Alfresco 4 Install on Ubuntu 12.04 and make folder emailable

This document shows how to install Alfresco 4.0 on an Ubuntu 12.04 server that has java 7 already installed on its system.

In this example I am running it on an Ubuntu server in the amazon AWS cloud it’s a c1.medium instance.  (for those interested it was started from ami-3d4ff254 )

Before you dive into this make sure the machine running alfresco has

• port 25 open (for e-mail) 
• A DNS record to so emails can be routed to that machine. 

Remember to have those set up especially the port 25 I pulled my hair out once for hours wondering why it was not working.

Install Tomcat 7

( a lot of this was derived from http://jensontaylor.blogspot.com/2010/09/manually-installing-tomcat-7-on-ubuntu.html )

·         Download tomcat 7 to the local directory  (this address could change see http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi )

> wget http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/apache/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.32/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.32.tar.gz

Extract the file

>  tar xvzf apache-tomcat-7.0.32.tar.gz

Move the tomcat over

>  sudo mv apache-tomcat-7.0.32 /opt/tomcat

Now set up the tomcat users.

>  sudo vi /opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml

Add the following lines within the <tomcat-users> element  (of course change the password to your own password)

<role rolename="manager-gui"/>   <role rolename="admin-gui"/>   <user name="admin"   password="password"                               roles="admin-gui, manager-gui,                               manager-script, admin-script" />

Fix the connector, This has some issue with Hudson if not fixed.

>  sudo vi +70 /opt/tomcat/conf/server.xml

And add this to the connector

URIEncoding="UTF-8"

Set up start up script

>  sudo vi /etc/init.d/tomcat

Then place the following in it.  (adjust the jvm to the directoy you have it in)

# Tomcat auto-start # # description: Auto-starts tomcat # processname: tomcat # pidfile: /var/run/tomcat.pid export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre1.7.0_07 export HUDSON_HOME=/opt/hudson case $1 in start) sh /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh ;; stop) sh /opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh ;; restart) sh /opt/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh sh /opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh ;; esac exit 0

Make it executable

>  sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tomcat

Add it to autostart

>  sudo update-rc.d tomcat defaults

Reboot to test auto start of tomcat

>  sudo reboot now

Now open up a web browser  (of course use your IP address, domain name)

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com8080

Should see…

Change memory settings for tomcat

>  sudo vi /opt/tomcat/bin/catalina.sh

Add the following line

This gives it 2GiB to use, you may need to change it to your system

JAVA_OPTS="-XX:MaxPermSize=160m -XX:NewSize=256m -Xms512m " JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS –Xmx2048m -Xss512K  "

Restart tomcat

>  sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat restart

Open up http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/manager/status to check the memory settings

Here you can see here that it does have 2GiB of max memory (roughly)

Install/Setup MySQL

Install mysql on this server

>  sudo apt-get install mysql-server

For the root password set it to “mysqlpassword”

Log into mysql

>  mysql -u root -p -h localhost

Run this command in mysql to create alfresco user and to give it alfresco access

>  CREATE USER 'alfresco'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'passalfresco';         >  CREATE USER 'alfresco'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'passalfresco';         >  grant all on alfresco.* to 'alfresco'@'%' identified by 'passalfresco' with grant option;         >  exit

Remove localhost restriction edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf

>  sudo vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Comment out

bind-address            = 127.0.0.1

Change it to

#bind-address            = 127.0.0.1

Restart mysql

>  sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Test the connection from another server

>  mysql -u alfresco -p -h localhost

Then run the following command to create the database

>  create database alfresco default character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;         >  exit

Create Alfresco Folder

Make a alfresco folder

>  sudo mkdir /alfresco

Download Install Alfresco

Some of the notes I used for this are at

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Download_and_install_Alfresco_in_Linux

Download the installer (this address will change over time)

>  cd         >  mkdir alfresco         >  cd alfresco         >  wget http://dl.alfresco.com/release/community/build-00007/alfresco-community-4.0.e.zip

If you do not have unzip install it.

