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Installing Bricolage
by David Wheeler | Pages: 1, 2, 3

Installation

With all of the major dependencies worked out, it's time to install Bricolage. Download it from the Bricolage download page to the directory of your choice. Bricolage is distributed as a tarball like most Perl modules. Decompress it and then execute the usual Perl module commands to install it:

% wget http://www.bricolage.cc/downloads/bricolage-1.8.2.tar.gz
% tar zxvf bricolage-1.8.2.tar.gz
% cd bricolage-1.8.2
% perl Makefile.PL
% make
% make test
% make install

OK, to be fair, the process is actually more complicated than that, principally during make. Let's walk through the process.

Installation Configuration

The first step, perl Makefile.PL, doesn't really do what it does with your typical Perl modules. It's really just a wrapper around a custom Makefile to make sure that everything thereafter uses the Perl binary with which you executed Makefile.PL. If you're using an installation of Perl somewhere other than in your path, use it to execute Makefile.PL explicitly, such as /path/to/my/perl Makefile.PL.

The next step, make, will take the most time as the installer pauses to ask several questions. Let's take it step-by-step.

% make
/usr/bin/perl inst/required.pl


==> Probing Required Software <==

looking for PostgreSQL with version >= 7.3.0...
Found PostgreSQL's pg_config at '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_config'.
Is this correct? [yes] 

The first thing the Bricolage installer does is to check for all of its dependencies. Here, it asks for the location of pg_config, the PostgreSQL configuration program. The installer will use this application to determine the version number of PostgreSQL, among other things. If you're using a package-installed version of PostgreSQL, make sure that you have the PostgreSQL development tools installed, as well (yes, I'm looking at you, Red Hat users!). Bricolage will look in several common locations for pg_config; if it doesn't find it, or if it finds the wrong one (because you have more than one installed), type in the location of pg_config. Otherwise, simply accept the one it has found.

Is this correct? [yes] [Return]
Found acceptable version of Postgres: 7.4.3.
Looking for Apache with version >= 1.3.12...
Found Apache server binary at '/usr/sbin/httpd'.
Is this correct? [yes] 

Next, the Bricolage installer searches for an instance of Apache 1.3.x. This time it's looking for the httpd executable. The same comments that applied to PostgreSQL apply to the Apache Web server; either accept the instance of httpd or type in an alternate. On my Mac, I never use Apple's Apache (an old habit because Apple's Apache uses a DSO mod_perl, whereas I always compile my own with a static mod_perl).

Is this correct? [yes] no
Enter path to Apache server binary [/usr/sbin/httpd] /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd
Are you sure you want to use '/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd'? [yes] [Return]
Found Apache executable at /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd.
Found acceptable version of Apache: 1.3.31.
Looking for expat...
Found expat at /usr/local/lib/libexpat.so.

From here, the Bricolage installer continues looking for other dependencies, starting with the Expat XML parsing library. Then the installer probes for all of the required and optional Perl modules:

==> Finished Probing Required Software <==

/usr/bin/perl inst/modules.pl


==> Probing Required Perl Modules <==

Looking for Storable...found.
Looking for Time::HiRes...found.
Looking for Unix::Syslog...found.
Looking for Net::Cmd...found.
Looking for Devel::Symdump...found.
Looking for DBI...found.
Checking that DBI version is >= 1.18... ok.
&x2026;

As I said, Bricolage requires quite a few Perl modules, so I'm truncating the list here for the sake of space. If any required modules are missing, the installer makes a note of it. If any optional modules are missing, it will prompt you to find out if you want to install them. Respond as appropriate.

…
Looking for HTML::Template...found.
Looking for HTML::Template::Expr...found.
Looking for Template...found.
Checking that Template version is >= 2.14... ok.
Looking for Encode...found.
Looking for Pod::Simple...found.
Looking for Test::Pod...found.
Checking that Test::Pod version is >= 0.95... ok.
Looking for Devel::Profiler... found.
Checking that Devel::Profiler version is >= 0.03... ok.
Looking for Apache::SizeLimit...found.
Looking for Net::FTPServer...found.
Looking for Net::SFTP...not found.
Do you want to install the optional module Net::SFTP? [no] [Return]
Looking for HTTP::DAV...not found.
Do you want to install the optional module HTTP::DAV? [no] [Return]
Looking for Text::Levenshtein...not found.
Do you want to install the optional module Text::Levenshtein? [no] yes
Looking for Crypt::SSLeay...found.
Looking for Imager...found.
Looking for Text::Aspell...not found.

