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[http://wso.williams.edu WSO's web site] is a work in progress. If you know web design or Perl, or if you want to see how it's done, you're welcome to check out a copy of the code and go to work. This page will tell you how to get started.
==Get a WSO Account==
If you don't have a WSO account, email [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06emm Evan], [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=07mg_2 Mike], or [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06bdc Ben]. One of them will hook you up.
==SSH to WSO==
'''Windows''': get yourself a copy of [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html Putty]. wso.williams.edu is the host.
'''Mac/Linux''': Open up a Terminal or a console, and type
ssh wso.williams.edu
==Set up a web server==
This part sounds scary, but most of the configuration has been done for you already. First we copy the server files into your home directory:
cp -R /var/web .
Now we just change the configuration files to work for your personal account. Type these instructions EXACTLY. Note the back-ticks in the third command. ( ` ). The back-tick is on the key right above tab on the keyboard.
sed -i .bak "s/USER/$USER/g" apache/*.conf apache/apache_test
sed -i .bak "s/UID/`expr 50000 + $UID`/g" apache/*.conf
rm apache/*.bak
So the mysterious third command will tell the web server what port to listen on. Programs listen on different ports so that when you make a network request of WSO (SSH, the web, e-mail), it knows which program should handle the request. Your server will listen on the port number 50000 plus your user id. (That makes sure everyone has a unique port.) To find out what that is, type
expr 50000 + $UID
''Write that number down for later.''
==Get the code==
Let's get a fresh copy of the code. On WSO, type
svn co file:///var/svn/wsonet ~/web/wsonet
If you just want to see what the code is like, you can poke around the wsonet folder. For those of you afraid of the command line, you can now look at the files by logging into WSO over SFTP. Check out the bit on SFTP at [[How to transfer files to WSO]].
Of course, to actually work on the code, you'll want to know what effects your changes have. That's why we want to
==Start the server==
OK, we're ready to start the web server. Type this:
~/web/apachectl start
If everything went well, it'll say "httpd started", or something to that effect. Hooray!
Before breaking out the champagne, we need to check to see that the server actually works. Unfortunately, you can't just pop open a web browser and surf to your new site. WSO's servers are behind a firewall. The firewall only allows connections on certain ports. Yours is not one of them.
==Setting up port forwarding==
The way through the firewall is to pretend that the web server is running on your computer and not on WSO. We'll use a technology called ''port forwarding'' to send web requests to your machine ''through an SSH connection'' to your server on WSO. This is, simply, awesome.
And not too hard.
===Mac/Linux===
Open up a Terminal, and type
ssh -N -f -2 -L 8000/localhost/53717 emiller@wso.williams.edu
EXCEPT instead of 53717, put the port number that you wrote down, and instead of "emiller", type your WSO account name. Unfortunately, you'll have to run this command somewhat frequently, since SSH connections close when your computer reboots or goes to sleep (or WSO crashes, or whatever...). To make this a little less tedious, open the file called .bashrc in your home directory and add this line:
alias wso8000='ssh -N -f -2 -L 8000/localhost/53717 emiller@wso.williams.edu'
Again, make the substitutions for your own port and username. Now, if you need to establish the connection, just type "wso8000" in a terminal window. You can pick a different alias, of course.
===Windows===
Putty lets you do port forwarding, too. You can read more about it here:
http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.57/htmldoc/Chapter3.html#S3.5
Here are the settings you'll need:
Source port: 8000
Destination port: (your special port)
Destination host: localhost
==Try out the server==
'''On-campus''': Open up a web browser and point it to "http://localhost.williams.edu:8000/". The WSO site should show up. Congratulations!
'''Off-campus''': On a Mac or Linux box, add this line to the file /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost.williams.edu
That makes your machine think it's address is localhost.williams.edu, which is necessary for cookies to work the way your server is configured. Now point your web browser to http://localhost.williams.edu:8000/, and check it out.
Of course, if it doesn't work, please describe your problem on [[Talk:How to hack on the WSO site]].
Now, you can change a file in ~/web/wsonet/site, and the change will show up on your development server at this address. Sweet.
==Making changes==
[http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06cks Kai] is the webmaster. Contact him if you'd like to change the WSO site, add a new service, or fix a bug. If he gives you the go-ahead, you're in good shape, so go to work. Once you think your change is ready for the world, you'll need to get permission to commit changes to our code repository, where it will be tested and deployed. Email [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06emm Evan] about that. He'll take care of you.
