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| 1 : | apizer | 542 | readme.install file for WeBWorK version 1.7 |
| 2 : | |||
| 3 : | ********************************************************************** | ||
| 4 : | |||
| 5 : | The basic requirements for setting up WeBWorK is a unix system running a | ||
| 6 : | webserver, perl, TeX, and latex2html. Probably your system already has all these | ||
| 7 : | (except possibly latex2html). You will need a system administrator to do some of | ||
| 8 : | the set up and it would be a good idea for him or her to be involved from the | ||
| 9 : | beginning. Our system admin is Hoss Firooznia (hfir@math.rochester.edu) and he | ||
| 10 : | would certainly be willing to answer questions. Similarly, Mike Gage | ||
| 11 : | (gage@math.rochester.edu) or Arnie Pizer (apizer@math.rochester.edu) are willing | ||
| 12 : | to help. | ||
| 13 : | |||
| 14 : | |||
| 15 : | 1. Download the following files using a web browser (ftp access is not allowed). | ||
| 16 : | Connect to http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/ and then click on | ||
| 17 : | Download WeBWorK and follow the instructions. You will have to register to | ||
| 18 : | download files. If you have difficulty registering, contact Gage or Pizer. | ||
| 19 : | |||
| 20 : | webwork_VERSION_SUBVERSION-MONTH-DAY-YEAR.tar.gz | ||
| 21 : | templates_VERSION_SUBVERSION-MONTH-DAY-YEAR.tar.gz | ||
| 22 : | |||
| 23 : | and also: | ||
| 24 : | |||
| 25 : | readme.first | ||
| 26 : | readme.install | ||
| 27 : | readme.upgrade | ||
| 28 : | overview.html | ||
| 29 : | linux.html (really instructions for setting up WeBWorK on any unix system) | ||
| 30 : | linux-redhat-7.1.html (instructions for setting up RedHat 7.1 as a WeBWorK server) | ||
| 31 : | |||
| 32 : | These six files are contained in webwork_X.X_XX-MONTH-XX-XXXX.tar.gz but you | ||
| 33 : | should look at | ||
| 34 : | overview.html and | ||
| 35 : | readme.install | ||
| 36 : | for information on where to install the files. Even if you are not using | ||
| 37 : | RedHat, we recommend that you read linux-redhat-7.1.html as this contains | ||
| 38 : | useful information. | ||
| 39 : | |||
| 40 : | |||
| 41 : | 3. Unzip and untar the tar file webwork_1.7_XXX.tar.gz tar -xzvf | ||
| 42 : | webwork_1.7_XXX.tar.gz This will create the directory webwork_1.7_XXX containing | ||
| 43 : | the main webwork directory and six additional files: three readme files | ||
| 44 : | (readme.first, readme.install, readme.upgrade), an overview of the setup | ||
| 45 : | procedure (overview.html),the detailed setup procedure (linux.html), and a | ||
| 46 : | detailed explaination for setting up a server for WeBWorK using RedHat Linux 7.1 | ||
| 47 : | (linux-redhat-7.1.html). Follow the procedures in these documents. | ||
| 48 : | |||
| 49 : | After you set up the demoCourse, when you connect to demoCourse, | ||
| 50 : | you will see a link to the WeBWorK documentation. We have a lot of | ||
| 51 : | documentation (most of which we hope is correct). It's not that | ||
| 52 : | well organized so you have to hunt around for stuff. The | ||
| 53 : | documentation we use the most is "A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WEBWORK PROFESSOR" | ||
| 54 : | |||
| 55 : | http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/docs/docs/courseadmin/usingwebwork.html | ||
| 56 : | |||
| 57 : | Also see the doc's on using the pg language (for writing problems) | ||
| 58 : | |||
| 59 : | http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/docs/docs/pglanguage/ | ||
| 60 : | |||
| 61 : | This is a discussion group where you can ask questions and hopefully receive | ||
| 62 : | answers from other WeBWorK users (and or search through questions, answers, | ||
| 63 : | and documentation). | ||
| 64 : | |||
| 65 : | http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/discuss/ | ||
| 66 : | |||
| 67 : | 4. We use the pg language (almost perl with some macros) for writing problems. | ||
| 68 : | The templates_X.X_XX-MONTH-XX-XXXX.tar.gz file contains a library approximately | ||
