Installer Instructions

To install CourseMill, you will complete the following steps:

  1. Setup the CourseMill Web Server with JSP 1.0 support.

  2. Setup the CourseMill Database.

  3. Modify the CourseMill Configuration Settings.

Web Server Configuration

Apache Tomcat requires that you have installed the Java Runtime Environment 5.0 from Sun Microsystems (JRE 5.0), which is available at http://www.sun.com. The JRE 1.5.0_13 is included on this CD and can be installed by clicking the button below.

To install Tomcat as your JSP engine click the button below. (NOTE: Check the Examples component box of the Choose Components dialog of the Tomcat installation in order to test the Tomcat installation later in the CourseMill installation.)

Before continuing, it is recommended that you test to make sure each of these components is functioning properly. If the test fails, you need to configure or reinstall the component.

To test JRE, open up a command window and type java -version then press return. You should see something like:

    java version "1.6.0_30"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.6.0_30-b12)

Make sure the version number is 1.5.0_13 or newer.

To configure IIS to work with Tomcat, you need to configure an ISAPI Filter to redirect HTTP requests to the appropriate Tomcat worker. The Tomcat configuration files you will need can be found in the Apache directory of your CourseMill Installation CD #1. Follow these steps to configure your Tomcat JSP Engine:

The following configuration steps are done through the IIS Management Console.

You have now completed configuring IIS and Tomcat to serve JavaServer Page content. Certain pieces of the configuration will not be complete until you restart your machine.

Once you have rebooted, you can verify the JavaServer Page configuration by running the sample snoop JSP page that is included with Tomcat.

In your browser load the page http://www.yourserver.com/examples/jsp/snp/snoop.jsp, and you should see the information describing your request. Next we will configure the web server to share documents.

 

CourseMill Enterprise allows the instructor and students to transfer documents. In order to save and retrieve documents for sharing across the web, the Web server has to be set up with a virtual directory. Follow the steps below to set up the virtual directory in IIS:

  1. In Windows Explorer, create a new directory 'C:\CMTemp'.

  2. In the IIS Management Console:

    1. Right-click the site and then click Add Virtual Directory

    2. Set the Alias to 'CMTemp' and set the Physical Path to point to the new directory 'C:\CMTemp'.

    3. In the Handler Mapping choose "Edit Feature Permissions..." 'Read' and 'Execute Scripts'.

Web Applications (referred to as contexts within Tomcat) are automatically deployed by Tomcat. The Tomcat configuration files used to work with the CourseMill Web Application have already been put into place through the previous steps. Follow these steps to install the CourseMill Web Application:

  1. Stop Tomcat. (NOTE: If Tomcat was installed as a service, then you must stop and start Apache Tomcat from the Services Panel.)

  2. Install the CourseMill system by copying the file cm6.war from the "default" folder located in the CourseMill Files directory on the CourseMill Installation CD #1 into your Tomcat webapps directory, c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.5\webapps.

  3. Start Tomcat. Tomcat will automatically create all of the directories needed and unpack the CourseMill files from the war file into the appropriate locations.

You now have CourseMill application deployed on your Web Server. The next step in the installation process is to set up the CourseMill database.

To use MySQL installed on your system with CourseMill:

Download and install the MySQL ODBC connector from http://www.mysql.com.

Copy the files createMySQLdb.bat and createMySQLdb.sql to your system.

If your copy of MySQL is not installed to c:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0, make the necessary changes to the createMySQLdb.bat file.

Run the createMySQLdb.bat file from the command line using the database password as a parameter.

If your database does not require a user ID and password, you can edit and remove them from the MySQL commands in the batch file.

In the CourseMill.cfg file edit the following parameters, replacing the text in italics with your server information:

DBType=MySQL
User=coursemill
Password=coursemill
JDBCDriver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
JDBCConnectionURL=jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:3306/coursemill

Restart the Apache Tomcat service

Go to http://www.yourserver.com/cm6/ If the login screen opens up, you now have the CourseMill database set up.

CourseMill configuration settings.

You will need to define the default course base directory on your web server that will be used to store and access your published courses. The suggested defaults are:

For Apache 2.0 Web Server, c:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/course

For IIS Web Server, c:/Inetpub/wwwroot/course (This one is defined by default)

From Windows Explorer, create the course in the location specified above for your web server.

You now have your Course Base Directory set up for CourseMill.

Next we Configure the CourseMill application settings.

CourseMill has a few customization settings that it needs to have set to understand how the web server, database and course directories were setup. To edit these settings:

Edit the coursemill.cfg file in the installation of CourseMill. (For Tomcat, coursemill.cfg is located in Tomcat's webapps\coursemill\WEB-INF\classes\trivantis folder.)

Set the appropriate database type, DBType=SQLServer, MySQL, Oracle or DB2 and credentials to login to the database.

If using an Oracle database, then set the following JDBC driver and connection url, JDBCDriver=oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver JDBCConnectionURL=jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:CourseMill

Save and close coursemill.cfg.

Restart your Application Server. (How to restart the Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Application Server?)

All further configuration of CourseMill will be accomplished in the Admin Tasks portion of the interface under the Manage Properties menu item.

You now have completed the installation of the CourseMill application.

CourseMill comes configured with a predefined Administrator ID of admin with a password of admin. It is recommended that you change the password immediately upon logging in. If you have installed to a directory called cm6, the login screen can be found at http://www.yourserver.com/cm6/. Bring up this page and type in the ID and password mentioned above, and you should be logged into the system.

If using external email support, set the server and port for your SMTP Mail Server, along with the main admin email address.

SMTPServer=www.YourSMTPServer.com

SMTPPort=25

SMTPUsername=yourSMTPaccount

SMTPPassword=yourSMTPpassword

AdminEmail=admin_do_not_reply@somewhere.com

Replace www.coursemill.com in the DefaultWebBaseDir and TempWebDir settings with your webserver's URL or IP address.

If you use multiple IP addresses or domain names for the same server machine, enter all IP addresses and domain names in the AltServerNames setting (comma separated).

Set the DefaultLocalBaseDir value to the Course Base directory created in the previous page. It defaults to the IIS directory location.

Save and apply all changes.

In the Admin Tasks menu, select the Enter Activation Code option which will present you with a dialog to enter the Activation Code that was issued to you when you purchased CourseMill.

If you do not have an Activation Code, contact Trivantis to register your copy of CourseMill (you will need the IP address that appears in the Activation Code dialog to complete registration). Once you have completed registration, you will be given an Activation Code for your server.