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| 1 : | apizer | 569 | readme.install file for WeBWorK version 1.8 |
| 2 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 3 : | ********************************************************************** | ||
| 4 : | |||
| 5 : | apizer | 573 | The basic requirements for setting up WeBWorK is a unix system running the |
| 6 : | apache webserver, perl, and LaTeX. Probably your system already has all these | ||
| 7 : | installed. In addition for the readable display of mathematical expressions you | ||
| 8 : | will need tth, latex2html, and dvipng. You can make do with a subset of these, | ||
| 9 : | but we recommend you install all of them. You will need a system administrator | ||
| 10 : | to do some of the set up and it would be a good idea for him or her to be | ||
| 11 : | involved from the beginning. Our system admin is Hoss Firooznia | ||
| 12 : | (hfir@math.rochester.edu) and he would certainly be willing to answer questions. | ||
| 13 : | Similarly, Mike Gage (gage@math.rochester.edu) or Arnie Pizer | ||
| 14 : | (apizer@math.rochester.edu) are willing to help. | ||
| 15 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 16 : | |||
| 17 : | apizer | 569 | 1. Download the following files using a web browser (ftp access is not allowed). |
| 18 : | Connect to http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/ and then click on | ||
| 19 : | apizer | 573 | Download Software and follow the instructions. You will have to register to |
| 20 : | apizer | 542 | download files. If you have difficulty registering, contact Gage or Pizer. |
| 21 : | |||
| 22 : | webwork_VERSION_SUBVERSION-MONTH-DAY-YEAR.tar.gz | ||
| 23 : | templates_VERSION_SUBVERSION-MONTH-DAY-YEAR.tar.gz | ||
| 24 : | |||
| 25 : | and also: | ||
| 26 : | |||
| 27 : | readme.first | ||
| 28 : | readme.install | ||
| 29 : | readme.upgrade | ||
| 30 : | overview.html | ||
| 31 : | linux.html (really instructions for setting up WeBWorK on any unix system) | ||
| 32 : | apizer | 569 | linux-redhat-8.0.html (instructions for setting up RedHat 8.0 as a WeBWorK server) |
| 33 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 34 : | apizer | 569 | These six files are contained in webwork_X.X_XX-MONTH-XX-XXXX.tar.gz but you |
| 35 : | apizer | 542 | should look at |
| 36 : | overview.html and | ||
| 37 : | readme.install | ||
| 38 : | apizer | 569 | for information on where to install the files. Even if you are not using |
| 39 : | RedHat, we recommend that you read linux-redhat-8.0.html as this contains | ||
| 40 : | apizer | 542 | useful information. |
| 41 : | |||
| 42 : | |||
| 43 : | apizer | 569 | 3. Unzip and untar the tar file webwork_1.8_XXX.tar.gz tar -xzvf |
| 44 : | webwork_1.8_XXX.tar.gz This will create the directory webwork_1.8_XXX containing | ||
| 45 : | the main webwork directory and six additional files: three readme files | ||
| 46 : | (readme.first, readme.install, readme.upgrade), an overview of the setup | ||
| 47 : | procedure (overview.html),the detailed setup procedure (linux.html), and a | ||
| 48 : | detailed explaination for setting up a server for WeBWorK using RedHat Linux 8.0 | ||
| 49 : | (linux-redhat-8.0.html). Follow the procedures in these documents. | ||
| 50 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 51 : | apizer | 573 | After you set up the demoCourse, when you connect to demoCourse, you will see a |
| 52 : | link to the WeBWorK documentation. We have a lot of documentation (most of which | ||
| 53 : | we hope is correct). It's not that well organized so you have to hunt around | ||
| 54 : | for stuff. The documentation we use the most is "A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WEBWORK | ||
| 55 : | PROFESSOR" | ||
| 56 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 57 : | http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/docs/docs/courseadmin/usingwebwork.html | ||
| 58 : | |||
| 59 : | Also see the doc's on using the pg language (for writing problems) | ||
| 60 : | |||
| 61 : | http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/docs/docs/pglanguage/ | ||
| 62 : | |||
| 63 : | This is a discussion group where you can ask questions and hopefully receive | ||
| 64 : | answers from other WeBWorK users (and or search through questions, answers, | ||
| 65 : | and documentation). | ||
| 66 : | |||
| 67 : | http://webhost.math.rochester.edu/webworkdocs/discuss/ | ||
| 68 : | |||
| 69 : | apizer | 569 | 4. We use the pg language (almost perl with some macros) for writing problems. |
| 70 : | The templates_X.X_XX-MONTH-XX-XXXX.tar.gz file contains a library approximately | ||
| 71 : | 2500 WeBWorK problems covering pre-calculus, first year calculus, vector | ||
| 72 : | calculus, differential equations, probability, and statistics. These are all | ||
