Choosing a distribution

Join is shipped into 2 distributions : Join Standalone which runs out of the box; and Join WAR which is deployable as a Web Archive in any J2EE application server or servlet container.

The Join Standalone distribution is bundled with an application server (Apache Tomcat) and a database (Hypersonic SQL). It is recommended for : first-time users, evaluators, users without an already running application server.

The Join WAR distribution requires a J2EE application serveran knowledge on how to configure and use it. It is ideal for : Java veterans and users wanting to deploy onto existing application server.

Join Standalone

Requirements

System

  • Any operating system supporting J2EE 1.4+, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, AIX.
  • Web browser with cookies enabled (IE5+, Mozilla is recommended).
  • 1 GHz or higher Pentium 4, or equivalent (2.4GHz Pentium Xeon or equivalent recommended)
  • 256MB RAM minimum (512MB+ recommended)
  • 50MB of free disk space (disk usage may be greater depending on how you setup Join but 50MB is really enough for starting up).

Databases

Join is configured to run with its own embedded database. However, this is recommended only for evaluation or demonstration. To ensure your data is kept safe and consistent, we recommend production deployments using one of these external databases:

  • MySQL 5.0
  • PostgreSQL 8.1
  • Oracle 8i, 9i

Others

  • Sun JDK 1.4 and above (other 1.4+ JDKs can also be used, but require the Sun JSSE package). Download the J2SE SDK version without the Sun Java System Application Server.

Installing Standalone distribution

Step One. Installing the Java Development Kit

If you have already installed the Java Developers Kit (JDK), you may skip to Step Two. You can check this by opening a command prompt (Start -> Run -> type 'cmd' and hit enter), and then entering the following: 

echo %JAVA_HOME%

On machines on which the JDK is installed, a directory will be printed ending in jdk<VERSION>, eg C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.4.2_07 on Windows. However if it ends in jre<VERSION>, or if nothing is printed:

1. Download the JDK here and run the installer.

2. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the directory in which Java is installed.

Step Two. Downloading Join

Download the standalone bundle of Join from this page.

Step Three. Running the Setup Sizard

1. Go to your <INSTALL> directory and open <INSTALL>/join/WEB-INF/classes. Edit the file named join-init.properties and find the line 

join.home=c:/join/home

Change it to make it point to the Join home directory. The home directory is where Join will store

2. Go to <INSTALL>/tomcat/ and run the startup script. Windows users should open a command prompt and run on <INSTALL>\tomcat\startup.bat (so that they can view any error messages), while users of Unix variants run <INSTALL>/bin/startup.sh.

3. Go to your web browser and enter the address http://localhost:8080/join. The Join Setup Wizard should appear, proceed to Setting Up Join.

Join WAR

Requirements

System

  • Any operating system supporting J2EE 1.4+, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, AIX.
  • Web browser with cookies enabled (IE5+, Mozilla is recommended).
  • 1 GHz or higher Pentium 4, or equivalent (2.4GHz Pentium Xeon or equivalent recommended)
  • 256MB RAM minimum (512MB+ recommended)
  • 50MB of free disk space (disk usage may be greater depending on how you setup Join but 50MB is really enough for starting up).

Application Servers

  • Tomcat (5.0 and above)
  • JBoss (3.2 and above)
  • Resin (3.0 and above)
  • Apache Geronimo (1.0)
  • Glassfish (1.0)
  • Other J2EE compliant servers

Databases

Join is configured to run with its own embedded database. However, this is recommended only for evaluation or demonstration. To ensure your data is kept safe and consistent, we recommend production deployments using one of these external databases:

  • MySQL 5.0
  • PostgreSQL 8.1
  • Oracle 8i, 9i

Others

  • Sun JDK 1.4 and above (other 1.4+ JDKs can also be used, but require the Sun JSSE package). Download the J2SE SDK version without the Sun Java System Application Server.

Installing WAR distribution

Step One. Download and extract WAR

Download the WAR bundle of Join from this page.

Step Two. Configure join-init.properties

Step Three. Add a new context into Application Server

Step Four. Running the Setup Wizard

Go to your web browser and enter the address corresponding to the context you have created into your Application Server. The Join Setup Wizard should appear, proceed to Setting Up Join.

Setup Wizard

There are 2 ways of installing Join. Depending on the setup type you choose, continue this guide on Standard Setup documentation page or on Custom Setup page.

Screenshot: Choosing setup type

Setup types