OpenSkedge

Deployment on a Local, VPS/Cloud, or Dedicated host

Requirements

1. Nginx, Apache, or another web server on *nix/BSD with rewrite functionality. May work on Windows and Mac, but has not been tested and is not supported.
   • Nginx users, see this wiki article for setup.
   • Apache users, point your document root to web/. The .htaccess should take care of everything.
2. PHP 5.3.10+ (Tested on 5.3.10, 5.3.18, and 5.4.6)
3. PDO-supported database. MySQL/MariaDB suggested.
4. Composer for installing dependencies
5. (optional) Memcached and PHP memcache extension.

Installation

1. Run php app/check.php and resolve any errors before doing ANYTHING else.
2. Run cp app/config/parameters.yml.dist app/config/parameters.yml
   • sender_email is the email address of the automated email account you want to use.
   • secret is used for CSRF validation. Set this to some random characters. An ideal value would be a random sha256 hash.
   • The rest of the settings should be pretty self-explainatory.
3. Setup permissions. This will require ACL support of some kind on your file system. Replace www-data with your web server user.
   • If under a host that supports chmod +a:

     $ rm -rf app/cache/*
     $ rm -rf app/logs/*
     $ sudo chmod +a "www-data allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs
     $ sudo chmod +a "`whoami` allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs

   • If under a host that does not, enable ACL support on the filesystem and run the following:

     $ sudo setfacl -R -m u:www-data:rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs
     $ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:www-data:rwx -m u:`whoami`:rwx app/cache app/logs

   • If none of the above are available options, add umask(0002); to the beginning of app/console, web/app.php, and web/app_dev.php
4. Run php composer.phar install --prefer-dist
5. Run php app/console doctrine:database:create if you have not already created a database for OpenSkedge.
6. Run php app/console doctrine:schema:update --force
7. Run php app/console doctrine:fixtures:load to bootstrap the application with some needed information (groups) and a default admin account with the username admin and the password admin.
8. Run php app/console --env=prod cache:clear to clear and warmup the application's cache. prod should be replaced with dev if you're running in a development environment.
9. Run php app/console --env=prod assets:install to install Assetic assets into the web root. prod should be replaced with dev if you're running in a development environment.
10. Navigate to the OpenSkedge installation in a browser, login as the bootstrapped admin and change the password.
11. Add employees, areas, positions, and schedule periods and get to scheduling!

Upgrading

1. Run git pull to fetch the latest changes to OpenSkedge. If you've made changes to OpenSkedge, you'll either want to stash them or commit them and use git pull --rebase.
2. Run php composer.phar install
3. Run by using php app/console doctrine:migrations:migrate. NOTE: Only supports MySQL. This should be pretty safe but if issues occur, you should be able to roll back by migrating down. That said, it's probably best to test the migration on your development server before pushing it to production. Read more about using migrations at the Doctrine project's docs.
   • If you're on a database other than MySQL such as PostgreSQL, you'll have to adapt the migrations yourself, or risk potential data loss and/or application breakage by running php app/console doctrine:schema:update --force.
4. Run php app/console --env=prod cache:clear to clear and warmup the application's cache. prod should be replaced with dev if you're running in a development environment.
5. Run php app/console --env=prod assets:install to install Assetic assets into the web root. prod should be replaced with dev if you're running in a development environment.

Background Worker / cron jobs

OpenSkedge depends on the use of a background worker or cron jobs to handle things like checking for late employees, archiving time clock records, and dispatching spooled emails.

Running the background worker

This is a naive background worker process using a long-running PHP-CLI process. Historically, PHP has had issues with memory leaks when running for long periods of time, so you may want to either recycle this periodically (using something like supervisord) or opt for using cron.

php app/console openskedge:worker:run - Checks for late employees, prunes old time clock records, and dispatches spooled emails every 10 minutes

Commands for cron

If you're concerned about memory usage with the background worker or need more flexibility in scheduling background tasks, you can also run a few commands on their own & schedule them as cron jobs.

php app/console --no-interaction openskedge:clock:check-late - Checks for late employees

php app/console --no-interaction openskedge:clock:prune - Prunes old time clock records (configured in OpenSkedge settings)

php app/console --no-interaction swiftmailer:spool:send - Dispatches spooled emails. Only needed if Swiftmailer is setup to spool emails (default).

FAQ

What is OpenSkedge?

OpenSkedge is a reinvention of Employee Scheduler, a flexible employee scheduling application designed for companies and organizations (such as education institutions with student workers) which require fluid shift scheduling.

What is OpenSkedge not?

OpenSkedge is not a general purpose, or a one-stop everything-but-the-kitchen-sink scheduling application. It's for assigning positions to people at certain times during certain time periods that they have marked themselves available. It won't schedule your meetings.

Who is behind OpenSkedge?

Max Fierke, a developer and student at the University of Minnesota. He does a lot of other stuff too. He created OpenSkedge during his freshman year. He also has a site you can go to.

License and Copyright

License

OpenSkedge, technically a derivative work of Employee Scheduler, is available under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. See src/OpenSkedge/AppBundle/Resources/meta/LICENSE for more details.

Authors and Contributors

• Copyright 2012-2013 Max Fierke (@maxfierke)
• Copyright 2003 Brigham Young University (For the bits of Employee Scheduler present)

Projects that OpenSkedge uses

• Twitter Bootstrap by @twitter
• TODC Bootstrap by @todc
• TODC Datepicker by @todc
• Colorpicker for Bootstrap by Stefan Petre
• TableSorter by @lovepeacenukes
• Symfony 2.2, Doctrine and dependencies specified in composer.json

Thanks to the following Employee Scheduler developers

• John Finlay (Developer of Employee Scheduler)
• Carl Allen (Developed time clock functionality for the UofMN with Joe Krall)
• Joe Krall (Developed time clock functionality for the UofMN with Carl Allen)

Contact

Max Fierke
Homepage: www.maxfierke.com
Twitter: @m4xm4n
Github: @maxfierke