Quick start for developers

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Note
title Document Purpose
If you only want to test OpenSyllabus, you can download a bundle that includes a Tomcat instance configured with Sakai and OpenSyllabus.

This tutorial will show you how to load the OpenSyllabus project into Eclipse.

Anchor
Installation Installation

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Installation and deployment of OpenSyllabus with Sakai 2.4/2.5 and GWT 1.5

1) First of all, a working installation of Sakai 2.4 or 2.5 is mandatory prior to install OpenSyllabus but at this time, OSYL is not synchronized with Sakai 2.5 trunk, thus you will need to download a bundle corresponding to a specific snapshot of Sakai 2.5 (see below).

That said, if you never have installed the Sakai Development Environment, you should read and follow the instructions at the following address. This will allow you to install and configure Subversion, Maven, Eclipse and Tomcat.

Tip
title Installation of Sakai 2.5 Development Environment
see http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/BOOT/Development+Environment+Setup+Walkthrough)

2) Next, using Subversion (SVN), perform a checkout of osyl (backend code) and osyl-core-gwt (frontend code) to the local Sakai repository. It will be available at this address : get the OpenSyllabus source-code

The OpenSyllabus source code is not yet available from a Subversion repository but here is how to download it as an archive.

svn://<coming soon>/opensyllabus/contrib/sakai/sakai-opensyllabus/trunk

OR

Unzip a special Sakai 2.5 archive ("le zip de Tom") and this OpenSyllabus archive in your local Sakai repository

Tip
title Checkout the Download OpenSyllabus source code with Subversion
Download the 2 following zip archives: osyl-sakai-src-alpha.zip (36 MB) and osyl-src-alpha.zip (2 MB). Extract  osyl-sakai-src-alpha.zip first, it will create a folder osyl-sakai25 then extract osyl-src-alpha.zip in that folder.

3) You also need to install the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) library on your PC.

Tip
title Download GWT
It GWT library is available here: http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/download.html. GWT version 1.5.1+ 2 (shipping release) is mandatory.

4) Create an environment variable called GWT_HOME which is pointing

The GWT_HOME environment variable must point to your GWT installation directory.

Considering <path>, the path to the GWT installation directory

Tip
title Create GWT_HOME environment variable
Considering <path>, the path to the GWT installation directory Windows: Via the Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> New and type GWT_HOME and the <path> in the appropriate fields Linux (Bourne, Bash, and related shells): export GWT_HOME=<path>

5) Next, get and install the google-web-toolkit-incubator library
In fact, OSYL uses some UI components (i.e. Calendar) from the GWT incubator library.
Look at this library to find some more cool GWT components.
This JAR is compatible with jvm 1.5+ and GWT version 1.5.1+ 2 is mandatory.

Tip
title Install the google-web-toolkit-incubator
GWT incubator library can be download from here Put the gwt-incubator_1-4_final.jar into your GWT base directory (i.e. GWT_HOME)

6) Install the Sakai's properties file into TOMCAT subdirectory

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title	Install Sakai's properties file

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Don't forget to put a copy of the gwt-user.jar into the TOMCAT shared/lib directory

Considering <GWT_HOME>, the path to the

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GWT installation directory

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Considering <TOMCAT_HOME>

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title	Check and Edit Sakai's properties file

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, the path to the TOMCAT installation directory

Tip
title Put a copy of the gwt-user library into TOMCAT shared
<GWT_HOME>/gwt-user.jar into <TOMCAT_HOME>/shared/lib

7) Next, you have to compile the JCR module first

Considering <SAKAI_HOME>, the path to the Sakai installation directory (osyl-sakai25 in our case)
Use this MAVEN command from the Sakai's base directory (i.e. <SAKAI_HOME>)

Tip
title Compile the JCR module
Considering <SAKAI_HOME>, the path to the Sakai installation directory cd <SAKAI_HOME> cd jcr mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

8) Then compile and deploy Sakai for the first time with this command :

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Considering <TOMCAT_HOME>, the path to the TOMCAT installation directory

Tip
title Compile the Sakai project
cd .. mvn clean install sakai:deploy -Pmini -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Dmaven.tomcat.home=<TOMCAT_HOME>

9) For subsequent compilations and deployment, you can use this command :

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Considering <TOMCAT_HOME>, the path to the TOMCAT installation directory

Tip
title Further compilation of the Sakai project
mvn install sakai:deploy -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Dmaven.tomcat.home=<TOMCAT_HOME>

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Let's have a look at the OpenSyllabus code structure.

• Sakai Source Code Structure
  • osyl-core-gwt (Frontend project (GWT code)
    • client
    • public
    • shared
  • osyl (Backend project (Sakai's , ie OSYL-Sakai tool code)
    • api dir
    • impl dir
    • tool dir

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We've found 3 possible use cases:

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Use case A - client update only

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In "Hosted Mode", a JVM executes the GWT code as Java bytecode inside a special embedded browser window (before your Java code having been translated into JavaScript).

 
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Running GWT Webapp in "Hosted Mode" makes debugging easy following a standard edit-run-debug cycle

• Edit your source
• Refresh
• Check the results

  Tip
  title To launch a hosted mode session with OpenSyllabus from Eclipse
  Your startup file is OsylEditorEntryPoint-shell.cmd (select it, right-click on it + Open With + Default Editor). It should launch a program from the console.

Deployment in Web Mode

Once tested in "Hosted Mode", you can compile your Java source code to JavaScript the and deploy your Webapp. GWT Webapp that has been deployed is also said to be running in "Web Mode".

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