Admin Quick Config Contents

Introduction

Configuration parameters are mostly contained in astrogrid portal's web.xml file. If you are running Tomcat, the path will be:

[Tomcat directory]/webapps/astrogrid-portal/WEB-INF/web.xml

The setup parameters are recorded in a file if you use the portal installer to manage the install process. If you upgrade using the portal installer, you have the opportunity to restore these setup values from the file.

PLEASE NOTE this does not apply to other parameters! If you have changed any of the default values for other parameters, you must record these manually and re-edit the respective files when you reinstall.

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Setup Parameters

All are contained in the web.xml file. The setup parameters come in three sets detailed in the following three topics.

Registry Configuration

The portal requires a registry endpoint in order to send queries to the registry. 

<env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>org.astrogrid.registry.query.endpoint</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>http://myregistry.org/services/RegistryQuery</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Endpoint for Registry Query Service</description>
</env-entry>

Workflow Configuration

The portal requires the endpoint of a JES instance. The Job Execution Sytem (sometime also referred to as the Job Enty System), manages the execution of workflows. Executing workflows are known as jobs. The portal will send a workflow to the JES instance for execution. 

  <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>workflow.jes.endpoint</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>http://myjes.org/services/JobControllerService</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Endpoint for Job Execution System Service</description>
  </env-entry>

Email Configuration

The portal requires some email settings to manage requests for user registration and also for the situation when a user has forgotten password details. 

 <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>emailserver.address</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>127.0.0.1</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>The address of your local smtp server</description>
  </env-entry>

  <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>emailserver.user</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>astrogrid</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Username from which you can send admin mail</description>
  </env-entry>

  <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>emailserver.password</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>astrogrid</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Password for Username from which you can send admin mail</description>
  </env-entry>
 
 <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>emailserver.from</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>admin@astrogrid.org</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Return address for admin mail</description>
  </env-entry>

  <env-entry>
    <env-entry-name>astrogrid.portal.admin.email</env-entry-name>
    <env-entry-value>jdt@roe.ac.uk</env-entry-value>
    <env-entry-type>java.lang.String</env-entry-type>
    <description>Destination for admin mail</description>
  </env-entry>

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Control Parameters

All are contained in the web.xml file.

Session Timeout

Users logon to the portal for session. The session is an important control idea and is essential for maintaining a usable conversation with the user. When a user logs out the session is terminated. As users are not forced to log out and the session may well tie up scarce resources, there is a timeout value. If no interaction takes place at all for the value of the timeout setting, the session is terminated automatically. It can also occur if the system encounters severe shortages of resources, particularly memory. The default is set to one hour. 

  <session-config>
    <session-timeout>60</session-timeout>
  </session-config>

Upload File Size Limitation

Within the MySpace Explorer a user has the ability to upload files from their local file system or desktop into MySpace. The file is physically copied into MySpace. There is an upper limit to the size of files that can be uploaded. By default this is set to ten million bytes. Setting this is a balancing act between resource uses. For example, it is possible to set it high enough for the session to time out. 

  <init-param>
    <param-name>upload-max-size</param-name>
    <param-value>10000000</param-value>
  </init-param>

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Maintenance

There are certain simple settings that can be edited to give information to users when planned outages of the portal are known, and to direct users to other Astrogrid portals if their favoured one is not available.

Astrogrid Status

The portal displays a standard status message on a user's home page, to the effect that there are no planned outages of the portal (see example below). The message is contained in a file associated with login. The path is:

[Tomcat directory]/webapps/astrogrid-portal/mount/login/xml/statusPage.xml

Usually the page contains an empty announce message. If you enter an announce message, this will automatically display on the users' home pages in place of the standard message. There is no need to stop and start Tomcat. 

  <status>
    <statusMessage value="There are presently no planned outages of the Astrogrid system" />
    <announceMessage value="" />
  </status>

Portal Redirection Information

Normally when you type in the portal's url in a browser, the login page is displayed and users login. If for maintenance reasons you wish to point users to another Astrogrid portal, there is a replacement login display which can be edited with the requisite details. The process is two-staged:

  1. Edit the replacement page, giving the required alternative site urls.
  2. Edit the login site map, which will direct all users to the replacement page.


