Messages

[konakartadmin.properties]

Hi,

At the moment (v2.2.0.4) the Administrator's application doesn't have role-based security but you do have some configuration parameters to change the current behaviour:

This is from the file, konakartadmin.properties, which you can access from the Admin App itself, or directly on the disk under webapps\konakartadmin\WEB-INF\classes

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Security Information for the Admin App. After konakart.login.attempts
# to login, the user will be blocked out for konakart.login.blockedmins minutes.

konakart.security.disabled=false
konakart.session.durationMinutes=30
konakart.login.attempts=3
konakart.login.blockedmins=10
konakart.admin.user=KonaKart
konakart.admin.password=prince

We only currently support one user of the Admin App (and his credentials are defined in the last two parameters above - user and password).


However, in a future version we will be adding role-based security which will allow you to add any number of users and assign different privileges.  For example, one admin user might only be allowed to administer the product catalogue whereas another can access orders and customers.

Regards,
John

Hi,

Although I've never tried, I don't know of any reason why KonaKart would not work on Mac OS X.

It's a standard J2EE app and so there shouldn't be a problem.

I'll be happy to help you get it working if you like.  Unfortunately I don't have OS X here so will just have to respond to your questions as best I can.

The installer that we use currently is "InstallJammer" which will soon support OS X but doesn't yet so you will have to use the manual zip installation and follow the installation FAQ at http://www.konakart.com/installationfaq.php.

How far have you got so far?

John

Hi Paul,

This is just to let you know that this problem has been solved in the 2.2.0.4 release of KonaKart with a re-design of the report library code to ensure this works every time - and also from Eclipse (without needing to hard-code database parameters whilst in development).

You still need to add your properties filename reference (points to the file where your database connection parameters are defined) in konakart.rptlibrary - but there's only one reference to it so it's easier to maintain.  After a normal installation of KonaKart this will be set up correctly automatically.

If you have any problems with the 2.2.0.4 version, please don't hesitate to get back in touch.

John

Please post your KonaKart contributions to this board as attachments to your topics.   Feel free to claim credit for your contribution and provide your contact details.

Please note which versions of KonaKart the contributions are compatible with.

Examples of contributions that you may wish to post are:

• BIRT reports


• Message Catalog Translations


• Payment/Shipping/Order Total Modules

KonaKart users must be aware that the contributions are to be used at your own risk.  They are not checked for accuracy so should be used with caution.

Regards... and thanks for your contributions   

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback...  Addressing each comment in turn...

> 1. there are  few bugs in the admin section regarding reports....  also, if I use a port different from 8780 the main status report gets a 404 page not found error.

I do not know of any bugs (except for a problem, on some platforms, connected with locating the database parameters - a solution in a forum post is provided and is completely fixed in the next version). Can you be more specific?  This sounds like a configuration problem.  If you change the port number you have to configure KonaKart to match.   This should all be explained in the reporting FAQ at http://www.konakart.com/reportingfaq.php   The port number should have been set by the installation wizard anyway.  Did you install with the wizard or manually from the zip file?


> 2. I had trouble running program using database name other than oscommerce... even after following instructions in other posts.  Changing to a different database name is not intuitive.

Again this sounds like a configuration error.  With the database connection parameters defined in properties files (one for konakart and one for konakartadmin) it's difficult to make this any simpler.  How would you make it simpler or more intuitive?  Which aspects did you find were unclear - perhaps we can improve the documentation?   Again, the database parameters should all be set automatically in all the right places by the installer.  (In the next release the installation wizard validates your database connection then, optionally, loads the database script ready for running KonaKart so it's a lot easier to get started)


> 3.  Would love to see a templating system similar to oscommerce where I can change the look/feel/design of website to my own but utilize the underlying db access and methods.

Yes, agreed.  We have plans to provide something like this to make it very easy to change the look and feel.   Indeed there are some people out there who have been talking to us about creating such things for KonaKart themselves.

> 4.  Needs to support other widely used payment processors... i.e. authorize.net, linkpoint, etc.

KonaKart has a framework for adding these very easily.   We provide the source for the existing payment modules so they are easy for people to add themselves - and we welcome contributions that we might be able to share with others.   Having said this, we will add various additional payment modules ourselves over time.

