Epiware

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	Skill level: Medium
	The instructions on this page require a basic knowledge of linux.

Introduction

Epiware is an open source document management software (DMS )that includes all the tools an organization needs to safely capture, manage, store, and share documents over the Internet. It is a web based system written in PHP and uses MYSQL as the backend.

Note:

The standard open source download includes instructions for a plain-vanilla Linux install, but the unique nature of SME Server requires a couple of simple variations. It's pretty easy; the key is to put the PHP code in the HTML folder, and the program storage in the Files folder of the same dedicated Ibay. This gets round the restriction built into SME which prevents the httpd process owner from writing into the protected area of the system - The standard Install script supplied in the program download assumes that this writing permission is available.

Installation

First use the SME Server Manager to create an ibay called 'epiware' with the kind of access you want and allow it to run CGI etc. For my trial I just chose to make it accessible on the local network with no password, but you could make it face the internet and protect it with a password, which will mean two usernames and two passwords to supply to gain access.

	Note:
	If you select Password Required when creating an i-bay, users who connect to it will be prompted to supply that particular i-bay's username and password before the code contained in the i-bay will run. The user name is always the name of the i-bay and the password is whatever the administrator assigns to that i-bay.

Now log in to your server console and download the program with...

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/epiware/Epiware_4.8.6.tar.gz

Once the download is complete run...

tar -xvzf Epiware_4.8.6.tar.gz

...and you'll see the archive decompress with a long stream of filenames scrolling up the screen.

Now do...

cd Epiware_4.8.6

and then run...

./install

You'll get a set of instructions on the screen telling you to first run...

mysql -u root -p < epi/project_db.sql

...do so.

Then it says you should move the program's 'epi' folder to your htdocs directory. This is the first thing you need to vary. To avoid a clumsy URL in the form http://www.yourdomain.com/epiware/epi we don't want the 'epi' folder, only it's contents, so run...

cp -r epi/* /home/e-smith/files/ibays/epiware/html

When that's done we need to change the ownership of the files we just moved...

chown -R www:www /home/e-smith/files/ibays/epiware/html

Now for the second variation from the Epiware.com way of doing things - this will get round the inability of the SME httpd owner to write into the protected storage of the server. The install routine created a folder /storage which contains subfolders binaries and document_area; leave the binaries folder alone but delete the document_area folder...

rm -r /storage/document_area

Now we need to tell the program where it's going to store it's files, and one or two other items of configuration information, so we need to edit the file config.inc.php...

cd /home/e-smith/files/ibays/epiware/html

	Note:
	I've assumed you are a linux newby, so slap my wrist for the next command if you are a time-served maven who swims about in the editor vi for fun - I hate it.

mcedit config.inc.php

This gets you a nice text editor with the configuration file loaded. You need to make the following changes...

On the first two lines with a pink define at the beginning, change www.mycompany.com to your own domain URL and change the email address to something like doc-admin@yourdomain.com.

Skip down to the series of lines at the bottom...

 define("DOCUMENT_DIRECTORY","/storage/document_area");
 define("CALENDAR_ATTACHMENT_DIRECTORY","/storage/attachments");
 define("IMAGE_GALLERY_PATH","/storage/document_area");
 define("ERROR_LOG_PATH", "/storage/document_area");
 //a document area for wiki-group banners - unlike document area, this cannot be changed w/o moving all files at a later date
 define("EPI_BANNER_DIRECTORY","/storage/document_area");

...and change all the directory settings to /home/e-smith/files/ibays/epiware/files - that's 4 /storage/document_area settings and 1 /storage/attachment setting.

When you've done all the editing check it carefully to be sure you haven't mistyped anything, then hit F2 and confirm you want to save the file and hit F10 to leave the editor. You can log out of the server console also.

Running the Program

Now go to a workstation and type http://www.yourserver.com/epiware into the browser and you should get your first login prompt - the first time you do this, you need to enter a bunch of stuff about yourself and give a username and password. After that you'll only be asked for username and password.

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