FAQ

OPUS FAQ

Our support site can be found at

http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/projects/opus/

* What is OPUS?
---------------

OPUS is the On-line Placement University System, and is designed to
facilitate placement operations for a school, college or university.

It allows the following stakeholders access

  - Placement administrators from the university;
  - Students, who can apply for jobs with CVs, download resources, etc.;
  - Companies and their HR staff, who can advertise jobs and recruit
    students;
  - Workplace supervisors who can assess students and get information;
  - Academic staff who visit students on placement.

OPUS is designed to 

  - do tedious repetitive tasks for you, to help free up your time for
    the important tasks;
  - provide a mechanism for storing placement related information for
    audit;
  - give ownership to stakeholders;
  - greatly speed up the placement process;
  - provide speedy assessment functionality

and more.


* What if we don't use competitive recruitment?
-----------------------------------------------

That's only one string of OPUS's bow. All the other features could still
help you.


* Who produces OPUS?
--------------------

OPUS originated in the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering,
now simply the School of Engineering in Ulster University as a solution
to our problems, and is maintained on an ad-hoc basis by Colin Turner.
Any help is welcome in its further development.

Ulster has a very large proportion of programmes of study with
placement, so OPUS supports our own activity at this time.



* Can we get a Demo?
--------------------

You can play with a working installation of OPUS, albeit with some
functionality disabled for security reasons. Only limited information is
added but should give you an idea of the functionality. You can find it at

http://fs2.ulster.ac.uk/opus/

We also hope to produce live CDs, but there are still issues to be
resolved there.

Of course you can install and play with it, free of charge (see below).


* How much does OPUS, and its underlying technology cost?
---------------------------------------------------------

Nothing, OPUS, and its underlying technologies are free software. Not only are
they free of charge, but they are free for you to

  - run for any purpose;
  - modify to your needs;
  - distribute in original or modified form.

You should read the terms of the LICENSE document for more details.


* Ah, so the upgrades are what you are selling?
-----------------------------------------------

No, upgrades are free of charge.


* How do we get the upgrades?
-----------------------------

We announce new releases on our mailing list. Please go to our development
website and subcribe to opus-announce which only sees a handful of
messages a year. If you use Debian packaging upgrades will become, and
will be handled automatically.


* What do I need to run OPUS?
-----------------------------

OPUS is a web application, so it needs a functional web server, running
with

  - PHP >= 5.1
  - MySQL >= 4

You also need to obtain some other software, again, all of which is free

  - Smarty Templating System >=3
  - UUWAF (our framework) >=2

and you might need to obtain

  - Perl
  - Unix utilities (if you are not running Unix / Linux / Mac OS)

for some non-essential functionality.

You can find more details in the INSTALL document. All of this software
is available free of charge, and much of it is packaged nicely. Note
that MySQL may not be free (as in money) for you to use if you are
running a for-profit scheme, but it is cheap, and OPUS should run on
alternative databases such as PostGreSQL but this is currently untested.


* What hardware do I need to run OPUS?
--------------------------------------

This is now hard to quantify, since it is a year or so, and a version or
so since we ran OPUS on really old, essentially obsolete hardware, but
it still should not require anything special. It will certainly run with
ease on a standard modern desktop machine.


* How much storage space will I need?
-------------------------------------

Hard to quantify again, but looking at what we have racked up over about
6 years of activity:

  - Database       ~80M
  - Resources      ~45M
  - User Photos    ~180M
  - Logs           ~350M
  
Note that these logs contain maximum detail, stretch back years, and
have the older files automatically compressed (on Debian). Obviously
this isn't even 1 Gigabyte, so by modern terms storage is not a problem.


* Can I run OPUS on Windows?
----------------------------

You can run OPUS on any environment for which the software above is
available, which is almost every system and architecture since it is all
open source.

However, Windows, particularly its workstation versions is not, in my
opinion, the ideal environment for a web application, and various steps
in the installation might be harder for Windows. If you know what you
are doing you will have no problems. See the INSTALL guide for more
information.


* So what OS should I use for OPUS?
-----------------------------------

OPUS will be easiest to install on a Unix / Linux server, and in
particular it is trivial to install on Debian GNU/Linux since we package
for that OS and use it ourselves. On that environment the installation
is automated.

Installing Linux based operating systems is now very simple, contrary to
popular belief, and they are usually not resource hungry. As a
consequence it is often easy to test an install on an old box. This will
probably be much more simple than a Windows installation contrary to
popular belief.


* OK, I'm interested, now what?
-------------------------------

It's strongly recommended you sign up to the opus-announce mailing list.
This read-only list is used for announcements of new versions, and
updates.

You can find all the mailing lists for OPUS listed here

http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/redmine/projects/opus/wiki/Mailing_Lists

Just click on the link for subscription and fill in your details.


* How do I get it?
------------------

There are several ways. (For Debian packages, see the instructions in
the INSTALL guide.)

