Sakai CLE 2.7 release notes

Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) 2.7.2

released: 10 Sept 2011

The Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) is a Java-based, service-oriented web application that provides a variety of capabilities supporting teaching and learning, portfolios, research, and ad-hoc project collaboration. The Sakai CLE is typically deployed using Apache Tomcat as its servlet container and scalability is achieved by running multiple instances of Tomcat in a clustered environment, each deploying a copy of the Sakai CLE. It integrates with a variety of external authentication services including CAS, Kerberos, LDAP, Shibboleth and WebAuth. A single database, usually MySQL or Oracle, provides a transactional store of information while file storage is typically delegated to NAS or SAN solutions. In most production settings, the Sakai CLE relies on a back-end student information system (SIS) to provide it with student and course information, which the Sakai CLE consults via provider APIs.

The Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) 2.7.2 maintenance release provides over 370 bug fixes that address key areas like accessibility, internationalization, performance and security.

Our thanks go out to the dedicated Sakai Community volunteers from around the world who have made this release possible.

Icons are used throughout the release notes to highlight important points in the installation, configuration, build and deployment process. Below is a list of the icons you will encounter:

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The documentation is presented here for ongoing comment, correction, and clarification, so please use the "Add Comment" link at the bottom of any of these pages if you note errors, require further details or have tips to share.

What's new

Release	Capability	Version	Notes
2.7.0	Conditional Release	2.7.0
2.7.0	IMS BasicLTI	1.1.3	Contrib tool promotion.
2.7.0	Profile2	1.3.8	User profile replacement.
2.7.0	Sitestats	2.1.4	Contrib tool promotion.

Language updates and additions

Release	Language	Country	locale
2.7.0	Catalan	Spain	ca_ES
2.7.0	English	United States	en_US
2.7.0	French	France	fr_FR
2.7.0	Japanese	Japan	ja_JP
2.7.0	Portuguese	Portugal	pt_PT
2.7.0	Russian	Russia	ru_RU
2.7.0	Spanish	Spain	es_ES

System requirements

Operating system (OS) choices

The Sakai CLE is OS neutral. It is typically run on any of the numerous Linux distributions such as CentOS, Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SuSe Linux, Ubuntu but is also run on Mac OS X server, Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris. Operating systems other than Linux are not nearly as well tested, and all of the community QA servers are running Linux, so this is generally the recommendation.

Examples:

Cerritos College, Windows 2003.
Georgia Tech, RHEL.
Indiana University, RHEL.
Mount Holyoke College: Debian GNU/Linux.

Oxford University: Debian GNU/Linux.
Rutgers University: Sun Solaris.
University of California, Berkeley: Sun Solaris.
University of Cape Town: SuSe Linux.

University of Florida: RHEL.
Universidad de Murcia: CentOS.
University of Virginia: Fedora.
Virginia Tech: Ubuntu.

Java

Oracle's Sun Java SE 6, a.k.a Java 1.6, is the preferred version to use with the Sakai CLE. Certain files, such as *.jsp and *.jws, require compilation so downloading and attempting to use only the run time environment (JRE 6.0) will not suffice. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) includes the full version of Java SE 6 so Mac users do not need to install Java. If you find Sun's version and naming conventions confusing, see Sun Java SE Naming and Versions for an outline of their practices.

Oracle's Sun Java J2SE 5.0 (a.k.a Java 1.5) has completed the EOL process and is no longer supported. If are still running Java 1.5 please note that security vulnerabilities exist in JDK/JRE 5.0 updates 1.5.0_17 and earlier.

For Sakai 2.9 OpenJDK and JDK 7 are supported along with JDK 6. Previous releases would not work with OpenJDK.

Application server choices

The Sakai Community is overwhelmingly an Apache http/Apache Tomcat user community and the Sakai CLE is at home in such an environment. Some Several schools run their Tomcats with Windows IIS and nginx proxies without issue. Since Sakai CLE 2.7.0 a Websphere module was included in the release in order to facilitate deployment to a Websphere/Db2 production environment; however, support has waned and the Websphere option is currently considered deprecated. A few schools such as Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Universidad de Guadalajara report deploying Sakai on JBoss.

Sakai 2.8.0 and previous releases require Tomcat 5.5 out of the box but can be configured in custom builds to run under Tomcat 7. Tomcat 7 is the requirement for running Sakai 2.9.0+. There are some changes to the Tomcat configuration required to get Sakai to startup in the source or binary form under Tomcat 7. Please see this page for more information!

Database choices

Sakai CLE production installations typically run either Oracle 10g/11g or MySQL 5.0/5.1. Support for IBM Db2 was added for the Sakai CLE 2.7.0 release but for 2.8.0 DB2 conversion scripts were not updated or tested and are currently considered deprecated. A demo version of Sakai includes HSQLDB; it should never be deployed in production.

It should be noted that Sakai is not limited to these database choices and integration with other RDBMS systems is not difficult. In the past at least one installation used Microsoft SQL Server while requests for PostgreSQL integration are occasionally raised on the Sakai developers list. However, to date no one in the Sakai Community has stepped forward to support alternatives to either Oracle or MySQL, a prerequisite for adding additional database options to the release.

Australian National University, MySQL 5.1
Indiana University, Oracle 10g
Oxford University, MySQL 5.0

Stanford University, Oracle 10g
Texas State University, San Marcos, MySQL 5.1
University of Cape Town, MySQL 5.1

University of Florida, Oracle 11g
University of Virginia, MySQL 5.0
University of Michigan, Oracle 10g
Virginia Tech, Oracle 11g

Clustering, file storage and load balancing strategies

A typical Sakai CLE cluster is comprised of one or more application servers running one or more instances of Tomcat 5.5 operating either in standalone mode or behind the Apache HTTP 2.2 web server. Each Tomcat instance runs a full copy of the Sakai CLE. The cluster is backed by a single database providing a transactional store of information. Storing binary content outside the database is a configurable option in Sakai and highly recommended from a performance standpoint. Most Sakai schools with sizable user populations opt for network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area network (SAN) solutions. Load balancing is provided by Apache (using mod_jk, mod_proxy_balancer or mod_proxy_ajp) or dedicated hardware solutions such as F5 BIG-IP, NetScaler or Zeus.

Three examples should suffice:

University of Cape Town
User base: 27,000+
Cluster: six Dual Xeon 3.6 GHz 8G RAM, 64-bit SuSe Linux (4 x physical servers, 2 x VMWare servers).
App servers: Apache HTTP server 2.2, Tomcat 5.5, Sakai 2.7.1.
Database: MySQL 5.1, 2 x dual-core processors, 16G RAM.
File storage: SAN Disk shared via NFS.
Load balancing: Apache 2.2 with mod_jk.