| 73 : | written in the pg language and should serve as good examples in case you want to | ||
| 74 : | write your own problems. In addition you can connect to | ||
| 75 : | apizer | 573 | http://webwork-db.math.rochester.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/ and download problems |
| 76 : | written at other institutions. | ||
| 77 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 78 : | apizer | 569 | 5. You shouldn't really change the demoCourse (unless you are sure you know what |
| 79 : | you are doing). IMPORTANT NOTE , the (binary) databases are sytem dependent so | ||
| 80 : | we have not included the ones for the demoCourse in this distribution. You will | ||
| 81 : | have follow the instructions on initializing passwords, setting prof privileges, | ||
| 82 : | and building problem sets. After you have the demoCourse working, set up a new | ||
| 83 : | course and then play with it to your hearts content. Your demoCourse should be | ||
| 84 : | similar to ours: http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/courses/demoCourse . Note: | ||
| 85 : | the latex2html gifs for the demoCourse have not been pre created. Thus if you | ||
| 86 : | select "typeset" mode there will be a delay as the gifs are created on the fly | ||
| 87 : | (assuming everything works). Depending on your system, the actual TeX fonts may | ||
| 88 : | be created on the fly the first few times if TeX is new on your system. If you | ||
| 89 : | view the problem again, there will be no delay as the gifs are stored and reused | ||
| 90 : | (unless you have edited the problem template in the mean time). "typeset2" mode, | ||
| 91 : | which uses dvipng, is much faster than latex2html and provides the same quality | ||
| 92 : | images. Also you will have to install tth binary (which is needed for "formatted | ||
| 93 : | text" mode). Install the correct binary for your system. Directions for doing | ||
| 94 : | this are given in linux.html. Initially, we suggest you test things out using | ||
| 95 : | "text" mode. | ||
| 96 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 97 : | 6. By default, WeBWorK used the gdbm database. You can also use the Berkeley | ||
| 98 : | db database by changing a setting in Global.pm (or in an individual course). | ||
| 99 : | Be warned that we have not tested things extensively with the db database. We | ||
| 100 : | highly reccommend you use gdbm. | ||
| 101 : | |||
| 102 : | apizer | 569 | 7. Here is the general structure: webwork/courses contains individual courses |
| 103 : | and webwork/system contains all the common system files. The file | ||
| 104 : | .../system/lib/Global.pm contains defaults for the whole system. Most of these | ||
| 105 : | can be over ridden for a particular course in the e.g. | ||
| 106 : | .../courses/mth140a/webworkCourse.ph file. This file is created when you set | ||
| 107 : | up a new course (mth140a in the above example). As an example, $htmlModeDefault | ||
| 108 : | = 'Latex2HTML'; in webworkCourse.ph overrides $htmlModeDefault = 'HTML'; in | ||
| 109 : | Global.pm for the mth140a course. In general, the webworkCourse.ph file | ||
| 110 : | apizer | 573 | contains course specific information. E.g. if a prof doesn't want to use |
| 111 : | latex2html, copying | ||
| 112 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 113 : | apizer | 573 | # The rendering modes for onscreen problem display which are available to the student. |
| 114 : | # Modes can be added, or commented out here. Adding a new mode required additional changes. | ||
| 115 : | # The format is [internal symbol, external name]. | ||
| 116 : | $available_mode_list = [ | ||
| 117 : | ['HTML', 'text'], | ||
| 118 : | ['HTML_tth', 'formatted-text'], | ||
| 119 : | ['HTML_dpng' ,'typeset2'], | ||
| 120 : | ['Latex2HTML', 'typeset'] | ||
| 121 : | ]; | ||
| 122 : | |||
| 123 : | from Global.pm to webworkCourse.ph and then commenting out the | ||
| 124 : | "['Latex2HTML', 'typeset']" line will eliminate all references to "typeset" mode | ||
| 125 : | for his or her course. Or a prof could change the external name for a mode. | ||
| 126 : | |||
| 127 : | apizer | 542 | 8. Different courses can use different macros for writing and answering |
| 128 : | problems. By default, all courses use the same macros found in | ||
| 129 : | .../system/courseScripts. One can change this in webworkCourse.ph to point to | ||
| 130 : | course specific macros. Look at these files especially if you want to write | ||
| 131 : | your own answering mechanisms and/or problem writing macros. Our hope is that | ||
| 132 : | this will become a little like TeX. Standard macros used by almost everybody | ||
| 133 : | apizer | 573 | that can be added to by individuals. The point is that one can change quite a |
