Techstrike Setup

Welcome to Techstrike!

Now the bad news:
Unless you are already familiar with the majority of the material/tools/methodologies used within the Techstrike project, be prepared for a very steep learning curve. Although nothing would make me happier than to make this information easy to learn and apply, that unfortunately is not the case. Naturally as the project progresses sections will be segmented off, giving more leeway to specific knowledge. But at the moment, an
encompassing, general knowledge is best (I am earning some of these technologies for the first time myself, although I am lucky enough to work with some of them professionally).

Minimum Knowledge:
Java/J2EE
Design Patterns (specifically: DAO,MVC,Abstract Factory)
Struts
Apache Tomcat (setup, administration)
mySQL (setup, manipulation (SQL))
JUnit
SSH and CVS

Nice-to-Have Knowledge:
Tags
JSP/HTML/etc.
Apache Tomcat (more extensive knowledge... such as: config files)
Servlets
General database knowledge (not mySQL-centric)

If you're not scared off yet, please continue!

Before you start, let me start off by saying that it can take a good two days to get everything set up correctly, and that is assuming that you have an average knowledge of at least a couple of these technologies (but also assumes you have none installed).
Now on to the show...

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Techstrike development environment setup how-to:

Setup Database (will eventually support multiple databased, but for now...):
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Download/install mySQL >=4.1 (must be at least 4.1 to support nested queries)
http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-4.1.html

Add user "techstrike" with password "techstrike" (or whatever you wish, just ensure that the DataSource name matches)
First log on as root (where % is your shell):
% mysql --user=root mysql
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO techstrike@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'techstrike';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO techstrike@127.0.0.1 IDENTIFIED BY 'techstrike';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> CREATE DATABASE techstrike;
log off and log back in as techstrike:
% mysql --user=techstrike techstrike --password
password:
add SQL from "ROOT/WEB-INF/mySQL/DDL/datadef.sql" file
there is also some test data in "ROOT/WEB-INF/mySQL/DML/testdata.sql"

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Download/install Jakarta Tomcat >=4.1
http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/

unzip the "techstrike.zip" and replace ~TOMCAT\webapps\ROOT with the techstrike ROOT dir.

Set up datasource in your tomcat administration env logon to: http://localhost/admin/

Set up your "Data Sources". Mine are set to:
JNDI name: "jdbc/mySQL"
Data Source URL: jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:3306/techstrike?autoReconnect=true
JDBC Driver Class: com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional.MysqlConnectionPoolDataSource
User Name: techstrike
password: techstrike
Max Active: 25
Max Idle: 10
Max Wait: 5000
Validation Query: select * from user;

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Set up Eclipse workbench (not required, but very highly recommended. Actually, on second thought, yes it is required...):
Download/install Eclipse
http://www.eclipse.org/

Two ways to get the project set up:
Method 1: (not recommended)
File->Import->Existing Project Into Workspace Go to your ~TOMCAT\webapps\ROOT directory (or whichever dir you installed into) And choose WEB-INF to import.
Method 2: (recommended, must be a developer first)
Set up an ssh shell on your machine (you can get info from the sourceforge website) with environment variable CVS_RSH=ssh (in Unix) (I run Windows and use PuTTy, so I set CVS_RSH=C:\...\plink.exe)
Click on Window->Open Perspective->CVS.
Right click on "CVS Repositories"->New->Repoistory Location. Set up the repository to point to cvs.sourceforge.net using extssh and directory /cvsroot/techstrike.

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We use the BSD liscense. Fully available at: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php

(everything else [art, writing, non-code, etc] will be placed unter the Artistic License:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license.php\)

I assume that you have enough database or administration knowledge to do this, but Leave a message on sourceforge and I'll be glad to help.

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Last but not least... some recommended Eclipse plugins, to make your life easier:
JSP/HTML manip:
EclipseColorer: http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/plugin_details.jsp?id=266
Aston Wizards: http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/plugin_details.jsp?id=153
Database:
Clay Database Modelling: http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/plugin_details.jsp?id=378

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I know it seems like a lot, and it is. But it makes development faster and easier, and collaboration between developers much smoother. It will save time in the long run!

Anyway, if you have completed thusfar, now the real fun starts... coding! There are so many jobs to do, there is definately no shortage of work to be done. I am also always up for suggestions on how to make things better.

Lets make gaming better!
Eric