IDA Framework Developer Setup and Checklists

This is a developers guide to get IDA Framework running with Ubuntu 10.04. This guide will cover environment with XAMPP and NetBeans 6.8 (and bonus: NetBeans git support with NB Git)

Side note: It happens that I “accidentally” have to install Ubuntu as my primary operating system. Therefore I need to setup a new environment for my primary project IDA Framework. Thanks to broken-but-now-ok wireless device for making this guide written.

Step 1: Getting Apache, MySQL, PHP (with XAMPP)

Head to apachefriends.org website and get their latest xampp (lampp for linux). The latest version today is 1.7.3a. Therefore this guide tested specifically to this version. Link: XAMPP for Linux

Step 2: Installing LAMPP

Extract Lampp to installation folder. Borrowing official commands from apachefriends.org manual

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.3a.tar.gz -C /opt

Open Terminal. Go to Firefox download folder. Copy and paste command above into Terminal. Lampp will be installed at /opt/lampp folder. Official Lampp installation note, see: Installation

To start Xampp use the following command

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

You may replace “start” with “stop” or “restart” when necessary. The complete manual available here: Advanced start and stop parameters

Step 3: Getting NetBeans 6.8

To make sure NetBeans 6.8 installation is painless as possible use NetBeans from Ubuntu repository so you don't have to mess with JDK and JAVA-HOME. Go to “Ubuntu Software Center”, in the search box search for netbeans. After clicking install you may sit back and relax while the download and installation complete.

NetBeans from repository did not include PHP. Just add PHP from NetBeans plug-in manager. In NetBeans window, go to menu: Tools > Plugins > Available Plug-ins. Find and check PHP from the list, then click the install button. The will be a series of simple dialogues to proceed.

Step 4: Optional – Obtain IDA Framework from Git repository

When I mentioned Git, it doesn't mean it's GitHub. Git is a software while GitHub is a corporate entity hosting Git software.

Get Git for NetBeans – NbGit from Google Code. From the download list, pick the latest .nbm file.

Go to NetBeans menu: Tools > Plugins > Downloaded and click “Add Plugin” and browse to the downloaded nbgit-0.3.nbm file. OK and yes with all questions to complete installation.

When NbGit is ready - Go to NetBeans menu: Team > Git > Clone Other. The git repository URL is needed. This is what I put there: ssh://root@10.23.XXX.XXX/var/git/ida2.git . That's telling git to clone source codes via ssh using user root from my git server. You may use your GitHub URL for example: git://github.com/idafx/IDA-Framework.git

Side Note: NbGit provide some basic Git features like clone(copy), commit(update local), pull(synchronize local-remote) and diff... meanwhile I can't find push(upload to remote) command built-in. While I check at NbGit issues, push is not being implemented yet and not made in any milestone yet... Therefore to push need to use command lines.

Step 5: Getting IDA Framework running

To make sure IDA running perfectly on linux... please follow this checklist

• PHP version is 5.3 to be safe (5.2.7 minimum)

  • mcrypt() enable for sessions (important!)

  • mbstring() not overloaded and working (important!)

  • GD2 for charting to work (optional)

  • PEAR with Spreadsheet Writer available (optional. only for Excel report to export)

  • Xvfb, Firefox, commandlineprint2 extension, ImageMagick (optional for Dashboard Email)

  • sendmail() working – optional: for email alerts and dashboard email.

• apache modules loaded

  • mod_alias

  • mod_rewrite

• apache configuration

  • put .conf settings like this

  			Alias /ida2 /home/towfx/ida2.git
  	<Directory /home/towfx/ida2/ida2.git >
  	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  	AllowOverride All
  	Order allow,deny
  	Allow from all
  	</Directory>
  	

• file permissions

  • 						chmod 777 application/cache
    		

  • 						chmod 777 application/logs
    		

  • 						chmod 777 application/tmp
    		

  • 						chmod 777 uploads
    		

  • 						chmod 777 assets/static
    		

• Database

  • get the SQL schema and create the database

• Internal configuration

  • go to application/configs/ folder

  • make sure you are in the correct $_SERVER['host'] or make modification