You will almost certainly want to download an official release. You can
obtain these from:

  - The official downloads directory (easiest):
    http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/redmine/projects/opus/files
    generally, download the latest version number, but previous versions are
    also available. You can check the signatures of archives if you wish to
    and know how.

  - The source control system (more advanced):
  
    git clone git://foss.ulster.ac.uk/git/opus.git

    again, any tagged version can be used. You can use a version control
    client/

    You should generally NOT download from the bleeding edge directory
    in source control. Only download this if you want to develop code
    and are not running a production system with it.

Did we mention yet you should sign up to opus-announce?


* Does installation require much knowledge?
-------------------------------------------

On Debian, no. on other systems, a bit. See the INSTALL guide. Remember,
installation is just a one time job, after that you won't need technical
skill. If you are a placement practitioner, you might need help from IT
staff to install OPUS, and as a matter of courtesy, you should inform
them that you are running a web application on your machine.


* Can we get help from you?
---------------------------

Yes, but please read the INSTALL guide carefully first, then file a
support ticket at our site.

We can only offer relatively simple help in what is our spare time,
complex jobs can be undertaken under a consultancy agreement, including
installation.


* What other help is there?
---------------------------

Go to our support site, you will find

  - support trackers for requesting help
  - bug trackers for reporting problems
  - mailing lists, including
    * opus-announce (low volume, new releases, you should definitely
      subscribe if you install OPUS)
    * opus-users (general discussion and issues)
    * opus-developers (discussion for developers, but open to all)


* I've found a better way to install on X
------------------------------------------
* I've fixed a problem with your INSTALL for X
----------------------------------------------

Great, send us the details on a support ticket (see above) and we'll
incoporate your fixes.


* What sort of CV support is in OPUS?
-------------------------------------

OPUS used to, in its original version, build CVs for students from
supplied information. Since then our local Personal Development System 
pdsystem) was produced, which not only performs a better job of CV
building, but provides lots of other relevant personal development help.
Pace, the new name for the PDSystem is being discontinued soon.

OPUS 4.x and above reintroduces basic standalone CV functionality,
allowing students to upload CVs which they can use to apply for
vacancies. You can have much superior CV handling if you also install
the PDSystem which is also free software. You can of course try this out
at a later stage.

See http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/projects/pdsystem/


* Will OPUS speak to our student records system (SRS)
-----------------------------------------------------

OPUS and its sister products do not speak directly to a Student Records
System. Instead they talk to a web service layer. Example code for this
is available on our development site at

http://foss.ulster.ac.uk/projects/wservices/

and you can adapt it to talk to any student records system. If you want
us to do this for you, it might be possible under a consultancy
arrangement.

Otherwise we will advise on how you should do it.


* Does OPUS really *need* to talk to a student records system?
--------------------------------------------------------------

No. It will be easier to do certain things with integration however,
like mass import of students. You can always use the product for now,
and think about tighter integration later?


* How else can we import lots of students?
------------------------------------------

OPUS can import students from CSV files you will probably be able to
export easily from student records, you will need to teach it (once) the
format of your files. Go to Superuser -> CSV Mappings for more detail,
or ask us.


* Can I configure OPUS to authenticate against LDAP / X / Y?
------------------------------------------------------------

Yes. OPUS has a system of authentication plugins that tell it how to
authenticate a user. LDAP is one of the supplied examples. You will need
very simple PHP scripts to do this, and can find details in

include/auth.d/README

Note that this is NOT required to run OPUS normally, only if you want to
tailor it this way.


* Can student accounts be created automatically?
------------------------------------------------

From version 4.1.1 this will be possible, if you have a fully featured
web services layer (see above), since that is required to obtain full
student information and information about the structure of the
institution.

To disable automatic student creation add

$config['opus']['disable_auto_add_student'] = true;

to your local configuration. You can also add

$config['opus']['disable_auto_add_student_on_unknown_programme'] = true;

to allow student accounts to be automatically created, only for known
programmes.


* How do I delete user accounts
-------------------------------

You should not, and at the time of writing you cannot. OPUS is a system
designed to help provide audit information, and deleting user accounts
will cause other linked information to become less useful or possibly
inaccessible.

You should archive old accounts instead. It is a feature on the wishlist
to exceptionally allow deletion of accounts even with dire warnings.


* Can I change how OPUS looks?
------------------------------

Yes, you can change

  - various text prompts (see INSTALL)
  - larger text explanations (see Help Prompts in the application itself)
  - the CSS files that define layout, colours and so on
  - the raw templates used

in ascending order of complexity.


* Can normal staff run OPUS after installation?
-----------------------------------------------

Yes, that's the whole point. OPUS has a hiararchy of administrators that
run the system. Starting off with superuser / root users who have total
control. Ideally trained users should have that level of access, but
generally responsible users who exercise care should be OK.

Most administrative users should be ordinary admin accounts which
themselves have configurable levels of access and control.


