RIFE/Laszlo

Table of contents

1. Purpose
2. Requirements
3. Get started
   • Apache Ant 1.6
   • Omnicore Codeguide 7
   • X-develop 1.1 build 163
   • IntelliJ IDEA 4.5
   • Netbeans 4.1
   • Eclipse 3.x
4. Deploying
5. The structure
6. The RIFE project

A. Purpose

This package is meant to give you a headstart whenever you need to begin with a new web application that builds on RIFE and Laszlo.

Everything is set up to provide you with a comfortable development structure and to make the packaging of your work as easy as possible.

Note that you should never apply this setup to a production environment since it's only applicable in cases where there's only one application running inside a servlet container.

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B. Requirements

These requirements need to be fulfilled before you can get started immediately:

• Java SDK v1.4.2 or higher,
• One of the following development environments:
  • Apache Ant 1.6, or
  • Omnicore Codeguide 7, or
  • X-develop 1.1 build 163, or
  • IntelliJ IDEA 4.5, or
  • NetBeans 4.1, or
  • Eclipse 3.x.

Please refer to the documentation of these tools to get them installed correctly on your machine.

It's possible to use any development tool. The ones above been selected since they are the most common and make it possible to easily distribute a working machine-independent project configuration.

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C. Get started

By following the steps below you'll quickly be able to test a small sample application with your development environment of choice.

1. Apache Ant 1.6

• Open a terminal.
• Make the root directory of the extracted RIFE/Laszlo archive your current directory:

  cd rife-laszlo

• Start the application by executing the following command in your terminal:

  ant run

• Visit http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx in your browser of choice.

2. Omnicore Codeguide 7

• Start the Codeguide IDE.
• Open the codeguide.cpr project file that's available in the project directory.
• Start the application by pressing F5.
• Visit http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx in your browser of choice.

3. X-develop 1.1 build 163

• Start the X-develop IDE.
• Open the rife-laszlo.sln solution file that's available in the project directory.
• Start the application by pressing F5.
• Visit http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx in your browser of choice.

4. IntelliJ IDEA 4.5

• Start the IDEA IDE.
• Open the idea.ipr project file that's available in the project directory.
• Start the application by pressing Shift-F10.
• Visit http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx in your browser of choice.

5. NetBeans 4.1

• Start the Netbeans IDE.
• Open the rife-laszlo directory as a NetBeans project.
• Start the application by pressing F6.
• http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx should open automatically in your default browser.

6. Eclipse 3.x

• Start the Eclipse IDE.
• Select the File -> Import... menu item.
• Click on Existing Project into Workspace and click Next >.
• Click the Browse... button next to Project contents and select the rife-laszlo directory,
• Click on Finish,
• Select the Window -> Open Perspective -> Java menu item.
• Click the green Run arrow in the toolbar.
• Select laszlo in the launch configuration window and click Run.
• Visit http://localhost:8080/signup.lzx in your browser of choice.

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D. Deployment

RIFE/Laszlo is ready to package your application as a war archive for easy deployment in any servlet container.

The Laszlo application is compiled in SOLO mode, so the proxy server will not be included in the war file. The application will be a regular flash file that works completely independently of the OpenLaszlo server.

You need Apache Ant 1.6 to package the application and perform the following steps:

• Open a terminal.
• Make the root directory of the extracted RIFE/Laszlo archive your current directory:

  cd rife-laszlo

• Package the application by executing the following command in your terminal:

  ant war

• The build/dist directory will contain the resulting war file.

E. The structure

The application's sources

src
 |
 +- rep

The rep.xml file that sets up the repository and all the XML files that are required by the participants that are started.

 |
 +- sites

The site structures that define the logic flow and data flow of your application.

 |
 +- elements

The element declarations that are used in the site structures.

 |
 +- implementations

The implementations that provide business logic to the elements.

 |
 +- templates

The templates that are used by the implementations to output content to the user.

 |
 +- java

Java source code that provided back-end logic for your element implementations.

Website files

web
 |
 +- WEB-INF

The web application directory.

 |
 +- signup.lzx

The Laszlo application.

 |
 +- formfield.lzx
 +- formlabel.lzx

The Laszlo application libraries.

 |
 +- images

The images that are used by the Laszlo application.

The application's libraries

lib

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F. The RIFE project

The downloads are available at Downloads.

The examples can be tried online at http://rifers.org/examples.

The users guide can be read online at http://rifers.org/docs/usersguide.

The API documentation can be read online at http://rifers.org/docs/api.

The issue-tracker is available at http://servlet.uwyn.com/issues.

The wiki is available at http://rifers.org/wiki.

The mailinglists are set up at Uwyn, the following are available:

• RIFE users list : questions, bug reports and suggestions.
• RIFE announcement list.
• RIFE developers list.

Real-time chatting about RIFE can be done through IRC at irc.freenode.net in the channel #rife.