Administration Guide : Installing Xinet : Installing Xinet Portal Server Software for the First Time

Installing Xinet Portal Server Software for the First Time
Xinet Portal server software provides enhanced levels of security, solution architecture, and user experience. It allows Administrators to specify Portal server details and manage Portal sites for the end users. The Portal Server Administration software is designed for hosting secure, highly customized, easily localized asset management Web sites powered by Xinet. This software is used to create, configure, and maintain Portal sites.
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To identify what the Xinet Server IP address is, open the Site Manager > Summary page. The Default Xinet Server field notes the IP address. To identify the Portal Server IP address, note the address in the Portal Server field.
To install Xinet Portal Server software:
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In a browser, open www.northplains.com, on the top right corner click Portal > Xinet Portal and log into AXI Support.
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Click Downloads > Released Software.
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Open the Xinet Portal directory and download the latest compressed installation file for your platform.
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Click Continue.
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Click Close.
For more detailed installation procedures and other information about Xinet Portal administration software, see the Xinet Portal Administration Guide.
Where Xinet Portal Server installs files
The following subsections explain where files are placed during first-time installation and in subsequent upgraded versions of the software. The subsections also present information about how customized sites are kept up-to-date.
Xinet Portal Server depends upon two repositories:
The second location, inside the document root for your system, is where you should keep your customized sites. These will not be overwritten upon upgrading your version of Xinet.
Files on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and OS X systems
First-time installation
When installing Portal Server for the first time on your machine the following folders are created in /usr/etc/portal/:
PORTAL: Contains all CGIs needed by Xinet Portal
PORTALMODULES: Contains at.imginc.php and approval.inc.php
TEMPLATES: Contains the default templates Exhibit, and Marquee
On OS X systems /usr/etc/portal also contains a php folder containing the libraries Apache needs to execute PHP files. The php.ini file will be located in the /usr/etc/portal/php/etc directory. A copy of that file called php.portal.ini is also placed in the same directory. This copy is important when you upgrade.
On Linux systems /usr/etc/portal contains a Zend folder with the libraries PHP needs to execute compiled PHP files. The php.ini file is located in the /usr/etc/portal/Zend/etc directory. A copy of the php.ini file is in the same directory named php.portal.ini. This copy is important when you upgrade. In addition, a new php.potral.ini file is placed in the /usr/etc/portal/Zend/etc directory. The php.ini file from the previous installation is not touched.
What happens to files when updating a OS X or Linux server?
When updating Xinet Portal on your machine the following folders’ contents are updated in /usr/etc/portal:
PORTAL: Contains all CGIs Xinet Portal needs
PORTALMODULES: Contains at.imginc.php and approval.inc.php
TEMPLATES: Contains the default templates Exhibit, and Marquee
On OS X systems /usr/etc/portal will also contain a php folder with the library Apache needs to execute PHP files. A new php.portal.ini file will be placed in the /usr/etc/portal/php/etc directory. The php.ini file from the previous installation will not be touched.
Existing site configurations in /Library/WebServer/Documents (or wherever DocumentRoot has been established) will also remain intact, although files may be updated as described in the next section.
On Linux, the site configurations are in /var/www/html/.
OS X or Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS: About the DEFAULTS.php file.
During upgrades, the DEFAULTS.portal.php file will be removed and a new /usr/etc/portal/PORTAL/defaults/DEFAULTS.php file will be installed.
Xinet Portal provides an update tool that dynamically checks any config.inc.php files from existing Xinet Portal sites, updating them with new config.inc.php entries—meaning these new entries no longer need to be added by hand. The newly-added entries will, however, be configured in null states so that they will not change the behavior of previously existing sites until you edit them to employ newly-added functions. The update tool will also update already-existing entries in the config.inc.php files that have changed in the new distribution, but, once again, without changing how existing sites function.
Xinet Portal checks whether config.inc.php files are up-to-date whenever a user attempts to log in to a particular site. Any site without users trying to gain access to it will not be updated. In addition to adding and editing entries, DEFAULTS.php will reformat older config.inc.php files so that they are more readable and will also add additional comments that have appeared in new distributions. These comments provide details about each entry in the files. Finally, any custom configuration items (For example, non-standard items added by administrators) will move to the bottom of each file, with the way they function remaining intact.
Although not recommended by Xinet, you can disable this updating tool on a site-by-site basis if you choose. Simply set $PORTAL_MAINTAINED = false in the site’s config.inc.php file.