Getting the GUI (graphical user interface) running. Now that I have a server running JBoss with jBPM, the goal is to be able to do something with it. So I needed to get the work environment setup. The nice thing about jBPM is that tools come with it to plug into the Eclipse IDE for generating processes. Here is what I did to get the development environment setup.
1) Download Eclipse Europa from here:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
The file you will want to click on is the “Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers”. This is the one that I selected and I know that it works. That is not to say that the others will not. I haven’t tested them and that means I will stick with what I have learned so far.
Save the file to “C:\downloads\eclipse” just to keep things clean on your system.
2) Unzip the file and you will see the directory “eclipse-jee-europa-win32”. Double click on the folder to go into it and you will see the “eclipse” folder. At this point it is very likely that you already have Eclipse installed on your machine and therefore will need to do a clean install so that you don’t mess up your current configuration. I renamed the “eclipse” folder to “eclipse-europa” and then copied it to “C:\ “. It should look like this in your directory “C:\eclipse-europa”. I choose to copy it so that I don’t have to go through the process of unzipping it again. Sure, it takes more space but it takes a step out if you have to wipe the program and start with a clean install.
3) Download the jBPM plug-ins here:
http://labs.jboss.com/jbossjbpm/downloads
On this page, click on the “jbpm-jpdl-designer-3.1.0.cr1” to download it. I choose to save the file to my “C:\dowloads\jboss” folder to keep it with all of the other files that are related to the JBoss project. Please note that this file is currently in Candidate Release 1 but it was the one that I managed to get working with the fewest hang-ups.
4) Unzip the file and you will see the following folder, “jbpm-jpdl-designer-3.1.0.cr1”. Double click the folder to enter the directory. Inside this folder you will see the “eclipse” directory. You will need to go into that folder as well. Inside the “eclipse” folder you see the folders “plugins” and “features”. Copy these folders into “C:\eclipse-europa”. A popup window will open up. Simply click on the button “Yes to All”. This will install the plugins and features you need to get the Eclipse GUI running.
5) Inside the “C:\eclipse-europa” directory there is a file named “eclipse.exe”. Double click on it to start the program. It will run through a setup process and a screen will open up that says, “Workspace Launcher” at the top. Click on the “Browse” button and select your “C:\eclipse-europa” directory so that it is highlighted. Next, click on the “Make New Folder” button and type “workspace” (without the double quotes) into the new folder. Then click the “OK” button. It should take you back to the “Workspace Launcher” and in the field next to the label “Workspace:” you should see “C:\eclipse-europa\workspace”. Click on the “OK” button and Eclipse will finish going through the setup process.
This created a clean install of Eclipse that will not touch any of the files of a previous version and therefore protect your work environment if you already have one. To get rid of the “Welcome” screen simply click the “X” next to the word “Welcome” on the tab.
Take time to validate that the plug-ins installed properly by clicking on the “Window” link in the navigation list at the top of the IDE and then scrolling down to the “Preferences…” option and clicking on it. This will open a window named “Preferences” and in the list of options on the left hand side you should see “JBoss jBPM”. If you see it then congratulations you have successfully installed the plug-ins that you need to start developing processed with JBoss and jBPM.
The next post on this topic will cover configuring the Eclipse IDE to your JBoss setup and setting up a test process.