University of Michigan
User base: 45,000+
Cluster: five Dell PowerEdge 1950 boxes, each with 16 GB RAM running 64-bit RHEL 5.x (a sixth PowerEdge 1950 is utilized outside the cluster as a search server).
App servers: Apache HTTP server 2.2, fronting a single Tomcat 5.5/Sakai 2.7.1 install. One Java 1.6 JVM is configured per server with a 6 GB heap.
Database: Oracle 10g running on a Sun Fire T5120 with 128 GB RAM and Solaris 10 as the OS.
File storage: allocated 6 TB of disk space and stored externally in a NetApp FAS3020 filer, NFS mount.
Load balancing: two NetScaler RS9800 Secure Application switches.

Indiana University
User base: 100,000+
Cluster: two HP DL740 servers, 8-way with 3.0 GHz CPUs, 64 GB RAM and an IBM ESS "Shark" SAN running nine virtual application servers.
App servers: each virtual server is allocated 2 CPUs and 3.6 GB RAM and runs Apache HTTP 2.2/Tomcat 5.5.
Database: the Oracle 10g database is also a virtual instance housed on a Dell 810, dual socket, Quad Core server. The database is allocated 8 CPU and 32 GB RAM.
File storage: allocated 7 TB of disk space and is stored externally utilizing two NetAppliance FAS920C filers, NFS mount.
Load balancing: two HP DL385 servers running Zeus ZXTM load balancers. The load balancers run under Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) within VMware virtual machines and the architecture allows for more horizontal scaling if required.

External Authentication choices

The Sakai CLE can integrate with a variety of external authentication services including CAS, Kerberos, LDAP, Shibboleth and WebAuth.

Examples:

Australian National University: LDAP.
Indiana University: CAS.
Georgia Tech: CAS.
Oxford University: WebAuth.
Pepperdine University: CAS.

Stanford University: Kerberos.
Stockholm University: Shibboleth.
University of California, Davis: CAS.
University of Delaware: LDAP.

University of Hawaii: LDAP.
University of Michigan: Kerberos.
University of Florida: Shibboleth.
Yale University, CAS.

Integrating with student information systems

Sakai Community institutions have integrated their Sakai CLE installations with Banner, Datatel and Peoplesoft as well as a variety of home-grown student information systems (SIS).

The Sakai CLE has two basic approaches to integrating data from external systems. Most sites use a combination of these approaches. The first approach is to use the internal Sakai "provider" APIs. These APIs are places for Sakai to "consult" while Sakai is running. There are APIs for User Identity, User Directory, Course Listing and User Roles.

User Identity API: allows Sakai to call local code to validate users when they log into the system. This commonly uses Kerberos, Active Directory or LDAP to validate the user's credentials.

User Directory API: allows user information such as name and e-Mail address to be retrieved from an external system such as LDAP or X.509. The User Directory API has provisions to allow the local site to make decisions when to display student information in order to meet FERPA requirements. Each institution has different interpretation of FERPA so the precise FERPA decisions are delegated to the User Directory API.

Course Listing API: consulted when the instructor is creating a course site - this API returns the list of externally stored rosters for which the current user is the instructor. The user can select from one or more of these external rosters to associate with the course they are creating.

User Role API: is consulted when users log in to determine which external rosters they user is a member of and what their role is within those rosters. The Sakai internal configuration is updated if there are any changes to an individual's roster status.

The above API's are "pull" APIs--they are consulted when the user logs in or tries to take some action. The Course List API described above does not auto-populate courses.

If there is a desire to "push" information into the Sakai CLE, there are two approaches - Quartz and web services.

Sakai utilizes an internal batch system called Quartz that provides a cron-like capability within Sakai. Quartz is used by creating a Java class that does the necessary work and then having Quartz schedule the regular execution of that Java code.

A more common approach to pushing configuration information into Sakai is through web services. Any of Sakai's APIs can be accessed by web services. Web service access points have been developed for many of the common Sakai APIs used for configuration. These SOAP web services can be called from PHP, Python, Perl, Java, .NET or any other language. The Sakai CLE web service data structures are kept simple to insure the widest possible interoperability with as many languages as possible. Administrators often build scripts to pull data from their SIS system and populate the Sakai CLE with that data. These scripts may be automated using cron or manually executed by the administrator at the proper time during a semester.

This combination of pull/push configuration capabilities allows for a very wide range of integration possibilities for the Sakai CLE.

Downloading

There are two ways to acquire Sakai source code. You can choose to download a packaged *.zip or *tar.gz file from Sakai's release page or check out the code directly from our code repository using Subversion's (SVN) source control management system.

Demo archive

The Sakai Demo is a pre-built version of Sakai with Apache Tomcat and a simple configuration, perfect for a quick and easy demo of Sakai. The demo is NOT intended for large scale implementations. It is suitable only for evaluating the software and running small pilot implementations on a single server.

Binary archive

The Sakai Binary is a pre-built version of Sakai without Apache Tomcat, jar dependencies, or extra configuration files. Download the Binary release if you want to just drop the Sakai bundle into a pre-existing Tomcat environment.

Source archive

The Sakai Source includes Sakai portal, tool and service source code. Start from Source if you plan to make any code-level changes to your Sakai system.

Source checkout

Sakai source code can also be checked out anonymously from our SVN repository. The latest development work is located in /trunk; stable releases can be found in /tags while maintenance, experimental and other work are located in /branches.

For example, to checkout a stable Sakai 2.7.2 release tag issue the following Subversion terminal command:

svn co https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/tags/sakai-2.7.2/ sakai-2.7.2

Maintenance branch

The latest bug fixes for a particular release can be found in our maintenance branches. Please note that certain maintenance branch fixes require database schema changes. You can check out the maintenance branch by issuing the following Subversion terminal command:

svn co https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/branches/sakai-2.7.x/ sakai-2.7.x

Indie projects

A number of Sakai CLE projects (known collectively as "indie" projects) are currently not included in either the source archive or source check out. Instead, these projects are downloaded, installed in your local .m2 repository and then deployed to Tomcat as *.zip overlays during the Maven build process. If you need to apply any local customizations to these projects you must check out the code separately.

Indie project teams manage their own release cycles independently of the general Sakai CLE release cycle, permitting more frequent "off-cycle" maintenance releases for key projects such as the Kernel or Test and Quizzes.

Each Indie project site includes a variety of reports regarding the release, including Javadocs.

