cattaDoc requirements

Before you install cattaDoc, make sure that you have installed the software packages that cattaDoc requires.

The instructions below are more elaborate for Windows than for Linux. It is my experience that Linux distributions by default install all the necessary components for cattaDoc, whereas for Windows you have to install them yourself.

Operating System

Back to the top

cattaDoc does not require a specific operating system to run.

It has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP as well as SuSE Linux 8.1, 9.1 and 10.2.

On the server(s) running cattaDoc, you need harddisk space for the database and the document repository. How much depends on your needs. The cattaDoc files themselves only occupy about 2.5 MB.

Web Server

Back to the top

Being a web-based application cattaDoc requires a web server. Any web server will do, provided it is supported by PHP.

cattaDoc has been tested on Apache 1.3, 2.0 and 2.2 as well as Microsoft Internet Information Server / Personal Web Server.

The open source Apache web server can be downloaded from www.apache.org.

Microsoft includes a web server with Windows, i.e. it is free for all Windows users, but not installed by default on workstation editions of Windows. Here is what you do to install it - make sure you have the Windows installation CD:

1. Open Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components
2. Select Internet Information Services (IIS)
3. Click on Details... and make sure that World Wide Web Service is selected
4. Click OK -> Next and follow the instructions

After installation of Internet Information Services you will have to reapply the latest Windows service pack in order to ensure that you have the latest patches and security fixes for IIS.

Database - MySQL

Back to the top

All cattaDoc information is stored in a database. The ambition is to allow the use of any relation database, but right now it is limited to MySQL. cattaDoc has been tested on both version 3.23 as well as version 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0 of MySQL.

You can download the open source MySQL database from www.mysql.com. I recommend that you download the socalled standard binaries, i.e. the pre-compiled, ready to use program for your operating system.

PHP with the gettext and mcrypt extensions

Back to the top

PHP is the scripting language that cattaDoc is based on. cattaDoc can be based on PHP 4.1 and upwards. Consequently, it cannot be run on PHP 3.

Gettext - part of the GNU project - is an open standard for supporting different languages in an application, e.g. an English, a Danish, a French, etc. user interface. The gettext functions implement an NLS (Native Language Support) API which can be used to internationalise applications.

Mcrypt is an encryption package and is used for Advanced Security in cattaDoc. If you only use Basic Security in cattaDoc, mcrypt is not needed.

PHP is open source and can be downloaded from www.php.net. Again, I recommend you to download the binaries.

For Windows, two PHP packages are available: PHP installer (about 2.5 MB) and PHP zip package (7.5 MB). The first one is easy to install, but does not contain the gettext and mcrypt extensions necessary for cattaDoc. Therefore, I recommend that you:

1. Download both PHP packages
2. Install the small one, PHP installer
3. Extract the gettext dynamic link library - php_gettext.dll - as well as the mcrypt dynamic link library - php_mcrypt.dll - from the big PHP package. It is in the extensions subfolder
4. Copy php_gettext.dll and php_mcrypt.dll to the extensions subfolder for the PHP installation, e.g. C:\PHP\extensions
5. Edit the PHP configuration file, php.ini, e.g. C:\PHP\php.ini, to include gettext and mcrypt support by removing the semicolon in front of the line:
   extension=php_gettext.dll
   extension=php_mcrypt.dll
6. Make sure that the extensions folder is correctly defined in php.ini, e.g.:
   extension_dir = C:\PHP\extensions
7. In php.ini, adjust the maximum file size for cattaDoc documents, e.g. 10 MB:
   upload_max_filesize = 10M

cattaDoc now runs with the PHP.INI parameter register_globals = Off - but of course also with register_globals = On.

Download extensions for Windows
For some reason or another, these two PHP extensions pose problems under Windows:

• php_gettext.dll is not included in PHP version 4.3.8. I suppose it is an error. Because it reappears in version 4.3.9 (now in RC status).
• mcrypt can be difficult on Windows - it was for me. It requires a DLL not included in the PHP package: libmcrypt.dll. And the versions of the two DLLs - php_mcrypt.dll and libmcrypt.dll - shall work together.

Therefore, I have put together a package with these DLLs that work for me (under Windows 2000). You can download this package here: cattadoc-PHP.zip (106,069). It includes the following files:

• libmcrypt.dll: Copy this file to the \system32 folder in your Windows folder, typically C:\Windows\system32
• php_mcrypt.dll: Copy this file to the PHP extensions folder as indicated above
• php_gettext.dll: Copy this file to the PHP extensions folder as indicated above
• php_gettext.dll.9: An alternative, newer version of / to be renamed to php_gettext.dll

ADODB

Back to the top

ADODB is a database abstraction layer for PHP, which hides the differences between the different database access functions in PHP. PHP database functions are not standardised, unfortunately. ADODB makes it easier in the future to provide cattaDoc support for other databases.

ADODB is an open source PHP class library and you can download it from adodb.sourceforge.net.

Installation of ADODB is easy: Just unpack all the files into a directory accessible by your webserver.

Web browser

Back to the top

The idea is to support all modern web browsers by using standard HTML, including cascading style sheets (CSS), to display the pages in cattaDoc.

cattaDoc uses cookies for session management, ie you have to enable cookies in your browser in order to use cattaDoc.

cattaDoc has been tested with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, 6.0 and 7.0 as well as Mozilla 1.3, Firefox 1.0/1.5/2.0 and Konqueror 3.0.

For viewing documents in a Windows web browser, I recommend Quick View Plus, based on Outside In technology from Stellent (formerly Inso Corporation and recently acquired by Oracle). It is available from Avantstar. It is not free, but moderately priced. The current version of Quick View Plus is version 9.0.