blacklight installation

blackligth installtion

When I first tried to install blacklight not everything went smoothly.
These instructions are based on the documentation provided here:
http://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/blob/master/doc/README_INSTALLATION.rdoc

Install the dependencies:
-------------------------
$ sudo gem install rails
$ sudo gem install test-unit --version=1.2.3
$ sudo gem install authlogic --version=2.1.2
$ sudo gem install marc --version=0.3.0
$ sudo gem install will_paginate --version=2.3.11
$ sudo gem install rsolr --version=0.12.1
$ sudo gem install rsolr-ext --version=0.12.0

If using Ruby 1.8.x
$ sudo gem install sqlite3

If using Ruby 1.9.x
$ sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby

Install the example project
---------------------------
$ rails ./blacklight-app -m http://github.com/projectblacklight/blacklight/raw/v2.4.2/template.rb

Configure sqlite
----------------
Check which version of ruby you are running:
$ ruby --version

If you are using ruby 1.9.x no action is required.

If you are using ruby 1.8.x:
  Uncomment the following line in config/environment.rb (line 26)
  # config.gem "sqlite3-ruby", :lib => "sqlite3"

  Then run the following rake task:
  $ sudo rake gems:install
  This will install the sqlite3-ruby gem.

To start the example application:
---------------------------------
Start SOLR:
$ cd jetty && java -jar start.jar

Start Rails in a separate terminal
$ ruby script/server

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser of choice.

Fixing Rails 2.3.5 for Ruby 1.8.7
---------------------------------
The secure_compare method in ActiveSupport MessageVerifier fires the method intended for Ruby 1.9 when using Ruby 1.8.7 (Ruby 1.8.6 has an alternate method definition that functions as expected).

I solved this by updating the secure_compare method in the active_support-2.3.5 gem with the method as it is defined in edge rails. Before this can be done GEM_HOME must be determined.

The GEM_HOME folder could be in one of several places depending or your system configuration. Mine is in:
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems
It may be in:
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems
Or somewhere else.

If you installed the gems without using sudo they were most likely installed in:
~/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems

Once the location of the gems has been determined you must replace lines 43-72 of:
GEM_HOME/active_support-2.3.5/lib/active_support/message_verifier.rb

With lines 47-55 of:
http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/activesupport/lib/active_support/message_verifier.rb

def secure_compare(a, b)
  return false unless a.bytesize == b.bytesize

  l = a.unpack "C#{a.bytesize}"

  res = 0
  b.each_byte { |byte| res |= byte ^ l.shift }
  res == 0
end

Fixing Rails 2.3.5 for Ruby 1.9.1
---------------------------------
Rails Templates are prone to failure when different parts of a page use disparate character encodings.
This error is known:
https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994/tickets/2188-i18n-fails-with-multibyte-strings-in-ruby-19-similar-to-2038
And this monkey patch takes care of it nicely:
http://gist.github.com/339265 

To index the provided data:
---------------------------
Add the sqlite3-ruby gem config to the blacklight plugin environment
cd vendor/plugins/blacklight

Add the following to config/environment.rb (within the blacklight plugin) at line 96:
  # for ruby 1.8.x only
  config.gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :lib => 'sqlite3'

There is a problem with pathing somewhere in the rake task. To bypass this symlink the data and jetty folders from blacklight-app to the blacklight plugin:

rm -rf data && ln -s ../../../data data
rm -rf jetty && ln -s ../../../jetty jetty

rake solr:marc:index_test_data