Re: unable to find ofbiz jar file

[Jacques Le Roux]

Hi Matt,

Inline...

From: "Matt Warnock" <[hidden email]>

>I don't use Chrome, so I haven't seen the issue.  Looks fine in Firefox,
> IE and Opera, though.  Good work.
>
> What follows is perhaps slightly off-topic, but you *asked* for other
> opinions.  BTW, when I lived in France, I was often told that whenever
> two French men are gathered, you will find at least three opinions.  I
> have offered several more than my quota under that rule.  Mais, "tant
> pis."  ;)
>
> I would like to see the install stuff streamlined and simplified for us
> newbies.  I am pretty computer-literate (or I've thought since about
> 1980) but I am new to Java as well as OFBiz, so there is a lot of stuff
> here that was completely foreign to me when I started.  We need to
> minimize the pain of getting started where we can.
>
> I don't think we can fix "./ant" vs "ant", since Windows doesn't allow
> the "./ant" syntax, and Unix pretty much requires it.  This problem bit
> me early on, like after my first attempted upgrade, and I didn't have a
> clue why I was suddenly getting a cascade of weird build errors.
>
> But perhaps we could put a test in build.xml that requires a certain
> version of ant and complains unless it gets exactly that.  It could then
> say something like:
>
> You are running ant version x.xx, but version y.yy is required.  The
> correct version of ant is provided in the OFBiz root directory. Make
> sure you are in that directory, and then (unless you are in Windows)
> type "./ant <target>" instead of just "ant <target>".
>
> The README should probably also explain that only Sun/Oracle Java works,
> so stay away from the other flavors of Java.  I tried to run it under
> openJDK, and failed miserably.  It should also explain that Java 6 means
> 1.6, Java 5 means 1.5, and you need the full JDK, not just the JRE. It
> seems like there are lots of names (Java EE, Glassfish, other options)
> for what a newbie really needs, so maybe even a direct URL to download
> would help.

There has been already a such effort in trunk, please see macro.xml. If you want to improve I'd suggest a Jira+patch (same for
README)

> I run mostly Debian and Ubuntu (used to be a RedHat guy in the days
> before Fedora), and the rc.ofbiz.for.debian has never worked on any
> machine I have tried, so I have rolled my own.  Perhaps it is just out
> of date, or assumes that you want to log to console (which seems
> contrary to my notions of an rc.local file).  Nor have I seen an actual

I wrote the  rc.ofbiz.for.debian and yes it's maybe outdated. Feel free to contribute your improvements

> Debian/Ubuntu package in any "standard" D/U repository, though the build
> stuff seems to be there to make them.  But I think compiling from source
> is as good or better for OFBiz, even for newbies.
> But I really see no need for a separate Debian version anyway.  The
> Redhat version sources a couple of script files that won't exist on
> Debian, but those functions we actually use (or quick and dirty
> substitutes for them) can be handled with an alias statement or two
> under bash, or an environment variable (as we do with $JAVA now).  In
> addition to "start", "stop" and "restart", we could include targets like
> "debug", "svninfo", "backup" or whatever else might be helpful to the
> community.  I'd be happy to work on a more universal rc.script if the
> community feels that might be helpful.

This is Adam's, I never looked at it closely

> I find "./ant run-install" and its related family of build targets
> confusing to newbies.  While "run" does about what I would expect it to,
> "run-install" doesn't run ofbiz at all, it just installs the demo data,
> and "run-install-seed" does LESS than "run-install", not more.  People
> who know "ant" may know that "ant -p" gives help on targets, but newbies
> like me don't. If I ruled the world (which, sadly :), I don't), the
> targets might look something like this:
>
> (the default target would be "help", not "build")
> help -> give quick help on ant/ofbiz building
> ant is the build tool (like "make") for Java
> use the local version (./ant on Unix, cd $OFBHOME on windows)?
> popular targets include xyz, for a complete list "ant -p"
> this help should NOT include the version test suggested above
> test test for correct versions of ant, Sun Java
> this should be done before any real building is done

Typing only ant is very convenient in every day work. I don't know what others think, opininons?