CLE Release	Project Site	Tag	Maint branch
2.7.2	kernel	1.1.14	1.2.x
2.7.2	basiclti	1.1.9	1.3.x
2.7.2	common	1.0.10	1.1.x
2.7.2	edu-services	1.0.13	1.1.x
2.7.2	emailtemplateservice	0.4.8	0.4.x
2.7.2	entitybroker	1.3.20	1.3.x
2.7.2	jobscheduler	2.7.9	2.7.x
2.7.2	jsf	2.7.12	2.7.x
2.7.2	msgcntr	2.7.7	2.7.x
2.7.2	polls	1.3.16	1.3.x
2.7.2	profile	2.7.7	2.7.x
2.7.2	profile2	1.3.18	1.3.x
2.7.2	purepoms	2.7.12	2.7.x
2.7.2	sakai-mock	2.7.7	2.7.x
2.7.2	samigo	2.7.5	2.7.x
2.7.2	search	1.2.11	1.2.x
2.7.2	sitestats	2.1.11	2.1.x

OS	Archive	Checksum
Win	sakai-demo-2.7.2.zip	md5
Unix/Mac	sakai-demo-2.7.2.tar.gz	md5
Win	sakai-bin-2.7.2.zip	md5
Unix/Mac	sakai-bin-2.7.2.tar.gz	md5
Win	sakai-src-2.7.2.zip	md5
Unix/Mac	sakai-src-2.7.2.tar.gz	md5

Sakai	Repository location
Trunk	https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/trunk/
Tag	https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/tags/sakai-2.7.2
Branch	https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/branches/sakai-2.7.x

Installing

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Demo install

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Bin install

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1.0 Get the binary archive

2.0 Verify/Install Java 1.6

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2.1 Set Java environment variables

3.0 Install Tomcat 5.5.33

Tomcat 5.5: we recommend Tomcat 5.5.33 in order to avoid certain Tomcat security vulnerabilities present in earlier releases.

Tomcat 6.0 / 7.0: Sakai 2.7 has not been tested in Tomcat 6.0 or 7.0 and will not run in either version of Tomcat without configuration changes. Adopters are advised to stay with the Tomcat 5.5. series.

JAVA_OPTS: running Sakai 2.x in Tomcat 5.5.27+ requires JAVA_OPTS modifications (see below).

Sakai installations should always be accompanied by a fresh install of Tomcat. It provides a clean environment that simplifies troubleshooting if problems are encountered during the startup phase.

The Apache Tomcat servlet container provides an ideal environment for running Sakai as a web application. Tomcat implements both the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications and can be run in standalone mode or in conjunction with a web application server such as the Apache HTTP server or JBoss. Sakai 2.7 works with the Tomcat 5.5 series.

Tomcat can be downloaded as a binary install from http://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-5/

Choose the core distribution. Windows users have the option of downloading either a Windows Service Installer .exe or a binary *.zip archive. We recommend the *.zip archive over the installer because configuration and log viewing are easier. You can later convert the .zip install into a service install by running /bin/service.bat (see below for more details).

Unpack the Tomcat archive into your installation directory of choice, e.g. /opt/. Unix/Mac users should create a symbolic link (e.g., ln -s apache-tomcat-5.5.33) while Windows users should simply rename the base Tomcat directory to /tomcat to simplify the path.

Tomcat pathnames

Windows users should ensure that the Tomcat path includes no spaces as this causes errors with JavaServer Faces (JSF) tools in Sakai.

Good: C:\opt\tomcat\, C:\sakaistuff\installs\tomcat\
Bad: C:\program files\tomcat\, C:\opt\apache tomcat 5.5.33\

Tomcat permissions

Unix/Mac users should make sure that they have write permissions to the Tomcat servlet container files and directories before proceeding or startup permission errors may occur.

Tomcat JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package

Do not download and install the JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package. Sakai 2.7 will not run should you install it.

3.1 Set Tomcat environment variables

By convention, the base Tomcat directory (e.g. /usr/local/apache-tomcat-5.5.31) is referred to as $CATALINA_HOME. As a convenience, you should create a $CATALINA_HOME environment variable. For UNIX operating systems one typically modifies a startup file like ~/.bash_login to set and export shell variables while Mac users typically set and export environment variables in .bash_profile. For Windows, go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and set your Tomcat environment variables via the GUI.

Set the CATALINA_HOME environment variable to point to the base directory of your Tomcat installation and add the Tomcat /bin directory to your PATH variable:

Variable	Unix/Mac	Windows
CATALINA_HOME	`export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat`	`CATALINA_HOME=C:\tomcat`
PATH	`export PATH=$PATH:$CATALINA_HOME/bin`	`;C:\tomcat\bin`

Windows: append string to the end of the Path system variable.

3.2 Configure Tomcat

If you want to run Tomcat on different ports than the defaults, this would also be a good time to make those changes in the server.xml file. See Tomcat's configuration documentation for more details.

If you plan to run Tomcat as a standalone web server as opposed to running it in conjunction with the Apache HTTP server then you will want to make a further minor change that may spare some confusion later. The ROOT webapp is the one served up when a request is made to Tomcat's root URL. If you want users to be re-directed automatically to the Sakai application, you must insert an index.html file into /webapps/ROOT that prompts this re-direction. The index.html file should look something like the following:

<html>
<head>
<title>Redirecting to /portal</title>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0:URL=/portal">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" onLoad="javascript:window.location='/portal';">
<div style="margin:18px;width:288px;background-color:#cccc99;padding:18px;border:thin solid #666600;text-align:justify">
<p style="margin-top:0px">
You are being redirected to the Sakai portal. If you are not automatically redirected, use the link below to continue:<br/>
<a href="/portal">Take me to the Sakai portal</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

Neglecting this adjustment will force users to append /portal to the URL entered to access Sakai each time. If you intend to connect Tomcat with Apache HTTP server you can configure redirections from within Apache, an option that lies outside the scope of this document.

3.3 Tomcat memory management

You can better manage Tomcat memory usage by creating a setenv.sh/.bat file defining JAVA_OPTS environment variable settings in the tomcat/bin directory.

Mac/Unix: create a file called setenv.sh and add the following line:

export JAVA_OPTS='-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true'

Windows: create a file called setenv.bat and add the following line:

set JAVA_OPTS=-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true'

3.4 Set up Tomcat as a Windows service

You can convert the .zip install into a service install by running service.bat from the /bin directory:

C:\tomcat\bin> service.bat install

You can add a service name as a second argument to the above script (the default name is "Tomcat5"). You can uninstall the service by replacing "install" with "remove".

After this you need to set the default startup options:

C:\tomcat\bin> tomcat5 //US//Tomcat5 ++JvmOptions "-Xms512m;-Xmx1024m;-XX:PermSize=128m;-XX:MaxPermSize=256m;-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8; -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false"

If you choose to do this in the GUI follow these steps: Open the configuration window, issue the following command:

C:\tomcat\bin> tomcat5w //ES//Tomcat5

Replace "Tomcat5" with whatever service name you chose for the install. You'll want to set the service to startup automatically ("Startup Type" under the General tab).

Windows users that have installed Tomcat as a service can set most Java options through the Tomcat service manager GUI, but not all of them are as straightforward as inclusion in a single environment variable. To achieve the equivalent of the "-server" option, you'll need to change the Java Virtual Machine path from ..\bin\client\jvm.dll to ..\bin\server\jvm.dll.