| 134 : | few things without changing the system code. In practice, most users will be | ||
| 135 : | content to use the standard macros in .../system/courseScripts. | ||
| 136 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 137 : | 9. If you do try to improve the code, please inform us of any suggested changes. | ||
| 138 : | We certainly want to maintain one consistent WeBWorK product. The is one reason | ||
| 139 : | for us copyrighting the "WeBWorK" name. | ||
| 140 : | |||
| 141 : | 10. Trouble shooting. The thing that causes the most problems is permissions. | ||
| 142 : | If you carefully follow the set up procedures, we hope you won't have problems. | ||
| 143 : | apizer | 573 | Also sometimes the paths to required unix programs are wrong. Again if you |
| 144 : | carefully follow the set up procedures, this should not occur. If it does, look | ||
| 145 : | at the messages in WeBWorK's error log (see below). | ||
| 146 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 147 : | apizer | 573 | Further look in the error logs for your webserver and in WeBWorK's error log |
| 148 : | .../webwork/system/logs/error_log. | ||
| 149 : | |||
| 150 : | For debugging errors in output (postscript,latex2html, etc), you can set | ||
| 151 : | $debugON=1 in .../cgi/cgiscripts/welcomeAction.pl and $debug=1 in | ||
| 152 : | ../courseScripts/displayMacros.pl. Doing so will save intermediate temporary | ||
| 153 : | files (log files, TeX files, etc) that may help in finding the error. Don't | ||
| 154 : | leave these set to 1. If you do, you will find your file system filling up. | ||
| 155 : | |||
| 156 : | If you do still have trouble (especially if you see Internal Server Error), | ||
| 157 : | apizer | 569 | edit ../webwork/system/lib/webworkConfig.pm setting |
| 158 : | apizer | 542 | $cgiDebugMode = 1; |
| 159 : | apizer | 569 | $cgiDebugMode, when enabled, will call the debug wrapper scripts instead of the |
| 160 : | cgi scripts themselves, allowing for header output, etc. In addition to setting | ||
| 161 : | $cgiDebugMode =1, you will also need to enable debugging in the wrapper script | ||
| 162 : | for the cgi script that you wish to debug, by setting $debug = 1. Wrapper | ||
| 163 : | scripts are found in the directory referred to by $cgiWebworkURL, which is # | ||
| 164 : | usually webwork/system/cgi and have the same name as the underlying cgi script. | ||
| 165 : | apizer | 542 | $cgiDebugMode = 0; |
| 166 : | |||
| 167 : | apizer | 569 | 11. Some problems have a hard coded statement that you have to get all parts |
| 168 : | correct in order to receive credit. This is not true if the partial credit | ||
| 169 : | problem grader is used. In general, it is better to let the software generate | ||
| 170 : | such statements rather than put them in problems. But we have not edited them | ||
| 171 : | all out. Also some problems have the statement that you have to use a * to | ||
| 172 : | apizer | 542 | denote multiplication. This is no longer true. A few problems have references to |
| 173 : | apizer | 569 | specific texts. They may have to be edited. |
| 174 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 175 : | 12. Initially we ran WeBWorK under IRIX on an SGI Indy. We then ran it under | ||
| 176 : | FreeBSD on a pentium II 400 mhz machine with about 900 students (in several | ||
| 177 : | classes, the largest having about 250 students). We started running into | ||
| 178 : | performance problems so we switched to a dual procesor pentium III 500 mhz | ||
| 179 : | apizer | 573 | server from Dell (cost $2,300) still using FreeBSD. That machine provided good |
| 180 : | performance. We just switched to a Dell PowerEdge 4600 with dual 2 GHz Xeon | ||
| 181 : | processors (cost $5,000). This is one fast machine wich is more than adequate | ||
| 182 : | for the 1300 students we have using the system. Others have installed WeBWorK | ||
| 183 : | on PC's running Red Hat Linux, Solaris, and on alpha workstations. There are | ||
| 184 : | well know performance problems associated with running very busy interactive web | ||
| 185 : | sites (and WeBWorK is highly interactive). We expect with the present software, | ||
| 186 : | apizer | 542 | WeBWorK will have performance problems with very large classes or on old, slow |
| 187 : | apizer | 573 | hardware. We hope to address these potential problems with a mod_perl |
| 188 : | release of WeBWorK in the future. | ||
| 189 : | apizer | 542 | |
| 190 : | 13. It would be very helpful to us if you could keep track of how the | ||
| 191 : | installation process goes and tell us about confusing instructions, | ||
| 192 : | errors, suggestions for improvements, etc. | ||
| 193 : | |||
| 194 : | Mike Gage and Arnie Pizer |
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