Thanks for your interest.   If you have specific questions about the set-up or configuration, please don't hesitate to ask.

BTW...  the next release should be available towards the end of next week.

Regards,

John

Hi Diggy,

> I installed jdk1.6.0_02 successfully.

We haven't tested on 1.6, only up to 1.5.   I'm not sure of the impact however.

> I accepted the default install directory "/usr/local" (while my apache document root is /var/www/html).

That's OK.  The apache document root isn't relevant here.   KonaKart runs in the tomcat container that is installed during the installation.   You can configure apache to redirect requests to KonaKart but that comes much later.

>  At the end of the installation, KonaKart didn't launch, even though the launch checkbox was ticked (that may just be to start KonaKart, and not go to an interface - I'm not sure).

On *nix it doesn't launch a browser - it just starts the application by starting tomcat.   After this you have to run a browser and enter http://localhost:8780/konakart for the application and http://localhost:8780/konakartadmin for the admin application.  (With the Windows installer, KonaKart starts AND a browser opens up with a window showing the application and another showing the admin app).   

A useful place to look is the catalina.out file in the logs directory under your KonaKart installation.  This is the tomcat log file and most of the errors will be reported in there.

>     - How do I normally access KonaKart, in general?

See above, using http://localhost:8780/konakart

     - What does the above error mean when I try to access the admin interface, and how do I correct it?

It sounds like the admin app is not able to fetch data (it uses asynchronous calls - it's AJAX).  It probably indicates that the server has not started correctly.   (You could open up a terminal window and try the bin/startkonakart.sh script and see if you get any errors?   - if it starts a java process but still doesn't work, check the tomcat log for other errors)

     - Perhaps most importantly, how do I integrate KonaKart into my Web site?

Well, that's a tricky question because there are are few limits on how you would integrate KonaKart into your website.   It has a comprehensive set of APIs that allow you to add shopping cart / eCommerce functionality to your web site.   To be succcessful with the more complicated forms of integration you really will need to know how to run a java application in a container (such as tomcat as we provide) and know how to make SOAP calls or use POJO to make the calls to the APIs.
There are simpler forms of integration - if you can get what you need by modifying the Struts application that's included.   For major changes you will need to know you way around Struts, but for small changes a knowledge of HTML may well be sufficient.

> Apologies if these questions are completely lame.  I have plenty of experience with MySQL, but have usually struggled with Java and Tomcat.  Your help would be most appreciated.

I hope the above helps you to get started.

John

Hi,

We don't have any plans at present to provide an installer for KonaKart on any other container but tomcat.    We do provide the zip package for people to install the webapps manually into whichever container they require (from these they could make WARs or EARs or whatever they prefer).   There would be some manual effort required but there is nothing in KonaKart that's written specifically for, or relies upon, tomcat - and therefore it should work in any container.

The version of Struts used today in KonaKart is 1.2.9.

Regards,

John

Hi LittlePolarBear,

That's good news!

Thanks for letting us know and supplying your configuration details; this will be useful to give others on that configuration more confidence.

Good luck with JBoss 4,

John

Hi Paul,

No, there's no ant build file.

You have to place them in your BIRT eclipse plugin.   Mine is at:

C:/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.birt.report.viewer_2.1.2.v20070205-1728/birt/

You should include:

commons-collections-3.1.jar
commons-configuration-1.1.jar
commons-lang-2.1.jar
konakart_reports.jar

You may find it easier to simlpy hard-code your db parameters while you're in development mode.   

Once you've finished, you may wish to put the library back becasue the advantage of using the konakart library is that you end up with just one place to define the database connection parameters for all your reports (somewhere you've already defined them - by pointing at the konakartadmin.properties file) and you inherit useful functionality like displaying prices using the default currency format of the store.

Regards,
John

Hello Paul,

First of all, we are working on a solution to a problem in this area where the binding calls to odaPassword, odaUser, odaURL and odaDriverClass are made in different orders and people end up seeing a dbparams undefined error.   The quick, crude, fix to this for now is to add:

var dbparams = new GetDbParams("C:/Program Files/KonaKart/webapps/konakartadmin/WEB-INF/classes/konakartadmin.properties");

... in front of each of the 4 dbparams references.   This isn't very efficient and means you have to declare the filename in 4 places, so we will look for a neater solution for the next release.


