The project operates a web service for public and administrative access to the database, for storage and deployment of project documentation, and for project communications. This page documents a previous version of that service.
The web server is the Apache HTTP server provided as part of the server operating system.
The main configuration file is in the standard location, "/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf". The distributed-configuration method of per-directory configuration overriding (with the AllowOverride directive) is disabled, as recommended by Apache.
The SSL module is loaded. Some directories are configured for SSL-only access in the main configuration file, so all traffic involving them is encrypted. SSL uses the RSA private key file in the standard location, "/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key". The file is unencrypted, so that when the Apache server is started on the booting of the host the manager does not need to enter a pass phrase in order to enable SSL. For the security of the private key, the file is accessible only by root.
The project’s main website is panlex.org. The host also hosts some other project-related sites, by means of Apache’s name-based virtual hosting. See the main configuration file.
In addition to the web service operated on the project’s server host, the we use externally hosted web services for specific purposes.
For access to the project’s archive of files (approver files, content-processing tools, and database dumps), we use a remote storage system with the URL “panlex.net”.
Our provider of Internet access, Sonic.net, includes in its service a web service for customer use. At present it is not in production use for the project, but the project director is testing its capabilities for a general website and blogging platform. If put to use for the project, it will be assigned the IP address 209.204.175.65 and whatever URL the project selects and registers for it. Its name-service configuration will be maintained at https://members.sonic.net under Web Sites/Domain Names: Nameservers: Modify Host Records. The configuration (with “xyz.tld” representing the URL) will be:
xyz.tld. 7200 IN SOA ns1.sonic.net. hostmaster.sonic.net. 2005080101 3600 300 1209600 3600 xyz.tld. 7200 IN A 209.204.175.65 xyz.tld. 7200 IN NS a.auth-ns.sonic.net. xyz.tld. 7200 IN NS b.auth-ns.sonic.net. xyz.tld. 7200 IN NS c.auth-ns.sonic.net. xyz.tld. 7200 IN MX 10 mailin-01.mx.sonic.net. xyz.tld. 7200 IN MX 10 mailin-02.mx.sonic.net. www.xyz.tld. 7200 IN CNAME xyz.tld. ftp.xyz.tld. 7200 IN CNAME ftp.sonic.net.
We use Namecheap as registrar for the domain names of our internal and external websites. Namecheap also provides the name services required for those domains. Configuration of those name services is performed with Namecheap’s “All Host Records” panel. Each domain name’s configuration includes at least 2 records: an A record with host name "@" and IP address 71.216.5.118, and a CNAME record with host name "www" and a URL equal to the unqualified domain name (e.g., "panlex.net").