The path to the replacement page is:

[Tomcat directory]/webapps/astrogrid-portal/mount/login/portalOutage.html

An extract from this page is given below. 
        <td>
          <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="1" style="background-color: white;">       
            <tr>
              <td style="color: MidnightBlue">
                <h2>Portal temporarily unavailable.</h2>
              </td>
            </tr>
          <tr><td>This Astrogrid portal is currently unavailable, please use one of the following:</td></tr> 
          <tr><td><a href="http://cadairidris.star.le.ac.uk:8080/astrogrid-portal/main/mount/login/login-form">Cadairidris</a>: portal located at Leicester.</td></tr>  
          <tr><td><a href="http://cadairidris.star.le.ac.uk:8080/astrogrid-portal/main/mount/login/login-form">Cadairidris</a>: portal located at Leicester.</td></tr>
          <tr><td><a href="http://cadairidris.star.le.ac.uk:8080/astrogrid-portal/main/mount/login/login-form">Cadairidris</a>: portal located at Leicester.</td></tr>
          <tr><td><a href="http://cadairidris.star.le.ac.uk:8080/astrogrid-portal/main/mount/login/login-form">Cadairidris</a>: portal located at Leicester.</td></tr>
        </table>
      </td>


The path to the login sitemap is:

[Tomcat directory]/webapps/astrogrid-portal/mount/login/sitemap.xmap

The relevant section of the sitemap is given below. 
   <map:pipelines>
   <!--+
       | Main pipeline.
       +-->
      <map:pipeline>
      
      <!-- PORTAL TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE: start 
           1) Uncomment the following 4 lines
           2) Uncomment the line: <map:match pattern="login-form-unavailable">
           3) Comment out the line following: <map:match pattern="login-form">
       
        <map:match pattern="login-form">       
            <map:generate src="portalOutage.html" />
            <map:serialize type="html" />                                                
        </map:match>      
      -->
      
      <!-- Login page -->
      <!-- PORTAL TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE: Uncomment the following line: -->      
      <!-- <map:match pattern="login-form-unavailable"> -->
      <!-- PORTAL TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE: Comment out the following line: -->      
      <map:match pattern="login-form">  
      
      <!-- PORTAL TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE: end -->

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Logging

Application logging is controlled by the log4j properties file. You can choose your overall logging level between the following settings, which give increasing amounts of detail.

  • OFF
  • FATAL
  • ERROR
  • WARN
  • INFO
  • DEBUG


The rootCategory setting will control the level and the log files produced. For maximum performance, set your root level to OFF. However, a more sensible level would be WARN, which will log all warning, error and fatal messages. An extract from the log4j.properties file is given below. Look for the file on path:

[Tomcat directory]/webapps/astrogrid-portal/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties 
# Change OFF to DEBUG for more detailed logging
log4j.rootCategory=OFF, CONSOLE, LONGLOG

#### CONSOLE is set to be a ConsoleAppender using a PatternLayout.
log4j.appender.CONSOLE=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.Threshold=DEBUG
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout.ConversionPattern=%-5p [%t] %c{1}/%L: %m%n

# Set the enterprise logger
log4j.logger.org.apache.axis.enterprise=FATAL, CONSOLE

# ignore debug axis messages
log4j.category.org.apache.axis=WARN, CONSOLE

# CONSOLE goes to catalina.out
log4j.appender.CONSOLE=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.Threshold=DEBUG
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.CONSOLE.layout.ConversionPattern=%-4r [%t] %C{1}/%M/%L %p %m%n

# LONGLOG is a file logger that records info-level info
log4j.appender.LONGLOG=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.LONGLOG.File=portal.log
log4j.appender.LONGLOG.Append=true
log4j.appender.LONGLOG.Threshold=DEBUG
log4j.appender.LONGLOG.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.LONGLOG.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{dd-MM-yy HH:mm:ss} %-4r [%t] %-5p - %m%n

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