>  sudo apt-get install unzip

unzip file

>  unzip alfresco-community-4.0.e.zip

Install alfresco.war and share.war on tomcat

Open up the tomcat web page

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/manager/html

Then enter

Context Path

/alfresco

War Directory

/home/username/alfresco/web-server/webapps/alfresco.war

Click Deploy

It will deploy but fail to start (which is fine)

Now do the same for share.war

Then enter

Context Path

/share

War Directory

/home/username/alfresco/web-server/webapps/share.war

Click Deploy

Download and install mysql connector, it can be found at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/

>    cd         >    wget http://mysql.he.net/Downloads/Connector-J/mysql-connector-java-5.1.18.zip         >    unzip mysql-connector-java-5.1.18.zip         >    cd mysql-connector-java-5.1.18/         >    cp mysql-connector-java-5.1.18-bin.jar /opt/tomcat/lib/

Set up the shared directory

>    cd         >    cd alfresco/web-server         >    sudo cp -r shared /opt/tomcat/

Set Global Properties

Alfresco requires some additional installs to work.  Alfresco out of the box uses a few other tools like OpenOffice and ImageMagick.

Some of this was gleamed from http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-alfresco-community-3.3-on-ubuntu-server-10.04-lucid-lynx

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.

>    sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following at the bottom

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner

Run this from the command line

>    sudo apt-get update

Install these via apt-get

> sudo apt-get install imagemagick         > sudo apt-get install swftools         > sudo apt-get install libjodconverter-java

Edit the /opt/tomcat/conf/catalina.properties file

>    sudo vi +74 /opt/tomcat/conf/catalina.properties

Updated shared.loader to the following

>  shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/classes,${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar

In the /opt/tomcat/shared/classes directory there is an alfresco-global.properties.sample folder.  Rename it

>    cd /opt/tomcat/shared/classes         >     sudo cp alfresco-global.properties.sample alfresco-global.properties

Now edit this file

>  sudo vi alfresco-global.properties

Here is the file I made,  Make sure to edit the mail.* portion to an email account you have.

############################### ## Common Alfresco Properties # ############################### # # Sample custom content and index data location # dir.root=/alfresco/alf_data #dir.keystore=${dir.root}/keystore # # Sample database connection properties # db.username=alfresco db.password=passalfresco #Disabled the guest login alfresco.authentication.allowGuestLogin=false  # # External locations #------------- ooo.exe=/usr/bin/soffice ooo.enabled=true ooo.port=8100 img.root=/usr img.dyn=${img.root}/lib img.exe=${img.root}/bin/convert swf.exe=/usr/bin/pdf2swf jodconverter.enabled=true jodconverter.officeHome=/usr/lib/openoffice jodconverter.portNumbers=8100 jodconverter.officeHome=/usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice jodconverter.portNumbers=8101 jodconverter.enabled=true # # Property to control whether schema updates are performed automatically. # Updates must be enabled during upgrades as, apart from the static upgrade scripts, # there are also auto-generated update scripts that will need to be executed.  After # upgrading to a new version, this can be disabled. # #db.schema.update=true # # MySQL connection # db.driver=org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver db.name=alfresco db.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/alfresco?useUnicode=yes&characterEncoding=UTF-8 # # Oracle connection # #db.driver=oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver #db.url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:alfresco # # SQLServer connection # Requires jTDS driver version 1.2.5 and SNAPSHOT isolation mode # Enable TCP protocol on fixed port 1433 # Prepare the database with: # ALTER DATABASE alfresco SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON; # #db.driver=net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver #db.url=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://localhost:1433/alfresco #db.txn.isolation=4096 # # PostgreSQL connection (requires postgresql-8.2-504.jdbc3.jar or equivalent) # #db.driver=org.postgresql.Driver #db.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/alfresco # # Index Recovery Mode #------------- #index.recovery.mode=AUTO # # Outbound Email Configuration #------------- mail.host=smtp.gmail.com mail.port=465 mail.protocol=smtps mail.username=yourname@example.com mail.password=yourpassword mail.smtp.timeout=30000 # New Properties mail.smtps.starttls.enable=true mail.smtps.auth=true # # Alfresco Email Service and Email Server #------------- # Enable/Disable the inbound email service.  The service could be used by processes other than # the Email Server (e.g. direct RMI access) so this flag is independent of the Email Service. #------------- #email.inbound.enabled=true # Email Server properties #------------- #email.server.enabled=true #email.server.port=25 #email.server.domain=alfresco.com #email.inbound.unknownUser=anonymous # A comma separated list of email REGEX patterns of allowed senders. # If there are any values in the list then all sender email addresses # must match. For example: #   .*\@alfresco\.com, .*\@alfresco\.org # Allow anyone: #------------- #email.server.allowed.senders=.* # # The default authentication chain # To configure external authentication subsystems see: # http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Alfresco_Authentication_Subsystems #------------- #authentication.chain=alfrescoNtlm1:alfrescoNtlm # # URL Generation Parameters (The ${localname} token is replaced by the local server name) #------------- #alfresco.context=alfresco #alfresco.host=${localname} #alfresco.port=8080 #alfresco.protocol=http # #share.context=share #share.host=${localname} #share.port=8080 #share.protocol=http #imap.server.enabled=true #imap.server.port=143 #imap.server.host=localhost # Default value of alfresco.rmi.services.host is 0.0.0.0 which means 'listen on all adapters'. # This allows connections to JMX both remotely and locally. # alfresco.rmi.services.host=0.0.0.0 # # RMI service ports for the individual services. # These seven services are available remotely. # # Assign individual ports for each service for best performance # or run several services on the same port. You can even run everything on 50500 if needed. # # Select 0 to use a random unused port. # #avm.rmi.service.port=50501 #avmsync.rmi.service.port=50502 #attribute.rmi.service.port=50503 #authentication.rmi.service.port=50504 #repo.rmi.service.port=50505 #action.rmi.service.port=50506 #wcm-deployment-receiver.rmi.service.port=50507 #monitor.rmi.service.port=50508

