| Affiliation: | Ontopia AS |
|---|---|
| Date: | $Date: 2002/12/04 12:20:49 $ |
| Version: | 1.4 ($Revision: 1.22 $) |
| |
This is a guide to installing and getting started with using the free download version of the Ontopia Omnigator. It describes how to install and start using the 1.4 release of the Omnigator.
This release has been tested with the Java 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.3.1 and 1.4 on Windows 98, Windows 2000, RedHat Linux 7.0, SuSE Linux 7.1, Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 and Solaris SunOS 5.7. Version 1.2.2 of the JSDK is known not to work in some situations. There should be no platform dependencies in the code, so the software should also run on other systems, though this has not been verified.
Requirements:
Java 2 Software Development Kit (SDK), Version 1.3.1 or greater
The first step in the installation is to run the installer, which you have presumably already done, since you are reading this document. The directory that you chose to install in will be referred to in this document as the basedir.
The Ontopia Omnigator is a client-server application. On the client side it is a browser or navigator for topic maps, designed for use through a Web browser. On the server-side there is a J2EE web application which is built using the Navigator Framework architecture.
To learn more about the navigator see the document Ontopia Omnigator - User's Guide, which can be found in ${basedir}/doc/userguide.html.
Try out the navigator by following these steps:
Locate the ${basedir}/jakarta-tomcat/bin directory in Windows Explorer.
Double-click on the startup.bat file.
(Note that you may have to extend the memory environment settings for this batch-script. A predefined .pif file is included, so this should not normally be a problem.)
Change directory to ${basedir}/jakarta-tomcat.
Execute the bin/startup.sh script.
After starting the server you may have to wait for a minute or two before the server is ready for you to connect to it.
If the application server fails to start correctly you may have to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the directory where the Java Runtime Environment is installed. This can be done either at the command-line before running the tomcat startup script, or by editing the script to insert a line setting it. (The following section explains how to do this on Windows.)
This section explains how to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable on Windows. If you don't need this information you can just skip to the next section.
If you start tomcat from the command-line you can give the command set JAVA_HOME=c:\path\to\java before starting the application server. Please replace c:\path\to\java with the path to your Java installation (for example c:\jdk1.3.1_01), make sure that you have not accidentally put the bin sub directory into the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Note that if you use this approach you must start the server from the command-line. The environment change won't be visible to the Windows Explorer.
On Windows NT and Windows 2000 you can also go into the control panel, select 'System', then click the 'Advanced' tab, then click 'Environment variables'. This gives you a window where you can enter a new environment variable named 'JAVA_HOME', the value of which must be the directory where you installed Java.
On Windows 95/98/ME you can also edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the root directory of your startup drive (usually C:) and insert a line like the following into it: set JAVA_HOME=c:\path\to\java. You will then need to reboot your computer before the change takes effect.
Open a web browser window and point it to: http://localhost:8080/omnigator/
The first time you're accessing a topic map it may take some time since the web application server needs to load the topic map and index it.
If you are able to see the Omnigator front page then the installation is successful. Congratulations! If you do not see it, and repeated attempts fail, please send an email to support@ontopia.net.
Internet Explorer Users: Please note that IE 5.0 may not be able to connect to the application server if you are working 'Offline'.
Change directory to ${basedir}/jakarta-tomcat.
Execute the bin/shutdown.sh script.
This section contains answers to frequently asked questions about the Ontopia Knowledge Suite.
There are two things you can do. If you've created an icon to start the server you can go into the properties of the icon, under the "Program" tab, and unset the "Close on exit" option. This will make the window stay around after the server exits, and give you time to read any error messages that may appear. (If you're just starting it by double-clicking startup.bat, then either make an icon and set it up as described above, or try the option below.)
The other approach is to change the startup.bat so that the line near that end that now reads:
call "%EXECUTABLE%" start %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
is changed to:
call "%EXECUTABLE%" run %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
This will keep Tomcat from opening a new window, so if you run startup.bat from the command-line you should get the error messages there.
The server log is in ${OKS_HOME}/jakarta-tomcat/logs/localhost_log.<date>.txt, and it is likely to contain much detail information on errors. You can try to decipher this file to find the cause of the problem, or if that is difficult, you can just send the file to us, and we will try to help. Note that if the file doesn't exist it means the server has been unable to start and you should try one of the two options above to find out why.
This is a feature we plan to add to the Omnigator as soon as one of our users asks for it. So far nobody has, but if you want it, please send us an email about it.
No, seriously, all you need to do is to remove the ${OKS_HOME} directory that you installed it into, and all trace of the Omnigator will be gone. It doesn't install anything anywhere else on your computer.