Hi Ed.

There are a few questions that may help me gain more clarity as to how to
use usergrid.

1. The first question is related to how I access the usergrid standalone
version hosted on my VPS as admin.
a) Must I use your launcher that is stored on my desktop machine, in order
to access the version located on my VPS? If so, how do I do that?
The launcher contains two textfields,
i. the "Console URL", which by default points to
http://usergrid.github.com/console.
Do I need to change the contents of this textfield? If yes, what will the
modified contents of the "Console URL" look like?
ii. Do I need to change the contents of the "Auto-login as:" textfield,
such that it contains the email address that I used in the *.properties
file?

b) Or can I use the launcher with it default settings to access the
usergrid version stored online? If so, how would I do that?
c) Or can I skip the launcher altogether, and simply enter the appropriate
url in my web browser? When I use the launcher, it opens up a tab in my
default web browser, and uses a long "set" url
(including ?api_url=<xxx>; admin_email=<xxx>; access_token=<xxx>". Since I
don't have the value of the access_token, do I jus leave that blank?

c) Does the launcher have a command line version that would allow me to
launch it as is (i.e. without modifications to the text fields) on the VPS?

2. Regarding the *.properties file
a) Is the information contained in the properties file used for the log in?
b) The *.properties file contains instructions to  use smtps, the secure
version of smtp. Can I change that to smtp? If I change it to smtp, will I
still be able to log in (I'm currently not running smtps).
c) The *.properties file has a setting "mail.smtps.auth=true". Can I change
that to "mail.smtps.auth=false", or "mail.smtp.auth=false" (the later if I
am legally using smtp instead of smtps)?

3. Is it legal to comment out the captcha information?

Thank you.
Joseph

The launcher and the standalone version are essentially the same app.
The launcher is a GUI wrapper around the standalone version so you can
run it more easily on your desktop computer.  So, in your case, if
you're already running the standalone version on your VPS, you would
never use the launcher, unless you wanted to run a separate local
instance of the server.  One convenience of the launcher is that it
provides a shortcut to bypass the login screen.  Since you're running
the standalone server, you'll need to log in.

The management console at http://usergrid.github.com/console on GitHub
is a javascript app.  It can connect to wherever you're running
usergrid.  The default is for it to connect to our cloud service.
However, the launcher passes the localhost URL to the management
console so that it will connect to your local server.  The console is
entirely a client-side app, it consists of Javascript that runs in
your browser.   The way that you specify where to connect to is by
appending "api_url=http://foo" at the end of the url.

The properties file (usergrid-custom-standalone.properties) contains
the override values for the various configuration properties.  You can
see the full set of configurable properties at:

https://github.com/usergrid/stack/blob/master/config/src/main/resourc...

You're going to want to put in your own values into
usergrid-custom-standalone.properties to override the
usergrid.test-account.admin-user.email and
usergrid.test-account.admin-user.password values.

You can put whatever you want into the recaptcha fields.  There will
need to be something in there in order to do a password recovery,
otherwise the password recovery page will fail.  It probably would be
a good thing to just disable using the recaptcha if none is
configured.  I'll add that to the bug list.

The mail configuration is simply passed through to Javamail.  The
configuration properties are documented here:

http://javamail.kenai.com/nonav/javadocs/overview-summary.html
http://javamail.kenai.com/nonav/javadocs/com/sun/mail/smtp/package-su...

Also worth looking at is the Javamail FAQ at
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javamail/faq/index.html

You can use smtp or smtps or any of the other mail providers that
Javamail supports.  The settings I suggested were simply the ones that
had been documented to work with Gmail.

Hope this helps

Ed

Thanks Ed.

This is the kind of information I was looking for!

I am enthusiastically optimistic that applying this information will do the
trick! ;-).

I'll keep you (and the rest of the world) updated

Hi Ed.

Apparently my declaring the launch of usergrid error-free was a little
pre-mature. Following your instructions above I was able to perform a "sign
up" without getting an error message (it did however generate errors in the
log window), but I wasn't able to log in, again accompanied by message in
the log window.

The first set of errors immediately below  were the ones generated when I
started up the program, followed by the errors that were generated when I
attempted to sign up, followed by the errors that were generated trying to
log in with the credentials that were created during the "sign up" process.

