Slide includes an embedded distribution of Tomcat 4.0, configured as a fully integrated content management system.

It is configured so that it provides multiple views of the data :

• Client view : Use web applications, browse information
• Editor view : Edit and configure web applications, modify information
• Manager view : Manage users, define roles, administer the server

The server resides in the "server" subdirectory in the Slide binary distributions. The "server" directory conatins a specially configured Tomcat 4 distribution, which is run exactly the same way Tomcat 4 is run. The Tomcat 4 User's Guide provides more details on this.

The Slide domain is configured with the Domain.xml file which is in the "server" directory, and it's mostly unchanged when compared to the Domain.xml which is in a web application, except that :

• auto-create-users should always be set to false (it is false by default)
• the default namespace should be set, and its value should be the name of a valid namespace

The store definition and configuration is still unchanged.

The Tomcat 4 configuration file is still located in "conf/server.xml". It can be edited to change the port numbers which will be used by the connectors, among other things.

Contexts will be created using the namespaces which are defined in the Slide domain. Additional details are given below.

Client View

The client view can be accessed (using the default configuration) on port 8080. The client view provides a standard Tomcat 4 environment, with the same functionality as those normally provided by Tomcat 4, except without the concept of virtual hosting, due to design decisions in Slide. For each namespace defined in the Slide domain, a separate web application context will be created in the servlet container. For example, if the "foo" namespace is defined in Slide, then a "foo" context will be created in Tomcat 4. A realm will be automatically associated with that context, and will authenticate pricipals against the principals defined in the Slide namespace. Any web application which is designed so that it doesn't access the files within its web application directory using direct filesystem access should run without any modification (file access should be replaced by calls like ServletContext.getResource, which abstract filesystem access). This includes applications like Jasper, and any web application written according to Sun's guidelines.

Editor View

The editor view can be accessed (using the default configuration) on port 8081. Note : For security reasons, the default configuration does not have any user which can successfully be authenticated. To be able to successfully authenticate a user, edit the Domain.xml file and set a password for the user. An example is provided in the file for user "/users/root". Each namespace in the Slide doamin will be associated to a context, which is fully managed by the Slide WebDAV servlet. Any WebDAV client can be used to edit the contents of these contexts. A realm will be automatically associated with that context, and will authenticate pricipals against the principals defined in the Slide namespace. All resources in the web application can be accessed and edited, according to the permissions the authenticated principal has. This includes class files, JSP sources, ... It is highly recommended that if this setup is used in a publicly accessible computer, that the port on which this host is running is hidden from the outside world, either by configuring the connector to only accept requests from some IP addresses, or (preferably) by using a firewall. Since Slide is running in the background, all the services Slide provides are used to manage the web applications. This includes a rich ACL system, versioning, locking ...

Manager View

The first management component which is available is the Catalina manager web application. It can be accessed in context "manager" on port 8080 (it runs on the same host as the client view). The manager requires an authenticated user with role "manager". This user is not defined in any of the Slide managed realms, but instead is defined in a memory based realm. The "conf/tomcat-users.xml" defines the users of this realm. The manager sevlet provides an interface which can be used to start/stop/reload contexts, view active sessions, ... A Slide specific management application is provided on port 8082. Again, this port should be restricted should the server be made available as a public server on the internet. This interface is a work in progress, and will allow to view and edit the configuration of the namespaces, as well as manage principals.