Data Crow Server install: Simple Copy- Paste?

[Tuscck]

Data Crow is a freeware media cataloger. Since im not a developer got a question:

It looks as if the server setup is just a copy-paste action.
As is explained below in the how to from data crow.
Can this software be made working on a 602T??
Theres a linux version for the server side if im readingf correctly.


I N T R O D U C T I O N
Since Data Crow 4 it is possible to run Data Crow as an old fashioned server. By that I mean it is an application server to which clients connect. I created this feature as it was requested by many users and as it made sense. On one hand to have an alternative to copying files between Data Crow installations and on the other hand as I needed to restructure the code anyway for future development. The resulting server-client architecture is a bonus.

Why would you use this? To have one central place where your data is stored within your (home) network.

Be warned that the clients connected to a server will be slower than a standalone version of Data Crow.

D A T A C R O W S E R V E R S E T U P
Download the server distribution from http://www.datacrow.net#downloads as well as a client version (either the installer or the zipped version).

D A T A C R O W U S E R F O L D E R
If you do have an existing user folder (database, images, settings) which you would like to make available through your server you can skip this chapter.

If you want / need to start fresh you will first have to create a user folder using the client version of Data Crow. This is a simple matter of starting the client version on ‘a’ machine. I say ‘a’ machine as you can create the user folder anywhere and then migrate (copy) it to the server.

On starting the client version of Data Crow it will ask you for a user folder location. Within this folder Data Crow will store all its settings and data. Shutdown the Data Crow and the user folder is ready to go for the server!

I N S T A L L T H E S E R V E R
Here we’ll setup the data structure and the server software.

• Copy the content of the user folder to a location on your server. Make sure this is a suitable location; it should be a directory where Data Crow (and you as user) has write access to. For Windows users; do not use the Program Files folders to store that data.

• Unzip the zipped Data Crow Server distribution to the installation location.
R U N N I N G T H E S E R V E R
The server has no graphical user interface (GUI) which means it relies fully on the command line. Open the terminal (Linux and Mac users) / command prompt (Windows users) and navigate to the Data Crow Server installation folder.

In the below example I will show <command> for the Data Crow start command;

• For Windows users substitute this with:

o datacrow-server32bit.exe or
This is in case you have installed the 32bit version of Java.

o datacrow-server64bit.exe
This is in case you have installed the 64bit version of Java.

• For other platforms use:

o Java –Xmx1024m –jar datacrow-server.jar
The –Xmx1024m parameter specifies the amount of memory available to Data Crow. You can change this to another number if necessary.

Now we are ready to start the server.

<command> -userdir:<user folder> –port:<portnumber>
–imageserverport:<portnumber> –credentials:<username>/<password>

Explanation:

• Command I have explained above, make sure you use the correct syntax.

• -userdir: specifies the user folder location.
Example (Windows): -userdir:c:/server-data

• -port: specifies the main port number for the application server. The default port is 9000. If you do not supply the port parameter, port 9000 will be used. Example: -port:9000

• -imageserverport: specified the port to use for the HTPP image server. The default is port 9001. If you do not supply the port parameter, port 9001 will be used. Example: - imageserverport:9001

• -credentials: username and password for the administrator. This is a required parameter for security reasons. The default user for Data Crow is SA with a blank password. It is recommended to set a password for each user when using the client-server setup.
Example #1 (user rwaals, pw 123456): -credentials:rwaals/123456
Example #2 (default user): -credentials:SA
C H E C K I N G T H E S E R V E R
If all is well the Server will reporting something similar to below:

INFO [main] (DcServer.java\:140) – Server has been started, ready for client connections.
INFO [main] (DcServer.java\:141) – Client can connect to IP address
192.168.0.121 on port 9000 and on image port 9001
INFO [main] (DcServer.java\:144) - Listening for CTRL-C for server
shutdown.

It specifies the actual IP address as well as the assigned port numbers.

Errors will be displayed directly in the console. Additionally there is the default log file, located in the user folder (data_crow.log).

If you want to debug the server (or see more messages) you can supply –debug parameter on startup.


S T O P P I N G T H E S E R V E R
Press CTRL-C in terminal / command prompt window.

S T A R T I N G T H E C L I E N T
Any installation above 4.0 can connect to a server. It’s a simple matter of
supplying the –client command to your Data Crow startup:

In the below example I will show <command> for the Data Crow client start command;

• For Windows users substitute this with:

o datacrow32bit.exe or
This is in case you have installed the 32bit version of Java.

o datacrow64bit.exe
This is in case you have installed the 64bit version of Java.

• For other platforms use:

o Java –Xmx512m –jar datacrow.jar
The –Xmx512m parameter specifies the amount of memory available to Data Crow. You can change this to another number if necessary.

<command> -client

When the client starts the following login dialog is shown:



• Login name: your username (the default user is SA)

• Password: your password (the password for user SA is blank)

• Server Address: the IP address of the Server (see the Server console for the
IP address, for example within an internal network the IP could be
192.168.0.10).
• Application Server Port: the port as configured on the server (default is
9000). This setting is remembered.

• Image Server Port: the port as configured on the server (default is 9001).
This setting is remembered.

[MrK]

It seems all is written in Java so it should work on all the ASUSTOR NAS. It won't be a copy-paste thing if you want to have it run properly on the NAS. If you just want to test it then copy-paste may be enough. Of course be sure that you installed Java (in the APP Store).

/Thomas

[Tuscck]

It seems all is written in Java so it should work on all the ASUSTOR NAS. It won't be a copy-paste thing if you want to have it run properly on the NAS. If you just want to test it then copy-paste may be enough. Of course be sure that you installed Java (in the APP Store).

/Thomas

Thx for your response Thomas.
So the line: "Java –Xmx1024m –jar datacrow-server.jar" is a installation of the required server application files?

[MrK]

[...]So the line: "Java –Xmx1024m –jar datacrow-server.jar" is a installation of the required server application files?

No no, that just the beginning (and "Java" must be "java"). The text below is also important.

Code: Select all

<command> -userdir:<user folder> –port:<portnumber>
–imageserverport:<portnumber> –credentials:<username>/<password>

So an example how to start Data Crow from the folder where you unpacked the Data Crow files:

Code: Select all

java –Xmx512m –jar datacrow-server.jar -userdir:/volume1/DataCrow -port:9000 -imageserverport:9001 –credentials:admin/password

That would start the Data Crow server and would expect that a folder /volume1/DataCrow exists. Then you go to your computer and start the Data Crow client to the IP of the NAS and when asked for the username and password you use "admin" as the username and "password" as the password.