Introduction

This document provides detailed installation instructions for configuring and deploying VocBench version 2.2 (and 2.2.1). Instructions for older versions may be accessed here

The installation package of Vocbench downloadable from its project site, which contains all or most of the components for installing VB, will be referred along the guide as:

INST_PKG

When a file name for an installation component is referred in this guide without further specifying its full path, we are assuming it is in INST_PKG.

If you have already installed vocbench in the past, you may want to read the next section, otherwise you may skip it and go directly to the "Requirements" section.

Main changes in the installation procedure wrt last (2.1) version (read this if you come from 2.1 and you need only a quick update)

• An important change in ST: moved to the karaf OSGi container. Just run it through the bin/st_server_run batch/bash file. The new ST is totally compatible with the same data folder (SemanticTurkeyData) of the previous Semantic Turkey , so no need to update/change the existing data.
• ST Instance Manager: Now there is no need any more of pasting the full URL to connect to Semantic Turkey. You can define ST instances (i.e. ST connection configurations) in terms of baseURL and port. Note that there is a preset instance configured with ST default connection values (port:1979, baseurl: http://localhost)
• Running more projects on the same ST instance: from ST 0.10 (the one distributed with VB2.2), it is now possible to manage more projects in parallel with the same ST instance (technical details on the ST site: http://semanticturkey.uniroma2.it). Through the ST instance manager, it is possible to associate and host different projects on ST instances, though this is no more necessary as the same instance can be used with all the projects.

Requirements

Third Party Software

1. Apache Tomcat web server (version 6.0 or higher)
   
   EXAMPLE: debian:apt-get update; apt-get install sun-java6-jdk apache2 tomcat6 libmysql-java

   
   

2. MySQL database server (version  5.0 or higher)
   
   EXAMPLE:

   • debian:apt-get install mysql-server

   • Note Root password
   • Add extra users for VocBench if required
     
     
3. GraphDB. (you may postpone the installation of GraphDB if you want to test VocBench with a small thesaurus; we recommed however GraphDB for better reliability and larger scalability; see "Running Semantic Turkey on GraphDB")

Our Software

• Semantic Turkey ServerVersion; use the package found in the INST_PKG: ST-Server.zip (see installation steps)

• VocBench application war file  use the package found in the INST_PKG

• VocBench OSGi bundle for ST; just use the package found in INST_PKG; (usually, it comes already ambedded inside the Semantic Turkey package, you may check it in the /extensions/service folder of the Semantic Turkey server)

Installation Steps

Setting up the main Software Components

1.  Semantic Turkey Server Setup

• Unzip the package ST-Server.zip in a directory of your choice

In the bin directory of ST-Server, there are batch files for Windows (.bat) and UNIX (.sh) to run the server.

A further integration step would ask for VocBench OSGi bundle {ST.VB-BUNDLE.VERSION} to be copied inside the ST-Server directory under folder ST-Server\extensions\service. However, the OSGi bundle already comes packed inside the ST-Server, so perform this only if you get a specific update of the OSGi bundle.

2.  VOCBENCH Setup  

• Drop the {VB.VERSION} .war file in the Tomcat webapps folder and start Tomcat
  
  
• Reach vocbench at the address: http://localhost:8080/vocbench/ (the port baseurl and depend on your Tomcat settings). A configuration menu will be shown. All properties the values of which are filled with xxxx should be mandatorily set by the user, while the others may be kept as they are (though can be customized as well). Note that any specificity in the installation of the other tools may require changes in these properties (e.g. the DB.CONNECTIONURL may need to be changed to reflect a different port for your MySQL installation).
  
  
  • for a plain simple installation, with standard MySQL settings, the minimal requirement is to set the password of the root account of the DB. All the other configuration parameters can be left unchanged, thus assuming the default values. These parameters can be changed later by explicitly invoking the configuration menu from inside VB.
    
    
• See also the System Administration Guide for more information on these properties.
  
  

• Note that if the DB you specified had already been initialized by a past version of VocBench, you may be prompted with a DB update page, asking you to run a few update scripts in order to make the DB schema (and content) be updated with the requirements of the new VocBench.

Running the System

Running Semantic Turkey

Start Semantic Turkey by using the batch file in the ST-Server directory (server_run.bat for windows and server_run.sh for UNIX systems).

Running Vocbench

VB has been preconfigured with administrator user. Use following credentials to connect as administrator. 

Username: administrator

Password: 111111

Administrators are the super users who can create/approve requests for new users.

Playing around

Now, let's go for a first Quick Test Drive !!!

There is a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing specific issues related to installation