CcHost

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Revision as of 06:49, 11 April 2006 by Fourstones (talk | contribs) (Installation)
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ccHost is an open source (GPL licensed) project that provides web-based infrastructure to support collaboration, sharing, and storage of multi-media using the Creative Commons licenses and metadata. It is used by ccMixter and other sites.

Information

Short Description

"Web-based System Supporting Remixing and Collaboration on Media"

Goal

The goal of this project is to spread media content that is licensed under Creative Commons throughout the web in much the same way that weblogs spread CC licensed text. ccHost is web-based infrastructure that may be used to host and allow for commenting, remixing, and distribution globally. The more installations of ccHost and its variations, the more content there will be available for enjoyment and artistic re-use in a sane and legal setting. ccHost is what is used for the infamous Creative Commons CC Mixter project which supports legal media sharing and remixing. For more information, contact Jon Phillips at jon@creativecommons.org.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Releases and Downloads

Current Version is 2.0

ccHost files on Source Forge

Press Releases

SVN (Source Code Repository)

HOWTO Tag a Release

Really, each major release needs to be tagged, but this 2.0.1 is the first SVN release, and we did it pots CVS -> SVN migration. In the future, this is the proper way to tag and branch.

svn copy https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cctools/cchost/trunk \
https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cctools/cchost/tags/2_0_1 \
-m "Tagging 2.0.1 bugfix release"

Here is more about SVN merging/branching.

Packaging

Sign Package

You should do this for all packages (RPM, tar.gz, zip, tar.bz2, etc)

gpg --detach-sign --armor cchost-VERSION.tar.gz

Verify Package

gpg --verify cchost-VERSION.tar.gz.asc

Communication

Bugs, Patches and Feature Requests

Make sure to use the 'ccHost' category when filing bugs. Also, please use a real email so that we can followup on any bugs posted. Be descriptive when posting and commenting on bugs (every bit counts).

Support

Browsers

  • Tested on: Firefox 1.0+ Mac/PC/Linux, IE 6+ PC, Safari Mac
  • Javascript, XHTML 1.0+, CSS 2

Usage Examples

Installation

The exact steps required to install ccHost depends on your web hosting environment.

  • Set up a database
    • For a shared host environment (such as http://dreamhost.com) before you can install ccHost you need use your hoster's control panel to create a MySQL database. Note the name you give it, it's server location, the MySQL username and password.
    • If you have root access to mysql (this is rare) you can use the command line mysql to create the database, the user and password.
  • Unzip the ccHost package on your local machine
  • Copy the files to your web server
    • Typically people do this using an ftp tool
    • You must retain the exact directory structure when you do this
  • Point your browser at http://where_you_installed_to/ccadmin

Every thing else you need to know will be on the screen from that point on, including any extra downloads (getid3), suggested php.ini settings, access permissions, etc.


Requirements

  • PHP 4 (PHP 5 works if you sync to latest code)
  • MySQL 4 (MySQL 5 works if you sync to latest code)
  • GetID3
  • Cookies enabled in one's browser.
  • Platforms: This system has been tested on Apache 1 and 2 Windows and Linux. It also works with IIS on Windows. If you receive an error about DOCUMENT_ROOT, ignore it. IIS doesn't use DOCUMENT_ROOT, and ccHost doesn't seem to mind. If you have tested ccHost on System X or any other platform, please register as a ccDeveloper and update this page! Thanks. =)
  • Optional: Here is my block of code in the Apache virtual host for setting the rewrite rules to get pretty urls:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName ccmixter.localhost
ServerPath /ccmixter
#DocumentRoot /var/www/localhost/htdocs/cchost 
DocumentRoot /home/rejon/Documents/freelance/creativecommons/src/ccmixter

<Directory "/home/rejon/Documents/freelance/creativecommons/src/ccmixter">
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?ccm=/$1 [L,QSA]
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

MySQL commands for Setting up DB

  • install root mysql user:
    • mysqladmin -u root password 'PASSWORD_HERE'
  • once logged into mysql:
    • create database cchost;
  • to create a new user once inside mysql with access to a table cchost:
    • grant all on cchost.* to jsmith@localhost identified by 'Secret15';

Notes

  • Installing the CCHost software involves downloading the source files from sourceforge, and running a simple installation script. Permissions will need to be set on several folders, namely cclib/phptal/phptal_cache.
  • The text for the front page can be changed by editing ccfiles/home.xml. The other menu functions and so on are generally modified using the admin functions of the site.

Development

Roadmap

Release Procedure

Community Building

Testing and Debugging

Sample Pools

People


History

Research