TG-marketplace

last modified on Jul 21, 2017

The marketplace Interface msInterface is the connector between the TextGridLab and the repository that contains additional plugins (Installing Additional Tools). This has been rewritten from scratch, because the old one (http://sourceforge.net/p/marketplace-cat/home/Home/) is not maintained any more and also buggy.

The new implementation is pretty lightweight, consisting of three files: a configuration, a script (Python) and an htaccess server configuration file which handles the rewriting of links. Information about the external plugins is maintained in this confluence wiki (https://dev2.dariah.eu/wiki/label/TextGrid/marketplace) and parts of these pages are parsed and offered to the Lab. Source code (GPL v2) is at https://projects.gwdg.de/projects/textgridlab-marketplace/repository. To add this marketplace to the Lab, go to its config file (textgridlab.ini) and add the line

-Dorg.eclipse.epp.internal.mpc.core.service.DefaultCatalogService.url=http://textgridlab.org/marketplace2/

If started, the new marketplace will show as an additional one in the lower window of the Marketplace:

Installation

The script itself is written in Python3 and will run as a cgi script on an Apache server. Apart from modules of the standard library, the only external module required is lxml. We also need to install the Apache module for Python. On a Debian-based Linux system, these can be installed with

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-python python3 python3-lxml

Clone the masterbranch of the software to anywhere you like on the server:

git clone git@git.projects.gwdg.de:textgridlab-marketplace.git

Set up the directory structure in the DocumentRoot and copy files to it.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/marketplace/cgi
sudo cp ms.conf msInterface.cgi /var/www/marketplace/cgi
sudo cp htaccess /var/www/marketplace/.htaccess

It's also neat to have a little icon (enhances the recognition value). It must be in png and of 32x32 pixel size. This goes in the root directory. The one here is just an example.

cd /var/www/marketplace
sudo wget http://ocropus.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~kthoden/m2/files/tg32.png

Apply to the directory the appropriate rights so that the webserver can read and write data. The cgi directory will also contain cache and logfiles.

sudo chown -Rv www-data:www-data marketplace

Modify three files.

  1. cgi/ms.confcontains the configuration of the script and is well commented. Customize it to your needs.
  2. .htaccesscontains the rewrite rules and have to be customized to the URLs where the service is running.

  3. The configuration of the server has to be extended by two additional directives:

             Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews          AllowOverride All          Order allow,deny          allow from all         SetHandler cgi-script     AllowOverride All     Options +ExecCGI

Two additional apache modules have to be activated and the server then restarted:

cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
sudo ln -s ../mods-available/cgi.load .
sudo ln -s ../mods-available/rewrite.load .
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Check the functionality by browsing to

http://textgridlab.org/marketplace/cgi/msInterface.cgi?action=main

or

http://textgridlab.org/marketplace/cgi/msInterface.cgi?action=list&type=favorites

If this works, you might want to try out if the redirects work:

http://textgridlab.org/marketplace/api/p

http://textgridlab.org/marketplace/ should take you to the Confluence wiki.

Errors are written to Apache's error log.

Adding new Plugins

The webservice does not have to be touched to add new plugins. This is all handled in the Wiki.

  1. Add a new page in the same style of one of the pages you find at https://dev2.dariah.eu/wiki/label/TextGrid/marketplace. Fill in as many fields in the table as possible! We want to be as informative as we can and help the users using your great tool!
  2. Write down the id of the wiki page you are editing (step 1). You will see the id if you edit your plugin description page in Confluence. Look at the URL field in the browser: https://dev2.dariah.eu/wiki/pages/editpage.action?pageId=35161624 pageId is the relevant one, the id of the page would be 35161624.
  3. The page TGMPL keeps a list of all the plugins and is the source for the plugins listed in the TG marketplace. Add a new line for your new plugin. Increment the id by one, featured is not yet implemented, insert the correct pageId (step 2). Make sure that installableUnit matches the namespace declaration of you plugin (eg. com.example.textgrid.mynewplugin.feature). The available category ids are listed if you browse to https://textgridlab.org/marketplace/cgi/msInterface.cgi?action=main. Make sure that you provide the correct updateUrl which points to your eclipse plugin update site. You can generate an update site via Eclipse: https://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_create_an_update_site_(site.xml)%3F. After building your plugin, copy the files from the update site folder into a public accessible web server. It is also possible to deploy the update site via Github pages.
  4. Refresh the cache of the Marketplace by directing your browser to https://textgridlab.org/marketplace/cgi/msInterface.cgi?action=cache_reload

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