Hippo CMS and PostgreSQL - The Setup

The original instructions on the Hippo site are somewhat outdated. Moreover, the linked blog post is currently down but archive.org still has a copy:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101026204317/http://gotext.org/people/bluesman/en/2009/10/english-configuring-hippo-7-for-postgresql-and-tomcat/

Most of the instructions are still relevant but it's probably unnecessary to install HST 2, so the first step can be skipped.

The instructions starting at “Go to _your-project-dir/cms/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF…” _are still correct, however in the repository.xml the section

<Security appName="Jackrabbit">
<AccessManager class="org.hippoecm.repository.security.HippoAccessManager"/>
<LoginModule class="org.hippoecm.repository.security.HippoLoginModule"/>
</Security>

now has to be

<Security appName="Jackrabbit">
<SecurityManager class="org.hippoecm.repository.security.SecurityManager"/>
<AccessManager class="org.hippoecm.repository.security.HippoAccessManager"/>
<LoginModule class="org.hippoecm.repository.security.HippoLoginModule"/>
</Security>

because of an upgrade. Note the new SecurityManager tag. You otherwise get

java.lang.ClassCastException:
org.apache.jackrabbit.core.security.simple.SimpleSecurityManager cannot be
cast to org.hippoecm.repository.security.SecurityManager

As for step three, it's now unnecesary to copy around any jar files.

Simply add a dependency in <cms_root>/cms/pom.xml like so:

<dependency>
<groupId>postgresql</groupId>
<artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
<version>9.1-901.jdbc4</version>
</dependency>

Then run

mvn clean install

and enjoy a scalable and flexible backend for your Hippo CMS.

Posted: 18 October 2012