Orion/Selfhosting

Self Hosting

Self hosting means running a site configuration on an Orion server that will virtual-host the Orion client code at a different URL, while proxying server API requests to the running server at the original URL.

It provides a convenient way to run the latest Orion client code without having to set up an Eclipse development workspace, or frequently download new builds. It also protects you from destroying your editing environment when you are editing the Orion client code itself. For example, if you make a change that breaks the Orion editor, you can fall back to the "outer" site, revert the change, then return to your self-hosted "inner" site.

Instructions

This section explains the steps necessary to get set up for self-hosting on orion.eclipse.org. This server is being used by the Orion committers to work on Orion itself. Non-committers can follow the same steps: just replace any mention of orion.eclipse.org with OrionHub, or your locally-running server, like http://localhost:8080.

Creating self hosting site

1. Log into orion.eclipse.org.
2. Go to your user profile page. Enter your committer email and name in the Git section and save. This is important to do first so that Git commits are made using your committer username and can therefore be pushed back to git.eclipse.org.
3. Click on Repositories in the top banner, then click Clone Repository in the toolbar. In the URL field, enter
   • For committers: ssh://myCommitterId@git.eclipse.org/gitroot/orion/org.eclipse.orion.client.git (replacing your committer id, of course).
   • For non-committers: http://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/orion/org.eclipse.orion.client.git or git.eclipse.org/gitroot/orion/org.eclipse.orion.client.git .
4. You'll see a confirmation dialog asking you to accept the server's RSA key. Click Yes.
5. Next a prompt will appear asking for credentials.
   • Non-committers: just click OK.
   • Committers: enter your eclipse.org account name and ssh password, then click OK.
6. Wait for a moment while the repository is cloned. The toolbar area will let you know when it's done.
7. Go back to the Navigator, and verify that a new folder was created called org.eclipse.orion.client, and that it contains the Orion client code.
8. Click on the Sites link in the header, and create a new site configuration. Enter any name and press Ok.
9. On the page for the site configuration, click on the "Convert to Self-Hosting" in the top banner. When a dialog comes up asking to "Choose Orion Source Folder" pick org.eclipse.orion.client from the list and select "Ok".
10. Choose "Save" from the top banner.
11. You should be able to choose "Start" from the top banner
    • The site will be launched with a name like [sitename].orion.eclipse.org:8080 or 127.0.0.2:8080 if you're running a local server.
    • If you're running a local server and you receive a "No more hosts available" error, you need to follow the instructions here, restart your server, then repeat this step.
12. Log into the new site, using the same credentials as in Step 1.
13. You're all set :-)

Updating client code

1. Using the Orion Git tools, pull the latest code from the master branch of the org.eclipse.orion.client repository.
2. You're done. The next time you load a page on your self-hosted site, it will be running the latest code.

Limitations

• From time to time, changes are made to both the Orion server and client code as new features are added. In these cases, the latest client code from Git may fail to work with an older server. To resolve this, you'll have to upgrade your Orion server by downloading a new build. Make sure to copy the serverworkspace directory from your old server, so you can pick up working from where you left off.
• You cannot manage site configurations from a self-hosted site. You'll need to return to the outer server (orion.eclipse.org, orionhub.org, or whatever) to do this. See Bug 369433.

Recovering from breakage

As you hack on Orion code from your self-hosted site, you may accidentally make a catastrophic change, such that you aren't able to open the editor to revert it. In this case, just return to the "outer" server (orion.eclipse.org, orionhub.org, or whatever) and revert the change from there. Reload your self-hosted site and you should be able to continue working.

More

While working on Orion, you may want to install some additional plugins. See the links below for catalogs of available plugins.

• Orion plugins and tools