From W

global links:

1. new NPD admin system (test version)
2. new NPD user system (test version)
3. Reports - weekly reports. setup and test reports, and others
4. Meetings - information on past and future meetings
5. Project plan - the original, and current updates
6. the completed dissertation
7. Original NPD - info and links
8. Web services links

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1. Test server setup completed. Using my own rather than NeSC / HGU.
2. Using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex - popular debian-based linux distro, with interesting links to eScience - the latest versions intend to offer built in grid software tools and instances of Ubuntu operating on Amazon ec2 are currently being offered on a trial basis. These points are not directly relevant to the project though.
3. mysql, apache 2, tomcat 5.5 and Java 1.5 installed. Older versions required to meet limitations in OGSA-DAI - it cannot operate on the newer versions. This is an annoyance worth note, given that I would otherwise have installed Tomcat 6 and Java 6.
4. Setup and installation was pretty straightforward, making use of the APT package manager.
5. Setup details and perhaps a script to recreate the server environment in future could be produced later, if useful.
6. All attempts to setup or access the content of the backup of the original NPD were unsuccessful. Tools to extract data (openoffice, mdbtools) did not succeed. This is not unsurprising, given the HGU experiences when trying to update the NPD to later versions of Access, etc. Attempts to do that also failed, resulting in no macros, no forms, and large but empty tables.
7. Unfortunately, it also turned out that the code to run the online-access NPD front end could not be successfully run on the test server. It was written quite a few years ago in PHP4 using PEAR, but support for PHP ended 3 years ago. Whilst PHP5 is highly backwards-compatible, an error in PEAR was discovered that causes difficulties when trying to access the mysql database. It turns out this error has been known about since the demise of PHP4, but has never been repaired in PEAR. There is not sufficient time available in the project to fully analyse this, nor to implement a PHP5 version of the NPD on the test server. Thus, test results will just be compared to the online NPD. The PHP5 issue may be of interest during any future updates, particularly if the IT setup at HGU has not yet accounted for this PEAR / PHP5 compatibility issue.
8. Attempts to run PHP4 to allow the original NPD front-end to run on the server became too convoluted to be worth continuing with. It has not been available under Ubuntu for over 2 years. Doing a manual install is possible, but would also require re-install of apache 1.3 instead of apache 2. Attempts to run PHP4 with apache 2 have been close but not completely successful, and it is known to have issues with modern versions of Java, which could result in more problems down the line.
9. The NPD data, however, was successfully extracted and uploaded from the mysql dumps off the server at the HGU. So the data is now available on the test server, and work on the admin system can continue.
10. It may be necessary to go to the HGU and take screenshots of the NPD running on Wendys machine, and design the new service from that. My previous meeting with Wendy regarding how she uses this system should help here.
11. Initial investigations of CakePHP show that it may be a bit too large an approach for the admin system - the system will repetitively execute data retrievals and submissions using default access pages, therefore the functionality of CakePHP to change and make more of that type of interface would not be required. This will be considered further as the project progresses.