Java 1.6 users will you need add the system property -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true. This option is not required for Java 1.5. Please see the Java section above or SAK-15874 for more details.

Be sure to put the remaining JAVA_OPTS on separate lines in the Java Options field of the GUI, e.g.:

-Xms512m
-Xmx1024m
-XX:PermSize=128m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
-Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false
-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true
-Dhttp.agent=Sakai

Samoo has reported that display issues after editing text documents with accented characters using the resources tool. The issue was resolved by adding -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 as a Java option (open command window -> type "tomcat5w" -> "Java" ->"Java Options:").

You can add additional system properties if needed, e.g., -Dsakai.security=C:\tomcat\security.

Finally, clear out the Initial Memory Pool and Maximum Memory Pool values, as those might conflict with the options you're putting in the Java Options field. Then click Apply, restart the service, and double-check the service manager to verify that the values have changed.

Java 1.6 users may encounter the unhelpful system log error "The Apache Tomcat service terminated with service-specific error 0 (0x0)". This can be fixed by copying the file msvcr71.dll from the /bin directory into the server or client directory with the jvm.dll file.

To set up remote debugging, please see (Remote Debugging).

4.0 Unpack the Sakai binary distribution

4.1 Configure Sakai

4.2 Default database support (HSQLDB)

5.0 Start/Stop Tomcat

6.0 Explore Sakai

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Source install

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1.0 Get the Sakai CLE source code

Sakai source code can also be checked out anonymously from our SVN repository. The latest development work is located in /trunk; stable releases can be found in /tags while maintenance and other work is performed in /branches.

Starting with Sakai 2.6, Sakai common services (e.g., authz, content, event, site, tool, user, etc.) have been repackaged and refactored as the Sakai Kernel (K1). In most cases, you will never have to check out the kernel manually as Sakai kernel dependencies are managed by Maven.

2.7 release archive

You can download an archive of Sakai source code:

Archive	URL	checksum
.tgz	http://source.sakaiproject.org/release/2.7.1/artifacts/sakai-src-2.7.1.tgz	MD5
.zip	http://source.sakaiproject.org/release/2.7.1/artifacts/sakai-src-2.7.1.zip	MD5

2.7 release tag

To checkout a stable release tag issue the following svn command from the terminal:

svn co https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/tags/sakai-2.7.1/ sakai-2.7.1

2-7-x maintenance branch

The latest bug fixes for a particular release can be found in our maintenance branches. Please note that certain maintenance branch fixes require database schema changes. You can check out the maintenance branch by issuing the following command from the terminal:

svn co https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/sakai/branches/sakai-2.7.x/ sakai-2.7.x

2.0 Verify/Install Java 1.6

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2.1 Set Java environment variables

Several environment variables and related properties must be set for Java. For UNIX operating systems one typically modifies a startup file like ~/.bash_login to set and export shell variables while Mac users typically set and export environment variables in .bash_profile. For Windows, go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and set JAVA_HOME via the GUI.

Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the base directory of your Java installation and add Java's /bin directory to the PATH environment variable.

If the variable JRE_HOME is already set or if you want to use a particular JRE if you have more than one JRE installed on your machine then you'll want to set the JRE_HOME variable as well. JRE_HOME is what Apache Tomcat uses when it starts up, but it defaults to use JAVA_HOME if JRE_HOME is not set. In most cases, setting JAVA_HOME should cover both cases sufficiently.

Variable	Unix	Mac	Windows
JAVA_HOME	`export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/java-current`	`export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home`	`JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.6.0_02`
PATH	`export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin/`	`export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin/`	`;C:\jdk1.6.0_02\bin`

Windows: append the string to the end of the Path system variable

Set JAVA_OPTS

The default Java virtual machine (JVM) settings are insufficient for an application of Sakai's size. As a result several JVM parameters must be increased for Sakai to run, while others may need to be adjusted for optimal performance. At a minimum add the following property settings to your JAVA_OPTS environment variable.

We recommend that you define these settings in Tomcat's /bin directory in a file named setenv.sh (Unix/Mac) or setenv.bat (Windows). See the Tomcat section below for more details.

Unix/Mac:

export JAVA_OPTS='-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true'

Windows:

set JAVA_OPTS=-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true

Additional required settings

Certain JSF tools (chat, portfolios, test & quizzes) do not compile properly in Java 1.6. The workaround requires adding the system property allowArraySyntax in order to avoid deserialization bottlenecks in arrays (see SAK-17578 - Getting issue details... STATUS ). Second, Tomcat 5.5.27+ enforces strict quote escaping, a change in *.jsp handling that has yet to be addressed in certain tools such as portfolios (see SAK-15736 - Getting issue details... STATUS ). Finally, specify an HTTP user agent other than "Java/xxxxx" in order to resolve Google and other RSS feeds (see SAK-10159 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-13353 - Getting issue details... STATUS and SAK-18044 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).

-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true
-Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false
-Dhttp.agent=Sakai

Specify a Language and Locale (optional)

You can define the default language/locale when starting Sakai by setting the system properties -Duser.language and -Duser.region. For information on supported languages see the release notes or visit the i18N Work Group space.

-Duser.language=pt 
-Duser.region=PT

Specify an HTTP Proxy (optional)

In environments where local network policy or firewalls require use of an upstream HTTP proxy/cache, Sakai needs to be configured accordingly. Otherwise components or services which use HTTP requests, such as the BasicNewsService for RSS feeds in the News tool, cannot retrieve data from the target URLs. This can be fixed with the following JAVA_OPTS arguments:

-Dhttp.proxyHost=cache.some.domain 
-Dhttp.proxyPort=8080

3.0 Install Subversion 1.6+

3.1 Set Subversion environment variables

4.0 Install Maven 2.2.1

The Apache Maven project management framework provides Sakai with "a set of build standards, artifact repository model and a software engine that manages and describes projects" (Better Builds, p. 22). As part of the installation process you will use Maven as a build tool in order to compile, test and deploy Sakai to a servlet container such as Apache Tomcat.

Maven 2.2.1 is required for performing Sakai 2.7 builds.
Maven 3.0 is currently NOT compatible with Sakai 2.7.

You can download Maven at

http://maven.apache.org/download.html

Extract the distribution archive into your installation directory of choice, e.g. /opt/maven/apache-maven-2.2.1. Confirm that you have installed the correct version of Maven and can start it by issuing mvn --version from the terminal. At this point your environment is prepared to build and deploy the Sakai source code.

mvn --version

Apache Maven 2.2.1 (r801777; 2009-08-06 15:16:01-0400)
Java version: 1.6.0_20
Java home: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: MacRoman
OS name: "mac os x" version: "10.6.3" arch: "x86_64" Family: "mac"

4.1 Set Maven environment variables

A number of environment variables must be set for optimal Maven performance. For UNIX operating systems one typically modifies a startup file like ~/.bash_login to set and export shell variables while Mac users typically set and export environment variables in .bash_profile. For Windows, go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and set your Maven environment variables via the GUI.

