Chisel

This article is a simple guide to installing and running Parley on a remote/virtual server. It doesn’t cover modifiction, extension and configuration. I hope to cover this in a separate entry.

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time, partly inspired by passing comments from people who’ve tried but found it too difficult or confusing.

Pre-requisites

• Linode server
• Ubuntu installed (9.10?)
• User account: parley

Guide written using perl v5.10.0 (yes, I know!)

Use screen

screen
sudo su - parley

Install local::lib

mkdir -p $HOME/parley/{parley.pl,sandbox}
cd $HOME/parley/sandbox/
wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/G/GE/GETTY/local-lib-1.006005.tar.gz
tar zxf local*gz
cd ./local*
perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap
make test && make install
echo 'eval $(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)' >>~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install Parley

cpanp
s conf prereqs 1; s save
install Parley

Keep half an eye on it, but expect a reasonable wait while the dependencies are installed.

Set::Object

I had some problems with Set::Object

CPAN Terminal> i Set::Object

Installing Set::Object (1.28)
WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
Primary key fingerprint: 8231 2E41 472B 5F8D 86E3  6E30 FC06 4088 66B2 5843
--- SIGNATURE Thu Jul 22 07:19:46 2010
+++ (current) Tue Aug 10 17:39:30 2010
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
SHA1 9083e3c7f3b247405b838cea67278b7684e36e8d Changes.pod
-SHA1 816639c05c69373b63a93333c3e7e60a87866e56 MANIFEST
+SHA1 6825ef505c910d011772d0365a43b1c8de6eb503 MANIFEST
+SHA1 b0da4e4c2b100da7030708dabbbc6485d7832387 META.yml
SHA1 c826cfdec5efc768c4a6eaec8d690b4f309c03d0 Makefile.PL
SHA1 8e8a877750f1f3fbdc5240a86246ff4399c1184f Object.xs
SHA1 5df26a8f141049c2a8c277417af071782808300b README
==> MISMATCHED content between SIGNATURE and distribution files! <==
[ERROR] Signature check failed for module 'Set::Object' -- Not trusting this module, aborting install

If you trust it:

z Set::Object
perl Makefile.PL
make test && make install
exit

Run Parley - errors expected

We can check that we’ve got an installed application with:

CATALYST_DEBUG=1 parley_server.pl

Then pointing elinks (in another screen window) at our app. We are expecting database connection errors:

elinks http://localhost:3000

Set-Up The Database

You’ll need a database for the application to use:

Modify ACL

You will probably need to add something like this to your pg_hba.conf:

host  parley      parley      127.0.0.1/32          trust
local parley      parley                            trust

Exact details are for you to decide but the above allows quick, local-only access to the database.

Don’t forget to reload your database:

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.3 reload

Create the database

As a user with sudo privileges:

sudo -u postgres createuser -A -R -d parley
createdb -U postgres -O parley -E UTF8 parley
psql -U parley -d parley -f ~parley/perl5/lib/perl5/Parley/db/parley.psql

View The Application

If you now view

elinks http://localhost:3000

you should see a text-only view of the main Parley page:

If you aren’t stuck behind an evil proxy you should also be able to view the application in your browser, by visiting myserver:3000

Still To Come

• running under fastcgi
• tweak the configuration
• Google Ads
• … and anything else I’ve forgotten

Once I have the application running under fastcgi I’ll share the URL for general exploration and evaluation.