==Get a WSO Account==
If you don't have a WSO account, email [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06emm Evan], [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=07mg_2 Mike], or [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06bdc Ben]. One of them will hook you up.
==SSH to WSO==
'''Windows''': get yourself a copy of [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html Putty]. wso.williams.edu is the host.
'''Mac/Linux''': Open up a Terminal or a console, and type
ssh wso.williams.edu
==Set up a web server==
This part sounds scary, but most of the configuration has been done for you already. First we copy the server files into your home directory:
cp -R /var/web .
Now we just change the configuration files to work for your personal account. Type these instructions EXACTLY. Note the back-ticks in the third command. ( ` ). The back-tick is on the key right above tab on the keyboard.
sed -i .bak "s/USER/$USER/g" apache/*.conf apache/apache_test
sed -i .bak "s/UID/`expr 50000 + $UID`/g" apache/*.conf
rm apache/*.bak
So the mysterious third command will tell the web server what port to listen on. Programs listen on different ports so that when you make a network request of WSO (SSH, the web, e-mail), it knows which program should handle the request. Your server will listen on the port number 50000 plus your user id. (That makes sure everyone has a unique port.) To find out what that is, type
expr 50000 + $UID
''Write that number down for later.''
==Get the code==
Let's get a fresh copy of the code. On WSO, type
svn co file:///var/svn/wsonet ~/web/wsonet
If you just want to see what the code is like, you can poke around the wsonet folder. For those of you afraid of the command line, you can now look at the files by logging into WSO over SFTP. Check out the bit on SFTP at [[How to transfer files to WSO]].
Of course, to actually work on the code, you'll want to know what effects your changes have. That's why we want to
==Start the server==
OK, we're ready to start the web server. Type this:
~/web/apachectl start
If everything went well, it'll say "httpd started", or something to that effect. Hooray!
Before breaking out the champagne, we need to check to see that the server actually works. Unfortunately, you can't just pop open a web browser and surf to your new site. WSO's servers are behind a firewall. The firewall only allows connections on certain ports. Yours is not one of them.
==Setting up port forwarding==
The way through the firewall is to pretend that the web server is running on your computer and not on WSO. We'll use a technology called ''port forwarding'' to send web requests to your machine ''through an SSH connection'' to your server on WSO. This is, simply, awesome.
And not too hard.
===Mac/Linux===
Open up a Terminal, and type
ssh -N -f -2 -L 8000/localhost/53717 emiller@wso.williams.edu
EXCEPT instead of 53717, put the port number that you wrote down, and instead of "emiller", type your WSO account name. Unfortunately, you'll have to run this command somewhat frequently, since SSH connections close when your computer reboots or goes to sleep (or WSO crashes, or whatever...). To make this a little less tedious, open the file called .bashrc in your home directory and add this line:
alias wso8000='ssh -N -f -2 -L 8000/localhost/53717 emiller@wso.williams.edu'
Again, make the substitutions for your own port and username. Now, if you need to establish the connection, just type "wso8000" in a terminal window. You can pick a different alias, of course.
===Windows===
Putty lets you do port forwarding, too. You can read more about it here:
http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.57/htmldoc/Chapter3.html#S3.5
Here are the settings you'll need:
Source port: 8000
Destination port: (your special port)
Destination host: localhost
==Try out the server==
'''On-campus''': Open up a web browser and point it to "http://localhost.williams.edu:8000/". The WSO site should show up. Congratulations!
'''Off-campus''': On a Mac or Linux box, add this line to the file /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost.williams.edu
That makes your machine think it's address is localhost.williams.edu, which is necessary for cookies to work the way your server is configured. Now point your web browser to http://localhost.williams.edu:8000/, and check it out.
Of course, if it doesn't work, please describe your problem on [[Talk:How to hack on the WSO site]].
Now, you can change a file in ~/web/wsonet/site, and the change will show up on your development server at this address. Sweet.
==Making changes==
[http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06cks Kai] is the webmaster. Contact him if you'd like to change the WSO site, add a new service, or fix a bug. If he gives you the go-ahead, you're in good shape, so go to work. Once you think your change is ready for the world, you'll need to get permission to commit changes to our code repository, where it will be tested and deployed. Email [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06emm Evan] about that. He'll take care of you.