Reboot the server

>    sudo reboot now

It may take a while for alfresco to come up and set up the database the first time.  What I do is log back into the system them tail the tomcat log to see if alfresco is starting correctly, and for when it is done  (in my case it took 2 ½ minutes)

>    sudo tail -f /opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.out

See the server startup message.

Logged in as admin and added new users

Open up

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/alfresco

The default login is

User               = admin

Password     = admin

I always first change the admin password from the default just to make sure. To do this…

Click on User Profile

Click on Change password

Enter new password and click Finish

 

Click on  Manage System Users

Click Create New User

In my case I created a user called patman

Click next  

enter a password

Click Finish

Now add the user to the admin group.

Click on Administration Console

Click on manage User Groups

  

Click on Show all then click add user in the Alfresco_Adminstrators

Search for user, select user then click add.

Finally click on OK

Now this user is an admin.

Log out and log back in as the user you just made and gave admin rights to.

Make sure this user can log into the Share site as well. 

Open up

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/share/

While you are in Alfresco share Create a folder to email into.

First create a site

Click on Sites -> Create Site

Call it Email_test and click OK

Making a folder in Alfresco e-mailable

Now that you have Alfresco 4.0e running, how do you get a folder

e-mailable?

Set up an inbox user

Once Alfresco is set up to receive emails directly if an email is received from an address that is associated with a current Alfresco user, it will be treated as if that user uploaded it.

As an example, if an email comes in from bob@example.com and we have a “bob” user in alfresco that has an email set as bob@example.com . Then when an email comes into our alfresco server from bob@example.com it will be treated as if “bob” uploaded it.   (of course this is assuming bob is set up as an email user and emailing into alfresco is turned on)

With that in mind, for this test, I will make a user to handle emails sent from non-alfresco users.  ( I will also make that user an admin user, which is not a good idea for a live system, because it could overwrite any file or folder)

OK so let’s make a new user.

Log into alfresco as an admin user

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/alfresco

Click on  Manage System Users

Click Create New User

I gave it a user name of First name of email and last name of Anon.

I also gave it an email on email@example.com then clicked next

I set its user name to emailAnon gave it a password and set its Home space to emailAnon and clicked next.

