Quick URL for VRE sites

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In Sakai a full link to a site looks like 

http://sakai.bestgrid.org/portal/site/bda98ec8-ebbe-4b10-8047-7f7ad4cf4e85

Using this link allows registered users to enter directly into the site Home page after providing their login credentials. But such URL is very complicated to remember. To simplify the quick URL there is an approach inside Tomcat structure (Tomcat is a container for Sakai) to create Virtual Hosts. Administrator of Sakai/Tomcat server in that case should do the following:

  • Add into Engine section of a file $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml Host element: 
<Engine name "Catalina" defaultHost="localhost">
   <Host 
      name="vretest" 
      appBase="webapps/vretest">
   </Host>
</Engine>
  • Create a folder for the new virtual host: 
mkdir $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/vretest
  • Create a file $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/vretest/index.html with a content: 
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=/portal/site/bda98ec8-ebbe-4b10-8047-7f7ad4cf4e85">
  </head>
  <body>
    Redirecting to VRE Test site...
  </body>
</html>
  • Create a folder under $CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina corresponding to the new virtual host: 
mkdir $CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina/vretest
  • Create a file $CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina/vretest/ROOT.xml with a content: 
<Context docBase="${catalina.home}/webapps/vretest"
</Context>

Now it's possible to open VRE Test site using much easier URL like this: 

http://sakai.bestgrid.org/vretest

This approach to create virtual hosts doesn't need Tomcat/Sakai restarting.

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