Prerequisites

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In this section we will see what is needed in order to use this framework.

Prerequisites

The framework requires you develop in your local machine with a local installation of Sites. You are expected to share code and content model through a version control system.

However this is not a limitation, since you can easily install the enviroment and the JumpStartKit for development on your system.

A local instance is required

We stress here that the framework assumes you are going (and willing) to use a local installation of Sites that is unique to each developer.

It is opinion of the author that working on a shared instance is against good development practices, so the framework is assuming that you may not want to do this, but instead you prefer to work in your local machine and share changes with other through a version control system.

If your habit is developing directly on the server, on a shared development instance, using Sites Explorer and you want to keep working that way, then AgileSites is probably not fit for your way of working.

Install JumpStart Kit

The JumpStartKit (a version of Sites easy to install, with its own embedded application server and database) is available from Oracle Support to customers.

It is convenient because it does not requires too many resources and can be installed in a developer machine. It includes everything can be needed for development.

NOTE It is possible to install the full Sites in your computer for development purposes. You can install it with free Oracle XE or the free Microsoft SQLServer. It is even possible to install it with the simple, in-memory database Hypersonic SQL (note, only using version 1.8.0)

Verify Java Versions

It is important that you verify the java version used by the JumpStart Kit is the same that will be used by AgileSites.

This problem can hit you mostly on MacOSX Lion with installed Oracle Java 7 where the installer installs using the system JDK that is 1.6.

Checking which Java version are in use

Start Jump Start Kit then access the HelloCS servlet within you Sites webapp to check the version (typically you use the url http://localhost:8080/cs/HelloCS). It displays the version of Java in use.

Once done you can go to the command prompt and type: java -version and then javac -version

Both the used java version and the compiler version must match the version used by the JSK.

Fixing java versions

On Windows, if the java or javac is not found you must the variable JAVA_HOME and the PATH as described here.

A windows JDK is installed together with JSK by default in C:\Oracle\WebCenter\Sites\11gR1\windowsJDK (change accordingly your installation choices) so you use this JDK as JAVAHOME. Remeber also to the the PATH variable adding at the end of the PATH: `;"%JAVAHOME\bin"`

On Mac, you need to edit the file ~/.bash_profile followinging these directions. Then you should also fix the path adding export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin":$PATH

On Linux the solution is the same as the Mac solution except that the actual location of your JDK depends on your distribution (and there are many of them), so definitely you have to figure out by yourself where java is installed.

NOTE Be aware that changing the Java Home may affect other applications relying on Java.

Go on with the installation

Once you installed Sites, follows the installation procedure to install AgileSites. You do not require the installation of the demo site, although it is convenient to have it installed during development.

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