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Responsible for this page: Menzo Windhouwer?. Last content check: 28-08-2012

Purpose

The purpose of this page is to collect relevant information about ISOcat.

Project: ISOcat

ISOcat is an implementation of ISO 12620:2009, which describes the data model and procedures around a Data Category Registry (DCR).

Project: ISOcat

Getting code

You can browse the code here
Check out from: https://svn.clarin.eu/cats/ISOcat

System Requirements

Java 6
Apache Ant
1060 NetKernel 3.3.1 Standard Edition Development Kit (with some additional patches included in our codebase)
PostgreSQL 8.x (an external instance uses 9.x)
General Interface 3.9.1
Tango icon library (to be phased out, but still some leftovers)
famfamfam silk icon library and silk companion
mimeparse JavaScript library
Ostermiller Java Utilities
the ISOcat forum is based on phpBB (with some additional patches included in our codebase)

Dependencies

There are several other CLARIN projects that make use of data categories and use the ISOcat REST API:

CMDI component registry and editor
Arbil (for CMDI)

There are also companion registries under development:

RELcat, a Relation Registry
SCHEMAcat, a Schema Registry

Building and Deploying

NetKernel

download and install 1060 NetKernel 3.3.1 Standard Edition Development Kit
start NetKernel using the appropiate startup script in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/bin
goto http://localhost:1060
goto the Module Management Wizard in the control panel and update all existing modules
- at time of writing this will update the HTTP Client Services, the HTTP Transport and XQuery
shutdown NetKernel (Kernel Shutdown in the control panel)

Patch NetKernel

checkout our precompiled NetKernel patches from cats/patches/NetKernel/trunk/dist
and copy these files in the equivalent places in your NetKernel installation directory
remove all jars from path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/lib/expanded, so the libraries our patched modules use will be unpacked with a next restart

3rd party NetKernel modules

checkout some 3rd party NetKernel modules from cats/patches/NetKernel/trunk/contrib
copy these jars into path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/modules

add the following to the end (before </modules>) of path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/etc/deployedModules.xml to enable these modules

<module>modules/mod-e4x-1.0.0.jar</module>
<module>modules/db-metadata.jar</module>
<module>modules/mod-stink-0.1.0.jar</module>
<module>modules/test-stink-0.1.0.jar</module>

SLOOT NetKernel module

checkout the SLOOT NetKernel modules, which is an in-house developed module with generic NetKernel tools, from cats/shared into an own folder
download the mimeparse JavaScript library

create a local-props.xml file in the SLOOT folder specifying the location of NetKernel and mimeparse

<project name="local-props" basedir=".">
        <!-- local 1060 NK directory -->
        <property name="nk" location="/path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/"/>

        <!-- external library directories -->
        <property name="mimeparse" location="/path-to-mimeparse"/>
</project>

rename the old ext-xquery-2.4.3.jar module in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/modules to ext-xquery-2.4.3.jar.BAK to prevent some clashes
run ant in the top SLOOT folder
add the following (adapt the path to point to your ISOcat source directory) to the end (before </modules>) of path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/etc/deployedModules.xml to enable this module
```
<module>/path-to-SLOOT/mod-SLOOT</module>
```

ISOcat development-only NetKernel modules

checkout the ISOcat NetKernel modules from cats/ISOcat/trunk in your ISOcat source code folder
the modules in the path-to-ISOcat/develop are NetKernel modules to serve static files that in a production environment will be served by the HTTP server, e.g., Apache
some of these static files need to be downloaded and placed in the right directory
- download the General Interface 3.9.1 Debug edition (in a production environment use the Standard edition) and place the content of the archive into the path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-gi/gi/3_9_1/ directory (notice the underscores)
- download the Tango icon library tango-icon-theme and place the content of the archive into the path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-Tango/Tango/ directory (in a production environment ISOcat only needs the 16x16 subdirectory)
- download the famfamfam silk icon library and place the content of the archive into the path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-famfamfam/famfamfam/silk directory
- download the silk companion and place the content of the archive into the path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-famfamfam/famfamfam/silk-companion directory (there are several other silk companion icon sets, which might be interesting for new developments)
add the following (adapt the path to point to your ISOcat source directory) to the end (before </modules>) of path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/etc/deployedModules.xml to enable these modules
```
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-gi</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-Tango</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/develop/mod-famfamfam</module>
```
tell the NetKernel HTTP frontend fulcrum to resolve request for the files in these modules by adding the following below the Add your modules below here... comment in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/modules/mod-fulcrum-frontend/module.xml
```
<import>
  <uri>urn:gi</uri>
</import>
<import>
  <uri>urn:tango</uri>
</import>
<import>
  <uri>urn:famfamfam</uri>
</import>
```

