ClearFoundation

Prelude
So while testing ClearOS and looking at its potential I found that it is lacking (personal opinion ) a good email / groupware module. Because currently I have some spare time (holidays) I have been looking at email / groupware applications that at least can use (in a non-intrusive way) the modules maintained by ClearOS (like ldap, webserver, mysql, samba, etc) and that can sync with mobile devices.

I found eGroupware and wanted to share so we can together mock-up an installation how-to.
Please feel free to comment, test, etc and provide feedback via this thread so I can update this (first) post with installation and customization instructions.

Please note that my technical / unix skills are at a bare minimum, but that should not 'spoil the party '

The How-to has moved to the How-to section: click here!

Maintenance: update to new version 1.6.003
As every other software package is being maintained, so is eGroupware. Just as a 'refresh'; eGroupware consists of two major components: the software (php part) and the database. Next to that we have the header.inc.php holding the connectivity between all components (config file).
eGroupware updates are (as far as I have seen) always provided as a full version that have 'upgrade logic'.

Before you do anything, first make a backup of the database part: in your browser start the eGroupware setup: http://[FQDN]/egroupware/setup and in the 'Setup/Config Admin Login' screen login using your 'configuration user': admin
goto the botom of the page, step 6 - DB backup and restore, [Click: Backup and Restore] and [Click: Backup now]. a backup of your database is created and you can download it if you want to save it in a different location.

As stated: eGroupware comes as a complete package, upgrading is as easy as backing up your web directory (using the MV command), unpacking the new version and running setup for the update part of the database and application. The script below assumes that you have eGroupware installed in directory /var/www/html/egroupware. If not, please adjust the script with the correct directory name(s).



To complete your upgrade start the eGroupware setup: http://[FQDN]/egroupware/setup and in the 'Setup/Config Admin Login' screen login using your 'configuration user': admin
Step 1 shows the message: "You appear to be running version 1.6.002 of eGroupWare. We will automatically update your tables / records to 1.6.003....."
Check [Create backup before upgrading the DB] and [Click: Upgrade].

...wait for the 'magic' to complete...

If you did not see any errors, [Click: re-check my installation]. all steps should be shown again with a green check mark.

That's it, you are now running the new and improved version of eGroupware.

Tips & Tricks
Please note that there are some issues with the interaction between ClearOS and eGrupware when it comes to ldap. please read this thread for more details and a possible fix when you have encountered these 'features'

very interesting! howto looks good so far

Nice work!

Feel free to add this to the

Nice work!

Feel free to add this to the Howtos page at any time. There should be some kind of "howto howto" document coming soon that will provide some common structure for all Howtos. Don't let that stop you though

Very nice this how-to. Go to try this in a virtual machine!

I love to see more web-apps for ClearOS.

Hi,

just finished the installation how-to with the missing part (adding applications to a user account prior to log in with this account.

Did you know that with eGroupware it is also possible to have multiple identities under your user account: ideal when you have an (or more) external email account(s) that you want to receive and sent the emails from.

regards,
Ruud.

not sure whats the problem here. But when i go to make my header.inc.php file by clicking download or view nothing happens...? Any ideas?

Hi ToyotaHEAD,

Sorry, no out-of-the-pocket solution but a bunch of questions:

• What does 'nothing happens' mean: you click the button and really nothing happpens, or clicking the button returns you to the header creation page?


• When running the installation tests, did you get any errors / warnings that you didn't fix?


• What happens when you try filling in the information a second time (have read a posting on the egroupware forum that this could do the trick)?


• As this routine of creating the header.inc.php is a php routine, do you see any errors in your apache log that could give some pointer as where to look?


• What version of ClearOS are you running?

thanks,
Ruud.

Hi,

just increased the php.ini memory limit setting because the 24MB was not able to handle larger attachments. I have tested now with a 9 MB attachment and for that I needed a 96M setting.

memory_limit = 16M -> memory_limit = 96M

regards,
Ruud.

Great tutorial. Any idea of how to sync with Google Calendar? That is, so the Project Manager can actually pull in schedule from GCal, schedule around them, and create on GCal. The need is to be able to access the tasks from GCal as Project Manager plans them out. Is there a MySQL hack for it?