[deepamehta-users] DeepaMehta 4.0.12 released

Jörg Richter jri at deepamehta.de
Di Sep 18 23:46:45 CEST 2012


On Sep 18, 2012 DeepaMehta 4.0.12 has been released.

	https://github.com/downloads/jri/deepamehta/deepamehta-4.0.12.zip

This release is all about publishing and collaboration.
Its main features are:
	- Access Control Foundation
	- Backend Security
	- File Repository

For details see the release notes. In the linked tickets and commit messages you'll find usage and configuration hints.
https://trac.deepamehta.de/wiki/ReleaseNotes.

You can *not* update from any previous DeepaMehta version.

STARTING HINTS:
	- The new start URL is http://localhost:8080/de.deepamehta.webclient/
	- Login with "admin" and empty password.
	  You can create or update any content only once logged in.
	  Before loggin in you can only search and navigate.

RELEASE STATUS:
DeepaMehta 4.0.12 is the most experimental one since DM 4.0. This is because Access Control and Security are such complex topics and you will rather not make it complete and perfect in the first attempt.
Features which worked before but not yet in 4.0.12:
	- Editing the View Configurations of the standard topic types (Note, Person, ...)
	- Deleting searches. Only Hide works.
	- Performance has decreased.
Access Control features not yet realized:
	- Interactive configuration of Access Control Lists (ACL).
	- Interactive configuration of Ownership and Workspace Memberships.
Because DeepaMehta 4.0.12 enables substantial new use cases and provides considerable improvements for developers we decided to release it despite these shortcomings.


USE CASES:

1) Collaboration

You can use a DeepaMehta installation collaboratively as a team. For this you have to enable network access first (by default your installation is not accessible via network at all). To enable global access change one setting in conf/config.properties:

	dm4.security.subnet_filter = 0.0.0.0/0

The Access Control default setup enables collaboration based on workspace memberships. Each topic, association, type etc. is assigned to one or more workspaces. Within a workspace all members have equal permissions. A topic created by one user can be edited (and deleted) by each workspace member.

All things created, including User Accounts, are assigned to the *current* Workspace. That is the one selected in the Workspace menu (upper left).

2) Publishing read-only Topicmaps

You can publish your topicsmaps by advertising their URLs (with or without the /topic/{id} part). Published topicmaps can be accessed by everyone. Published topicmaps are fully interactive. All view operations are possible: navigate, move, show/hide and even revelation of new topics through search. View operations performed by an anonymous user are *not* persistent. The next time the topicmap is opened it appears in its original state.

The original topicmap state can be authored by an authenticated user. View operations performed by an authenticated user *are* persistent.

Publishing topicmaps requires enabling network access (see above).

3) Closed workgroups

You can make your DM installation completely unaccessible by anonymous users while working as a group. For this you have to enable network access first (see above) and then define another setting in conf/config.properties:

	dm4.security.read_requires_login = true

In the browser this causes a login dialog at the very first request, before the DM GUI actually appears. Installations secured this way doesn't allow any unauthenticated read access. Not through the REST API neither.

4) HTTPS

HTTPS can be activated optionally. This requires a server key. For hints about HTTPS activation and generation of a self-certified server key see here:
https://trac.deepamehta.de/ticket/295

HTTPS in conjunction with the new dm4.security settings removes the requirement of 3rd-party (Apache-) proxies.



See the README for installation and update instructions:
https://github.com/jri/deepamehta#readme

Build from source:
https://trac.deepamehta.de/wiki/BuildFromSource

For reporting issues please register at our trac-site:
https://trac.deepamehta.de

Thanks to Danny Gräf, Malte Reißig, Jürgen Neumann, and Rolf Kutz for contributing!

Cheers,
Jörg




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