> clean-all -> should work through the entity-engine (to be db-agnostic)?
> but maybe it should confirm before destroying a production DB?
> build -> build all the code for ofbiz.jar (as it does now)
> run -> run ofbiz in foreground, showing console log,
> using preferred/suggested memory settings, options, etc
> install -> configure/install /etc/init.d/ofbiz to run as daemon
> Daemon should log to files or syslog, not console
> uninstall -> remove scripts created by install
> admin-user -> install the admin user only
> data-seed -> install only seed data
> data-demo -> install only demo data (assume seed is already there)
> data-ext -> install only external data (or tell how to create it)
> demo -> build, data-seed, admin-user, data-demo, run (don't install)
> maybe end by telling them where to point their browser
>
> Just some thoughts as an all-too-recent, and still, newbie.

Thank for them, it's good to share, but please use rather the OFBiz ML, it's a community and *we* need to share.

Jacques

> Matt Warnock <[hidden email]>
> RidgeCrest Herbals, Inc.
>
> On Thu, 2010-09-16 at 21:53 +0200, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>> From: "Matt Warnock" <[hidden email]>
>> > The new info on the download page is great, good job Ruth and others!
>> >
>> > My only comment is that in the right-side panel, it suggests running
>> > "ant run-install", which is ONLY right for Windows.  I am pretty sure
>> > that on any Unix-derived system this command should always take the form
>> > "./ant run-install".  We should try to get newbies (like me) into that
>> > habit right away.
>>
>> Good point Matt, I will fix that, any ideas about the Chrome issue?
>>
>>
>> > We should also perhaps explain that "run-install" only installs, it
>> > doesn't run, so you still need to choose from "java -jar ofbiz.jar",
>> > "./ant run", or better yet "startofbiz.bat" or startofbiz.sh.
>>
>> Right
>>
>> > Perhaps a better approach is to just say "Follow the instructions in the
>> > README file", which covers all of these topics and then some.
>>
>> Yes indeed, other opinions?
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>> > --
>> > Matt Warnock <[hidden email]>
>> > RidgeCrest Herbals, Inc.
>> >
>> > On Thu, 2010-09-16 at 08:45 -0700, BJ Freeman wrote:
>> >> http://ofbiz.apache.org/download.html
>> >> and excellent job.
>> >>
>> >> pankaj savita sent the following on 9/16/2010 8:19 AM:
>> >> > Hi Umesh,
>> >> >
>> >> > I also faced the same condition, when I took checkout of ofbiz10.04.
>> >> > I run command ofbiz10.04>ant run-install
>> >> > if it Build Successfully, You will get the ofbiz.jar file in path "*
>> >> > ofbiz10.04/framework/start/lib/ofbiz.jar*"
>> >> > Copy the ofbiz.jar file from here to path "*Ofbiz10.04/*"
>> >> > Now run command ofbiz10.04>java -Xms128M -Xmx512M -jar ofbiz.jar
>> >> > It will deploy ofbiz&  start server.
>> >> >
>> >> > I hope this could help you.
>> >> >
>> >
>

[Adam Heath-2]

Jacques Le Roux wrote:

> Hi Matt,
>> Debian/Ubuntu package in any "standard" D/U repository, though the build
>> stuff seems to be there to make them.  But I think compiling from source
>> is as good or better for OFBiz, even for newbies.
>> But I really see no need for a separate Debian version anyway.  The
>> Redhat version sources a couple of script files that won't exist on
>> Debian, but those functions we actually use (or quick and dirty
>> substitutes for them) can be handled with an alias statement or two
>> under bash, or an environment variable (as we do with $JAVA now).  In
>> addition to "start", "stop" and "restart", we could include targets like
>> "debug", "svninfo", "backup" or whatever else might be helpful to the
>> community.  I'd be happy to work on a more universal rc.script if the
>> community feels that might be helpful.
>
> This is Adam's, I never looked at it closely

The stuff in debian makes it a proper install.  It uses
dbconfig-common, debconf, puts stuff in /etc/ofbiz, /var/lib/ofbiz,
/var/log/ofbiz, /usr/share/ofbiz, always updates seed data each time
it is upgraded, uses dpkg triggers to support extension packages.  The
package also does not install the source files(*.java), nor test code,
as that's not required for a production server.