Set the MAVEN_HOME environment variable to point to the base directory of your Maven installation and add the Maven /bin directory to your PATH variable:

Variable	Unix/Mac	Windows
MAVEN_HOME	`export MAVEN_HOME=/opt/maven/apache-maven-2.2.1`	`set MAVEN_HOME=C:\apache-maven-2.2.1`
PATH	`export PATH=$PATH:$MAVEN_HOME/bin`	`;C:\apache-maven-2.2.1\bin`

Windows: append string to the end of the Path system variable

MAVEN_OPTS

Maven does not read JAVA_OPTS on start up, resulting occasionally in "Out of Memory" errors when building Sakai. To assure sufficient memory allocation during builds, you should add a MAVEN_OPTS environment variable as defined below. For UNIX operating systems one typically modifies a startup file like ~/.bash_login to set and export shell variables while Mac users typically set and export environment variables in .bash_profile. For Windows, go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and set JAVA_HOME via the GUI.

export MAVEN_OPTS='-Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=64m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m'

4.2 Create a local Maven repository

Create a local Maven repository (.m2) in your home directory:

Unix/Mac

cd $HOME
mkdir -p .m2/repository

Windows

mkdir %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.M2\repository

In Windows the default location of your home directory is C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername. Windows also establishes it through environment variables by combining your "home drive" location and your "home path" location, i.e. %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. (The %-sign is how Windows brackets environment variables).

4.3 Create a Maven `settings.xml` file

Create a new XML file in your .m2 directory called settings.xml. Add the following lines, specifying the actual location of your Tomcat home directory (in this example /opt/tomcat).

Do not include trailing / or \ slashes in the directory paths.
Sakai does not use the standard appserver.home so you must include a <sakai.appserver.home> element in your settings.xml file. For Windows users, the sakai.appserver.home value must be C:\opt\tomcat.

Unix/Mac

Windows

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>tomcat5x</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<properties>
<appserver.id>tomcat5x</appserver.id>
<appserver.home>/opt/tomcat</appserver.home>
<maven.tomcat.home>/opt/tomcat</maven.tomcat.home>
<sakai.appserver.home>/opt/tomcat</sakai.appserver.home>
<surefire.reportFormat>plain</surefire.reportFormat>
<surefire.useFile>false</surefire.useFile>
</properties>
</profile>
</profiles>
</settings>

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>tomcat5x</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<properties>
<appserver.id>tomcat5x</appserver.id>
<appserver.home>c:\opt\tomcat</appserver.home>
<maven.tomcat.home>c:\opt\tomcat</maven.tomcat.home>
<sakai.appserver.home>c:\opt\tomcat</sakai.appserver.home>
<surefire.reportFormat>plain</surefire.reportFormat>
<surefire.useFile>false</surefire.useFile>
</properties>
</profile>
</profiles>
</settings>

Optionally, you can specify the Tomcat home to be an environment variable:

<maven.tomcat.home>${env.CATALINA_HOME}</maven.tomcat.home>

Users who utilize a network proxy need to add a <proxies> section to settings.xml:

<proxies>
<proxy>
<active>true</active>
<protocol>http</protocol>
<host>www.your.proxy.host</host>
<port>80</port>
<username>your_username</username>
<password>your_password</password>
<nonProxyHosts>localhost</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>
</proxies>

If you do not use a username or password for your proxy exclude the <username> and <password> elements. You only need the nonProxyHosts option if you have a local maven repo that does not require the proxy to be accessed. Maven 2.0 does not support Microsoft's NTLN authentification scheme. If you connect to a proxy like ISA you will need to use a tool such as http://ntlmaps.sourceforge.net/ to proxy your traffic.

5.0 Install Tomcat 5.5.33

Tomcat 5.5: we recommend Tomcat 5.5.33 in order to avoid certain Tomcat security vulnerabilities present in earlier releases.

Tomcat 6.0 / 7.0: Sakai 2.7 has not been tested in Tomcat 6.0 or 7.0 and will not run in either version of Tomcat without configuration changes. Adopters are advised to stay with the Tomcat 5.5. series.

JAVA_OPTS: running Sakai 2.x in Tomcat 5.5.27+ requires JAVA_OPTS modifications (see below).

Sakai installations should always be accompanied by a fresh install of Tomcat. It provides a clean environment that simplifies troubleshooting if problems are encountered during the startup phase.

The Apache Tomcat servlet container provides an ideal environment for running Sakai as a web application. Tomcat implements both the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications and can be run in standalone mode or in conjunction with a web application server such as the Apache HTTP server or JBoss. Sakai 2.7 works with the Tomcat 5.5 series.

Tomcat can be downloaded as a binary install from http://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-5/

Choose the core distribution. Windows users have the option of downloading either a Windows Service Installer .exe or a binary *.zip archive. We recommend the *.zip archive over the installer because configuration and log viewing are easier. You can later convert the .zip install into a service install by running /bin/service.bat (see below for more details).

Unpack the Tomcat archive into your installation directory of choice, e.g. /opt/. Unix/Mac users should create a symbolic link (e.g., ln -s apache-tomcat-5.5.33) while Windows users should simply rename the base Tomcat directory to /tomcat to simplify the path.

Tomcat pathnames

Windows users should ensure that the Tomcat path includes no spaces as this causes errors with JavaServer Faces (JSF) tools in Sakai.

Good: C:\opt\tomcat\, C:\sakaistuff\installs\tomcat\
Bad: C:\program files\tomcat\, C:\opt\apache tomcat 5.5.33\

Tomcat permissions

Unix/Mac users should make sure that they have write permissions to the Tomcat servlet container files and directories before proceeding or startup permission errors may occur.

Tomcat JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package

Do not download and install the JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package. Sakai 2.7 will not run should you install it.

5.1 Set Tomcat environment variables

By convention, the base Tomcat directory (e.g. /usr/local/apache-tomcat-5.5.31) is referred to as $CATALINA_HOME. As a convenience, you should create a $CATALINA_HOME environment variable. For UNIX operating systems one typically modifies a startup file like ~/.bash_login to set and export shell variables while Mac users typically set and export environment variables in .bash_profile. For Windows, go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and set your Tomcat environment variables via the GUI.

Set the CATALINA_HOME environment variable to point to the base directory of your Tomcat installation and add the Tomcat /bin directory to your PATH variable:

Variable	Unix/Mac	Windows
CATALINA_HOME	`export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/tomcat`	`CATALINA_HOME=C:\tomcat`
PATH	`export PATH=$PATH:$CATALINA_HOME/bin`	`;C:\tomcat\bin`

Windows: append string to the end of the Path system variable.

