Hi All…I downloaded some of the free content modules to install on our digital library. Are there instructions for how to install/configure them to work? I copied all of the files to the server, but get an internal server error when I try to point to the URL. I assume a database or application is needed? Thanks for any help.
Hello @dkirmis -
Our modules work best within our “content shell” https://github.com/rachelproject/contentshell
Content shell creates a new index.php page (which your web server needs) by collecting all the rachel-index.php files within the modules you’ve downloaded.
Otherwise, you can rename those rachel-index.php to index.php and browse to each module individually.
Thank you so much for your reply. We have our own website shell with other content, so I just wanted to try one module to see if I could access it. I renamed rachel-index.php to index.php and linked to that specific URL and still get a 500 error. Is there any other package that needs to be installed on the server?
Your server needs php installed also. you also may have a permissions issue going on.
Server is running PHP 5.6. What permissions are needed?
your web server needs to have permissions to view the content. no different than any other site for example. your chmod settings must have site readable by the webserver.
I’m running this on a raspberry pi. The owner and group for the main folder are pi:pi and the permissions are 755. I am just copying the files in the main folder (ie: /en-medline_plus), not the /var folder)…is that correct?
Oops, never mind… it is working! Thanks for your help.
Well, I spoke too soon. The interface works, I see the table, but the search does not bring any results. (For example the medline plus)…there is an entry on Narcolepsy, but if I type that in the search, it doesn’t bring up the link.
Was it a permissions issue? Would love to have to solution here for anyone else who runs into the problem. I’ll have to check on the search stuff.
It was an owner issue. I had it set to root:root and should have been pi:pi. All the other content folders that I have are set to root:root, so not sure why they work. I have an old medline folder and owner is root:root for that folder, but it works.
I’m not an expert, but i’m not sure that the owner:group necessarily dictates permissions as much as the chmod settings for who is allowed to view what content. Usually set as some form of 0755 or 0777. Might be your issue, but glad it is resolved.
hmmm. yea, maybe (I’m not an expert, either!). Also, the directory has to be in /var/www/html…can’t be a subdirectory. The Wikipedia for schools module doesn’t seem to work. Lists the directory contents, but there is no styling and no search. And, the search doesn’t seem to work on any of them. The search box appears, but doesn’t retrieve anything.
Just wondering if another app needs to be installed in Linux? A search package? Do you know if anyone else is running the separate modules as standalone searchable links?
Hi there again…the project that I am working on is the SolarSPELL digital library that was created by Dr. Laura Hosman, and I am working directly with Bruce Baikie on the implementation here at ASU. (I think the SolarSPELL was actually modeled after Rachel, and I think he is on the board of the Rachel project.) He said that I should ask if there is a chance that I might get some additional help on getting these search modules working? If it is better for us to run the modules in your “content shell”, could he help me figure out how to integrate it with our existing digital library solution? Or, help me figure out why I can’t get the modules to work! 
Hi @dkirmis what’s your timeline? We’re just really slammed with projects right now so it’s hard to divert time and resources. There is a very easy way to start with our content shell via RACHELPiOS on github and add your content after.
We have a team going to Tonga in early May and need it all working by then. We have our entire website with a LOT of content already curated, and just wanted to add some of the Rachel modules to it. We have already been using some of the modules very successfully in this environment…the standard versions without the search. Is there anyone using them that has gotten them to work running as separate modules?
hi @dkirmis – yes lots of folks have search working. It may be browser issue. @jfield can you assist?
Sure thing – for search to work you must have php5, php5-sqlite3, and the stem module. If all of those are installed on your system, search should work.
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I installed php5-sqlite3 using the command:
sudo apt-get php5-sqlite
Do I need to do anything else to configure it?
Also, do you have commands for installing stem?
Thanks for your help. New to some of this.
There are some instructions in the zip file when you download stem, but checking my notes, this is what I ended up doing on Ubuntu - four commands:
apt-get -y install php-pear
yes yes | pecl install stem
echo extension=stem.so > /etc/php5/mods-available/stem.ini
php5enmod stem
Hope that works for you!