vicaya-user Mailing List for Vicaya: Cross-Platform Offline Search

(this is a copy of a message previously sent to=20
ale...@us...)

Hi,

I'm trying to get JSPWiki to run under vicaya but am getting an error=20
message about log4j. I don't have much experience with either JSPWiki or=20
Vicaya, and I'm no tomcat expert, but do know java pretty well. These are=
 my=20
naive steps:

Copied a working JSPWiki directory from tomcat/webapps into vicaya,=20
alongside accesstoinsight.

Changed context.properties to read context=3DHOME/../JSPWiki.

Then I fire up vicaya (pasted below) and get this error (the crucial line=
, I=20
think, being java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/Category).

I tried messing around with classpaths and putting different log4j jars i=
n=20
different places but I'm just stabbing around in the dark. vicaya works=20
great with accesstoinsight, and JSPWiki works fine when run under tomcat,=
=20
but the combination gives this error. I'd really appreciate any help you=20
could give me, even where to start looking or what file I could try=20
tweaking. Thanks so much.

lx-grogand:~/v/vicaya-0.1.6$ java -jar Launcher.jar
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:70: Engine "ubuntulooks" is=20
unsupported, ignoring
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:240: Priority specification is=20
unsupported, ignoring
RegisterShutdownHook
config
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
verbose =3D false
base =3D /home/grogand/.vicaya
home =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya
apps =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/apps
context =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/context.properties
startpage =3D http://localhost:8108/index.html
runport =3D 8108
endport =3D 8109
log =3D /home/grogand/.vicaya/logs/serverlog.txt
middleicon =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/images/middleicon.gif
splash =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/images/splash.png
title =3D Vicaya
tooltip =3D Vicaya Tooltip
trayicon =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/images/trayicon.gif

context
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
context =3D /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/../JSPWiki
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:70: Engine "ubuntulooks" is=20
unsupported, ignoring
/usr/share/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:240: Priority specification is=20
unsupported, ignoring
ROOT: /home/grogand/v/vicaya-0.1.6/vicaya/../JSPWiki
Sep 21, 2006 5:50:31 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded start
INFO: Starting tomcat server
Sep 21, 2006 5:50:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/5.5.17
Sep 21, 2006 5:50:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost start
INFO: XML validation disabled
org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException:=20
org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: No suitable Log=20
constructor [Ljava.lang.Class;@15663a2 for=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger (Caused by=20
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/Category) (Caused by=20
org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: No suitable Log=20
constructor [Ljava.lang.Class;@15663a2 for=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger (Caused by=20
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/Category))
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.newInstance(LogFactoryImpl=
.java:543)
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getInstance(LogFactoryImpl=
.java:235)
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory.getLog(LogFactory.java:370)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.getLogger(ContainerBase.java:380)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4090)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1013)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:718)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1013)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:442)
         at org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded.start(Embedded.java:821)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Tomcat55.startTomcat(Tomcat55.java:1=
44)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Launcher$1.run(Launcher.java:122)
         at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: org.apache.commons.logging.LogConfigurationException: No suita=
ble=20
Log constructor [Ljava.lang.Class;@15663a2 for=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Log4JLogger (Caused by=20
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/Category)
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getLogConstructor(LogFacto=
ryImpl.java:413)
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.newInstance(LogFactoryImpl=
.java:529)
         ... 12 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/Category
         at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
         at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:232=
8)
         at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2640)
         at java.lang.Class.getConstructor(Class.java:1629)
         at=20
org.apache.commons.logging.impl.LogFactoryImpl.getLogConstructor(LogFacto=
ryImpl.java:410)
         ... 13 more
LifecycleException: Pipeline has not been started
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.stop(StandardPipeline.java:256)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.stop(ContainerBase.java:1059)
         at=20
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.stop(StandardEngine.java:447)
         at org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded.stop(Embedded.java:863)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Tomcat55.stopTomcat(Tomcat55.java:17=
6)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Launcher.cleanUp(Launcher.java:187)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Launcher.access$900(Launcher.java:26=
)
         at net.genaud.vicaya.launch.Launcher$3.run(Launcher.java:301)

Hello AG et al,

I did a little test with no other programs running. Results below.
Subjectively it was much faster.

