This chapter describes the various methods to deploy and install ActiveMath as part of a larger infrastructure, such as a school network, a firewall, or a learning management system.
ActiveMath can be integrated into a Moodle server by the usage of a proxy with the Moodle’s Apache. This configuration includes single-sign-on as well as special linking facilities. We explain the set-up here.
We suppose that you are running a Moodle server at your school, under the URL, http://moodle.myschool.net. We also suppose that this Moodle runs the Apache httpd server in versions 2.0 or above.
You first need the proxy integration to be working so that http://moodle.myschool.net/ActiveMath2/ goes to your ActiveMath.
This is required so that the cookies that the browsers send to ActiveMath include the cookies sent to Moodle. ActiveMath uses them to read the personal profile of the user to create a new user, in case.
ActiveMath needs to be told where to look for the Moodle it becomes a slave of (that is, it will always obey to when checking for user registrations). Add the following lines to ActiveMath-individual.properties:
app.sso.enabled=true
app.sso.class=org.activemath.webapp.base.external.MoodleAuthenticationService
app.sso.moodle.url=http://moodle.myschool.net/
then restart ActiveMath.
Now if you go to your Moodle, login there (not as guest!), then go to http://moodle.myschool.net/ActiveMath2 you will be recognized under the user-name you used in Moodle.
Most URLs you visit in ActiveMath can be copied and pasted… but this task is a bit experimental and will fail in some conditions (notably the search tool).
The nice folks at HEG Fribourg are working on a Moodle Activity Module called ActiveMath Content Presentation. A course administrator will be able to use it to add a link to pages of a book or exercises of ActiveMath within Moodle.
The module is now available! Check this url: http://www.hefr.ch/projects/activemath/content/index.htm
Quite often, it is impossible for ActiveMath’s http port to be well accessible from the world. Firewalls, and other measures make the ActiveMath port 8080 inaccessible.
The Apache Web Server is the most used Web-server in the world, it is easy to deploy, is cross platform etc. This page explains how to use Apache’s mod_proxy to serve ActiveMath within the Apache space.
The basic idea:
The following configuration has been tested with Apache 2.0 but should work with further versions. Note Apache servers earlier than 2.0 do not ship per default with mod_proxy which needs to be configured and activated separately.
Add the following to your httpd.conf or to some virtual-host configuration:
ProxyPass /ActiveMath2 http://amserver:8080/
ProxyPassReverse /ActiveMath2 http://amserver:8080/
then restart your Apache. All requests on http://myschool.net/ActiveMath2/ will now be answered by the ActiveMath on amserver.
It is also possible to proxy the whole “/” within a virtual-host directive.
Although the basic things will work with the above, there are times where ActiveMath needs to know the exact URL it is addressed through. This is the case of such advanced usages such as the Java Web Start descriptors of the assembly tool or ICmap.
Continuing the set-up above, add the following line to your ActiveMath-individual.properties:
advertizedURL = http://myschool.net/ActiveMath2/
then restart ActiveMath. After this you are all set-up.