1.2. Installing Bika LIMS

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1. Download Bika LIMS from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=145464
2. There are several Products listed;
1. If you want to install Bika LIMS, then download the bika package, in whichever archive made available (rar, tar.gz, zip)
2. There are two package types;
1. Bika Product (stand-alone): e.g. bika-1.2.2.rar - this archive only contains the Bika product, but not Bika dependent products. Only download this package if you're upgrading Bika, but take note to make sure your Bika dependent products are up to date
2. Bika Product Bundle; e.g.  bika-1.2.2_bundle.rar  - this archive contains the following;
• bika - version LIMS 1.2.2
  
• ATExtensions - version 0.7.1
  
• ATSchemaEditorNG - version 0.4.2
  
• PloneHelpCenter - version 0.9-Modified_by_Upfront
  
• Portal Transport - version 1.1
  
• stripogram
  
• Upfront Contacts - version 0.4
3. Extract the BIKA Product Package or Bika Product Bundle inside the Products directory of your Zope instance, assuming you have the same set-up described in the Plone installation page, this would be: /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/Products
1. If you would like to create a separate instance for bika, rather then the default 'Plone Site', open your Command line editor and enter the following
   

   ~$ cd /usr/lib/zope2.9/bin/mkzopeinstance

2. You will be prompted to give the instance a name, and access details.
   
4. Before you start up your Zope instance (although generally Zope starts automatically), you need to setup the ID server. Copy the 'start-id-server' shell script from the BIKA products directory inside '/var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/Products/bika/scripts' to the root of your Zope instance: '/var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site'
5. Modify the path to the Python binary inside the 'start-id-server' shell script and change the port if necessary.
6. Edit the 'zope.conf' file in your Zope instance ( /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/etc',  and add an 'environment' section for the ID Server:
   

   <environment>

   IDServerURL http://localhost:8081

   </environment>

7. Start Zope (or re-start Zope) and browse to the management interface; typically enter the following address in your browser: http://localhost:8080/manage and a pop-up will appear requesting your login and password
   

   
   

   assuming you have the same set-up described in the Plone installation page, this would be:

   Login: admin & Password: local

8. Following successful authentication you should see the following screen;
   
   
   
   

9. Select 'Plone site' from the 'Add' drop down menu.
   

   
10. Specify the id (short name, part of site's address), Title (title of the Bika site) and Description (of your BIKA instance) and select 'bika' from the 'Extension Profiles' at the bottom of the form. And click on 'Add Plone Site' and the following screen will appear:
    

    
    

    e.g. Id: 'bika', Title: 'Bika LIMS Portal', Description: 'This is the demo of Bika 1.2.2'
    
11. After step 8 you should be automatically redirected to the ZMI, showing your new Bika instance
12. Click on you bika instance, and then click on the 'View' tab to see bika full screen. Or alternatively, open a new browser window or tab, and enter the following address: http://localhost:8080/bika
13. Uploading Sample Data for bika.
    

    NOTE: if you want to install Bika Wine or Bika Interlab, please only upload sample data at the end of the 'Wine' or 'Interlab' installation process.
    

    If you want to populate your Bika LIMS with sample data, login into bika as administrator, and enter the following address in your browser:
    http://localhost:8080/bika/load_sample_data
    

    NOTE: Make sure your IDServer is running!
    To run the IDServer on Ubuntu open your command line terminal and type:
    

    ~$ cd /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site
    ~$ ./start-id-server
    

14. This will take several seconds, and will be followed by an blank screen with 'Ok' in the top left.
    
15. Use the browser's back button to return to the Bika LIMS
    

Important ID Server Notes¹:

• The IDServer, once run, is supposed to create the following files;
• /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/log/id.counter
• /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/log/idserver.log
• /var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/log/idserver.pid
• If these files are NOT created when running the IDServer;
• It's most probably due to the access rights (read/write/execute) of the Zope's log folder (/var/lib/zope2.9/instance/plone-site/log)
• Either you can change the rights to the log folder so that the files can be created, or
• You can create the files manually, but make sure they've got 'write' permissions.
  

If you have any trouble with the above installation procedure, please join the BIKA users mailing list and report any problems you might have.

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bika-users

Additional Contribution to this document by;

1) Sébastien DOVILLEZ - Magikal

Next: Installing Bika Interlab Previous: Installing Plone on Linux