Getting started

So, your Toolserver account has been approved. What now?

The very first thing you should do is read the rules. These are mostly common sense, but violations are taken very seriously and you may not get a second chance.

Next you need to log in with the username and SSH key you provided when requesting your account. You may also want to transfer files between your computer and the Toolserver. Your account has a 256MB disk quota by default, but this can be increased if needed.

There are two main ways to use the Toolserver: web-based tools that other people access via HTTP, and command-line tools, like bots, that you run yourself. Of course, you can create both sorts of tools if you like.

To create web based tools, place your scripts (HTML, or CGI, PHP, etc) in $HOME/public_html/, and they will be accessible from the Internet at  http:// toolserver.org/~ /. The Toolserver provides a fairly standard web server setup, but some more details are available at web hosting.

If you want to run command-line tools, you should submit them to the system using the job scheduler, which will run them on an appropriate host.

Whichever kind of tool you create, you may want to access the replicated Wikimedia databases. Database access explains how to do this; please read it carefully, since this can be complicated and is easy to do incorrectly.

Once your tools are working, you might consider moving them to a multi-maintainer project (MMP). This is a shared account that a particular tool runs under; the tool has a stable URL, and multiple users can collaborate on it. Despite the name, you can create such an account with only one maintainer (you), and add other people later if you wish. It's not a requirement that you use an MMP for your tools, but it is encouraged.

Other features the Toolserver provides:
 * Subversion repositories for users and MMPs
 * Email forwarding (username@toolserver.org)
 * An issue tracker for tracking issues with your tools. If you have an account on this wiki, you have an account on the JIRA system.

If you have any questions, there are several ways to get help with the Toolserver.