From insert CD to command prompt: 	     21 and 14 sec.
From cmd to splash:						6 and 4 sec.
From splash to index.html				17 and 12 sec.

Search: I searched for 'Buddha' likely a middle sized search (200 results).
Other searches to try at another time: 'Blessed One' (bhk thanissaro's
trans) and 'Monks' which would likely produce thousands of hits.

From pressing search button to results page: 21 and 17 sec [Control: it took
less than one second for the same search on the website with my fast
computer and a DSL line].
Secondary results page 5 sec for the second try only...see next

First time around I made a mistake and clicked off the browser before doing
the secondary search. I could not think of how to bring up the browser again
other than to click off the command prompt, withdraw the CD and start again.
I was unable to start again using the same CD Rom drive*...opening and
shutting the drawer it just sat there. Even taking out the CD closing the
drawer, opening it and replacing it did not start the command prompt a
second time. The second drive is a DVD drive which is faster which explains
the differences ?? for the second set of results.

I see confusion of this sort in the end user without some way to bring back
the browser. I was able to bring back the browser using 'localhost:8108' but
at this point I am not positive it was the CD I got because I have several
versions of the thing on my computer now. I am guessing it was in fact the
CD...ok, it must have been the CD...I tried clicking off the browser and
removing the CD and using localhost:8108 and got a file not found error.

Of course clicking 'Restart' right-clicking the taskbar button brought up an
'error starting catalina'. But that would be one place to put an option to
bring up the browser again.

*the third or fourth try to get the first CD to work again actually did
bring up the command prompt but it just sat there with the opening jar java
jar statement.
OK. I just tried the CDRom Drive again after a long pause and it worked as
per the first time. So there is some issue with it cleaning up files or
something else still going on if you flip around too quickly.

Some speed issues may be resolved the second time a user uses the thing as
some items will be cached.

Take Care!
obo




-----Original Message-----
From: ale...@gm... [mailto:ale...@gm...]On Behalf Of
Alexander E Genaud
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 8:27 AM
To: Michael Olds
Cc: vic...@li...
Subject: Re: [Vicaya-user] ATI CD


Hej Michael,

Thank you for the feedback.

Please let me know if you continue to find 0.1.6 to be slower than
previous versions (with the same media). I am aware of various issues
related to the arising and ceasing of Vicaya instances, but not sure
of the best solutions. As for the icon, I would prefer to punt issues
unrelated to search, such as content and graphics to John. Perhaps you
can post concerns, feature requests, and bugs online:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=113008

Thanks again,
Alex


--
55.67N 12.588E
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1
--
http://genaud.net/2006/05/29/
--


2006/5/31, Michael Olds <mik...@pa...>:
> Hello,
>
> First impression: it worked. I copied it to CD and used it that way,
waiting
> for it to auto-run, which it did...eventually. This version was
considerably
> slower in all phases than the previous version for me. This may well be
> because of the million applications (streaming quotes, news) I have open
in
> the mornings. I will try it again later this afternoon to confirm.
>
> It might be helpful, even for those who are 'beta testers' if we had a
> README up top to tell people what to copy to the CD if they want to try it
> as a CD rather than off their desktop (meaning don't copy the vicaya-0.1.6
> directory, but it's contents.
>
> As previously noted, the small system tray icon comes off as a gray blur
on
> my PC. It may not be recognizable as belonging to ATI or the Vicaya tool.
On
> the other hand the icon that takes over the CD Drive icon looks great.
>
> For the casual user there should be a clear way to exit, not the two-step
> that is needed now. I would like to see: exit from browser exits from the
CD
> which is what the user expects. Most users will not think of
right-clicking
> the system icon and will also not know how to exit from the command prompt
> (PC). ? An exit button that lies behind the browser as a pop-under window?
>
> It may be that I should retract the previous comment concerning the
> automatic exiting of the command prompt at opening.
>
> Ta.n p'assa taadisam'eva,||
> ta.n p'assa taadisam'evaa.||
>
> Six of one, half a dozen of the other as to the issue of wondering what it
> is doing versus wishing it wern't there to deal with at the end.
>
> Take Care!
> obo

Hej Michael,

Thank you for the feedback.

