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Installation

Setting up a T-ACE Client

If there is already a running T-ACE database server, there is not much to do to set up a T-ACE client. At first TCL/TK 8.5 or higher should be installed. The easiest way to do this is to use an ActiveState package; it contains already most necessary additional TCL packages. The additional packages are listed in the Required Software section below.
When TCL is installed, just download T-ACE from this website and extract it to any convenient directory. Then just double-click on the T-ACE.tcl file in the T-ACE folder and the client interface should open.
To set up the connection to the T-ACE database server open the 'Database connection' in the config menu.
It is also recommended to install additional software like NCBI-Blast+, Phobos and Primer3; otherwise some T-ACE features will not be working. Look in the Required software section below for specifications.

Setting up a T-ACE database server

To set up a T-ACE database server a PostgreSQL server is necessary. The additional software pgAdmin3 should also be installed for an easier handling of the Postgres database. The 'pg_hba.conf' file should be edited to use md5 for password checks:

# IPv6 local connections:
# TYPEDATABASEUSERCIDR-ADDRESSMETHOD
Hosttace_parentdbtace_user0.0.0.0/0md5

This would allow the user 'tace_user' to access the database 'tace_parentdb' from anywhere in the internet. Change the CIDR-ADDRESS to limit the access further.
Then an Apache web server is needed to allow external T-ACE clients the access to the Postgres database. An external T-ACE client will access the Postgres database through a php script which runs on the Apache server, so make sure that php scripts can be executed correctly on the server.
Now TCL/TK and T-ACE can be installed. For this, look here. But there is one difference, the additional TCL package Pgtcl is needed to use the T-ACE_DB_manager.
When T-ACE is extracted, copy the T-ACE.php into the /htdocs folder of the Apache web server. To set up the T-ACE parent database, functions and login roles follow the instructions in the T- ACE_DB_manager. When this is done the first T-ACE transcriptome database can be created, for this look here.
Additionally wwwblast should be installed on an apache server, but it does not need to run on the same machine as the Postgres server. Then blast databases of the T-ACE databases have to be copied to the /db directory of blast server and added to the blast.rc file, otherwise the blast function of T- ACE will not work.

Different T-ACE versions

T-ACE:
This version accesses the Postgres database through a php script, which has to run on the database server.
Pgtcl is not needed for running the T-ACE client.

T-ACEpg:
This version accesses the Postgres database directly. For this version the Pgtcl package is needed. It should only be used for local database access.

The T-ACE_DB_Manager is the same for both versions it always accesses the database directly and therefore needs the Pgtcl package.

After the required software is installed the T-ACE.tcl and T-ACE_DB_Manager.tcl should be executable. Start with the T-ACE_DB_Manager to create a parentDB.

Required software

All following programs are optional, but some features of T-ACE depend on these programs and will not be executable if they are not installed.