OpenMRS should allow application data directory (and thus location of openmrs-runtime.properties) to be specified in a Servlet API compatible manner

The applicationDataDir can also be specified with a global property. If the user sets both of those then confusion will reign. Perhaps the init param can just specify the location of the runtime properties file? Or is that not enough for what you need to do?

Hi Ben:

Simply making a property for the OpenMRS runtime properties file will cause some problems - even if we make the appropriate changes in OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimeProperties(), unfortunately, the OpenmrsUtil.getApplicationDataDirectory() will return either:
a) the user's home directory, if no application_data_directory runtime property is set in the passed runtime properties file (i.e., it does not exist - in which case we will just fall back to user's home and have same problems)
b) if the file does exist and sets the application_data_directory to something else, e.g., /tmp, then the initial setup wizard does not get started and the user will see cryptic errors:

getApplicationDataDirectory() returning [/tmp/]
ERROR - Listener.contextInitialized(153) |2010-10-04 14:12:23,937| Got exception while starting up:
java.lang.RuntimeException: Error occurred while trying to get the updates needed for the database. Unable to get a connection to the database. Please check your openmrs runtime properties file and make sure you have the correct connection.username and connection.password set
...

My proposed solution is a semantic one: simply change the name of the web.xml property (see attached patch) and modify the comment for OpenmrsUtil.getApplicationDataDirectory(). That way, users won't get confused if they end up setting both - one is the runtime properties directory, the other is the application data directory.

I tested the trunk patch with three cases:
i) commented out web.xml init property (as is default in patch) - everything works correctly and my ~/.OpenMRS/openmrs-runtime-properties.xml is used
ii) uncommented web.xml - everything is correct and initialsetup gets started

WARN - OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimeProperties(2460) |2010-10-04 13:59:50,729| Unable to find properties file: /tmp/openmrs-runtime.properties
WARN - OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimeProperties(2474) |2010-10-04 13:59:50,732| Also unable to find a runtime properties file at /home/misha/workspace/trunk/webapp/openmrs-runtime.properties
WARN - OpenmrsUtil.getRuntimeProperties(2496) |2010-10-04 13:59:50,732| Unable to find a runtime properties file. Initial setup is needed. View the webapp to run the setup wizard.
2010-10-04 13:59:51.157::INFO: Started SelectChannelConnector@0.0.0.0:8080
[INFO] Started Jetty Server
[INFO] Starting scanner at interval of 10 seconds.

iii) uncommented web.xml with a copy of my openmrs-runtime.properties file from ~/.OpenMRS with the following application_data_directory property added, i.e.:

#Auto generated by OpenMRS initialization wizard
#Thu Sep 30 21:14:48 CDT 2010
module.allow_web_admin=true
connection.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/openmrs?autoReconnect=true&sessionVariables=storage_engine=InnoDB&useUnicode=true&characterEncodin
g=UTF-8
connection.username=openmrs_user
auto_update_database=true
connection.password=rn&aJ~3GHqac
application_data_directory=/home/misha/.OpenMRS/

I also added debugging output to OpenmrsUtil.getApplicationDataDirectory() as follows:

misha@misha-d630:~/workspace/trunk$ svn diff ./api/src/main/java/org/openmrs/util/OpenmrsUtil.java
Index: api/src/main/java/org/openmrs/util/OpenmrsUtil.java
===================================================================
--- api/src/main/java/org/openmrs/util/OpenmrsUtil.java	(revision 15710)
+++ api/src/main/java/org/openmrs/util/OpenmrsUtil.java	(working copy)
@@ -1081,7 +1081,8 @@
 
 	/**
 	 * If the "application_data_directory" runtime property has been set, it is
-	 * returned. Otherwise, on UNIX-based systems, this returns
+	 * returned. Otherwise, if the init parameter runtime.properties.directory has
+	 * been set, it is returned. Otherwise, on UNIX-based systems, this returns
 	 * "{user.home}/.OpenMRS", and otherwise returns "{user.home}\Application
 	 * Data\OpenMRS"
 	 * 
@@ -1109,7 +1110,7 @@
 		File folder = new File(filepath);
 		if (!folder.exists())
 			folder.mkdirs();
-
+		System.out.println("getApplicationDataDirectory() returning [" + filepath + "]");
 		return filepath;
 	}

and have the following Jetty output - the application_data_directory runtime property does, indeed, take precedence:

getApplicationDataDirectory() returning [/home/misha/.OpenMRS/]

Hope this helps.

Thanks!
Misha

p.s. 1.6.x and 1.7.x patches coming shortly. Thx.

Here at 1.6.x and 1.7.x patches, both tested on Tomcat. In 1.6.x and 1.7.x, the OpenmrsUtil.getApplicationDataDirectory() does not have a comment that describes application data directory search, so this is left unmodified.

The appropriate file /etc/tomcat6/Catalina/localhost/openmrs.xml becomes (with the relevant part commented out or not):

<Context path="/openmrs"
docBase="/tmp/openmrs.war">
<!--
<Parameter name="runtime.properties.directory" value="/tmp"
override="false"/>
-->
</Context>

1) /tmp should never be used. That folder is cleared out after a computer restart and so all runtime properties and installed modules, etc would be lost.
2) The default in the init-param should not be set to /tmp. It should be blank
3) If the init-param is blank, don't use it

Fixed and tested. Default value is blank, not used if blank. Comments?

Thank you
Misha

1779-trunk-4.patch is patch Ben committed to trunk (thanks Ben for wise modifications)

The others are my backports to 1.6.x and 1.7.x. The 1.6.x version is included in next Debian package.

Thx
Misha

http://source.openmrs.org/cru/CR-TRUNK-147#c1180
Fix Jeremy Keiper's comment about comment

Also take out unnecessary article in comment for getRuntimeProperties()

Thank you!

Misha

I applied the patch to trunk only. I'm going to close out this ticket. Thanks Misha!