Sunday, May 15, 2011

Krestianstvo SDK v2 based on OpenQwaq

OpenQwaq is the most awaited framework in the virtual world's development domain!
Four years left after the latest OpenCroquet release and OpenCobalt has done a lot to bring virtual worlds closer to life, but OpenQwaq set the final point!
Now anybody could set up it's own virtual space or forum and do not worry about the underlying network architecture, just create Forums, create content for them and place on the servers through the web and collaborate.
So, everything looks just fine, but... to start own server on LAN or WAN someone need to install Linux, Apache, PHP, MySql and OpenQwaq server itself following config rules and avoiding the pitfalls.
But hey? We are in Squeak/EToys platform, Smalltalk at last.. in the self-contained environment, so why all these third-party tools a needable? (Yes, for: Security reasons, Application services, Streaming, account politics ect). But in learning situation at classroom or in Art gallery during installation all of these features are not too critical.
I decided to explore, how it is possible to have just One-Click OpenQwaq image with server and client on it, that could run as internet or local server or just a client. Image, that in a few clicks could be used by children setting up the classroom's network or artists making performance / installation.
And the Krestianstvo SDK 2.0 as experimental platform was borned!
Comparable to OpenQwaq, I started Krestianstvo2 with only one image for server and client versions (the server one based on Squeak 4.2).
The aim is to start the server with no need of installing any other third party applications (apache, mysql). Of course, some (a lot of) features of OpenQwaq could not be available in such scenario, but the work is in progress...
In the current version, anybody could easily setup the running server on LAN or WAN (the server http://www.krestianstvo.ru has already running the same image as provided for download).
SDK is developed on top of OpenQwaq, so that no part of the original OpenQwaq code in image is modified from the functional point of view. So, SDK image allows to run OpenQwaq Forums just in pure mode. Nevertheless, for localization purposes the String method #translateMe was introduced and was injected into OpenQwaq code for the most of string's objects. Translation process is still in progress too.
SDK works with Russian language support by default!
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Try out the running space!
The demo logins and passwords, that's working on krestianstvo.ru

Login: member
Password:
member
Organization: krestianstvo
Server: kresianstvo.ru

Login: guest
Password:
guest
Organization: krestianstvo
Server: kresianstvo.ru
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You could add as new members and new groups in setup, visually.
In main login screen use right mouse button to have the context menu and select: "Add new user...".


Example connection scenario:

1. On the 'A' host you start Krestianstvo with as server (type instead of krestianstvo.ru the in the 'Server:' field).
2. On the 'B' host you start Krestianstvo with IP address of 'A' host as server.
3. Then try to login with l: admin/p: admin (l: member/ p: member) accounts (or add new members in 'A' host (on the main login screen, where is proxy configuration dialog).

So, in final it will be good to have: CoalServices working with local storage database in memory (instead of mysql) with Smalltalk WebServices front-end (instead of apache/php).

The project page: http://www.krestianstvo.ru/main
Monticello: http://www.krestianstvo.ru:8888/sdk/Monticello/sdk2/
Download the image: http://krestianstvo.googlecode.com/files/Krestianstvo2.0a.zip