| 69 : | 2000 WeBWorK problems covering pre-calculus, first year calculus, vector | ||
| 70 : | calculus, differential equations, probability, and statistics. These are all | ||
| 71 : | written in the pg language and should serve as good examples in case you want to | ||
| 72 : | write your own problems. | ||
| 73 : | |||
| 74 : | 5. You shouldn't really change the demoCourse (unless you are sure you know what | ||
| 75 : | you are doing). IMPORTANT NOTE , the (binary) databases are sytem dependent so | ||
| 76 : | we have not included the ones for the demoCourse in this distribution. You will | ||
| 77 : | have follow the instructions on initializing passwords, setting prof privileges, | ||
| 78 : | and building problem sets. After you have the demoCourse working, set up a new | ||
| 79 : | course and then play with it to your hearts content. Your demoCourse should be | ||
| 80 : | similar to ours: http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/courses/demoCourse . Note: | ||
| 81 : | the latex2html gifs for the demoCourse have not been pre created. Thus if you | ||
| 82 : | select "typeset" mode there will be a delay as the gifs are created on the fly | ||
| 83 : | (assuming everything works). Depending on your system, the actual TeX fonts may | ||
| 84 : | be created on the fly the first few times if TeX is new on your system. If you | ||
| 85 : | view the problem again, there will be no delay as the gifs are stored and reused | ||
| 86 : | (unless you have edited the problem template in the mean time). Also you will | ||
| 87 : | have to install tth binary (which is needed for "formatted text" mode). Install | ||
| 88 : | the correct binary for your system. Directions for doing this are given in | ||
| 89 : | linux.html. Initially, we suggest you test things out using "text" mode. | ||
| 90 : | |||
| 91 : | 6. By default, WeBWorK used the gdbm database. You can also use the Berkeley | ||
| 92 : | db database by changing a setting in Global.pm (or in an individual course). | ||
| 93 : | Be warned that we have not tested things extensively with the db database. We | ||
| 94 : | highly reccommend you use gdbm. | ||
| 95 : | |||
| 96 : | 7. Here is the general structure: webwork/courses contains individual courses | ||
| 97 : | and webwork/system contains all the common system files. The file | ||
| 98 : | .../system/lib/Global.pm contains defaults for the whole system. Most of these | ||
| 99 : | can be over ridden for a particular course in the e.g. | ||
| 100 : | .../courses/mth140a/webworkCourse.ph file. This file is created when you set | ||
| 101 : | up a new course (mth140a in the above example). As an example, $htmlModeDefault | ||
| 102 : | = 'Latex2HTML'; in webworkCourse.ph overrides $htmlModeDefault = 'HTML'; in | ||
| 103 : | Global.pm for the mth140a course. In general, the webworkCourse.ph file | ||
| 104 : | contains course specific information. | ||
| 105 : | |||
| 106 : | 8. Different courses can use different macros for writing and answering | ||
| 107 : | problems. By default, all courses use the same macros found in | ||
| 108 : | .../system/courseScripts. One can change this in webworkCourse.ph to point to | ||
| 109 : | course specific macros. Look at these files especially if you want to write | ||
| 110 : | your own answering mechanisms and/or problem writing macros. Our hope is that | ||
| 111 : | this will become a little like TeX. Standard macros used by almost everybody | ||
| 112 : | that can be added to by individuals. Similarly, in .../system/courseScripts you | ||
| 113 : | will find displayMacros.pl which controls how problems are displayed. E.g. if | ||
| 114 : | a prof doesn't want to use latex2html, editing a few lines in displayMacros.pl | ||
| 115 : | (actually one should move displayMacros to a course specific site and point to | ||
| 116 : | that in webworkCourse.ph before making changes) will eliminate all references to | ||
| 117 : | "typeset" for his course or a prof could add a new mode. The point is that one | ||
