Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Fedora Commons and DSpace Foundation Join Together to Create DuraSpace Organization

A landmark development has been announced with the merger of DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons. Both are major players in digital preservation and open source content management systems particularly in the Higher Education sector. Both have been collaborating closely in recent years and the two organisations have now merged to form the new organisation DuraSpace.

DuraSpace will continue to support its existing software platforms, DSpace and Fedora but in addition is planning a number of new developments. The first new technology to emerge will be a Web-based service named “DuraCloud” - a hosted service that takes advantage of the cost efficiencies of cloud storage and cloud computing, while adding value to help ensure longevity and re-use of digital content. The DuraSpace organisation is developing partnerships with commercial cloud providers who offer both storage and computing capabilities to deliver this service.

I agree wholeheartedly with Cliff Lynch Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) who is quoted in the press release as follows:

“This is a great development. It will focus resources and talent in a way that should really accelerate progress in areas critical to the research, education, and cultural memory communities. The new emphasis on distributed reliable storage infrastructure services and their integration with repositories is particularly timely.”

For further information on DuraSpace see the new website and press release .

Installing LAMP On Linux (Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10, 9.04)

In this guide I will show you how to install a LAMP system. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. The guide is intended to help those who have very little knowlegde of using Linux.

Install Apache
To start off we will install Apache.
1. Open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
2. Copy/Paste the following line of code into Terminal and then press enter:
sudo apt-get install apache2
3. The Terminal will then ask you for you're password, type it and then press enter.

Testing Apache
To make sure everything installed correctly we will now test Apache to ensure it is working properly.
1. Open up any web browser and then enter the following into the web address:
http://localhost/
You should see a folder entitled apache2-default/. Open it and you will see a message saying "It works!" , congrats to you!

Install PHP
In this part we will install PHP 5.
Step 1. Again open up the Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
Step 2. Copy/Paste the following line into Terminal and press enter:
sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
Step 3. In order for PHP to work and be compatible with Apache we must restart it. Type the following code in Terminal to do this:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Test PHP
To ensure there are no issues with PHP let's give it a quick test run.
Step 1. In the terminal copy/paste the following line:
sudo gedit /var/www/testphp.php
This will open up a file called phptest.php.
Step 2. Copy/Paste this line into the phptest file:

Step 3. Save and close the file.
Step 4. Now open you're web browser and type the following into the web address:
http://localhost/testphp.php


Congrats you have now installed both Apache and PHP!

Install MySQL

Step 1. Once again open up the Terminal and then copy/paste this line:
sudo apt-get install mysql-server


Step 3. This is where things may start to get tricky. Begin by typing the following into Terminal:
mysql -u root
Following that copy/paste this line:
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('yourpassword');


Step 4. We are now going to install a program called phpMyAdmin which is an easy tool to edit your databases. Copy/paste the following line into Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin

Copy phpmyadmin into my document root directory to work http://localhost/phpmyadmin, with this command in shell:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ /var/www/phpmyadmin

# /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ is the directory where phpmyadmin installed
# /var/www/ is your document root directory

To make sure everything installed correctly we will now test phpmyadmin to ensure it is working properly.
1. Open up any web browser and then enter the following into the web address:
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/index.php


For technical queries, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Sandeep Bhavsar,
sandeep.bhavsar@gmail.com