Please let me know if you continue to find 0.1.6 to be slower than
previous versions (with the same media). I am aware of various issues
related to the arising and ceasing of Vicaya instances, but not sure
of the best solutions. As for the icon, I would prefer to punt issues
unrelated to search, such as content and graphics to John. Perhaps you
can post concerns, feature requests, and bugs online:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=113008

Thanks again,
Alex


--
55.67N 12.588E
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1
--
http://genaud.net/2006/05/29/
--


2006/5/31, Michael Olds <mik...@pa...>:
> Hello,
>
> First impression: it worked. I copied it to CD and used it that way, waiting
> for it to auto-run, which it did...eventually. This version was considerably
> slower in all phases than the previous version for me. This may well be
> because of the million applications (streaming quotes, news) I have open in
> the mornings. I will try it again later this afternoon to confirm.
>
> It might be helpful, even for those who are 'beta testers' if we had a
> README up top to tell people what to copy to the CD if they want to try it
> as a CD rather than off their desktop (meaning don't copy the vicaya-0.1.6
> directory, but it's contents.
>
> As previously noted, the small system tray icon comes off as a gray blur on
> my PC. It may not be recognizable as belonging to ATI or the Vicaya tool. On
> the other hand the icon that takes over the CD Drive icon looks great.
>
> For the casual user there should be a clear way to exit, not the two-step
> that is needed now. I would like to see: exit from browser exits from the CD
> which is what the user expects. Most users will not think of right-clicking
> the system icon and will also not know how to exit from the command prompt
> (PC). ? An exit button that lies behind the browser as a pop-under window?
>
> It may be that I should retract the previous comment concerning the
> automatic exiting of the command prompt at opening.
>
> Ta.n p'assa taadisam'eva,||
> ta.n p'assa taadisam'evaa.||
>
> Six of one, half a dozen of the other as to the issue of wondering what it
> is doing versus wishing it wern't there to deal with at the end.
>
> Take Care!
> obo

Hello,

First impression: it worked. I copied it to CD and used it that way, waiting
for it to auto-run, which it did...eventually. This version was considerably
slower in all phases than the previous version for me. This may well be
because of the million applications (streaming quotes, news) I have open in
the mornings. I will try it again later this afternoon to confirm.

It might be helpful, even for those who are 'beta testers' if we had a
README up top to tell people what to copy to the CD if they want to try it
as a CD rather than off their desktop (meaning don't copy the vicaya-0.1.6
directory, but it's contents.

As previously noted, the small system tray icon comes off as a gray blur on
my PC. It may not be recognizable as belonging to ATI or the Vicaya tool. On
the other hand the icon that takes over the CD Drive icon looks great.

For the casual user there should be a clear way to exit, not the two-step
that is needed now. I would like to see: exit from browser exits from the CD
which is what the user expects. Most users will not think of right-clicking
the system icon and will also not know how to exit from the command prompt
(PC). ? An exit button that lies behind the browser as a pop-under window?

It may be that I should retract the previous comment concerning the
automatic exiting of the command prompt at opening.

Ta.n p'assa taadisam'eva,||
ta.n p'assa taadisam'evaa.||

Six of one, half a dozen of the other as to the issue of wondering what it
is doing versus wishing it wern't there to deal with at the end.

Take Care!
obo

Alex,

I've just tried out the Vicaya 0.1.6 CD that you sent me. It works =20
beautifully on Mac OS 10.3.9 and 10.4.6! This is great news.

A few  comments/questions:

1. Can Launcher.jar be named something else without breaking =20
anything? Non-geeks usually feel more comfortable clicking on =20
something containing a verb, like "Launch ATI" or "Start" or some  such.

2. I notice that I can invoke multiple instances of Launcher.jar -- I =20=

mean, every time I double-click it, another instance starts up. This =20
is not standard Mac behavior. Is there any way to get Launcher to =20
sense if another instance has already been loaded and, if so, to exit =20=

quietly?

3. I'll probably include an html file in the top level dir, as I did =20
in previous CD editions, that launches ATI the usual way. (I don't =20
know the lingo. When I launch Vicaya the browser loads pages via =20
http://localhost:8108; when I don't turn on Vicaya and just navigate =20
through the files on the CD,  the URLs look like "file:///Volumes/=20
Vicaya-0.1.6/accesstoinsight/foo/bar.html"). I want to make it easy =20
for people to use the CD, even if they can't get Vicaya to work.

