2.7 - Installing moveonline online modules - Hosting by the institution

This section describes how to install the moveonline modules if they are hosted on a server of your institution.

1- Preliminary settings

Creating the "move" PHP directory

You must create a "move" directory on the web server at your institution to host the PHP files for the moveonline modules.

Creating the "moveonline" SQL database

You must create a single SQL database with the name "moveonline" for the various modules. The encoding used for the database must be UTF-8.

Two users must be created for this database, with specific access rights:

• A "moveonline_php" user for access by the PHP files. This user should be restricted to the PHP server. It should have rights to edit the content of tables (INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT, DELETE) and, during installation and updates, to add and edit tables (CREATE, ALTER, DROP).
• A "moveon" user for access from moveon via the ODBC interface. This user should be restricted to the IP addresses of the workstations using moveon. It should have rights to edit the content of tables (INSERT, UPDATE, SELECT, DELETE).

2- Installing PHP modules

Copying PHP files

The PHP files for the various modules should be installed in the "move" PHP directory you created earlier. To do this, extract the ZIP installation file into the "move" directory.

Changing rights to PHP files

After installing the files you must check the following rights:

• The web server needs to have read access to all the files installed.
• Read, write and execute access is required to the contents of the move/data/ directory.
• The move/libraries/fop/fop_0.93/libraries/fop file has to be executable (Unix/Linux servers only) [incoming and outgoing modules].

Configuring the firewall

The firewall must be configured to allow requests to the portal http://www.moveonnet.eu (85.214.33.173) via port 80, because moveonline accesses this site to retrieve current data about higher education institutions [exchanges and cooperations modules].

Basic moveonline configuration

Certain parameter settings have to be made for moveonline modules in order for them to work, in particular the connection to the SQL database. To do this, open the move/settings/moveonline/settings.inc.php file in a text editor and in the following lines change the second value between the brackets, depending on the settings for your institution:

• Database type
  define("SQL_TYPE", "mysql");
  Possible values: "mysql" (MySQL), "pgsql" (PostgreSQL)
• Database name
  define("SQL_DBNAME", "moveonline");
• Database server address
  define("SQL_HOST", "192.168.0.1");
  Specify the IP address of the server or "localhost"/"127.0.0.1" if the database is located on the same server as PHP
• Database server port
  define("SQL_PORT", "");
  This only needs to be specified if the SQL server port is different from the default port: 3306 (MySQL), 5432 (PostgreSQL), 1433 (MS SQL Server)
• Name of "moveonline_php" user for database access
  define("SQL_LOGIN", "login");
• Password of "moveonline_php" user
  define("SQL_PWD", "password");
• Database encoding
  define("ENCODING_DATABASE", "UTF-8");
  Only possible value: UTF-8
• Integration via IFrame (for each module)
  define("USE_IFRAME",false);
  Possible values: true (Integration), false (No integration)
• Domain name of the page on which the module is integrated into IFrame (if IFrames are used)
  define("DOMAIN","");
  e.g.: ulondon.ac.uk
• Address of the LDAP server (if an LDAP is used for identification) [outgoing and reports modules]
  define("LDAP_HOST", "");
• Port of the LDAP server (if an LDAP is used for identification) [outgoing and reports modules]
  define("LDAP_PORT", "");
• Name of the field containing the user name in the LDAP (if an LDAP is used for identification) [outgoing and reports modules]
  define("LDAP_LOGINFIELD", "");
  Example: uid
• Name of the field allowing connection to the LDAP (if an LDAP is used for identification) [outgoing and reports modules]
  define("LDAP_BINDFIELD", "");
  Example: cn
• DN of the parent in the LDAP (if an LDAP is used for identification) [outgoing and reports modules]
  define("LDAP_BIND_DN", "");
  Example: "ou=people,dc=ulondon,dc=uk"

3- Creating and initialising SQL tables

Now you must create the tables in the SQL database using the moveonline setup module. To do this, open the move/moveonline/setup/start.php file using your Internet browser. When the page opens, you must enter the name and password of the "moveonline_php" user of the moveonline database.

Once the access data has been entered correctly, the setup module checks the technical requirements for PHP and the database and the access rights to the various directories. If any errors are found, correct them and then click the Recheck system button. If no errors are found, click Next to open the installation page.