* Why does OPUS ask to phone home?
----------------------------------

Good manners. Many products routinely send information, behind your
back, to their home base. We are asking politely, and will honour your
refusal. However it would be very useful to know you have installed OPUS
and what your system is like in very coarse detail.


* Why should I allow OPUS to phone home?
----------------------------------------

Because

  - we don't send confidential information;
  - you can see the emails yourself if you want;
  - you can even check the code;
  - we won't attribute anything against your individual institution;
  - we want to understand our customers better;
  - we want to help explain to our management why we are using open
    source.

In short, it supports our development of OPUS on our own, and your
behalf.


* Can OPUS produce a new report that has X, Y and Z?
----------------------------------------------------

OPUS has a number of built-in reports, but you can create new ones.

The reports have a plugin architecture, but DO require good knowledge of
PHP to create.

see include/Model/reports/

for more information. File a wish request in the tracker if you can't do
it yourself, but if it is complex, and not of interest to us, it might
require a consultancy agreement for us to write it for you.


* Is there a manual?
--------------------

There is a work in progress only at this point in time. The application
proves to be relatively intuitive however, and in particular, for
non-admin users it is really quite straightforward.

* Can we contribute work to OPUS?
---------------------------------

Absolutely, if you have code you'd like to contribute, then we will
consider including it in the main codebase if:

  - the code is licensed under the GPL as for the rest of OPUS;
  - the code meets the coding guidelines set out.

If you'd like to contribute anything else, artwork, documentation,
please contact us. Lots of people can help.


* How is the code ensured to be "authoritative"?
------------------------------------------------

While we are happy to accept code contributions, we will audit all code
added by ourselves and others. We have automated systems in place to
make this simple.

Official releases will be in cryptographically signed archives, which
allow you to be sure (should you choose to check) that the code was
officially signed off by us, and not altered by any third party before
you receive it.

We will sign your GPG keys with appropriate documentation if we meet in
person and are happy to provide documentation to allow you to sign ours.


* OPUS produces a blank screen somewhere. What's happening?
-----------------------------------------------------------

This may be a PHP fatal error, and on screen reporting of errors is
usually disabled for security reasons. Try editing the Apache (or
similar) configuration and turn display_errors on, or alternatively
enable the logging of errors (examples are shown commented out in the
standard configuration), and restart the server. Now report a bug with
the results of the problem if it doesn't reveal how to fix it.

Don't forget to turn display_errors back to off, but you can leave
logging of errors on if you like.


* We get a wierd logout / second login problem
----------------------------------------------

This is usually caused by a misconfigured fully qualified host name for
your server in the configuration, or you using an alias (like localhost)
for testing which is then redirected to a new name. Check the config
file.


* Feature X is missing, but I saw it in a demo?
  Is it not in the Open Source Version?
---------------------------------------

There is no "premium" closed source version, it's all open source. This
is often caused by the fact that, for example, out of the box OPUS does
not assume how you would wish to assess your students, so the default
assessment group is empty. You need to configure that to your wishes.
This is true of other examples too. If in doubt, please ask us.


* Why is OPUS not sending mail?
-------------------------------

OPUS uses your standard SMTP server, if you have one, and the
configuration of that is beyond this document, but you should look
there.

On Debian, the default SMTP server is exim4 but it installs in what is
essentially a dormant state.

Either go to a terminal (recommended):

su (enter root password)
dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Or, if it's more comfortable in a gui

System -> Administration -> Synaptic

search for exim4-config, click on the exim4-config package, then from
the package menu package->configure


* Can I get more information out of OPUS, about what is happening in it?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

OPUS can produce a number of log files, here they are with what they are
for

  - general.log  (general, often quite detailed user activity)
  - admin.log    (user activity for admin users)
  - cron.log     (details activity performed offline to maintain the system)
  - security.log (details of suspicious activity (OPUS is paranoid))
  - panic.log    (details of problems, like database errors, usually empty)
  - debug.log    (boring detail about some of the above)

If you want even more detail about deep internals, you can switch on the
waf_debug.lof, but it will rapidly become huge, so keep an eye on it.

Go to your local config file and add some of what is below.
-=-

// Enables debug console, should ONLY be turned on for trusted IPs
// Don't use it if your IP is behind a proxy shared with other users
$config['waf']['debugging'] = True;
$config['waf']['debug_only_on_IP'] = array("127.0.0.1", "your ip");

// Enables extra logging (HUGE!!!!)
$config['waf']['waf_debug'] = True;


* CVs can't be downloading in IE6,7 and 8, but are fine in other browsers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

(With thanks to John Voss:)

Functionality works find with HTTP but not when SSL is enabled:

Try adding the following line to local.conf.php:

session_cache_limiter('none');

See

http://bytes.com/topic/php/answers/554529-internet-explorer-6-refusing-let-me-download

for more details.

* 

-=-

---
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