4. The Launcher.jar "About" screen simply says "Java". Can you could =20
add something that says a little bit more about Vicaya (author, =20
version number, website URL, etc.)?

I guess it's time to put out the call for beta testers. I'll post a =20
note on ATI.

This is all very, very cool, Alex. :)


	john




On May 19, 2006, at 9:21 AM, Alexander E Genaud wrote:

> Hej Michael,
>
> Thanks for the feedback. Glad it works out for you. The icons, images,
> and content is primarily John's doing. I've taken his bulk ATI content
> and done some massaging and filtering, but not much. Below is the
> relevant bit of your code minus style:
>
>    <form method=3D"get" action=3D"/search">
>          <input name=3D"query">
>           <!-- <input type=3D"image"
> src=3D"../../../images/searchbutton2.gif" align=3D"top" name=3D"submit"
> alt=3D"submit" width=3D"39" height=3D"23"></p> -->
>          <input class=3D"only-online" type=3D"submit" value=3D"Search" =
/>
>           <input class=3D"only-offline" type=3D"submit" value=3D"&raquo;=

> Search online" />
>        </form>
>
>> As you can see, I would like to use an image for the search =20
>> button, but when
>> I try to do this it does not search properly.
>
> I'm not sure what's wrong. Try to remove the other two submit input =20=

> nodes.
>
>> Also, what is the function of the two input classes?
>
> That's a John Hack (tm). He simply changes one or two lines in the CSS
> file to "convert" a webapp to on-line or off-line. Basically the
> only-offline is invisible to the user when online and vise versa. I've
> not bothered to mess with it too much.
>
> I intend to make a generic product that simply searches it's own
> documentation if I get any hint that this project has captured the
> imagination of anyone outside of the ATI peanut gallery. The download
> would be substantially smaller.
>
>> To avoid confusion for the user it might be better
>> just to lable both 'Search'.
>
> Yes. I would recommend that to both you and John. As I've been
> automating all of these tasks, I found it too tedious to modify his
> page variations.
>
> http://vicaya.sourceforge.net/doc/CHANGELOG.txt
>
> The entire download (with ATI but without the dev or creation tools)
> is 35.5 MB. Which is less than double that of the basic bulk download.
> Thus, it might be possible to use the same code base (including PDF)
> in the near future.
>
>> I keep thinking that the search will take me on line...
>
> That it will not do.
>
>> Maybe you could brighten up the icon in the system tray a tad,
>> use yellow in stead of copper ...
>
> The content is not my department. I'm hoping to pique the interest of
> those who can do things as you mention and help with development.
>
>> just speaking about the icon. Right now it looks gray
>> and one is not easily able to see what the image actually is.
>
> Gray? It should be slightly golden or bronze. At least on my machine.
> I've noticed that these images look better on a Mac. I suspect these
> images are using a system or custom palette.
>
> Alex
> --
> 55.67N 12.588E
> CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1
> --
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, =20
> security?
> Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your =20
> job easier
> Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache =20
> Geronimo
> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=3Dlnk&kid=120709&bid&3057&dat=121642=

> _______________________________________________
> Vicaya-user mailing list
> Vic...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vicaya-user

Hej Michael,

Thanks for the feedback. Glad it works out for you. The icons, images,
and content is primarily John's doing. I've taken his bulk ATI content
and done some massaging and filtering, but not much. Below is the
relevant bit of your code minus style:

    <form method=3D"get" action=3D"/search">
          <input name=3D"query">
           <!-- <input type=3D"image"
src=3D"../../../images/searchbutton2.gif" align=3D"top" name=3D"submit"
alt=3D"submit" width=3D"39" height=3D"23"></p> -->
          <input class=3D"only-online" type=3D"submit" value=3D"Search" />
           <input class=3D"only-offline" type=3D"submit" value=3D"&raquo;
Search online" />
        </form>

> As you can see, I would like to use an image for the search button, but w=
hen
> I try to do this it does not search properly.

I'm not sure what's wrong. Try to remove the other two submit input nodes.

> Also, what is the function of the two input classes?

