JumpBox Official Blog

Here’s the latest addition to the library, presenting: The JumpBox for Drupal 7. This is the latest point release of the popular Drupal CMS platform and they’ve made some impressive improvements to the usability of it. Other major notable enhancements include:

• Ease of Use The administration UI has been reworked to provide a much more intuitive interface for accomplishing tasks. Modules & themes can now be installed directly via remote URL.
• ScalabilityThey’ve made various optimizations to improve the performance giving you visitors faster load times and giving your site the ability to handle greater load.
• Power & Flexibility You can now add custom fields to anything and the set of most useful & commonly installed themes are included in the core download

Here’s an excellent presentation that gives a summary of the improvements in Drupal 7. Check the video below for a 7min overview of how to start building your first site using this software. We’ll cover the basics of setting a new theme, adding some content, investigating the different content types and how to install modules that extend the functionality of your CMS. When you’re ready to play use the launch widget below to launch your own private instance on EC2. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Here’s the latest addition to the library, presenting: The JumpBox for Elgg. Elgg is a social networking platform in a box – think of it like your own private, white label Facebook. It has many of the same concepts including friends, groups and an activity stream. There are a handful of widgets available for it which enable features such as:

• Blogs: write posts that are shared amongst specific groups for friends
• Twitter: integrate your Twitter account so Elgg bi-directionally aggregates your Tweets and flows Elgg posts out via your Twitter stream.
• Wire posts: post sitewide notifications that are available regardless of group membership.
• Flexible notifications: customize your email notifications so you receive update messages based on activity amongst certain groups or friends.

In this 6min video we’ll cover the basics for setting up an on-premise social network using the JumpBox for Elgg. We’ll do a basic orientation covering the fundamental concepts of friends, groups, the dashboard and changing basic configuration settings. By the end you should have what you need to get started building your own private social network for your organization.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

We’re proud to present the newest addition to the library today: The JumpBox for OpenVPN. If you have a distributed work force, are looking to offer telecommuting capabilities to your employees or simply want a solution for accessing the contents of your office network from the road, the JumpBox for OpenVPN is your answer. From the OpenVPN about page, noteworthy “S’s” of using OpenVPN include:

• Security: OpenVPN’s security model is based on using SSL/TLS for session authentication and the IPSec ESP protocol for secure tunnel transport over UDP.
• Stability: If the IP layer goes down for 5 minutes, when it comes back up, tunnel traffic will immediately resume even if the outage interfered with a dynamic key exchange which was scheduled during that time.
• Scalability: Configure a scalable, load-balanced VPN server farm using one or more machines which can handle thousands of dynamic connections from incoming VPN clients,.
• Simplicity: OpenVPN is an extensible VPN framework which has been designed to ease site-specific customization, such as providing the capability to distribute a customized installation package to clients.
• Standards: OpenVPN has been built with a strongly modular design. All of the crypto is handled by the OpenSSL library, and all of the IP tunneling functionality is provided through the TUN/TAP virtual network driver.
• Speed: OpenVPN achieved a send/receive transfer rate of 1.455 megabytes per second of CPU time running Redhat 7.2 on a Pentium II 266mhz machine, using TLS-based session authentication, the Blowfish cipher, SHA1 authentication for the tunnel data, and tunneling an FTP session with large, precompressed files.

In this 12min video we’ll use the JumpBox for OpenVPN to bridge two disparate home networks and then use VNC to take control of a remote computer across the VPN. We’ll launch the OpenVPN JumpBox on Amazon EC2 and establish a temporary cloud-based VPN to conduct remote tech support (with someone who is quite possibly the world’s least-technical person .

Having a dormant, pre-configured OpenVPN JumpBox in EC2 gives you a simple, cost-effective mechanism to deliver remote tech support on demand. This JumpBox allows you to make remote resources appear local so there are many other interesting use cases it enables. You can work along with the video by launching an instance of your own using the widget below. Enjoy!

