XUI: Extensible User Interface Framework

Setting up the Jakarta-Tomcat environment

Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed by Sun under the Java Community Process. Tomcat is developed in an open and participatory environment and released under the Apache Software License.

Tomcat Directories

Throughout this documentation, you will notice references to $TOMCAT_HOME which simply represents the root of your Tomcat installation. So, when we say, $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/, this means the folder "conf" under the root of your Tomcat install.

In the same token, we will also refer to $APP_NAME which simply represents the name of your application. For example, when we say $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/$APP_NAME, this refers to your application folder regardless of the name.

For the complete description of the Tomcat distribution, each folder can be found in the Tomcat README.txt file, residing in the root directory of your Tomcat installation. Below are the directories that you will be spending the majority of your time.

/bin - Startup, shutdown, and other scripts. The *.sh files (for Unix systems) are functional duplicates of the *.bat files (for Windows systems). Since the Win32 command-line lacks certain functionality, there are some additional files in here.
/conf - Configuration files and related DTDs. The most important file in here is server.xml. It is the main configuration file for the container.
/logs - Log files are here by default.
/webapps - This is where your webapps go.

Installing Tomcat

It is assumed that at this point that you have already installed the latest version of the J2EE or J2SE SDK. If you have not done so, please refer to the instructions in installing and configuring your Java Environment.

NOTE: Downloading the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) instead is *not* sufficient for most users because Tomcat uses the javac.exe that is not present in the JRE to compile JSP pages. Unless you are *very* sure of what you are doing, please use the full SDK.

Download a binary distribution of Tomcat from: http://jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-tomcat-4.0/nightly/
For Windows platform, select and download the .exe file (for example 4.1.31.exe)
Save this file in a convenient location and navigate to this directory where you are ready to install.
Double click the .exe file to start the installation program.
Follow the instructions on the wizard screens of the installation program.

Starting up Tomcat

There are three ways by which Tomcat can be started:

1. Via an environment variable:
- Set an environment variable CATALINA_HOME to the path of the directory into which you have installed Tomcat.
- Execute the shell command: %CATALINA_HOME%\bin\startup

2. By modifying your current working directory:
- Execute the following shell commands:

> cd %CATALINA_HOME%\bin
> startup

3. From Windows Start button, select Start > All Programs > Apache Tomcat > Startup

After startup, the default web applications included with Tomcat 4.0 will be
available by browsing:

http://localhost:8080/

If you see the Apache Jakarta Tomcat homepage on your browser, then installation is successful and complete. You are now ready to install and configure XUI.

Back to: Application Guide