That's a John Hack (tm). He simply changes one or two lines in the CSS
file to "convert" a webapp to on-line or off-line. Basically the
only-offline is invisible to the user when online and vise versa. I've
not bothered to mess with it too much.

I intend to make a generic product that simply searches it's own
documentation if I get any hint that this project has captured the
imagination of anyone outside of the ATI peanut gallery. The download
would be substantially smaller.

> To avoid confusion for the user it might be better
> just to lable both 'Search'.

Yes. I would recommend that to both you and John. As I've been
automating all of these tasks, I found it too tedious to modify his
page variations.

http://vicaya.sourceforge.net/doc/CHANGELOG.txt

The entire download (with ATI but without the dev or creation tools)
is 35.5 MB. Which is less than double that of the basic bulk download.
Thus, it might be possible to use the same code base (including PDF)
in the near future.

> I keep thinking that the search will take me on line...

That it will not do.

> Maybe you could brighten up the icon in the system tray a tad,
> use yellow in stead of copper ...

The content is not my department. I'm hoping to pique the interest of
those who can do things as you mention and help with development.

> just speaking about the icon. Right now it looks gray
> and one is not easily able to see what the image actually is.

Gray? It should be slightly golden or bronze. At least on my machine.
I've noticed that these images look better on a Mac. I suspect these
images are using a system or custom palette.

Alex
--
55.67N 12.588E
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1
--

Vicaya 0.1.6 Beta Release Candidate

Feature complete version of Vicaya, searchable offline/CDROM
framework, has been released. Version 0.1.6 features content provided
by the "Access to Insight" website.

Requesting all users to download and submit feedback. Developers will
be happy to help convert your web application to CDROM.

http://tinyurl.com/ks3d6

http://genaud.net/2006/vicaya/bin/0.1.6/vicaya-0.1.6.zip

Alex
--
55.67N 12.588E
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1
--

Happy Mother's Day...

Vicaya 0.1.5 has been released today. Slow progress a few hours each
weekend. It's certainly not polished, but the start-up should be
smoother. Its much more configurable. I'll be testing on a number of
platforms this week. If all goes well, I'll clean up the known bugs,
and send out CD's to all who want one.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/vicaya/vicaya-0.1.5.zip?download

http://genaud.net/2006/vicaya/bin/0.1.5/

http://vicaya.sourceforge.net/

Strange coincidence: the latest release includes ATI Bulk 05-05-17 and
Tomcat Embed 5.5.17.

Alex
--
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1

Hej Hugo,

Thanks for the response. Glad to hear the consideration is not a
shameful compromise. I've had relatively good success running Sun's
JRE from CDROM on Windows. It's slow, but works. I have to look more
deeply into the licensing. Would a Windows-only script be acceptable?

I'm fairly certain a Unix guru could solve the issues I'm having with
Linux. I get permission denied errors when running off the CDROM. I do
not have this same issue when running off the hard drive with all
directories/files read-only. It could very well be the executable bit
(u+x) that's giving me trouble. I do not know how to (if one can)
extend the ISO 9660 FS.

Alex

On 4/28/06, Hugo Gayosso <hga...@gm...> wrote:
> Hello Alex,
>
> On 4/28/06, Alexander E Genaud <lx...@po...> wrote:
> > I would like your thoughts on the following consideration:
> >
> > I would like to distribute Vicaya on CDROM with various JRE
> > installation packages. Vicaya may run from the CDROM, but the JRE will
> > not run from the CDROM. Vicaya will attempt to run with the assumption
> > that a JRE is already installed on the computer.
> >
> > If a JRE has not already been installed, the Vicaya will gracefully
> > fail. The user may then locate the appropriate JRE on the CDROM and
> > use the vendor provided JRE installation. Alternatively they may
> > obtain the latest JRE from the web. These steps can be documented
> > fairly easily.
>
> As long as the licenses allow us to distribute them in this way I like
> this approach, although it may be eaiser to include only the JRE from
> one vendor to avoid possible confusion among users not very
> computer-savvy.
>
> Although for those users that can't install anything on their
> computers for any reason what about providing them also with a
> completely-from-CD-ROM version?
>
>
> --
> Hugo

--
Alex
--
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1

Hello Alex,

On 4/28/06, Alexander E Genaud <lx...@po...> wrote:
> I would like your thoughts on the following consideration:
>
> I would like to distribute Vicaya on CDROM with various JRE
> installation packages. Vicaya may run from the CDROM, but the JRE will
> not run from the CDROM. Vicaya will attempt to run with the assumption
> that a JRE is already installed on the computer.
>
> If a JRE has not already been installed, the Vicaya will gracefully
> fail. The user may then locate the appropriate JRE on the CDROM and
> use the vendor provided JRE installation. Alternatively they may
> obtain the latest JRE from the web. These steps can be documented
> fairly easily.