Carry out the four installation steps one after another by clicking the Execute buttons:

• STEP 1: Create the tables (create tables)
• STEP 2: Initialise the system tables (init system tables)
• STEP 3: Initialise the configuration tables (init config tables)
• STEP 4: Create the application tables (create application tables) [incoming and outgoing modules]

In Step 3 you can choose between a standard installation and installation of a saved configuration. You should choose the standard installation if you are installing the modules for the first time.

4- Testing the modules

Once the SQL tables have been created and initialised, the links to the various modules (outgoing, incoming, cooperations, exchanges and reports) are displayed at the bottom of the window. Click the Start button for each module to start it and check that it is working correctly.

5- Integrating the modules into your institution website

After you have checked that the installed modules are working correctly, you should integrate them into the website for your institution.

Customising the design

The move/settings/moveonline/ directory contains the style sheet (design.css) and the various graphical elements for customising the design of the moveonline modules to your institution.

QS unisolution prepares these files and supplies them to you for installation. However, you can make any changes that may be required at a later date in this directory. The directory "Images" contains the file logo.gif, corresponding to the logo appearing in the online forms, and the file logo_pdf.gif, corresponding to the logo appearing on the PDF forms [incoming and outgoing modules]. The optimal size for the logo appearing in the PDF files is 216 X 70 pixels.

Customising meta tags

The move/settings/moveonline/ directory also contains the meta.txt file. This file allows the list of meta tags for inclusion in each HTML page of the module to be adapted to your institution.

Creating a "move" sub-domain

Now you need to create a "move" sub-domain for accessing the move directory and the moveonline modules. Creating this sub-domain gives the following format to the address of a moveonline module:

• outgoing module: http://move.ulondon.ac.uk/moveonline/outgoing/start.php (pointing to the file move/moveonline/outgoing/start.php)

NB: The Same Origin Policy (see below) means that it is essential to create a sub-domain if modules are to be integrated via IFrame, particularly if the modules are hosted by QS unisolution.

Integrating moveonline via IFrame

If your website allows the use of IFrames, moveonline modules can be fully integrated into your site. Navigation commands and the graphical appearance of your site will then be retained when using moveonline modules. The modules can also be integrated if they are hosted by QS unisolution.

You must make the following changes to each page of your website which is to include a moveonline module.

At the position where you want the module to appear, the html-page must contain a text based on the following model, in which the src attribute contains the address of the moveonline module:

<iframe src="http://move.ulondon.ac.uk/moveonline/outgoing/start.php" name="move_frame" id="move_frame" scrolling="auto" width="770" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The <Header> or <Body> tag must contain a text based on the following model:

<script type="text/javascript">document.domain="ulondon.ac.uk";</script>

It is also advisable to modify the appearance of the IFrame via the style sheet (CSS), based on the following model:

<iframe {width:770px; border:0; background: transparent;}>

The minimum width of the IFrame in order for the various modules to display correctly is 770 pixels.

The moveonline module has to be accessible on the same domain and the same port as the main page. Otherwise a scroll bar appears in the right-hand part of the IFrame, because the JavaScript modifying the height of the IFrame is blocked due to violation of the Same Origin Policy.

If you are using IFrames you must also ensure that the USE_IFRAME_MODULE NAME (for example USE_IFRAME_INCOMING) and DOMAIN variables are configured correctly in the moveonline configuration file (settings.inc.php) as described above.

6- Configuring the ODBC connection on each workstation

In order for moveon to be able to access the content of the SQL database (for configuration and data import), you must install the corresponding ODBC driver on each workstation using moveon and configure a connection to the "moveonline" database.

Section 2.9 describes how to install and configure an ODBC driver.

7- Configuring the name of the connection to the moveonline database in moveon

Once the ODBC connection has been configured on each workstation, you must define the name of the connection (DSN) to the "moveonline" database in moveon. To do this, open the "Interfaces" form in moveon by clicking in the main menu on "Configuration" and then on "Interfaces". Select "moveonline" from the drop-down list of interfaces and enter the name of the ODBC connection in the "Name of connection (DSN)" field.