Steve Hannah is a 28-year-old software developer currently studying and working at Simon Fraser University in beautiful Vancouver British Columbia. He specializes in web information systems and prefers Java, PHP, and Python as programming languages. He is a Christian and worships at Christ Church of China in Vancouver.
Okay.. the time has come for us to migrate from Plone 2.1 to Plone 2.5 on the Faculty web site. The word is that this migration should be much easier than the migration was from 2.0 to 2.1.. so here is a little log of my experience:
Given that requirements for Plone 2.5 include Zope 2.8.7+ or 2.9.4+ and we are running 2.8.5, I put in a request to the network support guys to upgrade Zope. They upgraded to 2.10.1 (which would seem to meet the requirement of 2.9.4+) and gave me the reigns.
Tried migrating the dataface site using the portal_migration tool. The migration appeared to be successful, so I proceeded to do a version migration on the portal_atct tool. That migration also appeared to be successful. Wow! Was that ever easy! But wait a minute …..
When I tried to visit some of the pages of the migrated dataface site, I received “404 resource not found” errors. Something went wrong, but what?
I then took a step back and tried something simpler: adding an empty plone site using the ZMI on a default Plone 2.5 install. The installation failed with errors.
I began to suspect that Plone 2.5 was not compatible with Zope 2.10, so I did some googling and found out that indeed it does not work. The requirement of 2.9.4+ actually means 2.9.x where x >= 4 – and NOT x where x > 2.9.4.
Then I got another bright idea: The requirements listed on the plone site for Plone 2.5 were identical to the requirements for Plone 2.1.4. We were running Plone 2.1.2 fine on our Zope 2.8.5 box so I thought maybe the 2.8.7+ requirement might be lax on the last digit, and that 2.8.5 would work. WRONG! It didn’t work.
Sent in a message to the network guys asking for a different Zope install (we’ll eventually have to upgrade to Zope 2.10 for Plone 3, but that won’t be for a while.
Now with my newly installed Zope 2.9.6 instance I was ready to go to town.
I ran a migration on the dataface site using the portal_migrations and portal_atct tools, and tested the site out. The migrations went smoothly (took about 20 minutes, but everything works tickity boo).
The Faculty site is another story. We are using CAS authentication on the site so that users can use the SFU single-sign on features and we don’t have to handle passwords. Apparently Plone 2.5 using PAS (Pluggable Authentication Service) which is quite different than the old system and doesn’t support migration of CAS User Folders. Hence the migration in portal_migrations failed.
Googling on the internet led me to a number of pages describing this issue. Apparently the current workaround for this is to delete the CAS User Folder and do the migration, then install CAS4PAS – an alternative CAS product that works with Plone 2.5. The problem is then I think we may lose all of the user roles, groups and permissions. 🙁
I had my first acting class in FPA 150 on Monday. I think this is going to be a blast. What a change from my usual math and computer courses. Less lectures, more participation, and fun. It will still be a lot of work though. We are starting off with King Richard III, a Shakespeare play from which we will be assigned monologues. I am looking forward to getting to know my class mates and being able to release all of the this penned up ham inside me that has been suppressed since highschool.
Just bought a new kitchen table from ikea today – opened the box, read the instructions, screwed a few screws, nailed a few nails – and voila! The table is set up and ready to go.. Either ikea has brilliantly dumbed down their stuff so that assembly is a no-brainer; or I’m an exceptional handy-man. I think the first option is more likely.
I have been attempting to incorporate dhtmlxGrid into Dataface to spice up the editing of related data on web forms. Since Dataface is open source under GPL, any library that I choose to include must also be open source and compatible with GPL. dhtmlxGrid standard edition fits this criterion so I decided to take it for a spin.
Unfortunately the standard edition appears to be no more than a trial version of the software as it does not contain any ability to extract data from the grid (that I can see). Without this ability, it is impossible to actually save, submit, or send data from the grid to a database or a form. What good is a grid like this if it cannot be saved? All of the features that would enable saving data are reserved for the professional edition which has quite a restrictive commercial license which is, safe to say, not compatible with GPL.
I do however give them props for releasing the standard edition under GPL. They could have just released a trial version with no distribution rights at all. As it is, at least I can dig into the code and add the necessary functionality myself.
I am working with the Firefox Javascript debugger to try to see where the data is hidden. This will be a little time consuming, but the end result will be worth it, I think.
This week I’m taking care of all the final steps before taking posession of my apartment. Today I’m meeting with my mortgage guy to go over details and make sure everything is in order. On the 28th I take posession. Can’t wait!
I sit here at the Chicago air port on a 3-hour stay while I make my way home from Cleveland. All I can say is Chicago is massive. Flying in, the landscape was covered with lights as far as the eye can see. I shall have to look up the population, but I’m certain that I have never been in a city this big before.
I’m very tired as I haven’t been sleeping well or eating well on this trip, probably due, in large part, to the time change. I would wake up at 6am eastern time and go to bed at 11pm pacific time (i.e. 3am to 11pm Pacific) on Friday and Saturday… But the late nights were well worth it to be able to talk to Beverly, taking advantage of her free long distance 🙂
I find the first class seats on smaller air planes (e.g. 737s) kind of funny. When you enter the air plane you see 2 or 3 rows of seats that are in a 2 seats per side per row formation (vs. the 3 seats per side per row on the rest of the plane). Then there’s a little curtain to separate the first class customers from the “regular” customers. The seats aren’t all that much bigger – only the people are bigger. I would almost be embarrassed to sit in first class because you’re put on display for all the “regular” flyers to show that you are better than them. Or is the benefit of first class that you’re right up front and can chit-chat with the pilots and flight attendants? Or in the event of a plane crash, you would hit first?
I’m in Cleveland Ohio this weekend doing some training for a company here on Dataface. This is my first time east of Manitoba and it is quite an interesting experience. My work schedule hasn’t allowed me to really see any attractions, and my hotel is kind of out of town so I can’t easily get around, but it is still nice to see the land and hear the accents of the locals.
I have to say that the hospitality has been unreal so far. A complete stranger paid my cab fare when the drive refused my Canadian money (stupid Canadian forgot to get American money before the flight), and the cab drivers (who make up 50% of the people I’ve met) make for some good conversation.
I’m flying back tomorrow afternoon and will be back in Vancouver tomorrow night. If there is anything anyone needs in Cleveland, let me know. Please pray that my planes make it home OK (I have this silly fear of flying – turbulence makes me neurotic).
Ramblings about Xataface, Java, and other software development issues