Click Finish

Now add the user to the email contributors and admin group.

Click on Administration Console

Click on manage User Groups

Click on Show all then click add user in the EMAIL_CONTRIBUTORS

By default user cannot email into the system.  In order for a user to be allowed to email into the system it must be part of the EMAIL_CONTRIBUTORS group.

Type in email and click search.  This will display the emailAnon user.  select on this user and click add, it will then show up in the bottom part.  Finally click OK in the upper right.

Repeat the same thing for this user but for the ALFRESCO_ADMINISTRATORS group.   I did this so that they could upload to any folder.

Edit the properties file

Edit the alfresco-global.properties file again.

>    cd /opt/tomcat/shared/classes         >  sudo vi alfresco-global.properties

# # Alfresco Email Service and Email Server #------------- # Enable/Disable the inbound email service.  The service could be used by processes other than # the Email Server (e.g. direct RMI access) so this flag is independent of the Email Service. #------------- email.inbound.enabled=true # Email Server properties #------------- email.server.enabled=true email.server.port=25 email.server.domain=ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com email.inbound.unknownUser=emailAnon email.server.connections.max=3 email.server.enableTLS=false # A comma separated list of email REGEX patterns of allowed senders. # If there are any values in the list then all sender email addresses # must match. For example: #   .*\@alfresco\.com, .*\@alfresco\.org # Allow anyone: #------------- email.server.allowed.senders=.*

Here is a line by line explanation (as best I can give)

email.inbound.enabled=true

            Just enable inbound email

email.server.enabled=true

email.server.port=25

email.server.domain=ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com

            Turn on the alfresco email server bind it to port 25 and set the

            server domain name 

email.inbound.unknownUser=anonymous

            Any email from an unkown user will be uploaded as if it was

            uploaded by this alfresco user.

            A word of warning… Since the emailAnon user is an

            admin it means anyone can email into the system and overwrite  

           or add  anything (very dangerous so plan your system out better

           than this)

email.server.enableTLS=false

            For now shut this off it ist for TLS encryption when 

            sending/recieveing emails  In a real system you should

            probably turn this back on and configure it correctly

email.server.allowed.senders=.*

            A regex field that says what email addresses in are allowed.

            In this case any email would be allowed.

After this has been set up restart alfresco…

(in this case I just restarted tomcat to reboot alfresco)

>    sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat restart

Watch it boot up again by tailing the log

> sudo tail -f /opt/tomcat/logs/catalina.out

Every file and folder has an email address in Alfresco.   But this email address is usually a number, which can be very hard to remember.  To solve this problem it’s possible to add an email alias to a folder or file.

Log into Alfresco as an admin user.

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/alfresco

Click on “Company Home”  Then Sites.  Here you will see the emailtest which is the share site you just created.

Click on emailtest.  

Now you can see the documentLibary folder.  Click on the View Details icon.

The 844 is the email ID.  So to email into this folder you could email to 844@example.com and it would go into this folder.

But that is hard to remember so make an alias to make your life easier.

Click on Run Action on the right hand side.

Set to “add Aspect” and click “Set Values and add.

Select “Email Alias” and click OK

Click Finish.

Now you will see this Email Alias added to your properties.

Click on Modify in the upper right.

Set the Email Alias to “inbox” and click OK

Now its Email Alias is set any email sent to inbox@ http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com will go into this folder.

I opened up my yahoo email and sent this email

There is not attachment to this email.

Now go to share and login

http://ec2-72-44-49-158.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/share

Click on Sites -> Email_test

Click on the Document Library

Now you will see 2 files that were created from this one e-mail.

This is a test and this is a test.html

Now if you had sent it with a document attached say an excel file.

Now you will see the xlsx file as an uploaded document.

References

[1]  SMB/CIFS Server Configuration

       http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/File_Server_Subsystem_4.0#SMB.2FCIFS_Server_Configuration

       Visited 2/2012

 [2]  Installing Alfresco Community Edition 3.2 on Ubuntu Server 9.04

       http://www.davidbaker.cc/?q=node/3

       Visited 2/2012