Topic: Dolphin Community Software - Boonex

[chaloner]

I have installed their latest version (Dolphin 7) without problem at http://dolphin.chaloner.ca using SME 7.4. I have also installed their version 6.16 using SME 8.

I will try to put together my scraps of notes into something readable. It really wasn't very difficult.

Enjoy the holidays,

Chaloner Hale

[cactus]

I will try to put together my scraps of notes into something readable. It really wasn't very difficult.

Please do so, but put it in the Howto category of the wiki.

[Franco]

I will try to put together my scraps of notes into something readable. It really wasn't very difficult.

Please 

[chaloner]

SERVER MANAGER CONFIGURATION (http://yourdomain.com/server-manager)

CREATE DOLPHIN IBAY (Collaboration => Information bays => Add i-bay)
   Information bay name=dolphin
   Description=dolphin iBay
Group = Everyone
User access via file sharing or user ftp=”Write=group, Read=everyone”
Public access via web or anonymous ftp=Entire Internet (no password required)
Execution of dynamic content (CGI, PHP, SSI)=Enabled

CREATE DOLPHIN VIRTUAL DOMAIN (Configuration => Domains => Add domain)
Domain name=dolphin.yourdomain.com
Brief description=dolphin vDomain
i-bay=dolphin iBay
bDomain DNS servers=Internet DNS servers
Note: add a DNS pointer (A record) with your provider that points your IP to http://dolphin.yourdomain.com

DOWNLOAD AND EXTRACT THE TARBALL
Make the following directory after logging in to the console as root
# mkdir /root/dolphin7
Change into the dolphin7 directory
# cd /root/dolphin7
Download the dolphin7 tarball
# wget ftp://chaloner.ca/dolphin7.tar
Extract the tarball with;
# tar –xvf dolphin.tar
Note: all installations steps require you to be in /root/dolphin7 when executed

REVIEW DOLPHIN INSTALLATION GUIDE
Review online;
http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/DetailedInstall70
or locally;
/root/dolphin7/installguide.pdf

INSTALL MOD-REWRITE
Files required:   modrewrite.sh
Installation method:
# sh modrewrite.sh
or manually;
modrewrite.sh (contents)
db accounts setprop dolphin FollowSymLinks enabled
db accounts setprop dolphin AllowOverride All
signal-event ibay-modify dolphin

SETUP PHPBASEDIR
Files required:   phpbasedir.sh
Installation method:
# sh phpbasedir.sh
or manually;
phpbasedir.sh (contents)
/sbin/e-smith/db accounts setprop dolphin PHPBaseDir /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html:/tmp
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event ibay-modify dolphin

CONFIGURE PHP VARIABLES
Files required:   configphp.sh
Installation method:
# sh configphp.sh
or manually;
configphp.sh (contents)
db configuration setprop php MaxExecutionTime 3000
db configuration setprop php PostMaxSize 300M
db configuration setprop php UploadMaxFilesize 300M
db configuration setprop php MemoryLimit 128M
db configuration setprop php AllowUrlFopen On
expand-template /etc/php.ini
/etc/init.d/httpd-e-smith restart
db configuration show php

INSTALL PHP5 (5.2.8)
Files required:   installphp5.sh
Installation method:
# sh installphp5.sh
or manually;
installphp5.sh (contents)
yum --enablerepo=smecontribs install smeserver-php5-cgi
signal-event post-upgrade
signal-event reboot
Note: this step will automatically reboot your system

ACTIVATE PHP5 FOR DOLPHIN
Files required: activatephp5.sh
Installation method:
# sh activatephp5.sh
or manually;
activatephp5.sh (contents)
db accounts setprop dolphin php5 yes
signal-event ibay-modify dolphin
expand-template /etc/php5/php.ini
expand-template /etc/php.ini
/etc/init.d/httpd-e-smith restart

CREATE DOLPHIN DATABASE (manual console commands as root)
Note:  you will need to substitute a password of your choice for ‘yourDBpassword’
Installation method:
# mysqladmin create dolphin
# mysql
grant all on dolphin.* to dolphin@localhost identified by ‘yourDBpassword’;
flush privileges;
quit
Note:  the following database variables you will need for the actual dolphin7 installation further on;
database name=dolphin
database user=dolphin
database password=yourDBpassword
PHP location=/usr/bin/php5/php

INSTALL DOLPHIN FILES
Files required:    installdolphin.sh, Dolphin-v.7.0.0.zip
Installation method:
# sh installdolphin.sh
or manually;
installdolphin.sh (contents)
rm –Rf /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html/index.html
cp Dolphin-v.7.0.0.zip /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html
cd /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html
unzip Dolphin-v.7.0.0.zip
rm –Rf Dolphin-v.7.0.0.zip
cd /root/dolphin7

SET PERMISSIONS PRIOR TO ACTUAL INSTALL
Files required:   setpermissions.sh
Installation method:
# sh setpermissions.sh
or manually;
# cd /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html
# chmod -v 777 ./inc ./backup ./cache ./cache_public ./langs ./media/app ./media/images ./media/images/banners ./media/images/blog ./media/images/classifieds ./media/images/membership ./media/images/profile ./media/images/profile_bg ./media/images/promo ./media/images/promo/original ./tmp ./plugins/htmlpurifier/standalone/HTMLPurifier/DefinitionCache/Serializer ./plugins/htmlpurifier/standalone/HTMLPurifier/DefinitionCache/Serializer/HTML ./plugins/htmlpurifier/standalone/HTMLPurifier/DefinitionCache/Serializer/CSS ./plugins/htmlpurifier/standalone/HTMLPurifier/DefinitionCache/Serializer/Test ./plugins/htmlpurifier/standalone/HTMLPurifier/DefinitionCache/Serializer/URI
# chmod -v 777 ./flash/modules/board/files ./flash/modules/chat/files ./flash/modules/photo/files ./flash/modules/im/files ./flash/modules/mp3/files ./flash/modules/video/files ./flash/modules/video_comments/files
# chmod -v 666 inc/prof.inc.php
# cd /root/dolphin7