=== ERRORS logged during launch of program

2011-10-31 13:36:01,902 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.standalone.Server] -
Initializing Cassandra database
2011-10-31 13:36:01,957 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.EntityManagerFactoryImpl] - Unable to
load properties: InvalidRequestException(why:Keyspace Usergrid does not
exist)
2011-10-31 13:36:01,957 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.EntityManagerFactoryImpl] - Unable to
load properties: InvalidRequestException(why:Keyspace Usergrid does not
exist)
2011-10-31 13:36:01,957 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.Setup] - Initialize system keyspace
2011-10-31 13:36:01,964 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraService] - Creating keyspace:
Usergrid
2011-10-31 13:36:01,969 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraService] - Using strategy:
org.apache.cassandra.locator.SimpleStrategy

2011-10-31 13:36:11,276 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:admin equals UUID
2917a47a-5f8e-33ee-b431-67df72752cbe
2011-10-31 13:36:11,281 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,282 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,284 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:admin equals UUID
2917a47a-5f8e-33ee-b431-67df72752cbe
2011-10-31 13:36:11,360 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
role:*:admin equals UUID 70f39f36-1825-379d-8385-7a7fbe9ec74a

2011-10-31 13:36:11,385 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:default equals UUID
061ecf9f-e6cb-3c42-86a1-1e203c4fe711
2011-10-31 13:36:11,391 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,391 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,393 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:default equals UUID
061ecf9f-e6cb-3c42-86a1-1e203c4fe711

2011-10-31 13:36:11,485 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:guest equals UUID
f080ed6a-d20e-3946-b1b4-69d4c2b2b855
2011-10-31 13:36:11,491 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,491 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:11,496 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:role:guest equals UUID
f080ed6a-d20e-3946-b1b4-69d4c2b2b855

2011-10-31 13:36:12,197 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.services.groups.GroupsService] - /groups
2011-10-31 13:36:12,197 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Returning service instance: class
org.usergrid.services.groups.GroupsService
2011-10-31 13:36:12,233 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
2011-10-31 13:36:12,261 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
null
2011-10-31 13:36:12,263 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Looking up service pattern: /groups/*/activities

2011-10-31 13:36:12,265 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Returning service instance: class
org.usergrid.services.groups.activities.ActivitiesService
2011-10-31 13:36:12,266 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
2011-10-31 13:36:12,488 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f87a3e16-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:activities:f8c047cc-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95e de8d22bb2
equals UUID 7dd740ea-3e86-3ee8-91cb-099cfd17ae58

2011-10-31 13:36:12,887 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:admin equals UUID
3a32b469-8bb1-3422-ad30-3c60a07d0889
2011-10-31 13:36:12,893 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,893 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,893 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,893 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,900 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:admin equals UUID
3a32b469-8bb1-3422-ad30-3c60a07d0889

2011-10-31 13:36:12,969 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:default equals UUID
5faca226-599d-34a1-bcce-0aa7071936c6
2011-10-31 13:36:12,983 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,983 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,983 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,983 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:12,986 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:default equals UUID
5faca226-599d-34a1-bcce-0aa7071936c6

2011-10-31 13:36:13,043 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:guest equals UUID
b2699ca0-8857-3499-b807-e8928f60ed24
2011-10-31 13:36:13,055 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,055 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,055 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,055 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,059 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
f91349d3-03ff-11e1-8dc7-95ede8d22bb2:role:guest equals UUID
b2699ca0-8857-3499-b807-e8928f60ed24

2011-10-31 13:36:13,110 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:application_info:test-app equals UUID
edf5f833-54c1-3343-8d1a-b95ba441e2dc
2011-10-31 13:36:13,130 ERROR (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, throwing exception...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,130 WARN (main)
[me.prettyprint.cassandra.serializers.PrefixedSerializer] - Unprefixed
value received, discarding...
2011-10-31 13:36:13,131 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001:application_info:test-app equals UUID
edf5f833-54c1-3343-8d1a-b95ba441e2dc
2011-10-31 13:36:13,269 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
2011-10-31 13:36:13,294 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Looking up service pattern: /groups

2011-10-31 13:36:13,295 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Returning service instance: class
org.usergrid.services.groups.GroupsService
2011-10-31 13:36:13,295 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
2011-10-31 13:36:13,297 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
null
2011-10-31 13:36:13,297 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Looking up service pattern: /groups/*/activities

2011-10-31 13:36:13,303 INFO (main) [org.usergrid.services.ServiceManager]
- Returning service instance: class
org.usergrid.services.groups.activities.ActivitiesService
2011-10-31 13:36:13,303 ERROR (main)
[org.usergrid.security.shiro.utils.SubjectUtils] - Attempt to use Shiro
prior to initialization
2011-10-31 13:36:13,381 INFO (main)
[org.usergrid.persistence.cassandra.CassandraPersistenceUtils] - Key ...

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