[CompStrm Wiki] how do you get started?

[Bill la F. <laf...@ya...>]

How do you get started on a new project?
   
  AgileWiki is an interesting project, and it has attracted a number of developers. But there are no doubt some difficulties getting started. Where do you begin?
   
  1. You need J2SE 1.5. 
   
  Yes, the servlet uses 1.4, but lets ignore the servlet to begin with.
   
  2. Start with the download.
   
  It is a big download, but it includes the javadocs. There are some README.txt files in the top 2 levels of directories. The talk about how to run AgileWiki.
   
  Each sub directory is a NetBeans project. Right now we're only interested in the dist directories.
   
  3. Just run it.
   
  In the top level directory, there are 3 bat scripts. Start the rmiregistry first. Then the AwServer. And finally the AwSwingClient.
   
  Try the help command. 
   
  4. register
   
  Use the register command to create a user. This is your system, so use AdMin for your user name. Next time you use the swing client, you can use the login command.
   
  Once you're logged in, try the help command. You will note that there are a few more commands than before you logged in. (Still not very many.)
   
  5. Then what?
   
  Play with it. Ask questions. It will take a while to get oriented--the GUI's in pretty bad shape at the moment and is really only good for testing.
   
  6. Next step is to begin experimenting with the code. If you use NetBeans, things will be easier. You can just open the AwServer project by entering its pathname. The open the project properties and go to the libraries. You may be using a different version of Java than I am, so you will need to select the platform you've installed on your system.
   
  7. Where do you start? 
   
  This one is easy. Start with the data moving between AwSwingClient and AwServer. In the AwServer project, open org.agilewiki.framework.Portal. This is the (ONLY!) code in the server that talks with the clients. The clients use RMI to call the processClientRequest method.
   
  Add this line at the beginning of processClientRequest to print the requests from the client:
      System.out.println(requestDoc);
   
  Add this line just before the return statement at the end of processClientRequest to see what the server sends back to the client:
      System.out.println(response);
   
  8. Play with it. Ask questions. Have fun.
   
  Well, I hope this helped some. Getting started is never easy.
   
  Bill

				
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