To your main question:

The jar you want in your classpath is called konakartadmin_reports.jar  - you'll find it in /webapps/birt-viewer/WEB-INF/lib

Regards,
John

Hello Maggie,

Could it be that you haven't set the validation Query for Oracle to something that's legal?   This would be a common cause of this error - assuming you have all your other database parameters correctly defined.

This is one to watch out when using Oracle - we do have a little note on it on the website right at the bottom at:  http://www.konakart.com/installationfaq.php#Oracle_Validation_Query

(There are also some guidance notes in the properties files themselves to remind you).

I hope this solves your problem and you can run successfully with Oracle - please let us know!

Regards - John

[database/Oracle9i]

Hi LittlePolarBear and anyone else who wants to try KonaKart with Oracle,

We have just released a 2.2.0.3 beta version with full support of Oracle.

(Has been certified against Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g).

You can download this only from our website - from the Downloads section at: http://www.konakart.com/downloads.php

In the kit you will find (under the database/Oracle9i directory under the konakart top-level directory) a script containing all the SQL you need to create all the database objects for Oracle and insert our standard set of reference data to get you started.   (You must load the database before you start KonaKart).

Good luck with this and please let us know if you notice any problems.

John

Hi Steve,

Yes, and thanks!

Eapps have tried to make using KonaKart as easy as possible with their point & click service options.   Of course they also allow you freedom to implement KonaKart how you like on their hosting platform - as you know because you've already done it 

We also use Eapps and have been happy with their service -- the www.konakart.com website is hosted by them.

Regards,
John

[konakart_config_files.xml]

Hi Jim.

Yes, you can add any files you like to that list so long as they are accessible to the KonaKart server - wherever that's running in your configuration.

There's a simple XML file (called konakart_config_files.xml) where the files that are shown are defined.  It looks like this:



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<konakart-config-files>
  <file>
    <displayName>KonaKart Properties File</displayName>
    <fileName>../webapps/konakart/WEB-INF/classes/konakart.properties</fileName>
  </file>

  <file>
    <displayName>KonaKart Admin Properties File</displayName>
    <fileName>../webapps/konakartadmin/WEB-INF/classes/konakartadmin.properties</fileName>
  </file>

  <file>
    <displayName>KonaKart Logging Properties File</displayName>
    <fileName>../webapps/konakart/WEB-INF/classes/konakart-logging.properties</fileName>
  </file>

  <file>
    <displayName>KonaKart Admin Logging Properties File</displayName>
    <fileName>../webapps/konakartadmin/WEB-INF/classes/konakart-logging.properties</fileName>
  </file>
</konakart-config-files>



You'll find this file under webapps/konakartadmin/WEB-INF/classes.  In the default installation on Windows that is: C:\Program Files\KonaKart\webapps\konakartadmin\WEB-INF\classes\konakart_config_files.xml.

You'll see that you define a path to the file and a "display name" which is the name you see in the list in the Admin App.

A point to note if no files are listed:

Depending on your configuration (eg. if you are not using the default tomcat container supplied in the download kit) you may find that the default definitions of the relative paths in the supplied konakart_config_files.xml will not work - you will have to amend these to suit your environment.

John

Hi Jake,

Thanks for your comments and I'm glad you have found the scalability and flexibility to be a big advantage.

Since we understand that integration with other systems is of critical importance to many of the larger shops, we have been very careful to produce an architecture that supports this as elegantly as possible.   We have focused our attention on making this integration as simple as possible from the very start by creating a comprehensive API (also available as a SOAP XML web service). Our own applications (KonaKart store and admin app) only communicate to the business logic through this API.

Therefore, we should be very well positioned to make all integration efforts as quick, simple and maintainable as they could be.

Indeed, we are keen to see you become successful with KonaKart and will prioritize the development of any new integration points that we feel will be useful to others in the future. Also we would be very pleased to help you with any bespoke integration at a very reasonable cost, as well as providing general maintenance and support if that is important for you.


In passing.. there are some exciting new developments coming soon with KonaKart...  I expect a very flexible reporting system will be available in the next release (perhaps 2 weeks away), and a comprehensive new promotions facility should follow in the release after that (probably another 2 weeks after that one - which is approx end of May).

Regards,

John