Babel / Server Tool SourceForge Installation

Setting up Babel on SourceForge

If you are involved with an open source project hosted on SourceForge then you may like to install Babel on the SourceForge servers. This process does not currently work, so these instructions are here only as a record of the best attempts and the problems found.

To attempt this, you would normally be an admin on the project. If you are not an admin then you can still attempt these steps if you can convince an admin to give you the following:

the password for the read-write database user

the password for the admin database user

give you write access to the project's web space

Conventions

In the following instructions, the following must be replaced:

replace {GROUP} with the group number of your project.

replace {LETTER} with the first letter of the unix name of your project.

Configuring the Database

Babel requires access to a MySQL database.

Babel requires version >= 5.0.32 or version >= 5.1.14. As of Feb 09, the MySql version is 5.0.51a, so you will be ok.

go to:

https://sourceforge.net/project/admin/database.php?group_id={GROUP}

If passwords have already been setup for the three users then you will see the user names and passwords here. Otherwise you must set up the passwords.

Go to:

https://mysql-{LETTER}.sourceforge.net/

So, for example, if the sourceforge unix name of your project was 'smoozlyapp' then the URL would be:

https://mysql-s.sourceforge.net/

Log on as the admin user.

Leave connection collation to default of: utf8_unicode_ci

Create a new database called {LETTER}{GROUP ID}_babel

The first part of this database name is required by SourceForge and will be filled in for you.

Rather than try to do everything on the SourgeForge server, unless you are a Unix guru you will probably find it easier to configure the Babel server directory on your local machine and then copy it to the SourceForge web space.

Run the following to create a directory called 'babel' with the stuff from the Eclipse Babel repository:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/technology co -d babel/ org.eclipse.babel/server

create the addons\addons.conf as described

The setup needs CREATE and DROP privileges, so you must use the admin user initially:

db_read_host=mysql-{LETTER}.sourceforge.net db_read_user={LETTER}{GROUP}rw db_read_pass={PASSWORD} db_read_name={LETTER}{GROUP}_babel context=dev

So for the jmoney project, for example, this file might contain:

db_read_host=mysql-j.sourceforge.net db_read_user=j17482rw db_read_pass=PASSWORD db_read_name=j17482_babel context=dev

Now you can copy this directory to your SourceForge web space. We don't go into the details of that here as you have probably already set up web pages on your SourceForge site.

Copy the 'babel' directory to your project's htdoc directory.

We now need to run babel-setup.sql. This must be done using the database admin user. Unfortunately even using the admin user, you still will not have enough rights to run it. This is because it creates and drops triggers. But we can remove the trigger statements and run the rest.

Go to the phpMyAdmin page and select the babel database. Go to the 'SQL' tab, copy the contents of babel-setup.sql and paste it into the form titled 'Run SQL query/queries on database {LETTER}{GROUP}_babel:'. Look for the two occurances of 'CREATE TRIGGER' and the occurrences of 'DROP TRIGGER'. Remove this code, being sure to note the changes in the delimeters and keep those correct.

You will get the following back:

As of Feb 09, SourceForge is on PHP version 5.2.6. Babel works on 5.0.0 or later, so we are ok there.

Open a browser and go to http://{UNIXNAME}.sf.net/babel/html/help_babel.php.

That works!

Now either select the 'login' link or go directly to Log into Babel at http://{UNIXNAME}.sf.net/babel/html/login.php. Go to {UNIXNAME}.sf.net/babel and you will an error message.

   username: babel@eclipse.org
   password: password

Launch the maps processor: http://localhost/babel/process_map_files.php

Congratulations! You have failed to install Babel!

Useful links:

http://apps.sourceforge.net/trac/sitedocs/wiki/Project database