5.2 Configure Tomcat

If you want to run Tomcat on different ports than the defaults, this would also be a good time to make those changes in the server.xml file. See Tomcat's configuration documentation for more details.

If you plan to run Tomcat as a standalone web server as opposed to running it in conjunction with the Apache HTTP server then you will want to make a further minor change that may spare some confusion later. The ROOT webapp is the one served up when a request is made to Tomcat's root URL. If you want users to be re-directed automatically to the Sakai application, you must insert an index.html file into /webapps/ROOT that prompts this re-direction. The index.html file should look something like the following:

<html>
<head>
<title>Redirecting to /portal</title>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0:URL=/portal">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" onLoad="javascript:window.location='/portal';">
<div style="margin:18px;width:288px;background-color:#cccc99;padding:18px;border:thin solid #666600;text-align:justify">
<p style="margin-top:0px">
You are being redirected to the Sakai portal. If you are not automatically redirected, use the link below to continue:<br/>
<a href="/portal">Take me to the Sakai portal</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

Neglecting this adjustment will force users to append /portal to the URL entered to access Sakai each time. If you intend to connect Tomcat with Apache HTTP server you can configure redirections from within Apache, an option that lies outside the scope of this document.

5.3 Tomcat memory management

You can better manage Tomcat memory usage by creating a setenv.sh/.bat file defining JAVA_OPTS environment variable settings in the tomcat/bin directory.

Mac/Unix: create a file called setenv.sh and add the following line:

export JAVA_OPTS='-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true'

Windows: create a file called setenv.bat and add the following line:

set JAVA_OPTS=-server -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:NewSize=192m -XX:MaxNewSize=384m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dhttp.agent=Sakai -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true'

5.4 Set up Tomcat as a Windows service

You can convert the .zip install into a service install by running service.bat from the /bin directory:

C:\tomcat\bin> service.bat install

You can add a service name as a second argument to the above script (the default name is "Tomcat5"). You can uninstall the service by replacing "install" with "remove".

After this you need to set the default startup options:

C:\tomcat\bin> tomcat5 //US//Tomcat5 ++JvmOptions "-Xms512m;-Xmx1024m;-XX:PermSize=128m;-XX:MaxPermSize=256m;-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8; -Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false"

If you choose to do this in the GUI follow these steps: Open the configuration window, issue the following command:

C:\tomcat\bin> tomcat5w //ES//Tomcat5

Replace "Tomcat5" with whatever service name you chose for the install. You'll want to set the service to startup automatically ("Startup Type" under the General tab).

Windows users that have installed Tomcat as a service can set most Java options through the Tomcat service manager GUI, but not all of them are as straightforward as inclusion in a single environment variable. To achieve the equivalent of the "-server" option, you'll need to change the Java Virtual Machine path from ..\bin\client\jvm.dll to ..\bin\server\jvm.dll.

Java 1.6 users will you need add the system property -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true. This option is not required for Java 1.5. Please see the Java section above or SAK-15874 for more details.

Be sure to put the remaining JAVA_OPTS on separate lines in the Java Options field of the GUI, e.g.:

-Xms512m
-Xmx1024m
-XX:PermSize=128m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
-Dorg.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false
-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true
-Dhttp.agent=Sakai

Samoo has reported that display issues after editing text documents with accented characters using the resources tool. The issue was resolved by adding -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 as a Java option (open command window -> type "tomcat5w" -> "Java" ->"Java Options:").

You can add additional system properties if needed, e.g., -Dsakai.security=C:\tomcat\security.

Finally, clear out the Initial Memory Pool and Maximum Memory Pool values, as those might conflict with the options you're putting in the Java Options field. Then click Apply, restart the service, and double-check the service manager to verify that the values have changed.

Java 1.6 users may encounter the unhelpful system log error "The Apache Tomcat service terminated with service-specific error 0 (0x0)". This can be fixed by copying the file msvcr71.dll from the /bin directory into the server or client directory with the jvm.dll file.

To set up remote debugging, please see (Remote Debugging).

6.0 Configure Sakai

6.1 Default database support (HSQLDB)

7.0 Build, deploy and start up Sakai in Tomcat

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7.1 Start/Stop Tomcat

8.0 Explore Sakai

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Upgrading

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Configuring

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New properties, permissions

Release	Tool/Service	Property	Default	Ticket	Change
2.7.1	Archive	`archive.toolproperties.excludefilter`	`password\|secret`	SAK-18965 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Filter properties when performing a site export in order to exclude properties with the string 'secret' or 'password' in the resulting site.xml file.
2.7.1	Help	`help.hide`	`sakai.profile`	SAK-18627 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Hide the help collection for the legacy Profile tool.
2.7.1	Portal	`portal.error.showdetail`	`true`	SAK-18585 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Certain institutions consider Sakai error messages overly verbose, revealing technical information that is not relevant to the user (e.g., stack traces, SQL error messages, etc.). You can limit such disclosures by setting portal.error.showdetail to false.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.consumer_instance_guid`			Site-wide identifier, e.g., ctools.umich.edu
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.consumer_instance_name`			Site-wide name, e.g., CTOOLs At University of Michigan
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.consumer_instance_url`			Site-wide URL, e.g., http://ctools.umich.edu
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.consumer_instance_key.[hostname]`			LMS-wide key, e.g., basiclti.consumer_instance_key.imsglobal.org=lmsng.school.edu
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.consumer_instance_secret.[hostname]`			LMS-wide secret, e.g., basiclti.consumer_instance_secret.imsglobal.org=secret.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`sakai.testlti.launch`			Suppress portlet form field with supplied launch end-point URL.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`sakai.testlti.key`			Suppress portlet form field with supplied key.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`sakai.testlti.secret`			Suppress portlet form field with supplied secret.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.provider.enabled`	false		Enable BasicLTI producer.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`webservices.allow=.+`			Set the values for the IP address and/or domain addresses from which requests will be accepted.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.provider.allowedtools`			List of Sakai tools that can serve as providers (partial list), e.g., sakai.announcements:sakai.assignment.grades:sakai.forums:sakai.gradebook.tool:sakai.resources:sakai.schedule:sakai.samigo:sakai.rwiki
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.provider.[hostname].secret`			Provide a secret for a given "key", e.g., basiclti.provider.lmsng.school.edu.secret=secret.
2.7.0	BasicLTI	`basiclti.provider.highly.trusted.consumers`			Permit clean pass through of site/user credentials for a list of trusted consumers, e.g., basiclti.provider.highly.trusted.consumers=lmsng.school.edu:another.school.edu.
2.7.0	DbContentService	`content.filesizeColumnReady`	false	KNL-427 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-18455 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Default value changed from true to eliminate performance issue affecting Sakai on start up. Of particular relevance if upgrading from Sakai 2.3 or earlier.
2.7.0	Content	`content.html.forcedownload`	true	SAK-18540 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Force browser to download rather than render inline any file served from content hosting with a content-type of text/html.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.picture.max`	2		Upload limit for profile pictures in MB.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.convert`	false		Convert images from old profile to new (true/false).
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.integration.twitter.enabled`	true		Allow users to post status updates to Twitter.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.integration.twitter.source`	Profile2		Source listed for Twitter status updates.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.picture.change.enabled`	true		Allow users to change their profile picture.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.picture.type`	upload		Can users upload an image or just link to an existing one (upload/url).
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.change.enabled`	true		Allow users to change their privacy settings.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.profileImage`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.basicInfo`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections, 2=only me.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.contactInfo`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections, 2=only me.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.academicInfo`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections, 2=only me.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.personalInfo`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections, 2=only me.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.birthYear`	true
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.search`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.myFriends`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections, 2=only me.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.privacy.default.myStatus`	0		0=everyone, 1=only connections.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile.manager.integration.bean`	see note	SAK-17573 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Instruct ProfileManager to get it's data from Profile2. Default=org.sakaiproject.profile2.legacy.ProfileManager. If not set tools such as the Roster will use the LegacyProfileManager to provide data.
2.7.0	Profile2	`profile2.invisible.users`	postmaster		Comma separated list of userIds (not eids) that will never show in searches or friends lists.
2.7.0	Sites	`site.templates`		SAK-16419 - Getting issue details... STATUS	In 2.6.0 a feature was implemented to allow existing sites to serve as site templates. This was handled by adding the property `site.templates` and specifying a comma-delimited list of existing sites chosen to serve as templates. For 2.7.0 this property has been eliminated. Instead, the Sites tool must now be used to add the property `template` with a value equal to `true` for sites chosen to serve as site templates. Additionally, sites previously designated as site templates must be re-flagged using the Sites tool. In a future release there is a plan to add a checkbox indicating that a site is serving as a template.

