Try WebHuddle for Web meeting

BANGALORE, INDIA: 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://:8080/. Substitute with the IP address of the appliance. Click on Accept, 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://:8443/enterroom.do?action=setToken.' When participants 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:

Next open the file named applicationContext-acegi-security-ldap.xml, found in the same directory, and replace: with ” />

Substitute with the IP address of the Directory Server appliance. Next, replace: ou= people,dc=mycompany,dc=com with: dc=pcquest,dc=net

Comment the line (mail={0}) as: and uncomment the line (uid={0}) by removing the 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:// :8080/. Click on the Login link (top right) and fill in 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.