OxCLIC MDID_server
FAQ on Server Set-up
What are the steps required to install MDID under Oxford authentication
- Install base OS and ASP.NET 1.1
Install [https://wiki.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itss/WebAuth_IIS WebAuth] on the server and test
- Install MDID application using an Oxford-specific distribution of MDID (available from Carl Marshall).
It includes the customised images for the Oxford header, and a module that allows MDID to integrate with WebAuth.
Import user data into MDID's MySQL database [http://wiki.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg-public/MDID_User_Import]
- Set up IIS to allow access to MDID under a second port (e.g. 8080) and protect that port using IIS access rules.
- Load initial collections
- Setting access controls for collections and system
Does MDID run on ASP.NET 2.0?
No. MDID is an ASP.NET 1.1 application, trying to compile or run it on ASP.NET 2.0 will fail spectacularly. It is a common mistake, you must use ASP.NET 1.1!
What MDID Server set-up documentation is there on all of this
See the MDID wiki at http//MDID.org there is also documentation linked under ["OxCLIC_MDID"]
A list of all documents is here: http://www.mdid.org/mdidwiki/index.php?title=Special:Allpages
A simple overview of MDID server demands from the originator institution is here: http://www.mdid.org/mdidwiki/index.php?title=Requirements
How do I install WebAuth on my IIS server
To take advantage of WebAuth Authentication ( and later use this for authorisation activities within an OxCLIC MDID) you need to install and various kerberos related pieces of software on your IIS server. This set-up process needs to be followed carefully, it is documented on the IT Support Staff wiki:
https://wiki.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itss/WebAuth_IIS
you should now be able to point your browser at the website (using https) and then to the folder you’ve protected, and the magic of passing seamlessly to WebAuth should occur, with you eventually being returned to that folder and it’s contents. This will provide you with a very basic Webauth setup, protecting the web pages you have specified in the config. Every time a user authenticates, a Windows account will be created on the server in the form webauth.<username> (e.g webauth.adrianp or webauth.uzdn0017), and added to a group called WebAuth. You can use this for authorisation purposes, but if you don't want this, set the EnableUserMapping parameter to 0 in the config.
How do I customise MDID to use WebAuth for authentication
Simply put, install the Stanford Webauth for IIS filter, and then modify the MDID code to accept it's input. This guide also covers the full customisation to allow MDID's helper applications and remote searching to work around the WebAuth filter.
Full details of this customisation can be found at https://wiki.oucs.ox.ac.uk/oucs/ltg/OxCLIC_MDID_SSO
How do I set-up MDID user information and groups
T.B.C. More on this once the update scripts are completed.
See the project team for the MYSQL scripts that allow you to import user data and appropriate premade groups appropriate for Oxford. These scripts provide the following based upon a data feed from Beth:
Updating of existing user records (changes to names and email addresses) based on their WebAuth username
Importing of new user records (first and last names, email address and WebAuth username as their login)
- Generating Groups based on the current import data
- Staff of Department X
- Staff and Postgraduates of Department X
- Members of Course Y
- All Students
- All Staff (merely the opposite of the above)
Full details of what the script does and how it operates can be found["MDID User Import"]. Note that this script attempts to avoid directly affecting manually created accounts and groups, however the following are issues to avoid:
- User accounts are not deleted. Therefore staff and students who have left and are no longer in the data import are not automatically removed from the system.
- Any manually created group that ends in "_staff" or "_staff_postgrad" will be deleted upon the script running and not recreated unless it co-insides with the data.
- The same applies to any group that matches an existing course title.
- Courses that are no longer offered or that students/staff previously were associated with will be left as they are. The system can not presently detect previously created course groups, and therefore does not edit/delete them.
What are the recommended default permissons settings for collections and activities
MDID has a full series of permissons for access to collections and all activities, rather similar to WebLearn. See the http://www.mdid.org/ -> documentation http://www.mdid.org/mdidwiki/index.php?title=Permissions
Also ask project team for advice. We'd recommend the following
- MDID defaults to access denied for every activity, hence a base user will not see any collections etc.
- Limit admin priviliges and delete/change collections to a the system support staff
- Limit each collection to the appropriate staff@department group
- Limit slideshow creation to staff@deptartment only
- Create adhoc reseacher groups made from staff@dept with added members
- Limit access to slideshows to the student course group or use slideshow "passwords" to protect
How do I import my first collection
T.O.C.
Get the curators handbook .pdf from the MDID site. see http:// Read the workflow documents on the OxCLIC site here see http://
How do I customise the branding of the MDID interface
from https://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=mdidusers-l&P=2097
>I'm ready to customize the user interface for our campus. Is it OK to do >that?
There shouldn't be any issues whatsoever, we do it ourselves.
>Can we call it something other that MDID...like maybe KatyDID? Can we have >our logo in the banner? What files do I need to edit to make that happen?
Images, including the logo are located in the wwwroot\images folder, to simply replace an image replace it there. If you want to change the look of various areas, the Header, Footer, and stylesheet (CSS) are in the wwwroot\PageTemplate directory, in files called PageHeader.ascx, PageFooter.ascx, and stylesheet.aspx. To change the look of pages specific to an individual page (like the logon screen which is default.aspx), they are in the wwwroot directory.
Changes to the .aspx and .ascx pages will take effect immediately (unlike changing the underlying code of MDID2), and should let you do all of the user interface changes you want.
More here http://ltg.oucs.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/OxCLIC_customising_MDID
Where are the graphics/stylesheets headers for OxCLIC MDID versions
MDID uses very little CSS and the system is built to heavily (ab)use tables and as such is problematic to customise. The stylesheet can be found in the wwwroot/PageTemplates/ folder and is an aspx file (stylesheet.aspx) inline with the other ASP.net files. The graphics are referenced from wwwroot/images/. Substitution of existing images is the simplest means of changing the graphics displayed.
The OxCLIC header graphics can be obtained from the OxCLIC project team.
How do I set-up remote collection searching
T.O.C. A) How do I search another instance ? 
How do I make my collection searchable by others ?? C) How do I test this ..
How do I check that the teacher offline viewer works with the server instance?
T.O.C.
How do I check that I can download a packaged .zip of slideshow viewer and myslides
T.O.C.
you need to check under packages - slideshow that you have setup things to allow a zip file of slides and application to be created. More information needed (ed?) !!!!
Will it run under LINUX as well as .asp under IIS?
Alas it doesn't seem to be stable. Some notes are here ... https://listserv.jmu.edu:443/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0511&L=mdidusers-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=4198
From our experience ... Prev Windows System
- OS: Windows 2000 (also works under Windows XP, 2000 server, 2003 server)
- Web Server: IIS (free with windows)
- CGI Language: ASP
- Database: MySQL (free) (also works under SQL in Windows)
- Extras Required: ASP.NET 1.1 (free)
Time taken: 2 Hours
New LAMP system
- OS: Suse Linux 9.2 Professional
- CGI Language: ASP
- Database: MySQL
- Extras required: Mono, Mod_mono (and several other modules for compiling
everything)
Time taken: 2 days (with the problem of Apache crashing when trying to view
slideshows not yet solved)
The consensus on the MDID list (8/06) is that it isn't stable enough on Mono/LINUX to be run as a production server.
See also notes on fun and games with MDID under Mono/Linux on Mac OSX ["OxCLIC MDID"]