Administration console


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Prerequisite

  • The last version of ExperShop has to be installed (V2.0 beta 2). Please refer to the installation part of ExperShop.

What is ?

An administration console is now available to manage the ExperSHOP applications. This console is an ExperShop application itself, and can be administrated too. Now, you can start and stop an application, configure the JDBC connections, manage the logs, view the client sessions, and many other tools.

Installation

To the beginning, you need the ExperShop Lite package.
You can download it from the ExperLog Web Site. And you need the "administration console" package available from the download part of the web site. And to finich, do the following steps:
  • Uncompress the file administration-console-0.9.0.tar.gz, and install files in a visible place for the web site:
    tar tzxf administration-console-0.9.0.tar.gz
  • Modified the console configuration file. This file is in the /my_install/console/shop/SHOP.cfg directory. Parameters to modify are :
    • jdbc.Driver: your_jdbc_driver_class
    • jdbc.Url: url
    • jdbc.User: user
    • jdbc.Password: password
    • shop.RootDir: /my_install/console/shop/ESRootDir
  • Edit the following file: ExperShop/EShop.cfg, and add the following line:
    console: true
    admin: /my_install/console/shop/SHOP.cfg

    This option allows to use the administration console. If we use false, ExperShop will not use the administration console.

  • The application administrators are in database. You need to create a table with a simple entry. You will find all the information in the /mon_installation/console/schema.sql file.
  • You need to restart your web server to enable the changes.
  • In your web browser, test the following URL:
    http://your-machine:8080/servlet/com.expershop.lite.ESConsoleServlet

    The login is "admin" and the password "admin". Attention, it is recommended to change the administrator password, before to use the console. There are some malicisous users which could modify the behavior of the application.

Use

  • Enter your login and password to connect to your administration console.
  • Select your application you want to administrate. In this page, you can switch off the application console. There are two main reasons to switch off the console, the first one is some security reasons. When you open a door (administration door), you create "problems", and someone could modify your applications and destroy datas. The second one is about performance measurement, there is no real problem when you use the administration console, but no one knows...
  • The left menu allows you to navigate in the administration console. It is possible to :
    - manage the connections pool of the database (Connection pool)
    - administrate the "Trace Manager" configuration (Trace configuration)
    - administrate the configuration file of the application (Application configuration)
    - view the logs (Trace output)
    - start and stop the application (on | off)
    - and view the client sessions connected to the application.
  • Most of the screens are configuration tables. You can modify some parameters, and changes are made when you click on the "Update" button.

[Connection pool]

This page allows you to manage the connections pool of the database, and other jdbc parameters. On top of the page, you have the number of physical connections used.
  • reconnect on error: possibles values: true or false. if equals to true, connections are re-opened when an error occurs (sql errors).
  • number of jdbc query attempts: number of try to establish the connection to the database when there is a connection problem.
  • new: if true, open and close a connection to the database (hack for some JDBC driver) before start working.
  • minimum of jdbc connections: minimum number of physical jdbc connection to the database.
  • maximum of jdbc connections: maximum number of physical jdbc connection to the database.
  • number of connection on one physical connection: number of virtual jdbc connections on the same connection. Example:
              jdbc.MaxConn: 4
              jdbc.Multiplex: 2
              
    means 8 maximum available connections for the application.
  • test statement string: test SQL string allowing to test the jdbc connection before to use it.
  • check level: level of connection checking (0: no check ... 4: maximum check).
  • debug: set on the debug flag. If true , debug is available. If false, debug is not used.

[Trace configuration]

This panel allows you to manage the "Trace Manager". There are 5 levels of debug, :
  • DEBUG: to display debugging messages from ExperSHOP;
  • INFO: to display debugging messages, and messages which displays informations concerning the behavior of ExperSHOP;
  • WARN: to display debugging messages, information messages, and warnings;
  • ERROR: to display debugging messages, information messages, warnings, and errors or exceptions from ExperSHOP;
  • FATAL: to display all messages from ExperSHOP. The FATAL mode is used to trace behavior errors of the soft which stop the application.

[Application configuration]

This panel allows you to manage the global configuration of the application.
  • with GC: if true, use Garbage Collector from the virtual machine, else false.
  • timeout(s) for next connections: unused time allowed for a client session (seconds).
  • off template: error template when a problem occurs with the application. Problems could be the following: the application has been stopped, the maximum number of jdbc connections has been reached, etc ...
When you manage the administration console, some additionnal parameters are displayed.
  • console/color 1: first color for the tables.
  • console/color 2: second color for the tables.
  • console/application color: text color.
  • console/properties color: properties color.
  • console/background color: background color.

[Trace output]

This panel allows you to view the error file of the application. These logs are available only when a log file has been set in the "Trace configuration" section.

[on | off]

These panels allow you to start and stop an application. By default, the application has been started.
  • [on]: allows to start the application.
  • [off]: allows to stop the application. If there are clients connected to the application, it is possible to force clients to log off. When the application will be stopped, it will be no longer possible a client to connect to the web site.

    • Turn off all current connections: disconnect all clients connected to the application, and no connection will be available in the future.
    • Disable new connection: current client sessions are not killed, they will terminate themself, and no connection will be available in the future.

[Clients for this application]

All clients currently connected to the application are displayed. When you click on a client id, you'll see informations about him. Some of them (informations) are modifiable.
  • is administrator: if true, the client currently connected is the administrator of the application, else false.
  • sql encode separator: sql separator.
  • sql encode rules: substitution rules.
  • reconnect on error: Values: true or false. If true, tells the connection pool to reopen database connections upon errors (including SQL errors).
  • number of jdbc query attempts: number of try to establish a connection to the database when an error occurs.
  • no comment: if true, displays comments in the generated html file, else false.
This panel allows to know informations about the Cookie ("Current cookie"), and parameters passed to the ExperSHOP servlet ("Current parameters").
A link to the cart is here ("Link to cart"), to view its content.


The configuration file of the administration console is very similar to a standard ExperSHOP application. The following properties are defined:

Console parameters
Properties Description Default value
console.mbeanserver MBean server name used by ExperSHOP for the administration console. expershop
console.color1 first color for the table. "#ffffe0"
console.color2 second color for the table. "#ffcc99"
console.applicationcolor text color. "#ff1111"
console.propertiescolor properties color. "#008000"
console.bgcolor background color. "#ffffff"

[Save configuration]

This button allows to save the configuration to a file. This file is setup in the application configuration file. If the file name is not specified, a default file will be created (/tmp/delegateconfigfile.cfg).