Tutorial and exist db?

Firstly - a really good tutorial, thanks to the authors.

http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/orbeon-forms-xforms-tutorial

About half way down the page I read
"The <xforms:submission> element declares a submission."

then
/exist/rest/db/orbeon/my-bookcast/books.xml as the path to exist?

and
The paths starts with /exist/rest/, which maps to the built-in eXist database.

Is exist still installed with Orbeon please?
there is no exist db within the war which held Orbeon?
Is this part wrong?
How to link my exist install to Orbeon please?

TiA, DaveP

Further investigation reveals
http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/exist-configuration#TOC-Creating-a-separate-eXist-WAR

So I now have a war file for the exist software.
It goes on to say

unzip the contents of eXist WAR under
~/exist-war-1.4.0-rev10440

I'm guessing that means unzip the war file in the exist directory?
To me that sounds odd - I already have exist installed there
(my case /apps/exist) - why would I want to build and then
deploy the war there?

My setup (novice) is

/apps/tomcat
            /webapps/orbeon

Where should the exist war file for exist go please?

TiA, DaveP
 

PE2Dave wrote

Is exist still installed with Orbeon please?
there is no exist db within the war which held Orbeon?

eXist is still bundled with Orbeon Forms, and the paths are still the same. You just can't access it directly from your web browser anymore since Orbeon Forms 4.0, as it is now protected out-of-the-box. But you can disable this for testing things locally. See:

http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/release-notes/40#TOC-Security-of-the-built-in-eXist-database

Alex

PE2Dave wrote

To me that sounds odd - I already have exist installed there
(my case /apps/exist) - why would I want to build and then
deploy the war there?

If you already have eXist installed and running from somewhere, you don't need to repackage it as a war. This is only for cases where you want Tomcat to run eXist. If you want to use your external eXist with Form Builder / Form Runner, you just need to set the following property (here shown with the default value):

<property as="xs:anyURI"  name="oxf.fr.persistence.exist.exist-uri"                         value="/exist/rest/db/orbeon/fr"/>

I imagine you'll want to set it to something like http://localhost:8090/exist/rest/db/orbeon/fr.

Alex

Thanks (both points) Alex.

Appreciated.

DaveP

Alessandro Vernet wrote

PE2Dave wrote

To me that sounds odd - I already have exist installed there
(my case /apps/exist) - why would I want to build and then
deploy the war there?

If you already have eXist installed and running from somewhere, you don't need to repackage it as a war. This is only for cases where you want Tomcat to run eXist. If you want to use your external eXist with Form Builder / Form Runner, you just need to set the following property (here shown with the default value):

<property as="xs:anyURI"  name="oxf.fr.persistence.exist.exist-uri"                         value="/exist/rest/db/orbeon/fr"/>

I imagine you'll want to set it to something like http://localhost:8090/exist/rest/db/orbeon/fr.

Alex

Naive response Alex, where do I set this property? in Orbeon ( if so which file please?)

Not finding this link at all easy - and noting that the example doesn't 'fail' in any way without the link
being made to exist?

regards DaveP
 

PE2Dave wrote

Naive response Alex, where do I set this property? in Orbeon ( if so which file please?)

In Orbeon's WEB-INF/resources/config/properties-local.xml. Initially, that file doesn't exist and you can create it by renaming properties-local.xml.template and removing the ".template". The properties you put there override the default properties defined by Orbeon Forms, and the defaults come from 3 files:

https://github.com/orbeon/orbeon-forms/blob/master/src/resources-packaged/config/properties-base.xml
https://github.com/orbeon/orbeon-forms/blob/master/src/resources-packaged/config/properties-form-runner.xml
https://github.com/orbeon/orbeon-forms/blob/master/src/resources-packaged/config/properties-form-builder.xml

Lots of things in Orbeon Forms get configured through properties, so you'll quickly get use to it!

Alex

Thanks Alex.
For others. Properties are described at
http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/configuration-properties
and
http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/configuration-properties/configuration-properties-form-builder
(the latter for  the forms maker?)

Seems that we should use the xxx-template to create xxx.xml.
Lots of overriding done, so be careful and read the docs.

Alex, None of this is explained in the tutorial.
AFAIK that simply won't work?
1. Internal to Orbeon exist-db is disabled.
2. Even if it was enabled, it is locked down so I can't read it using a browser and http (is that right?)
3. No mention in the tutorial of setting up a separate exist-db.

IMHO that would stop many at that point, logic being "If I can't get at the XML I've created what use is xforms?"

Perhaps rather than covering all versions of all related products, the demo / docs could focus on known
(most recent / production ready?) versions and be exact?

How can I get write access to the wiki to (try to) help - with a newbie perspective please?
At least talk to the central author(s) of the docs?

regards DaveP

PE2Dave wrote

1. Internal to Orbeon exist-db is disabled.

It shouldn't be disabled; just not accessible from the browser, but accessible by XForms.

PE2Dave wrote

2. Even if it was enabled, it is locked down so I can't read it using a browser and http (is that right?)

Right. I've added a note to the tutorial on how to "unlock" eXist last week (see "By default, for security reasons"… on the page linked below).

http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/developer-guide/orbeon-forms-xforms-tutorial

PE2Dave wrote

How can I get write access to the wiki to (try to) help - with a newbie perspective please?
At least talk to the central author(s) of the docs?

This is the way to go :). Can you send me either in this thread or by email (avernet AT orbeon DOT com) an email address you use to log into Google (typically a Gmail address), and I will add you.

Alex