Introduction
  Installing
  Handling
  Virtual servers
  Modules
  Filesystems
  RXML tags
  Graphics
  Proxy
  Miscellaneous modules
  Security considerations
  Scripting
  Databases
  LDAP
  SiteBuilder
    Modules
    FTP
    Configuration
    File types
    Languages
    Roxen Application Launcher
    Work Areas
  Access Control
  IntraSeek
  LogView
  FrontPage
  Upgrading
  Third party extensions
  Portability
  Reporting bugs
  Appendix
 
Roxen Application Launcher

Roxen Application Launcher is a program that lets the user use any program to edit files handled SiteBuilder. For this to work SiteBuilder must be able to share files with the users' computers. This might require an external file sharing program, like Samba.

When the user chooses to edit a file SiteBuilder copies the file to a special shared directory and sends a response to the user's web browser. The response has the content type application/x-roxen-launcher and contains the path to the file and the content type of the file. If Roxen Application Launcher has been installed the web browser will recognize the content type application/x-roxen-launcher and start Roxen Application Launcher. Roxen Application Launcher will look at the response and launch the appropriate editor program for the content type in the response, with the path to the file as argument.

Several steps are necessary for this to work:

Installing Roxen Application Launcher
Roxen Application Launcher must be installed on each user's computer. Roxen Application Launcher exists in a Windows and a Unix version. Both versions can be found in the tools/ directory of the Platform distribution.

The Windows version is distributed as an self-extracting .EXE file. It should install Roxen Application Launcher as well as do the necessary configuration for it to be recognized by any web browser. It is however often necessary to configure it further, see the Local editors section for how.

The Unix version is a simple pike script, tools/roxen_launcher.pike. It needs to be installed on the Unix system and each web browser must also be installed to recognized it. In Netscape this is done in the Navigator/Applications part of Edit/Preferences. The MIMEType should be application/x-roxen-launcher, the application /usr/local/bin/roxen_launcher.pike %s.

The Unix version is configured through .roxen_launcherrc files. By default the user's home directory as well as /etc/ will be searched for a .roxen_launcherrc file. See the .roxen_launcherrc section for the syntax.

Local editors
The Local editors wizard is used to create registry configuration files for the Windows version of the Roxen Application Launcher. The user needs to download such a file and doubleclick on it to install that configuration.


Local editors

The configuration contains a content type followed by either a file extension or the full path to a program. Wild cards can be used to some extent, the content type image/* and */* are valid but not image/g* nor */gif.

Roxen Application Launcher will match the content type it got from SiteBuilder against the content types in the configuration, one line at a time. When it finds a match it will try to start the appropriate application. If a file extension is given it will try to start the application that handles that file extension. If a path is given it will try to start that program.

The Download editor button will download the .reg file for the current configuration. Doubleclicking on the .reg file will read the configuration into the registry.

The reason that the installation needs to be done in the registry, rather than being part of the editor profile, is to gain security. The web server should not be able to start any program on the user's computer, only the programs that has been configured as editors.

.roxen_launcherrc
The .roxen_launcherrc file is used to configure the Unix version of the Roxen Application Launcher. As with most Unix applications each user can have their own configuration. A sample .roxen_launcherrc file can look like this:

text/*	emacsclient $nfs
image/*	gimp $nfs
Each line contains a content type followed by the program that should be used to handle that content type. The content type use the same limited type of wild cards as the Windows version. $nfs will be replaces with the path to the file that are to be edited.

Editor profiles
The bulk of the configuration are done in the Editor profiles wizard. Here several different editor profiles can be configured, each user can then choose one of those profiles. It will however usually be sufficient with one editor profile.


Editor profiles

The support for local editors comes in two flavors, anonymous and named. Anonymous is used for users that exist in SiteBuilder, but not on the operating systems user database. Named is used for users that are imported into SiteBuilder from the operating systems user database.

Anonymous support works by writing the shared files to a directory that is not readable to anyone. SiteBuilder will create a subdirectory with each file in. That sub directory will be readable to anyone and the file both readable and writable to anyone. But the name of the sub directory will be known only to the user. It is very important that it is not possible to find out the name of the sub directories by listing the shared directory.

The anonymous support are configured through the following variables:

Enabled
Whether the anonymous support should be enabled at all.

Directory
The directory where SiteBuilder will create its sub directories. The directory must be created by the administrator and it should not be possible for anyone to read it, not even the SiteBuilder user. The SiteBuilder user must however have write permission to the directory, so it can create sub directories there.

SMB path
The path to the directory using Windows file sharing. If running on Unix a file sharing program such as Samba will have to be used to make it available. The sharing should be configured to be available without password.

NFS path
The path to the directory using NFS. Only necessary if the Unix version of Roxen Application Launcher is used.

AppleShare path
The path to the directory using AppleShare. Some sort of AppleShare sharing software will have to be used. Only necessary if the Macintosh version of Roxen Application Launcher us used.
Named support works by writing the actual files with as user who owns them. This will only work for users that has been imported from the operating system to SiteBuilder. Furthermore SiteBuilder will have to be run as root, otherwise it will not be able to create files as another user.

SiteBuilder will create a sub directory for each user who uses the named support. These sub directories will be created with the correct file permissions so that only the appropriate user has access to it. Within each sub directory a directory structure matching the site will be created.

The named support are configured through the following variables:

Enabled
Whether the named support should be enabled at all.

Directory
The directory where SiteBuilder will create its files. Unlike the anonymous support this directory may well be readable by anyone. File accesses will be protected by the operating systems access control system.

SMB path
The path to the directory using Windows file sharing. If running on Unix a file sharing program such as Samba will have to be used to make it available. The sharing should be configured so that each user has to log on with user name and password.

NFS path
The path to the directory using NFS. Only necessary if the Unix version of Roxen Application Launcher is used.

AppleShare path
The path to the directory using AppleShare. Some sort of AppleShare sharing software will have to be used. Only necessary if the Macintosh version of Roxen Application Launcher us used.
When the anonymous and/or named directories has been configured it is time to configure one or more editor profiles. Usually one editor profile will be suitable. Each editor profile contains one or more editor definitions. Usually one editor definition is enough. The reason for more than one editor profile and more than one editor definition is to enable SiteBuilder to be user together with thin client solutions like WinFrame or Tarantella.

Each editor profile contains a name and whether it is valid for anonymous, named or both anonymous and named access.

Each editor definition contains the following variables:

Valid for content types
This is a comma separated list of content types that can be edited by this editor definition. The now familiar limited type of wild cards can be used. Each site will probably need to configure this to reflect the file types used on the site.

Output file content type
The content type of the file sent to the browser when the user chooses to edit a file. Should be application/x-roxen-launcher if the Roxen Application Launcher is used.

Output file contents
The contents of the file sent to the browser when the user chooses to edit a file. If the Roxen Application Launcher is used the file contents should be:
nfs=#nfs#
smb=#smb#
appleshare=#appleshare#
content-type=#content-type#