As long as the licenses allow us to distribute them in this way I like
this approach, although it may be eaiser to include only the JRE from
one vendor to avoid possible confusion among users not very
computer-savvy.

Although for those users that can't install anything on their
computers for any reason what about providing them also with a
completely-from-CD-ROM version?


--
Hugo

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  Thoughts on Vicaya
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distributing the JRE
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I have been struggling with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on
CDROM with technical, legal, and usability concerns.

The JRE is a standard framework necessary to run any Java application
on a host machine. The JRE contains a virtual machine that translates
system calls from a Java application to the underlying operating
system. It is possible to install a JRE virtual machine on just about
every modern operating system. By targeting the virtual machine, a
Java application can run on any machine for which there is a JRE.

Technical issues. For compatibility with Macintosh and older operating
systems, I have targeted JRE version 1.4.2. Mac OS X 10.3, through
10.5 come preinstalled with a JRE compatible with Java 1.4.2. I have
experimented with JRE's from Sun, IBM, and GNU, on Windows and Linux,
from writable (hard drive) and read-only (CDROM) media. Results vary.

Legal. Both IBM and Sun impose certain restrictions regarding
distribution of their JRE. These are not show-stoppers, but restrict
development flexibility.

Usability. The results of various JRE's are not 100% compatible when
running off of the CDROM. Running from the CDROM is significantly
(though adequately) slower than from the hard drive. The configuration
of a JRE (pre-existing or a version packaged with Vicaya on CDROM)
will be confusing for most users.

I would like your thoughts on the following consideration:

I would like to distribute Vicaya on CDROM with various JRE
installation packages. Vicaya may run from the CDROM, but the JRE will
not run from the CDROM. Vicaya will attempt to run with the assumption
that a JRE is already installed on the computer.

If a JRE has not already been installed, the Vicaya will gracefully
fail. The user may then locate the appropriate JRE on the CDROM and
use the vendor provided JRE installation. Alternatively they may
obtain the latest JRE from the web. These steps can be documented
fairly easily.

Most users will already have the JRE installed on their machine. The
installation process is no more difficult than installing other
professional programs downloaded from the internet.

Users who download Vicaya can also download the appropriate JRE at the
same time. The Vicaya download will be significantly smaller.



Alex
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Hej again,

Casual users (non developers) are likely to have troubles running
Vicaya without the JRE's. I hope this helps.

Alex

--
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--

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JAVA RUNTIME HOWTO
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What

Vicaya 0.1.4 has been released **without** including the Java Runtime
Environments (JRE's). This is a work-around.



Why

The JRE's have been removed because of some complications with the IBM
JRE on Linux. Vicaya will not run without a JRE, so if you experience
difficulties starting Vicaya 0.1.4, listen up:



How

Set the VICAYA_JAVA environment variable to point to a working JRE or
SDK (similar to the JAVA_HOME variable). Note that this is not the
java executable but the directory containing the bin/java executable.



How - Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.3+ includes a framework similar to JRE 1.4 or JRE 1.5. The
start.sh and splash.sh scripts consider the extant frameworks. This
has not been tested. I'm eager to help, but have little knowledge in
this area.