9.0 New/changed permissions

Release	Tool/Service	Permission	Notes
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.delete.any`	replaces `osp.matrix.scaffolding.delete`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.delete.own`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.export.any`	replaces `osp.matrix.scaffolding.export`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.export.own`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.publish.any`	replaces `osp.matrix.scaffolding.publish`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.publish.own`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.revise.any`	replaces `osp.matrix.scaffolding.edit`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffolding.revise.own`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.accessAll`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.accessUserList`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.manageStatus`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.use`	replaces `osp.matrix.scaffolding.use`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.viewAllGroups`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.viewEvalOther`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.matrix.scaffoldingSpecific.viewFeedbackOther`	new
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.portfolio.evaluation.use`	replaces `osp.matrix.evaluate`
2.7.0	Portfolios	`osp.presentation.review`	replaces `osp.matrix.review`
2.7.0	Sitestats	`sitestats.admin.view`	new
2.7.0	Sitestats	`sitestats.view`	new

Database support

The Sakai CLE supports the following production-grade databases:

Database	Driver	Notes
MySQL 5.1.x	MySQL Connector/J 5.1.13+	Sakai requires transaction support. In the case of MySQL you must implement the `InnoDB` storage engine to ensure proper transaction handling.
MySQL 5.0.x	MySQL Connector/J 5.0.4+	Sakai requires transaction support. In the case of MySQL you must implement the `InnoDB` storage engine to ensure proper transaction handling.
Oracle 11g	OJDBC	2.7 was not tested using Oracle 11g; however, both Virgina Tech and the University of Florida are using Oracle 11g with their Sakai deployments. Oracle recommends using the latest 11g driver if you are using Java 6 with either 10g or 11g; with Java 6 in combination with the 11g driver, it's recommended that you use kernel-1.2.1+ (2.8), kernel-1.1.11+ (2.7) or kernel-1.0.x (r87324+) in order to include the fix for KNL-637.
Oracle 10g / 9i	OJDBC	Both Oracle 10g AND 9i users must use the 10g driver; the latest 10g "Release 2" (10.2.x) or higher is recommended. Oracle recommends using the latest 11g driver if you are using Java 6 with either 10g or 11g; with Java 6 in combination with the 11g driver, it's recommended that you use kernel-1.2.1+ (2.8), kernel-1.1.11+ (2.7) or kernel-1.0.x (r87324+) in order to include the fix for KNL-637.
DB2		Deprecated

Choose the appropriate MySQL or Oracle JDBC driver (or connector) for your installation. For MySQL, download the *zip/*tar.gz archive, extract its contents and copy the mysql-connector-java-<version>-bin.jar to $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib. For Oracle download the ojdbc14.jar file and copy it to $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib.

You will not need to create Sakai database objects (tables, indices, etc) when setting up your database. Sakai generates its own database schema automatically during the Tomcat setup process via the autoDDL setting in sakai.properties.

In actuality, Sakai is not limited to these database choices and integration with other RDBMS systems is not difficult. In the past at least one installation used Microsoft SQL Server while requests for PostgreSQL integration are occasionally raised on the Sakai developers list. However, to date no one in the Sakai Community has stepped forward to support alternatives to either Oracle or MySQL, a prerequisite for adding additional database options to the release.

1.0 Configure the database

2.0 Set the database username and password

3.0 Set the database connection

4.0 Set `auto.ddl=true`

5.0 Install MySQL 5.1 / 5.0

5.1 Set MySQL environment variables

5.2 Create a `my.cnf/my.ini` configuration file

5.3 Create a "sakai" database and user account

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Deprecations, removals

Release	Capability	Status	Notes
2.7.0	Blogger	stealthed	Deprecated and scheduled for removal as of 2.8.0 release.
2.7.0	Mailtool	retired	Removed as of 2.7.0 release.
2.7.0	Presentation	retired	Removed as of 2.7.0 release.
2.7.0	Reports	stealthed	Deprecated and scheduled for removal as of 2.8.0 release.
2.7.0	Sample	retired	Removed as of 2.7.0 release.
2.7.0	Warehouse	OSP dependency	Deprecated and scheduled for removal by portfolio team as of 2.8.0 release.