DOLPHIN 7 INSTALLATION
Using your browser navigate to http://dolphin.yourdomain.com
Note:  towards the end of the install the required cron entry will be provided to you based on information you provide. It should be identical to the one I have shown as example below in all respects other than for the email address. Pay particular attention to the location of php5, which should be /usr/bin/php5/php

PERMIISSION REVERSALS
Files required:   reversepermissions.sh
Installation method:
# sh reversepermissions.sh
Or manually;
# cd /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html
# chmod -v 755 ./inc
# cd /root/dolphin7

REMOVE INSTALL DIRECTORY
Files required:   removeinstall.sh
Installation method:
# sh removeinstall.sh
Or manually;
# rm –Rf /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html/install

SETUP CRONTAB ENTRY
Note:  You need to modify this entry and be sure it is identical to the one I show as example in all respects other than for the email address. Pay particular attention to the location of php5, which should be /usr/bin/php5/php
Files required:    crontab.sh, dolphin
Installation method:
# sh crontab.sh
or manually;
crontab.sh (contents)
mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/crontab
cp /root/dolphin7/dolphin /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/crontab
expand-template /etc/crontab
service crond restart

dolphin (contents)
MAILTO=email@chaloner.ca
* * * * * cd /home/e-smith/files/ibays/dolphin/html/periodic; /usr/bin/php5/php -q cron.php

ENJOY YOUR NEW SITE
http://dolphin.yourdomain.com
http://dolphin.yourdomain.com/administration

[chaloner]

I'm sorry this will have to do for the time being. I am in a really nice hotel with spotty wifi, at the highest ski hill in North America, in the middle of a huge snow storm, just waiting to get up and have a wonderful breakfast and then head out for a day of SUPERB CHOPPER SKIING with my son...

Happy New Year!

Chaloner Hale

[christian]

So would that be Heli skiing on Mount Logan
or lift skiing at Loveland?

I have a feeling you are going to say something else...

[chaloner]

No, we are skiing at Revelstoke BC. Loveland has 2,210 vertical feet and Revelstoke has 5,620. A big difference. This is some mountain.

[cactus]

No, we are skiing at Revelstoke BC. Loveland has 2,210 vertical feet and Revelstoke has 5,620. A big difference. This is some mountain.

That makes me jealous as I am here a little over sea level in the Netherlands with a wafer thin blanket of snow.

[Franco]

Thank you for this, unfortunatelly I'm getting:

Code: [Select]

mbstring extension not installed. Warning! Dolphin cannot work without mbstring extension.
Please go to the

[chaloner]

I used a fresh install of 7.4 updated without anything else. What are you using?

I have installed this several times now without any problem whatsoever. Has anyone else attempted to follow these instructions with any success?

Chal

[Franco]

Hi, disregard above!
I found the problem I was having.

You used the updated version of php-cgi which has support for mbstring.

Thanks again!

[christian]

No, we are skiing at Revelstoke BC. Loveland has 2,210 vertical feet and Revelstoke has 5,620. A big difference. This is some mountain.

Revelstoke is really great. I was teasing you on your use of "highest". Loveland's ski-able summit is just shy of 4000m in elevation (just over 13K feet). Revelstoke's summit is about 2200m (>7000 feet). Loveland makes an impression when you ski from the summit and discover the effects of oxygen deprivation on your legs. But yes Revelstoke has a greater ski-able vertical.

Enjoy! I'm stuck skiing east coast this year. But Cactus' comment did make it seem better.

[romeomustdie]

Why Boonex is a scam?

Boonex problem nr1. No coding standard

Boonex is writen by several people using different technologies. Its main base (Dolphin) is writen in pure php with its own template engine and forum  (Orca) uses xlst. That has large negative impact to integration of forum in site and site in forum. When coding, please use single technology and template system.

Whats even worser, different parts of dolphins code itself is writen by completely different people, and very in the hurry. So everyone has its own imagination how to interact with different parts of the code. It is very tricky to modify code that way to suit site needs.

Boonex problem nr2. Template engine and separation of code/design/database

This problem in dolphin/boonex needs a point on its own. Boonex uses custom template system ( that should be called layout system). The blocks of generated html code are pased to specific places in the template. That creates a big headache for programers as they need to search through code for the place where some box is generated. It might be generated in template, or in specific function in one of numerous includes. And so on. Even pligg has better templating than this.

It is very tricky to rip boonex templating apart, as whole coding is based on such poor programming practice. They would be better off using existing template system like smarty or similar one.

This leads to problem nr3

Boonex problem nr3. Crapy use of Database

We saw serveral other competing sites launched on boonex, but we did not care much. Why? Becouse when they reach 500-1000 daily visitors they will break apart. The reason for it is very bad programming and use of database.

For example, boonex uses profile builder which assigns fields to profiles. So the output of profile uses more than one table and is quite inefficient.

Also, there is a nice 20-30 query overhead on each page display to fetch all the configuration values from table. Silly, isn’t it ? They would be FAR better of using a file for configuring sofware or caching it in php file like it is done in most of the systems.

Another simple problem. When boonex wants to display a profile being online it additionally check database for its status. But that data was pulled from database already. So 20 useless queries again.

Resume

I would not suggest using boonex if you want to keep your programmers sane. We have have changed the code almost completely for now, and you will need to do that too. Boonex is a scam.

[Franco]

We have have changed the code almost completely for now, and you will need to do that too

Would be nice if you could share that with us!

Thanks,