The Wiki component in Leopard Server is designed to be ready to run and use for all your workgroup needs, but for those who need to customize the look and feel of their Wiki environment may find a new article on creating custom themes helpful:
From the article:
Wiki Server, a part of Mac OS X Leopard Server, provides this wiki functionality to all users with access to the server. Individual groups can tap into Wiki Server to create their own wikis and customize the look and feel of the wiki to suit both their content and audience. By creating their own personal wiki theme, Wiki users can apply their own style and identity to the wiki, in addition to supplying their own content.
The second part of the series on saving money using open source technology looks at OpenOffice, a complete Office software suite comprising word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation package, among other tools.
From the intro:
On the desktop, the operating system and environment are less important than the applications that support the main operating functions for your office. Your business drives your application requirements, but most businesses will also use an office suite, such as OpenOffice, to support their core operations.
The OpenOffice suite is open source, freely available, and completely compatible with a wide range of different office suites, including Microsoft Office. It’s a compatible product, both in terms of file readability and usage, and you can try out OpenOffice with no barriers.
I completed a series earlier this year on using various tools within the open source world that can save you money in place of spending money on commercial products and licenses.
The first article looks at the Ubuntu Linux distribution. From the intro:
Part 1 discusses Ubuntu, a community developed Linux-based operating system for laptops, desktops, and servers. Ubuntu contains many applications: a Web browser; presentation, document, and spreadsheet software; instant messaging; and much more. This article explores Ubuntu’s:
In a follow-up to an article I did earlier this year on analyzing the structure and layout of your network using ping and other tools, I’ve written another article on similar lines, this time looking at how to monitor and then report on the performance of your network and how to identify and diagnose problems.
Knowing your UNIX network layout will go a long way with understanding your network and how it operates. But what happens when the performance of your UNIX network and the speed at which you can transfer files or connect to services suddenly reduces? How do you diagnose the issues and work out where in your network the problems lie? This article looks at some quick methods for finding and identifying performance issues and the steps to start resolving them.
I have a new tutorial on analyzing networks, in terms of understanding your basic network configuration, the other machines and devices on the network, and the general topology.
From the intro:
When accessing a new UNIX system, or even understanding an existing one, a key part of the puzzle to how the system operates is the network configuration. There are many aspects of the network that you need to know and understand to correctly identify problems and prevent future problems. By using some basic tools and commands you can determine a lot about the configuration of a single system, and through this basic understanding, a good idea of the configuration of the rest of the network. With some additional tools, you can expand that knowledge to cover more systems and services within your network.
In this tutorial you will use some basic tools within the UNIX environment that can disclose information about the configuration of your system. By understanding these tools and the information they output, you will be able to gain a greater understanding of your system network configuration and how it works. You will also examine tools and solutions that can look at the wider network and gain more detailed information about your network, its potential security issues, and key points of information that will help you identify and diagnose problems when they do occur.
Tracing applications are something of a passion for me, especially with the introduction of DTrace in Solaris and Mac OS X.
To support that, I have a new tutorial about the different methods available for tracing Unix applications. I tried to concentrate on tools and techniques that don’t require access to the source, like using truss and DTrace.
From the intro:
Most developers and systems administrators know what should happen in their operating system and with their applications, but sadly, this isn’t always the case. There are times when an application has failed, or is not behaving as you expect, and you need to find out more information. By using your existing knowledge of how your application should work and some basic UNIX skills, you can trace the application to find out what is causing the problem. This tutorial will teach you the basic techniques of using tracing tools to find out what your application is doing behind the scenes.
First, the tutorial looks at the distinction between debugging and tracing, and how the two solutions differ. Then it examines some specific examples of where tracing can be used to solve problems in your application. DTrace provides elements of both system tracing and debugging, and also provides you with the ability to time and benchmark applications. Finally, the tutorial shows how to trace the information being exchanged between network computers to help find problems in network applications.
I have a new article on different ways in which you can synchronize your Unix files.
From the intro:
There are many tools available that allow you to synchronize files across UNIX directories, but doing it effectively, and securely, takes a little bit more effort. This article looks at solutions for synchronizing files across UNIX filesystems and different computer systems securely, and at solutions that allow you to synchronize encrypted versions of your files for the purposes of backup.
File synchronization is the process of adding, changing, or deleting a file in one location, and having the same file added to, changed, or deleted at another location. This article covers three utilties, cp, tar, and rsync, that can aid with synchronization of UNIX files. While cp and tar commands have limited synchronization abilities, rsync provides you with the full range of options; however, all three have their place.
Of particular interest is a script that provides an encrypted wrapper around rsync, which I use to provide a nice secure rsync-able backup.
When creating podcasts you dont always want to publish to one of the blogs or wiki services on your Leopard Server, or to iTunes. How about posting to YouTube?
From the intro:
YouTube has created a whole new generation of users who like to view video over the Internet, whether at their computer, their laptop or when using their iPhone. With Podcast Producer, you have many workflows available to you on your Mac OS X Server, but you can also customize workflows and publish content directly to YouTube. Follow along to build a custom workflow that will take an existing video podcast through Podcast Producer and post the content directly onto YouTube.
The solution involves a custom application using the YouTube Java kit that submits a converted podcast content to your YouTube account.
The Server Administrator, and other tools, provide a powerful graphical user interface (GUI) to Podcast Producer. Sometimes, however, you may only be able to interact with the server over a secure shell (SSH) connection remotely using the command line. This allows you, for instance, to control Podcast Producer from halfway around the world.
This article, the third in a series, is aimed at Podcast Producer administrators. We will examine four command line tools available for controlling and monitoring Podcast Producer.
The second article in my Podcast Producer series is now available on Apple Developer Connection.
Podcast Producer: Writing Actions discusses the actions that make up the processing of podcasts sent to Podcast Producer into the final formats and associated blog posts, emails and other material that publishes the podcast out to the world.
From the introduction:
In order to write effective actions for Podcast Producer, you must understand the different properties that are executed from the command line. Individually, actions are discrete operations, but when chained together they provide a powerful processing environment so that the output from one action is compatible with the input of the next action within the process.
In this article, designed for Podcast Producer administrators developing their own workflows, you will learn about how to write and execute actions. Armed with this knowledge, you can easily develop your own actions to build different workflows. You will also learn about how to ensure that your actions are flexible and executable within the Xgrid environment and how to manage execution and resources during processing.