1. Tcl/Tk 2003

2. Using Starkits for Easy Deployment of Server Applications Mark Roseman courseforum T E C H N O L O G I E S

3. The Canonical Tcl Server App socket -server Accept $portnum proc Accept {sock args} { fconfigure $sock -blocking 0 fileevent $sock readable “Readable $sock” } proc Readable {sock} { # … do something interesting }

4. That was easy! On to the next application…. Ummm….forgetting something? Oh yeah, better post it on SourceForge so others can take advantage of my brilliance!

5. “If it was hard to develop, it should be hard to install!” Download the latest source Unpack in Sites directory of your home dir Configure Apache  Open Terminal.app, type “sudo vi /etc/httpd/httpd.conf”  Remove the leading “#” from these lines: LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so AddModule mod_php4.c  Modify the DirectoryIndex line to read: DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.htm index.php3 index.cgi

6. And so on… Keep configuring Apache…  AddType application/x-httpd-php.php AddType application/x-httpd-php-source.phps  Then ‘sudo apachectl restart’ Install MySQL (luckily someone packaged that up nicely.. Download it here…)  Check if its running:  /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin status  Oh yeah and set a root password on it  /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password sniggle

7. Oh, but the fun has just begun! Better set up MySQL for your Wiki /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uroot -p mysql > grant select, insert, update, delete, lock tables on wiki.* to wiki@localhost identified by 'password'; > create database wiki; > \q …. Hack hack hack hack hack…. …. Tell PHP about it….. Hack hack… Modify the Wiki code to include the database… hack hack hack hack….

8. Glad we spent all that time developing our application.

9. A New Breed of Server Apps Personal / Small Group Server Apps SOHO market adopting:  Broadband, WiFi, Bluetooth…  Windows XP, Mac OS X Weblog, Wiki, webmail, file sharing, calendars, MP3 streaming, document management… Normal users, not network admins

10. Deploying Tcl Server Apps The Starkit story so far Deployment Requirements Dependencies Installation / Configuration Starting and Stopping Platform Issues  particularly Mac and Windows Miscellaneous Issues - packaging, builds, obfuscation, integration…

11. The Starkit story so far Tclkit: Tcl, Tk, incr Tcl, Metakit, TclVFS Starkits and Starpacks  Platform-neutral or platform-specific  Package up your whole development tree  Way beyond simple code wrapping Jean-Claude Wippler [Tcl’2000] Steve Landers [Tcl’2002] Gets you pretty far (e.g. wikit)…

12. CourseForum / ProjectForum Wiki-like app Non-tech users  Education  Business Cross-platform  Unix, Win, OS X  Web Browser Easy to use tool Try before you buy

14. Dependencies Typical Wiki: Apache/IIS, scripting engine, other libraries, external database, CVS, …  Trend is towards more layers (app servers) Barriers to entry  Initial install (don’t screw up!)  Upgrade can break your app Tradeoffs must be taken into account early!  Developer benefit from external packages  Increased complexity for end users  Understand the context you’re running in

15. Reducing Dependencies Solution #1: bundle everything  Setup script to automate install  Can make sense for larger systems Solution #2: roll your own (subsets):  TclHttpd (or mini-variants)  Metakit (or SQLite)  Build subset libraries (e.g. version control) CF/PF: one file, no externals, < 2mb

16. Installation Install = copy Uninstall = delete Well maybe…

17. Configuration Get rid of the text based configuration files! Web-based configuration

18. Starting and Stopping Start the application, stop the application Consider a simple GUI for this — yes, even for a server!  New Users  Feedback  Choosing ports

19. Running as a Daemon Different than initial use Unix: rc.d / inittab Windows: services Mac OS X: StartupItem more later…

20. Unix Platform Issues Not a lot of extra issues here Running as ‘setuid’

21. Windows Platform Issues Start / Stop GUI Installers / Uninstallers Windows Services  TclSvc  Tcl Dev Kit Service Mgr  FireDaemon

22. “Unix for the Masses” Opportunity for smaller developers  Rewards innovation  Culture of supporting small shops  Actually pay for software  Easy to get the word out  Free High-Quality Developer Tools and Docs Beware — “port” is a four letter word! Mac OS X

23. Mac OS X GUI Tk not quite there yet (sniff!) Small Cocoa app  ~200 lines ObjC  InterfaceBuilder  A few hours to develop

24. Mac OS X Application Bundles App is a directory Cocoa launcher Starpack “guts” Communicate via Unix pipes (!) Setuid

25. Application Bundles Disk Images Installers if needed StartupItem  Known location  Shell scripts  Run (Unix-style) executable Mac OS X Packaging So we have a Starpack [a virtual file system in a file] in an Application Bundle [which looks like a file system in a file], inside a Disk Image [a virtual file system in a file] … yikes!!!

26. Other Issues Integration  Avoiding port conflicts  Firewalls  Proxy / Virtual Hosting  Branding Development Process  Builds  Testing  Code obfuscation (procomp / tbcload)

27. CourseForum / ProjectForum Full power of Tcl, Metakit, etc. With Starkit, drop development tree on user’s machine Small app, quick to download, code protected Runs like native apps, easy to setup and use

28. Remember that O’Reilly Article? “I’ve got one of those if-only-I’d- known-that-before sort of feelings… Nice work. You're right, it couldn't be simpler.”

29. Deployment is a Tcl Strength Cross platform Easy to embed/extend Code hiding when needed Starkit goes way beyond simple wrapping Network server apps run by end users  Important new niche  Tips here to ease deployment further  Start thinking about deployment early!

30. Thanks! www.markroseman.com/tcl www.courseforum.com And announcing… tcl.projectforum.com Free, powerful collaborative workspaces for Tcl/Tk based open source projects and their teams. Yes it’s easy to install — but we do hosting too!