Copy the PhixFlow Webapp into Tomcat

To install the PhixFlow web application into Tomcat:

Copy $RELEASE/webapps/phixflow to $TOMCAT/webapps/phixflow

Configure the Webapp

A number of configuration files must be copied from supplied templates and configured.

All template and configured configuration files are in $TOMCAT/webapps/$WEBAPP/WEB-INF/classes

Configure phixflow-datasource.xml

The PhixFlow webapp must be configured to give access to the database user that has been created to hold the PhixFlow data.

copy phixflow-datasource.xml.<database>.example to phixflow-datasource.xml, then

edit the properties for <bean id="dataSource"...., e.g.:

<property name="url">
	<value>[CONNECTION STRING]</value>
</property>
<property name="username">
	<value>[USERNAME]</value>
</property>
<property name="password">
	<value>[PASSWORD]</value>
</property>

Connection Strings

See also Database URLs for how to specify connection string URLs for the various database platforms supported by PhixFlow.

The platform-specific [CONNECTION STRING]s are:

Oracle:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:1521:phixflow

Oracle (for containerised instances):

jdbc:oracle:thin:@hostname:1521/phixflow

Oracle PDB containers

For Oracle 12c and above, you should use a '/' instead of ':' before [SID], so that [SID] is treated as a SERVICE name rather than an SID. This is due to Oracle 12c introducing pluggable databases (PDB's).

There is also the option to add the line 'USE_SID_AS_SERVICE_listener=on' to the tnsnames.ora Oracle configuration file in order to treat SID's as service names by default. This is provided by Oracle as a workaround for users who have hard-coded connection strings that are difficult to change by hand, and so should not be necessary for phixflow configuration.

For more information, please see the following Oracle documentation links:

USE_SID_AS_SERVICE_listener

Introduction to the Multitenant Architecture (including an explanation of PDB's)

SQL Server:

jdbc:sqlserver://hostname\myservice;databaseName=phixflow

MySQL:

jdbc:mysql://hostname/phixflow

Configure phixflow-instance.xml

phixflow-instance.xml identifies the webapp instance in a resilient configuration and sets whether the instance is active on startup.

Initially, simply copy the example file phixflow-instance.xml.example to phixflow-instance.xml.

Configure phixflow-domains.xml

The PhixFlow webapp can be configured to authenticate users’ usernames and passwords against an external Domain / Active Directory server.

Initially, simply copy the example file provided.

For more information on how to configure for domain logins, see the PhixFlow Active Directory Guide.

Configure log4j.properties

The log4j.properties file controls detailed event/error logging on the server.

To configure for default logging:

Open or cd to $TOMCAT/webapps/phixflow/WEB-INF/classes
Copy log4j.properties.example to log4j.properties

It is not necessary to make any changes to this file unless so instructed by PhixFlow Support.

If it is ever necessary to change this file, those changes will take effect within a few seconds, without having to restart the Tomcat server.

Multiple PhixFlow instances

To install multiple instances of PhixFlow on a single server, complete the installation steps above to create a first PhixFlow instance. Then install a further instance:

Create a second database user to hold the data for the new instance.
Copy the PhixFlow web application into the Tomcat again:

cp $RELEASE/webapps/phixflow to $TOMCAT/webapps/alternative_name

where “alternative_name” is the name of your test system.

Be sure to set up a separate user and schema in the database for the new PhixFlow instance and to set phixflow-datasource.xml as needed
To ensure log messages are sent to a separate file, change the following line in log4j.properties

log4j.appender.myAppender.file=logs/ alternative_name.log

Install PhixFlow Webapp