P.S. Make sure to join us this Friday for the first ever “Study Hall” where we’ll show undocumented features and answer live Q & A from attendees. You’ll have a chance to win a free annual Pro account by attending and we’ll take the first 30 signups. Details here.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

If you’re running multiple JumpBoxes there are some compelling reasons to centralize your authentication using the JumpBox for OpenLDAP:

• Convenience for you: You’ll have just one set of users to maintain. As you add more applications and more users to each over time the number of accounts to manage multiplies and becomes unwieldily. Having a single centralized directory keeps the complexity of account maintenance in check.
• Convenience for your users: Having centralized authentication means your users need only remember one set of credentials for all systems. If they change their password it propagates across all applications so there’s no more confusion caused by having to remember different login/password combinations for each.
• Less likelihood of rogue access credentials: Since there’s only one directory to maintain you can rest assured that removing a user from that system will revoke his/her privileges across all systems. This helps reduce the risk of having legacy orphaned accounts that linger in certain systems after employees leave.

If you’re sold on the value of centralized auth let’s make it happen! The video below demonstrates the full process (20min) of how to set up OpenLDAP integration amongst three different JumpBoxes: SugarCRM, KnowledgeTree and Redmine. Each application handles LDAP slightly differently so you’re integrating other apps you’ll need to research the app-specific documentation but this demo shows how to do it for these apps. And if you want to work alongside the tutorial you can use the widgets below to launch your own private instances. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Our team has been hard at work and it’s with great pride that we announce the availability of the much-anticipated JumpBox for Asterisk. Asterisk is self-described as “the world’s most powerful and popular telephony development tool-kit.” It’s a set of building blocks that allows one to construct phone-based applications. Components can be stacked together to build rich interfaces including functionality like a:

• VoIP Gateway
• Skype Gateway
• IP PBX
• Call Center ACD
• Conference Bridge
• IVR Server
• Voicemail System
• Call Recorder
• Fax Server
• Speech Server

The JumpBox for Asterisk bundles the popular Free PBX GUI for simplified administration as well as the Sipstation plugin for the quickest possible path to get up and running. Check out the screencast below for a ten minute primer on how to use it to make your first call to a real telephone. This is one of our subscriber-only JumpBoxes but you can try it immediately without a subscription using our Cloud Gear service. No upfront fees, nothing to download or install and you pay only pennies per hour to run it as long as you need. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

StatusNet is an Open Source microblogging system that gives you Twitter-like functionality with the ability to run it behind a firewall on your network. The most noteworthy features of StatusNet include:

• Shallow learning curve: StatusNet uses many of the same concepts and syntax from Twitter so if you’re familiar with that microblogging system it should be very easy for you to transition to using this one.
• Run it securely on your network: You can run it entirely behind your corporate firewall and block access to the public Internet making it as secure as your internal network.
• Extensible: StatusNet has a plugin architecture that allows anyone to write add-ons that extend its functionality.
• Sync it with a Twitter account: It’s possible to link your StatusNet system with Twitter and have one drive the other.
• Access it via multiple methods: SMS, email, instant messenger and native desktop clients are all supported as alternative UI’s to the web interface.
• Hashtags, Search, Favorites and Groups: Various means exist for sorting, searching and tracking topics and individuals in the system giving you ultimate flexibility in how your choose to monitor information.

Twitter often is perceived with a negative stigma when talking about work productivity. But StatusNet gives you all the awareness and presence advantages of a microblogging mechanism only as a tool that you control on your terms.

In this video we’ll cover the fundamentals for getting started with the JumpBox for StatusNet. By the end of the video you’ll have what you need to be up and running with it. Enjoy!

