[4suite] Server install/setup questions

[Mike Brown]

nico wrote:
> - In release 1.0b3, the server/repository stuff is no more in the  
> distribution. Do you plan to make the related add-ons available, or should  
> we install the 1.0b1 release and then upgrade?

As per the README,

Effective version 1.0b2, Ft.Lib and Ft.Xml are distributed as the
"4Suite XML" release package. The Ft.Rdf and Ft.Server components will
be packaged as separate add-ons after the 4Suite XML 1.0 release.
If you need RDF or repository functionality before then, you must use
the monolithic 4Suite 1.0b1 release for now.

> - In release 1.0b3 there's no more RPM src file. Is it something you don't  
> provide anymore?

As far as I know, no, we're not providing any RPMs of the source.
We continue to offer .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, and .zip archives though.

> - When trying to use an XSLT function extension from repository, it works  
> as expected when working through an HTTP request, but the function is not  
> resolved when using the command line 4ss:
> 
> 4ss render /repo/dir/myfile.xml /repo/dir/mystyle.xsl
> ...
>    File  
> "/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/Ft/Xml/XPath/ParsedExpr.py", line  
> 147, in error
>      raise RuntimeException(RuntimeException.UNDEFINED_FUNCTION, self._name)
> RuntimeException: In stylesheet ftss:///repo/dir/mystyle.xsl, line 21,  
> column 2 in "disk:config-eval(1)":
> Undefined function: "disk:config-eval".
> 
> Is there a way to make it work with a command line, for debug purpose?

Yes, if you want to dig into the source: I think all you need to do is modify
Ft/Server/Client/Commands/Render.py so that it in the call to doc.applyXslt(),
it adds an extModules argument, which is a list of extension modules taken
from the EXTMODULES environment variable (in which the module names are
colon-separated). So, where it currently says

res, imt = doc.applyXslt(stys, params=top_level_params)

change it to

ext_modules = os.environ.get('EXTMODULES') or []
ext_modules = ext_modules.split(':')
res, imt = doc.applyXslt(stys, params=top_level_params, extModules=ext_modules)

Let us know how it goes!

> - In an application setup.xml file, one can specify the extension module,  
> but it seems that the install command can only put the python module under  
> Ft/Share/ExtensionModules. Is there an option to tell where it should be  
> put? If not, is it possible to add this feature, so that the path is also  
> taken into account when loading the module (append to sys.path).

I think this aspect of the repository has a difficult history, and I don't
know enough about it to even point you in the right direction. Maybe one of
the other developers will know...

> - In an application setup.xml file, is it possible to specify a server.xml  
> file?

Yes. As seen in Ft/Server/Share/Demos/setup.xml:

<ftssp:Server path="demos/server.xml" src="server.xml"/>

Mike