============== ABOUT ANTCLICK ============== Antclick is an integrated Helma/Antville package. It comes with integrated web server and SQL database. It should run out of the box although you may have to modify the start script. This version of Antclick contains Mckoi as the embedded database and Jetty as the embedded web server. Although Antcklick comes preconfigured with the Mckoi database, it can easily be set up to run with other databases such as MySQL and Oracle. It is also possible to configure it to use a fully featured web server instead of the built-in web server. ====================== INSTALLING AND RUNNING ====================== Simply uncompress the content of the archive file into any place on your hard disk. Start Helma on Windows by opening the file hop.bat. On Unix systems open a terminal window, change to the Antclick directory and type ./hop.sh. If you manage to get it running you should be able to connect your browser to http://127.0.0.1:8080/ (port 8080, that is). Now you can set up and configure your antville site. ============== ABOUT ANTVILLE ============== Antville is an open source project aimed to the development of an "easy to maintain and use" weblog-hosting system. It is not limited to just one weblog, it can easily host up to several hundred or thousand weblogs (the number of weblogs is more limited by the site owner's choice and server power than software limitations). Antville is entirely written in JavaScript and based on the Helma Object Publisher, a powerful and fast scriptable open source web application server (which itself is written in Java). Antville works with a relational database in the backend. Check out http://project.antville.org/ for more information. =========== ABOUT HELMA =========== Helma is a scriptable platform for creating dynamic, database backed web sites. Helma provides an easy way to map relational database tables to objects. These objects are wrapped with a layer of scripts and skins that allow them to be presented and manipulated over the web. The clue here is that both functions and skins work in an object oriented manner and force a clear separation between content, functionality and presentation. Actions are special functions that are callable over the web. Macros are special functions that expose functionality to the presentation layer. Skins are pieces of layout that do not contain any application logic, only macro tags as placeholders for parts that are dynamically provided by the application. In short, Helma provides a one stop framework to create web applications with less code and in shorter time than most of the other software out there. =================== SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS =================== You need a Java virtual machine 1.3 or higher to run Helma. For Windows, Linux and Solaris you can get a Java runtime or development kit from http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html. If you are on Mac OS X, you already have a Java runtime that will work well with Helma. Unfortunately, there is no Java 2 interpreter for Mac OS Classic, so you can't use Helma on Mac OS 9. ============================ INSTALLING AND RUNNING HELMA ============================ Simply unzip or untar the contents of the archive file into any place on your hard disk. Start Helma by invoking hop.bat or hop.sh from the command line, depending on whether you are on Windows or Linux/Unix/MacOSX. If the java command is not found, try setting the JAVA_HOME variable in the start script to the location of your Java installation. You may also want to have a look at the start script for other settings. You can adjust server wide settings in the server.properties file. For example, you should set the smtp property to the name of the SMTP server that Helma should use to send Email. Applications can be started or stopped by editing the apps.properties file through the web interface using the Management application that is part of Helma. If you manage to get it running you should be able to connect your browser to http://localhost:8080/ or http://127.0.0.1:8080/ (port 8080 on the local machine, that is). Helma comes with a version of Jetty, a lightweight yet industrial strenth web server developed by Mortbay Consulting. See http://jetty.mortbay.com/ for more information. While Jetty works well for deploying real web sites, you may want to run Helma behind an existing web server. This is most easily done by running Helma with the AJPv13 listener which allows you to plug Helma into any web server using the Apache mod_jk module. See http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/jk2/index.html for more information on mod_jk and AJPv13. Finally, Helma can be plugged into Servlet containers using Servlet classes that communicate with Helma either directly or via Java RMI. (Be warned that these options may be harder to set up and maintain though, since most of the recent development efforts have been geared towards the mod_jk/AJPv13 setup.) ===================================== DOCUMENTATION AND FURTHER INFORMATION ===================================== Currently, documentation-in-progress is available online at http://helma.org/. We know that it sucks and hope to do some substantial improvments within the coming weeks and months. Your input is highly welcome. There is a mailing-list to discuss Helma at http://helma.org/lists/listinfo/hop. Don't hesitate to voice any questions, proposals, complaints, praise you may have on the list. We know we have a lot to do and to learn, and we're open to suggestions. For questions, comments or suggestions also feel free to contact antville@helma.org. -- Last modified on December 5, 2002 by Hannes Wallnoefer