Web Meeting Server Appliance bundles a product called WebHuddle that allows
you to have online, browser based presentations (PowerPoint, OpenOffice Impress
presentations), voice conferencing and even application presentations. During a
Web meeting, one can chat, ask/answer questions and host polls. All these happen
in almost real time and require only a Web browser with a Java plugin. Let's
jump right into the nitty-gritties of running this appliance. Login as root and
change to the directory /var/webhuddle/bin and start Webhuddle as:
./start_oo.sh
./run.sh
Wait for a minute to let WebHuddle start. Type in the URL http://
Substitute
OK or Continue for all pop-up alerts (related to SSL certificate) you see while
working on WebHuddle. You should be greeted by the main page of WebHuddle. To
set up a meeting, you will first need to register and then login to the system.
Start the meeting
Skip this section if you want Webhuddle to authenticate against the PCQLinux
2008 directory server appliance. Refer to the section 'Authenticating with
Directory Server.'
Click on 'Register' link at the top right. As prompted by the form, type in
your 'First Name,' 'Last Name,' 'Email Address' and 'Country' (for example 'IN'
for India). The password will be mailed to the email address you have specified.
Alternately, if the email could not be sent, the password will be shown to you
along with an error saying that the password could not be mailed. Next, click on
the Login link (top right) and fill in the username (the email address that you
specified during registration) and the password (sent to the email address or
shown along with the error message).
Upon login, you can click on Profile link (at the top) and change the
password to your liking. If you want to present a PowerPoint presentation during
the Web meet, click on Upload link at the top. Type in a name for the Content
Name, say Presentation1. Click on Browse and select the PowerPoint file to
upload. Next click on Submit. Click on the 'Begin Meeting' link at the top. Fill
in a name and description for the meeting. From the dropdown labeled 'Meeting
Script', select Presentation1 (the Content Name that you specified while
uploading the PowerPoint file). Type in a Meeting password that would be used by
the participants to join the Web meeting. If you want to enable voice chat
during the meeting, tick the checkbox labeled VOIP. Click on Submit. After a
couple of seconds, you will see some Java pop ups. Click on Run or Yes on these
pop ups. Subsequently, you will see the WebHuddle meeting space where you can
flip through the presentation slides, show your desktop and chat with meeting
participants.
You can send emails to meeting participants with the URL to the WebHuddle
along with your email address (which you specified during registration), the
meeting room password (specified on the 'Begin Meeting' page) and the URL
'https://
click on the URL in the email, they will be shown a page with a form, which will
prompt them to enter their name, their e-mail, meeting host's email address
(given out in the email) and meeting password (given out in the email). Once
they fill up the form and click on Submit, the meeting place will also open in
front of them. The second pane on the right will show you the names of the
participants in the meeting as they join in.
Authenticating with Directory Server
We assume that you have already set up and are running the Directory Server
appliance as explained in the article 'Directory Server
Appliance.'
If you have already executed run.sh to run Webhuddle, press Control+C to stop
it. Next, open the file web.xml, found in the directory /var/webhuddle/server/default/deploy/webuddle-mysql-app.ear/webhuddle-web.war/WEB-INF,
in a text editor. Comment (disable) the param-value for
applicationContext-acegi-security.xml as:
and uncomment (enable) the param value for
LDAP as:
/WEB-INF/applicationContext-acegi-security-ldap.xml
Next open the file named applicationContext-acegi-security-ldap.xml, found in
the same directory, and replace:
Substitute
appliance. Next, replace:
with:
Comment the line
surrounding . Save the file.
Finally, create a file named webhuddle.properties in the directory /var/webhuddle/bin,
with the following lines in it:
webhuddle.property.authentication.external=true
webhuddle.property.authentication.ldap.first.name=
givenname
webhuddle.property.authentication.ldap.last.name=sn
Restart Webhuddle by issuing run.sh (as explained above) and browse to the
URL http://
the username which will be the User ID of a user in the directory server and the
corresponding password. For more info on Webhuddle, refer to the URL:
www.webhuddle.com.