Launch this JumpBox on Cloud Gear

Follow along with the tutorial using only your browser.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Omeka is a content management system specially designed for people who need to host a collection of digital objects. Museums, libraries and schools will find this JumpBox particularly useful as it yields a comprehensive, standards-compliant set of metadata for each item. The notable features of this system include:

• Easily skinnable: Change the look of your site with ease by installing themes.
• Extensible via plugins: Add new functionality like an exhibit wizard or a bulk uploader via the plugin system. Or write your own and contribute it to the Omeka community.
• Tiered access permissions: Assign varying levels of access to people based on what they need to see and do. Designate someone as a curator of a certain collection.
• Output formats: Make your collections discoverable and re-mixable by exposing items in JSON, RSS, XML and ATOM formats.

In this video we’ll cover the bare essentials of getting started with Omeka to make your first collection. Enjoy!

Launch this JumpBox on Cloud Gear

Follow along with the tutorial using only your browser.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Do you need to create a dynamic web site that can be maintained by multiple people in your organization? Joomla is an extremely popular Open Source content management system and is known for its intuitiveness and simplicity. It’s noteworthy features include:

• Thousands of themes and extensions: Joomla has a vibrant ecosystem of theme and plugin developers who extend the functionality of the software to do just about anything imaginable.
• Intuitive editing of content: The “edit in place” style of content management is intuitive and means that even the most non-technical folks in your organization can maintain their own web pages. This translates to less burden on IT, more real-time and accurate content with fewer errors.
• Tiered access permissions: Users can be granted varying levels of permissions to give them only the access they need. They can be merely registered to receive email, able to submit new content, able to edit existing content and able to publish content to the live site.
• Highly configurable: The system is highly customizable via the web based administration console. Page caching, search engine friendly URLs and page metadata can all be easily adjusted without having to wade through readme’s and .ini files.

In this video we’ll cover the fundamentals of working with Joomla to build a web site. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Sakai is an Open Source collaborative learning environment that contains everything necessary to deliver an effective eLeaning program. The JumpBox packages the rSmart distribution of Sakai which is a refined version of the Open source Sakai project with enhancements like additional modules and an improved user interface. Sakai can be used to deliver an entirely online learning experience or used as a supplement to traditional in-person coursework. Some of the more notable features include:

• Personal Workspace: Each user in the system has a personal dashboard that aggregates information from across all courses he or she is taking. This gives the user, whether student or teacher, a centralized view of all relevant info from calendars, assignments, digital media and other resources from their respective classes.
• Extensive built-in modules: Sakai bundles numerous modules that can be activated on a case-by-case basis for each course depending on its requirements. Chatrooms, grade book functionality, realtime virtual meetings, attendance measuring, discussion forums, wiki and dropbox features are among the many modules available.
• Portfolio Sites: Teachers and students alike can display their achievements and share their research using the Portfolio Sites feature.
• Intuitive navigation: The latest version offers an improved user experience with intuitive, context-sensitive navigation.
• Highly customizable: Sakai ships in a sensible default state but has over 400 different customizable options enabling the system admin to accommodate just about any request via the web-based configuration manager.

Work along with the video using the orange button on the Rapid Trial widget below or sign up for a free Cloud Gear account and use it beyond the hour time limit of the free trial and pay only pennies per hour. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

We have not one but four Ramp Up videos this week covering all the various deployment JumpBoxes including our newest addition, the JumpBox for Tomcat. Deployment JumpBoxes are handy tools for quickly evaluating web applications that don’t currently have their own dedicated JumpBox. They also make great development aides for software developers by enabling you to focus on building your application instead of configuring your development environment.

In Ramp Up #19 we’ll use the JumpBox for Ruby on Rails to deploy Radiant CMS.

In Ramp Up #20 we’ll deploy an instance of Wordpress Multi-User on top of the the JumpBox for LAMP.

In Ramp Up #21 we’ll deploy the Railo Coldufusion runtime environment into the JumpBox for Tomcat and then install a Coldfusion application on top of that stack.

And in Ramp Up #22 we use the JumpBox for LAPP to deploy the OpenX ad server and connect it to an underlying Postgres database.

*Tip: With each video to view at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen. As always, leave comments on this post if you have questions about any of what we cover in the videos.