How - Linux/Unix

Set the VICAYA_JAVA variable to your JRE. If you are running from the
command prompt, you can do a one time set such as:

export VICAYA_JAVA=3D/usr/lib/java
sh splash.sh

Or set the variable in your login profile (.bashrc .bash_profile etc).
Note that some shells may use setenv rather than export). I'm happy to
help with any Linux troubles, but I assume you know what you are doing



How - Windows

You likely already have a Java JRE or SDK installed on your machine,
otherwise, you may install one (if you do not know how, perhaps you
might consider waiting for a more stable release of Vicaya such as 0.2
or even 1.0). Here are some typical locations (expect variation on
your machine):

C:\j2sdk1.4.2_10
C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_10
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06

Once you have located a JRE (or SDK), you may set your VICAYA_JAVA variable=
.
 1. Right click on "My Computer"
  2. Select "Properties" from the dropdown list
 3. Select the "Advanced" tab (top)
 4. Select the "Environment Variables" button (bottom)
 5. Select "New" under "System variables" (or Edit if you've done this befo=
re)

 6. Variable name:

VICAYA_JAVA

 7. Variable value:
       (( the path location of your JRE such as: ))

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06

 8. Click on "OK" in the "System Variable" window.
 9. Click on "OK" in the "Environment Variables" window.
10. Click on "OK" in the "System Properties" window.
11. Close all shell, terminal, command prompt windows.
12. Restart Vicaya
    (reopen a command prompt or
     double click the start.bat or splash.bat script)



Background

Vicaya has gone through many iterations. As such there are artifacts
of previous methodologies which while strange, have been tested and
work. The start scripts, and more specifically the determination of an
appropriate JRE, are a good example of this.

The start or splash script will configure several variables:
VICAYA_CONTENT, VICAYA_SERVER, VICAYA_ENDPORT, VICAYA_JAVA, and
others. VICAYA_JAVA is set based on the architecture of the machine
running Vicaya (your machine). The start script will search for an
appropriate JRE in the jre directory (for example, the Windows JRE is
located at vicaya/jre/win/x86/j2re1.4.2_10). Failing that, it will
seek help from the JAVA_HOME system variable. Failing that, Vicaya
will not start.

Vicaya 0.1.4 does not have the JRE's in vicaya/jre as mentioned above
(Why). Most users do indeed have a JRE on their machine. However, most
users do not have the SDK and will not likely have the JAVA_HOME
variable set.

Hej Vicaya watchers,

I've just released a new alpha Vicaya version 0.1.4. It is feature
complete, but with many bugs, and lacks proper testing and polish.
Screenshots:

http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=3D113008&ssid=3D319=
93

This release has been tuned to ATI from content and indices, to splash
screen, icons, etc. As I separate components, I will be trying to
appeal to a larger audience, so now might be a good time to get one's
feet wet.

http://sf.net/projects/vicaya

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/vicaya/vicaya-0.1.4-no-java.zip?download

John, perhaps you could think about rounding up the testing brute
squad. I do not think we are ready for full user testing, but a few
uber-geeks could be useful.

The documentation suffers from sever ugliness. I was trying for a
somber and simple motif, but I think I've achieved morbid.

http://vicaya.sf.net

Michael, are you still game for taking this on? I expect the web site
to be useful to developers and content creators rather than end users.
Perhaps you can take note of the project sites Vicaya is based on:

http://tomcat.apache.org/
http://lucene.apache.org/nutch/
http://browserlaunch2.sourceforge.net/
https://jdic.dev.java.net/

A word about version numbers. I am using a convention similar to the
Linux kernel development, where versions are of three (perhaps four)
places: MAJOR.MINOR.BUGFIX. Odd number MINOR numbers are unstable
development releases while even MINOR numbers represent stable user
releases. As you can see, Vicaya has not yet made a stable release.

Cheers,
Alex
--
CCC7 D19D D107 F079 2F3D BF97 8443 DB5A 6DB8 9CE1

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Vicaya 0.1.4 alpha
Release 2006-04-17
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The most notable features of this release include a splash screen,
system tray, browser launcher, and simplified content creation. Behind
the scenes is a faster more reliable indexer and component separation.

I've run into some difficulties with the Java Runtime on CD, and have
not included the JRE's with this release, but I expect to straighten
out these issues soon enough. I know of no critical bugs (though I
have pages of known issues), and encourage all to test Vicaya out. I
have only tested this release on XP/SP2 and Ubuntu 5.10 Linux. The
system tray may gracefully fail on a Mac and some Unix environments.

There are four start scripts. Those ending in .bat are for Dos/Windows
and those ending in .sh are for Unix variants (including Mac OS X).
start.sh/bat is more mature than splash.sh/bat, though the later has
the newest features.

The CDROM image (iso) is an exact copy of a CD generated from the
regular zip file.