ARK Setup Problems

[flynam]

Hi there,

This mail follows on from my previous post outlining some install
issues I'm having with ARK.

I've uploaded two files to this group that hopefully outline my system
setup a bit better. The TXT file describes my file system and the PDF
outlines what I can and cannot currently do in the ARK system.

I'm using Windows XP Pro SP3.

Many thanks for the support.

Best regards,
Frank

[Stuart Eve]

Hi Frank

Thanks for the uploads - apologies for slight delay in replying.

Firstly, are you still getting those error messages from the first message you sent?

It would appear on a quick look at the file structure that all the files are in place.

I have a couple of further questions. When you make the new user - can you then logout and login as the new user? Or does it not let you?

It seems strange that you cannot save a new record in the register view. I have a feeling this may be something to do with user security groups. If the user is only in the PUBLIC group they can't edit any data (altho it should hit you with an error message if this is the case).

Can you try opening the site in Firefox? We have been having some strange behaviour with IE so it would be good to double-check this.

When you are in the 'micro-view' of a context, what happens when you click the edit button (small pencil). That should put those subforms into edit mode and it would be good to know if you can change and save the data from there.

Sorry for stream of conciousness - but if you could take a look at these and get back to me we may be able to get a bit closer!

Stu

[Stuart Eve]

Frank - hope you don't mind, but I am replying to the list as well - just so other people can jump in if they have comments.

 I still can't get anything to appear in the MapView section though. Does this part of my file structure look OK to you? I am still getting some errors in the Apache log file but they seem to be to do with a missing style sheet and nothing else.

This looks to me like a problem with the setup of the mapfiles. In the ark/mapserver/mapfiles/ folder there should be two mapfiles (ark_wms.map and ark_wfs.map). Throughout these files there are a number of hard-coded paths (unavoidable unfortunately). They are currently pointing at' C:/ms4w/Apache/htdocs/tutorial_ark/data/mapping/cxt_schm.shp'. If you change these to match your local filesystem (the sample mapping data is in data/mapping/) then hopefully your tiles will appear.

 

Once ARK is up and running I have to import our existing database that was built and populated using FileMaker Pro. My initial thoughts were to export the FileMaker database to an Access MDB file and then try and manipulate it's structure so that it will appear like the ARK sample database. Do you think this approach is feasible? Is the ARK database structure flexible or must the source database use a strict format?

 
The backend structure of ARK is a strict format - however there are a set of import tools that can be used to convert your database to the ARK format. The import tools at the moment however are a little tricky - and its quite difficult to figure them out without a bit of help! The documentation for this is also very patchy at the moment. The first step - however - would be to get your Filemaker database into a MySQL database, once you have that sorted send me another message and I'll see if I can dig out the documentation for the import procedure.

Many thanks for all the help. It's very much appreciated.

Our pleasure! Thanks for persevering!

Stu

2009/2/18 Stuart Eve <stua...@gmail.com>

[Frank Lynam]

Hi Stuart,

 

That seems to sort out the mapview problem however the spatial data boxes in the data entry sheets still do not come up. Is there anything different about the way these boxes access the map data?

 

In general however it looks like a large part of the functionality now seems to be working which is great and many thanks for getting me to this stage.

 

I notice that there does not appear to be facility to include subcontext related information. This leads me on to the topic of customisation in general. We currently use a data recording format that does not quite equate to the format that the ARK sample project uses. I've attached a sketch of a subcontext sheet (in this case using the Area/Locus/Pail system but it may as well mean Trench/Context/Subcontext for our purposes). How much work do you think would be involved in customising ARK to provide for such changes? Are we looking at an extended period of PHP code writing or can these changes be made otherwise?

 

Best regards,

Frank

 

2009/3/2 Stuart Eve <stua...@gmail.com>

[Andy Dufton]

Hi Frank,

For the configuration to fit the area/locus/pail (or trench/context/
subcontext) system, you'll need to create a new module for the
subcontext information. This will involve creating the module-
specific tables (most likely in phpMyAdmin), setting up the
mod_settings.php file, and configuring any fields you need in the
field_settings.php file.

There is a lot of relevant documentation online explaining these
different files, and the customisation of the system doesn't require
any new PHP programming as much as the copying/modification of
existing examples of the fields, subforms, etc that you will need. I
certainly don't see anything in the example sheet that you sent
through that can't be handled easily with the existing scripts,
anyway. I would think this can be completed in 7-10 days (obviously
depending on how complex your recording system will be, and your
comfort level with mucking about in the settings files).

Some useful links:
Field Configuration: http://ark.lparchaeology.com/wiki/index.php/Field_settings.php
Module Configuration: http://ark.lparchaeology.com/wiki/index.php/Mod_settings.php
Subform Reference Info: http://ark.lparchaeology.com/wiki/index.php/Subform_Reference

Hope this is of help,

Andy

On Mar 7, 9:05 pm, Frank Lynam <fly...@tcd.ie> wrote:
> Hi Stuart,
>
> That seems to sort out the mapview problem however the spatial data boxes in
> the data entry sheets still do not come up. Is there anything different
> about the way these boxes access the map data?
>
> In general however it looks like a large part of the functionality now seems
> to be working which is great and many thanks for getting me to this stage.
>
> I notice that there does not appear to be facility to include subcontext
> related information. This leads me on to the topic of customisation in
> general. We currently use a data recording format that does not quite equate
> to the format that the ARK sample project uses. I've attached a sketch of a
> subcontext sheet (in this case using the Area/Locus/Pail system but it may
> as well mean Trench/Context/Subcontext for our purposes). How much work do
> you think would be involved in customising ARK to provide for such changes?
> Are we looking at an extended period of PHP code writing or can these
> changes be made otherwise?
>
> Best regards,
> Frank
>

> 2009/3/2 Stuart Eve <stuart...@gmail.com>

> >   2009/2/18 Stuart Eve <stuart...@gmail.com>

>  PP_Pail_Master.PDF
> 659KViewDownload