ISOcat PostgreSQL database

download and install PostgreSQL 8.x (or dare to try 9.x)

create an isocat user (password: isocat) and an isocat database

CREATE ROLE isocat LOGIN PASSWORD 'isocat';
CREATE DATABASE isocat WITH owner = isocat ENCODING = 'UTF8';

depending on the configuration of your PostgreSQL installation the pgpsql language has to be loaded
```
CREATE PROCEDURAL LANGUAGE plpgsql;
```

initialize an empty database (or ask for a recent dump of isocat.org)

cat path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-access-data/dbms/ISOcat-schema-empty.sql | psql -U isocat -W isocat
cat path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-access-data/dbms/ISOcat-schema-init.sql | psql -U isocat -W isocat
cat path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-access-data/dbms/ISOcat-schema-constraints.sql | psql -U isocat -W isocat

ISOcat NetKernel modules

download the Ostermiller Java Utilities

create a local-props.xml file in the path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-utils folder specifying the location of NetKernel and the Ostermiller Java Utilities

<project name="props" basedir=".">
        <!-- 1060 NK directory -->
        <property name="nk" location="/path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1"/>

        <!-- external library directories -->
        <property name="ostermiller" location="/path-to-Ostermiller"/>
</project>

run ant in the top ISOcat folder

add the following (adapt the path to point to your ISOcat source directory) to the end (before </modules>) of path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/etc/deployedModules.xml to enable these modules

<module>/path-to-ISOcat//mod-ISOcat-utils</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-documentation</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-access-data</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-access-system</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-system</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-access</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-balloting</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-user</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-group</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-dcs</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-dc</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-tdg</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-manage-dm</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-control-session</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-control-access</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-interface-gi</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-interface-rest</module>
<module>/path-to-ISOcat/mod-ISOcat-site</module>

tell the NetKernel HTTP frontend fulcrum to resolve request for the files in the interface modules by adding the following below the Add your modules below here... comment and the previously added modules in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/modules/mod-fulcrum-frontend/module.xml
```
<import>
  <uri>urn:isocat:interface:rest</uri>
</import>
<import>
  <uri>urn:isocat:interface:gi</uri>
</import>
<import>
  <uri>urn:isocat:site</uri>
</import>
```
tell the NetKernel HTTP backend fulcrum to resolve requests for the configuration plugin by adding the following before the </mapping> closing tag in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/modules/mod-fulcrum-backed/module.xml
```
<import>
  <uri>urn:isocat:manage:system</uri>
</import>
```

Configure ISOcat

start NetKernel using the appropiate startup script in path-to-1060-NKSEDK-3.3.1/bin
goto http://localhost:1060
goto the ISOcat system management section in applications
enter a valid SMTP server in the Configure form
goto http://localhost:8080/isocat/

Note: There is currently a concurrency problem in the class loader which can lead to multiple Saxon Configuations, which should be a Singleton. Check for any 'Externally supplied NodeInfo? belongs to the wrong Configuration' messages during startup or a first access. If this happens restart the server and check again ... the concurrency bug doesn't happen that often.

Finetuning

The cron jobs generate some superfluous logging messages, which can be switched off

goto http://localhost:1060
goto the Configuring Logging Levels section in the control panel
select the Cron log
allow only warnings and severe errors
save your changes

Developing the General Interface frontend

The GI Builder application basically only runs on Internet Explorer. If your primary OS isn't Windows you'll have to install one in a VM. In general you can get access to your ISOcat codebase using some form of shared folders. If not you need a checkout of the cats/ISOcat/trunk/mod-ISOcat-interface-gi NetKernel module and the General Interface 3.9.1 Debug edition. The frontend codebase in mod-ISOcat-interface-gi uses http://isocat/ as the base for the application. In the Windows VM you'll have to map this to the host machines IP address. Add the mapping your-ip-address isocat to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (you'll need administrator access to change this file).

Note: You'll need to update the Windows hosts file anytime your IP address changes. Also when your machine is offline and you don't have an IP address GI Builder won't have a way to reach the ISOcat backend. (If you find a solution to develop the UI offline please add the trick to this page!)

Note: If Windows is your primary OS you'll still needs to map localhost to isocat in the hosts file to let GI Builder contact the ISOcat backend.

Interfaces

There is a public readonly REST API and the General Interface web UI.

Manual

See the manual page at isocat.org

Design

Tickets

Ticket	Summary	Version	Type	Priority	Owner	Reporter
No tickets found

There is also a public bug and issue tracker at SourceForge.

Servers

The ISOcat production server is www.isocat.org.

The ISOcat test server is lux13, which also hosts alpha versions of RELcat and SCHEMAcat.

Status, Planning and Roadmap

Status: active

Planning and roadmap:

History

Last modified 10 years ago Last modified on 05/07/14 11:28:38

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