Installing OPUS on UoN Centos
Note: these instructions assume the prior installation of Webmin (http://www.webmin.com), which
is a Web-based GUI for Linux Server Administration but if you are a Linux expert you will probably
prefer to use the command prompt for some inexplicable reason. Good luck to you.
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Download OPUS from http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/redmine/projects/opus/files
Download UUWAF from http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/projects/uuwaf/
Unpack the UUWAF archive on your Windows machine using 7-ZIP or similar
Unpack the OPUS on your Windows machine using 7-ZIP or similar
Using either the Webmin File Manager or the Linux command prompt as you prefer create a
new folder in /usr/share called opus (/usr/share/opus)
Similarly create a new folder in /usr/share called uuwaf (/usr/share/uuwaf)
Copy the contents of the OPUS archive to /usr/share/opus
Copy the contents of the UUWAF archive to /usr/share/uuwaf
Install PHP from WebMin using the System|Software Packages|Package from YUM menu
option. The following packages are required
 php 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages PHP scripting language for creating
dynamic web sites
 php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages Command-line interface for PHP
 php-common 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages Common files for PHP
 php-ldap 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages A module for PHP applications
that use LDAP
 php-mbstring 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages A module for PHP
applications which need multi-byte string handling
 php-mysql 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages A module for PHP applications
that use MySQL databases
 php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages A database access abstraction
module for PHP applications
 php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Development/Languages A module for PHP applications
which use XML
Install MySQL from WebMin using the System|Software Packages|Package from YUM menu
option. The following packages should be all that's required
 mysql 5.1.61-4.el6 Applications/Databases MySQL client programs and shared
libraries
 mysql-libs 5.1.61-4.el6 Applications/Databases The shared libraries required for
MySQL clients mysql-server 5.1.61-4.el6
Download Smarty 2 from http://smarty.php.net and copy the contents of the ‘libs’ directory
to to /usr/share/php/Smarty and then manually create the following 4 sub-directories in the
usr/share/opus directory
 templates
 templates_c
 cache

configs
(Note: The OPUS install guide at
http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/redmine/projects/opus/repository/entry/INSTALL mentions the need
to install ‘Smarty’ as a prerequisite but doesn’t bother to mention is that OPUS only appears
to work with Smarty version 2. As Smarty 3 is available at http://smarty.php.net, standard
practice is obviously to download the latest version but as I eventually found out the hard
way, only Smarty 2 works with OPUS.)
12. Install Pear using YUM in Webmin Install i.e.
 php-pear 1.9.4-4.el6 Development/Languages PHP Extension and Application
Repository framework
 php-pear-db 1.7.13-2.el6.rf Development/Libraries PEAR: Database Abstraction
Layer
(This may not actually be necessary – I was attempting to install the Pear logging
package below). I suggest skipping this step and going straight to step 13 and then
coming back to this step if you get errors relating to Pear logging)
13. Download the additional Pear logging package (which does not appear to be available via
YUM) from http://pear.php.net/package/Log/, and copy the Log-1.12.7.tgz file to your home
directory on the server and use the command pear install Log-1.12.7.tgz to install.
14. Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf - add sample content from OPUS etc directory to match
where you have installed Smarty, UUWAF, Pear etc
15. Open up port 80 in the firewall using Webmin (select the Linux Firewall option from the
networking menu). This is for standard http web access
16. Open up port 3306 in the firewall using Webmin (select the Linux Firewall option from the
networking menu). This is for access to the database via a Windows Clients such As MySQL
workbench or DB Forge (another option is to install the libraries for PHPMyAdmin using YUM
in Webmin Install)
17. Select MYSQL Database Server from the Webmin Servers menu, click on user permissions
and create a new user with username root, with an appropriate password. Set the Host to
your IP address to enable you to connect to the MyQL database from your Windows Desktop
18. Using your MySQL client of choice, connect to the MySQL server using the credentials
specified above, and create a new database called opus.
19. Run the following Scripts in the Opus sql_patch sub-directory.
 schema.sql,
 data.sql
This will create the MySQL database that opus uses
20. Create another new database on the server call 'preferences' and then run the preferencesschema.sql script from the UUWAF sql_patch sub-directory
21. Grant permissions to the user 'opus_user' in either Webmin or your MySQL client (or of you
must, the Linux command prompt) with the command grant all on opus.* to
opus_user@localhost identified by 'password'
22. Manually create the following directories for opus to use for temporary files etc.: /var/lib/opus/sessions
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/var/lib/opus/photos
/var/lib/opus/templates_c
/var/lib/opus/resources
/var/lib/opus/templates_cache
give user apache ownership of these files in the webmin file manager
23. Manually create a directory for opus to use for log files e.g. /var/log/opus and give user
apache ownership of these files in the webmin file manager
24. Navigate to the folder /usr/share/opus/include/ and locate the file local.conf.php.dist
(ignore opus.conf.php) and copy it to a new file in the same directory called local.conf.php
25. Edit local.conf.php to ensure that all the paths within it are pointing to the correct places
26. Create a new cron jon using the Scheduled Cron Jobs option from the System menu in
Webmin. Set up the job to run /usr/share/opus/cron/opus.php on a daily basis (at midnight)
27. Locate the file /usr/share/opus/configs/lang_en.conf and copy it to create a new file called
local_en.conf in the same directory. Edit this file to customise your OPUS installation for
your own institution. The path for the UoN logo for the institution_logo setting is
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/images-top-level/logo.gif. You may need to adjust the
institution_logo_width. This is set to institution_logo_width=209 in the current production
system.
28. Run OPUS from your browser to test it (e.g. http://opustest.nottingham.ac.uk/opus/)
29. If you get error messages about (Smarty) directories not being writable despite correctly
setting the permssions as above, disable or at the very least suspend SELinux, either by
entering the command setenforce Permissive or by editing the SELinux configuration file in
/etc/selinux/config and setting SELINUX=disabled. Setting SELinux to Permissuve vua the
Command Prrompt takes effect straight away but you will need to reboot the Server from
the Bootup And Shuddown menu option of the System menu within Webmin to fully disable