.

Follow all of parts 1 and 2. Instead of part 3 do:

wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/clearsilver/clearsilver-0.10.4-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
rpm -i clearsilver-0.10.4-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/clearsilver/python-clearsilver-0.10.4-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
rpm -i python-clearsilver-0.10.4-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

Continue with parts 4.1 and 4.2 of Nick’s guide. Remember, leave out Apache configuration section.

4. Create your first SVN Repository:

svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /srv/svn/<project>

5. Initialise a Trac project for your new repository:

trac-admin /srv/trac/<project> initenv

For the trac-admin command use the defaults if not sure, giving a descriptive name for the project. The `Path to repository` is: /srv/svn/<project>.

6. Set the correct file permissions for apache

chown -R apache.apache /srv/svn/<project>
chown -R apache.apache /srv/trac/<project>

7. Tell apache where to find the new repository. Here we create an additional Apache configuration file specifically for the SVN repositories.

vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf

Add the following directive:

<Location /svn/<project>>
	DAV svn
	SVNPath /srv/svn/<project>
	AuthType Basic
	AuthName "<project> Repository"
	AuthzSVNAccessFile /srv/svn/svn-acl-conf
	AuthUserFile /srv/svn/<project>.htpasswd
	Require valid-user
</Location>

8. Add a repository user:

touch /srv/svn/<project>.htpasswd
htpasswd -m /srv/svn/<project>.htpasswd <username>

9. Create the Access Control List for the SVN Repository

vim /srv/svn/svn-acl-conf

Add the following directives:

[<project>:/]
<username> =  rw

Where <username> represents the username of the repository user you created earlier.

10. Tell apache where to find the new Trac project. Here we create an additional Apache configuration file specifically for the Trac projects.

vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/trac.conf

Add the following directives:

<Location /trac/<project>>
	SetHandler mod_python
	PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend
	PythonOption TracEnv /srv/trac/<project>
	PythonOption TracUriRoot /trac/<project>
</Location>

<Location "/trac/<project>/login">
	AuthType Basic
	AuthName "trac"
	AuthUserFile /srv/trac/<project>.htpasswd
	Require valid-user
</Location>

11. Add a Trac user:

touch /srv/trac/<project>.htpasswd
htpasswd -m /srv/trac/<project>.htpasswd <username>

12. Give admin permissions to the Trac user you just created:

trac-admin /srv/trac/<project> permission add <username> TRAC_ADMIN

Where <username> represents the username of the Trac user you just created.

13. Restart Apache:

service httpd restart

You should now have SVN and Trac installed. You will have an SVN repository setup (http://server/svn/<project>) and the Trac wiki (http://server/trac/<project>) associated with the repository.

Please let me know if this helped you. If you come across any problems I will be happy to try and help.

Resources

The last part of CentOS HowTos: Subversion will give you a quick introduction on how to use SVN.

Subversion setup guides: here and here

Trac setup guides: here and here.

ClearSilver template system (used by Trac).

Setting up CentOS 5.0