DryDock Quickstart Guide
Deepak GiridharagopalPrincipal Developer
Updated: 2003/11/03 20:00:23
Version: 1.3
Abstract
This guide shows you where to go and what to do once you get DryDock up and running.
1. Let's go!
Hopefully you've actually installed DryDock, but if not you can always check out the nice screenshots. :)
Note: This guide is going to reference some Config.py variables. They will be highlighted and in all-caps like THIS. If you've already got DryDock running, then the configure.py script should have made sure that all required variables were present. |
So the first thing you can do is try to login. If you point your browser to HOSTNAME/HREF_PREPEND (from the Config.py file), you should be presented with a login screen.
Screenshot 1.1: Login screen |
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Enter in the name of the admin user you specified during the installation process. The password you'll use depends on your authenticator configuration. If you're using the standard authenticator, though, then you just use the admin user's system password on HOSTNAME.
Once you're logged in, your should see the DryDock directory listing screen. This will be a listing of the contents of LOCALDIR, the directory that will contain editable web content. If there's nothing in that directory, go ahead and put some random files there (for tinkering's sake). The listing should look something like this:
Screenshot 1.2 (click to enlarge): Directory listing |
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Since you're the admin user, you'll have full privileges to do pretty much whatever you want. You can start by approving a file for publication. Just find a file you want to use as the guinea pig and click the Sign icon next to it. You should get a screen that looks something like the following 2 screenshots:
Screenshot 1.3 (click to enlarge): Signing a file |
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Screenshot 1.4 (click to enlarge): Signing a file, continued |
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Of course, the precise number and nomenclature of the form inputs on this page will be different for you. It should reflect any customizations you made when you setup your COLUMNS file. But this is how we have it set up here at ARL.
Once you've signed a file and confirm it, when you re-display the directory listing that file's entry should indicate what it's approved for export, and by whom. Now that this file has a history, you can click on the "History" icon next to the file. Doing this will show you what actions have been done to that file, according to DryDock's records. Here's a sample history screen:
Screenshot 1.5 (click to enlarge): History of a file |
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So, in theory, this file should now be synced. If you haven't customized the default SyncKit yet, then the file should be inside a directory called "live_web", which lives inside WORKING_DIR. This directory holds files that have been approved for export.
A quick way to check and see if a file has been synced is to look at the upper-left corner of the sidebar in the directory listing. It should tell you the last time a sync occurred, so you can see if there's been an update since you last signed/revoked a file.
From there, you can trigger an immediate sync, or schedule one on a delay.
To have some fun with the file you just signed, open up a shell and change some lines in the file. Now, the directory listing will show that file as differing from the version that was signed. If you click the option for more details, you can see a diff of the two versions of the files:
Screenshot 1.6 (click to enlarge): Details of a file mismatch |
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So now that you've messed with a signed file, lets try revoking it. Use the direcotry listing to locate the file that you signed earlier. There should be an option to Revoke the file now. Clicking on the revoke button will bring up the following screen:
Screenshot 1.7 (click to enlarge): Revoking a file |
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After you commit this operation, the directory listing should no longer list that file as approved for export. And once the next sync occurs, you can look at the live_web directory again and confirm that the file is no longer there.
And you can repeat this sign/revoke pattern ad infinitum. And that's how files get approved for export.
Other interesting capabilities
You can sign/review/revoke multiple files at once:
Screenshot 1.8 (click to enlarge): Acting on multiple files |
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If you want finer control of synchronization, you can use the Sync Control Panel. It's one of the Admin consoles you can get to from the sidebar on the directory listing screen. It will let you do an immediate sync, or schedule one on a delay:
Screenshot 1.9 (click to enlarge): Sync control panel |
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You can edit users' permissions through the web interface, as well. If you click on the Permissions manager link, you'll bring up the following summary of the access controls that are currently defined on the root directory:
Screenshot 1.10 (click to enlarge): Permissions manager |
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Screenshot 1.11 (click to enlarge): Permissions manager, cont. |
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You can define new access controls, edit them, or remove them altogether. You can browse the controls on subdirectories. Every access control has the ability to apply to either a user or a group. And if you want a bird's eye view of all the controls on the system, there's an option to switch to a global view.
Finally, there's the auditing console, also available under Admin consoles. You can do a free-text search of DryDock's records and check out what's returned:
Screenshot 1.12 (click to enlarge): User auditing |
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2. Where to now?
Well, now that you know what DryDock can do, it's time to start using it. :) You can start by perhaps tailoring the synchronization routines to your environment. Or if you have no idea what's going on, you can always brush up by reading the DryDock overview. In any case, hack away!
If you run into problems, you can send mail to the DryDock users mailing list. Someone there will help you out, dawg. And if you run into any actualy bugs or crashes, please fill out a bug report. Make things better for the world. It'll take, like, 3 seconds.