Do you want to install the optional module Text::Aspell? [no] [Return]
Looking for XML::DOM...not found.
Do you want to install the optional module XML::DOM? [no] [Return]
Looking for CGI...found.

In this example, I've elected to install the Text::Levenshtein module, but no other optional modules not already installed.

Optional Perl Modules

Of course, if you previously installed Bundle::BricolagePlus from CPAN, you will have all of the optional modules installed. Let me provide a bit of background on each optional module so that you can decide for yourself which you need and which you don't. If you're just starting out with Bricolage, I recommend you don't worry too much about the optional modules; you can always add them if you decide that you need them later.

HTML::Template and HTML::Template::Expr

These two modules are necessary to create HTML::Template templates to format your content in Bricolage. Most Bricolage users use the required HTML::Mason module, but you should elect to install these modules if you're an HTML::Template user.

Template 2.14

Install the Perl Template Toolkit if you plan to write your content formatting templates in Template Toolkit rather than in Mason or HTML::Template.

Encode

The Encode module comes with and only works with Perl 5.8.0 and later. Install it you plan to support any character encodings other than UTF-8 in the Bricolage UI.

Pod::Simple and Test::Pod 0.95

These modules help to test the Bricolage API documentation, but are not otherwise necessary.

Devel::Profiler 0.03

This module can be useful if you experience performance problems with Bricolage and need to profile it to identify the bottleneck. You can always install it later if you need it.

Apache::SizeLimit

This module is useful for busy Bricolage installations. Because Perl does not return memory to the operating system when it has finished with it, the Apache/mod_perl processes can sometimes get quite large. This is especially true if you use the SOAP interface to import or publish a lot of documents. Apache::SizeLimit allows you to configure mod_perl to kill off its processes when they exceed a certain size, thus returning the memory to the OS. This is the best way to keep the size of Bricolage under control in a busy environment.

Net::FTPServer

This module is necessary to use the Bricolage virtual FTP server. The virtual FTP server makes it easy to edit Bricolage templates via FTP. It's a very nice feature when you're doing a lot of template development work, offering a more integrated interface for your favorite editor than the cut-and-paste approach of the UI. The downside is that FTP is an unencrypted protocol, so it sends passwords used to log in to the Bricolage virtual FTP server sent in the clear. This may not be so important if you're using Bricolage behind a firewall or on a VPN, and is irrelevant if you're not using SSL, because you're already sending passwords in the clear; but don't do that.

Net::SFTP 0.08

This module is necessary if you plan to distribute document files to your delivery server via secure FTP. Bricolage supports file system copying, FTP, secure FTP, and DAV distribution.

HTTP::DAV

Install this module if you plan to distribute document files to your delivery server via DAV.

Text::Levenshtein

This module is an optional alternative to the required Text::Soundex module. Bricolage uses it to analyze field names and suggest alternatives for misspellings in the Super Bulk Edit interface. Either of these modules is fine, although many people consider Text::Levenshtein to have a superior algorithm. I'll show an example of how this works in the Super Bulk Edit interface in a later article.

Crypt::SSLeay

Install this module if you plan to use SSL with Bricolage. It allows the SOAP clients to negotiate an encrypted connection to Bricolage.

Imager

This module is necessary if you plan to enable thumbnail images in Bricolage — why wouldn't you want that? You'll need to make sure that you first have all of the supporting libraries you need installed, such as libpng, libtiff, and libgif (or giflib). I'll discuss enabling thumbnail support in the next article.

Text::Aspell, XML::DOM, and CGI

These modules are necessary to use the spell-checking available with the optional HTMLArea module. I'll discuss HTMLArea support in the next article.

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