Known issues

Release	Tool/Service	Ticket	Fixed	Issue
2.7.1	Assignments	SAK-18606 - Getting issue details... STATUS		A fix for this issue introduced a mismatch between the instructor and student view - the instructor sees text as rich text while the student sees it as plain text with escaped markup.
2.7.1	profile-1.3.11	PRFL-425 - Getting issue details... STATUS	profile-1.3.12	ProfileImageServiceImpl includes a recursive method call that can result in a `StackOverflowError` error. Normal operation of the tool is largely unaffected but errors can result if users view images via in the roster. This bug has been addressed in the profile-1.3.12 release.
2.7.1	Site Info	SAK-18878 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.x	`SiteTextEditUtil` calls {{processFormattedText}] incorrectly, resulting in plain text being treated as processed text which, under certain conditions, will result in a runtime exception.
2.7.0	Blogger	SAK-18625 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Blogger is deprecated and stealthed in 2.7. If you need to adjust its permissions use the Admin realms tool.
2.7.0	Blogger, Chat, Portfolios, Samigo	SAK-17578 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAM-639 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Although Java SE 6 is the recommended JVM for Sakai 2.7.0, a number of tools fail to compile. The workaround is to add `-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true` to `JAVA_OPTS`.
2.7.0	Calendar	SAK-3824 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Calendar templates make assumptions about date formats which do not always match localized formats.
2.7.0	Dropbox	SAK-18443 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Silent failure on drop box email notification setting.
2.7.0	Drop box, Resources, WebDAV	SAK-17980 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Inconsistent handling of UTF-8 special characters have been reported for these tools.
2.7.0	FckEditor	SAK-18556 - Getting issue details... STATUS		FCKEditor only allows _blank for target attributes on links.
2.7.0	kernel-1.1.8	KNL-460 - Getting issue details... STATUS		The kernel generates unnecessary warning messages in the logs during start up.
2.7.0	Maven	SAK-18655 - Getting issue details... STATUS		It has been reported that running `mvn -Ppack-demo install` fails for Windows Vista.
2.7.0	msgcntr-2.7.0	MSGCNTR-315 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Attempts to read a locked topic message previously unread by the user will generate a run time error.
2.7.0	msgcntr-2.7.0	SAK-18510 - Getting issue details... STATUS		MySQL indexes are not auto generated (`auto.ddl=true`) due to Hibernate 3.2.7ga bug.
2.7.0	Portal static files	SAK-14938 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	Static HTML files (locations for which may be configured in `sakai.properties`) do not respond to dynamic language preferences.
2.7.0	profile2-1.3.8	SAK-18510 - Getting issue details... STATUS		MySQL indexes are not auto generated (`auto.ddl=true`) due to Hibernate 3.2.7ga bug.
2.7.0	Roster	SAK-15719 - Getting issue details... STATUS		There exists currently a permission asymmetry between `roster.viewallmembers` and `site.upd`. A user lacking `site.upd` may still be granted `roster.viewallmembers` permission. In such cases, certain form fields such as the group filter drop down are not rendered for the user.
2.7.0	Portfolios	SAK-18568 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	Popup tools with spaces or apostrophes do not work in Internet Explorer when using the xsl-portal.
2.7.0	Portfolios	SAK-18011 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	Page titles do not support special characters.
2.7.0	Profile	SAK-18563 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	The Profile tool does not work for the given user when /> is inputted for number of tabs in the customize tabs option when portal.use.dhtml.more=true is set in sakai.properties.
2.7.0	Samigo	SAK-11261 - Getting issue details... STATUS		Date and time format not localized.
2.7.0	Site Info	SAK-18634 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	IMS-CC package import results in a run time error.
2.7.0	sitestats-2.1.4	SAK-18510 - Getting issue details... STATUS		MySQL indexes are not auto generated (`auto.ddl=true`) due to Hibernate 3.2.7ga bug.
2.7.0	Worksite Setup	SAK-18613 - Getting issue details... STATUS	2.7.1	If you hook your new course site up to more than one Course Management entity (e.g., to the course offering and to all its sections), then site-manage leaves the "Site Title" required field blank.
2.7.0	Kernel	SAK-19707 - Getting issue details... STATUS	Requires manual database script	The Sakai 2.7 Release includes a new feature that supports dynamic localization of page and tool titles. To accomodate "custom titles" that should not be translated, a new "sitePage.customTitle" property has been introduced to the definition of pages. In order to avoid losing any custom page/tool title changes made in previous releases, the following zip file should be unpacked and the enclosed perl script must be run. https://jira.sakaiproject.org/secure/attachment/24199/custom-title-patch.zip This script will generate SQL that sets the custom page title flag for specified tools that have locale-specific custom tool title names. This script will only need to be run once. Future page/tool title customizations will persist.

Security policy

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Older Releases

The Sakai CLE 2.6 series is now unsupported. The release of Sakai CLE 2.8.0 in April 2011 marked the end of official community support for the Sakai 2.6 series. Organizations running Sakai CLE 2.6 (or earlier versions) are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest versions of Sakai CLE 2.7 or 2.8 in order to take advantage of continued maintenance support.

License

The Sakai CLE 2.7 series is licensed under the Educational Community License version 2.0.

Sakai CLE 2.7 release notes

Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) 2.7.2

What's new

Language updates and additions

System requirements

Operating system (OS) choices

Java

Application server choices

Database choices

Clustering, file storage and load balancing strategies

External Authentication choices

Integrating with student information systems

Downloading

Demo archive

Binary archive

Source archive

Source checkout

Maintenance branch

Indie projects

Installing

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1.0 Get the binary archive

2.0 Verify/Install Java 1.6

2.1 Set Java environment variables

3.0 Install Tomcat 5.5.33

Tomcat pathnames

Tomcat permissions

Tomcat JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package

3.1 Set Tomcat environment variables

3.2 Configure Tomcat

3.3 Tomcat memory management

3.4 Set up Tomcat as a Windows service

4.0 Unpack the Sakai binary distribution

4.1 Configure Sakai

4.2 Default database support (HSQLDB)

5.0 Start/Stop Tomcat

6.0 Explore Sakai

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1.0 Get the Sakai CLE source code

2.7 release archive

2.7 release tag

2-7-x maintenance branch

2.0 Verify/Install Java 1.6

2.1 Set Java environment variables

Set JAVA_OPTS

Additional required settings

Specify a Language and Locale (optional)

Specify an HTTP Proxy (optional)

3.0 Install Subversion 1.6+

3.1 Set Subversion environment variables

4.0 Install Maven 2.2.1

4.1 Set Maven environment variables

MAVEN_OPTS

4.2 Create a local Maven repository

4.3 Create a Maven settings.xml file

5.0 Install Tomcat 5.5.33

Tomcat pathnames

Tomcat permissions

Tomcat JDK 1.4 Compatibility Package

5.1 Set Tomcat environment variables

5.2 Configure Tomcat

5.3 Tomcat memory management

5.4 Set up Tomcat as a Windows service

6.0 Configure Sakai

6.1 Default database support (HSQLDB)

7.0 Build, deploy and start up Sakai in Tomcat

7.1 Start/Stop Tomcat

8.0 Explore Sakai

Upgrading

Configuring

New properties, permissions

9.0 New/changed permissions

Database support

1.0 Configure the database

2.0 Set the database username and password

3.0 Set the database connection

4.0 Set auto.ddl=true

5.0 Install MySQL 5.1 / 5.0

5.1 Set MySQL environment variables

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Demo install

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Bin install

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Source install

4.3 Create a Maven `settings.xml` file

4.0 Set `auto.ddl=true`

5.2 Create a `my.cnf/my.ini` configuration file