| 118 : | can change quite a few things without changing the system code. In practice, | ||
| 119 : | most users will be content to use the standard macros in .../system/courseScripts. | ||
| 120 : | |||
| 121 : | 9. If you do try to improve the code, please inform us of any suggested changes. | ||
| 122 : | We certainly want to maintain one consistent WeBWorK product. The is one reason | ||
| 123 : | for us copyrighting the "WeBWorK" name. | ||
| 124 : | |||
| 125 : | 10. Trouble shooting. The thing that causes the most problems is permissions. | ||
| 126 : | If you carefully follow the set up procedures, we hope you won't have problems. | ||
| 127 : | |||
| 128 : | If you do have problems (especially if you see Internal Server Error), | ||
| 129 : | edit ../webwork/system/lib/webworkConfig.pm setting | ||
| 130 : | $cgiDebugMode = 1; | ||
| 131 : | $cgiDebugMode, when enabled, will call the debug wrapper scripts instead of the | ||
| 132 : | cgi scripts themselves, allowing for header output, etc. In addition to setting | ||
| 133 : | $cgiDebugMode =1, you will also need to enable debugging in the wrapper script | ||
| 134 : | for the cgi script that you wish to debug, by setting $debug = 1. Wrapper | ||
| 135 : | scripts are found in the directory referred to by $cgiWebworkURL, which is # | ||
| 136 : | usually webwork/system/cgi and have the same name as the underlying cgi script. | ||
| 137 : | $cgiDebugMode = 0; | ||
| 138 : | |||
| 139 : | Further look in the error logs for your webserver and in WeBWorK's error log | ||
| 140 : | .../webwork/system/logs/error_log. | ||
| 141 : | |||
| 142 : | For debugging errors in output (postscript,latex2html, etc), you can set | ||
| 143 : | $debugON=1 in .../cgi/cgiscripts/welcomeAction.pl and $debug=1 in | ||
| 144 : | ../courseScripts/displayMacros.pl. Doing so will save intermediate temporary | ||
| 145 : | files (log files, TeX files, etc) that may help in finding the error. Don't | ||
| 146 : | leave these set to 1. If you do, you will find your file system filling up. | ||
| 147 : | |||
| 148 : | Hopefully there are no hidden system dependencies in our code. | ||
| 149 : | |||
| 150 : | 11. Some problems have a hard coded statement that you have to get all parts | ||
| 151 : | correct in order to receive credit. This is not true if the partial credit | ||
| 152 : | problem grader is used. In general, it is better to let the software generate | ||
| 153 : | such statements rather than put them in problems. But we have not edited them | ||
| 154 : | all out. Also some problems have the statement that you have to use a * to | ||
| 155 : | denote multiplication. This is no longer true. A few problems have references to | ||
| 156 : | specific texts. They may have to be edited. | ||
| 157 : | |||
| 158 : | 12. Initially we ran WeBWorK under IRIX on an SGI Indy. We then ran it under | ||
| 159 : | FreeBSD on a pentium II 400 mhz machine with about 900 students (in several | ||
| 160 : | classes, the largest having about 250 students). We started running into | ||
| 161 : | performance problems so we switched to a dual procesor pentium III 500 mhz | ||
| 162 : | server from Dell (cost $2,300) still using FreeBSD. So far this machine has | ||
| 163 : | no problem handling this load. Others have installed WeBWorK on PC's running | ||
| 164 : | Red Hat Linux, Solaris, and on alpha workstations. There are well know | ||
| 165 : | performance problems associated with running very busy interactive web sites | ||
| 166 : | (and WeBWorK is highly interactive). We expect with the present software, | ||
| 167 : | WeBWorK will have performance problems with very large classes or on old, slow | ||
| 168 : | hardware. We hope to address these potential problems in the future. | ||
| 169 : | |||
| 170 : | 13. It would be very helpful to us if you could keep track of how the | ||
| 171 : | installation process goes and tell us about confusing instructions, | ||
| 172 : | errors, suggestions for improvements, etc. | ||
| 173 : | |||
| 174 : | Mike Gage and Arnie Pizer |
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