ConcourseSuite Support

Centric CRM developer tools

1/18/2005 10:45 AM EST (edited)

Concursive Corporation
Product Design

Here's a little bit about our development environment...

For operating systems we use Linux and Mac OSX... these work well as each developer system has Java, Tomcat, Sendmail or Postfix, and PostgreSQL loaded.

Developers here are using IntelliJ IDEA and JEdit. We looked into several other solutions but found these two products feature rich and easy to use for both junior and senior developers. NetBeans might be a good alternative as it has just recently been redesigned.

The nice thing about IDEs is that they instantly warn you about coding errors without having to compile first. This alone is a productivity booster.

When we're ready to deploy Centric CRM to Tomcat for testing, we use an Ant script that compiles changed code and copies the files directly to the webapp directory, bypassing the .war generation. The script can be run straight from the IDE if configured to do so and executes in just a few seconds which saves lots of time for those developing Centric CRM vs. creating a complete .war.

This ant script is available with Centric CRM Enterprise, but the same functionality could be adapted in the open source version if needed.

There's much more content in the technical documentation about all the tools we use, so I won't get into too much detail here. Every supporting application we use, from word processing to diagramming is cross-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows).

1. 9/1/2005 3:42 AM EDT

By Josh Zeidner

Hi. I managed to setup my Eclipse environment to work quite nicely with Centric CRM. It does 'lazy compilation' and checks syntax automatically on an Centric classes, and I do not have to explicity complie( I dont think JEdit does this too well ). I wrote a special Ant target that packs up all the class files compiled by eclipse into the proper jars and stick them into my tomcat install. When used in conjuction with the Eclipse tomcat plugin it is superb. It still needs some fine tuning, but coding/testing delay is pretty minimal. If anyone is interested I can writeup a HOW-TO setup dev environment with eclipse and tomcat and give it back to the community.

2. 9/2/2005 2:19 AM EDT

By Christophe Cariou

Hi,

I'll be interested in your how-to for "Centric on Eclipse".

Christophe

3. 10/4/2006 2:57 PM EDT

By Scott Pascoe

Josh Zeidner wrote:

>If anyone is interested I can writeup a HOW-TO setup dev >environment with eclipse and tomcat and give it back to the >community.

Josh, I am very interested in this information. Is it available yet?

Thanks, Scott

4. 10/4/2006 4:03 PM EDT

By Tom Manos

Josh,

The Centric core team would be interested in what you've accomplished, too. If it works as advertised, we might establish it as a development standard for Centric CRM and the community, including for our distributed core team of about 15 developers.

-Tom

5. 10/5/2006 4:38 AM EDT

By Aliaksei Yarotski

We use eclipse for Centric CRM with SVN (Subclipse) & WTP (Web Tools Platform) & myEclipce plugins
We can provide any help for interested people
Your questions are welcome

6. 10/5/2006 11:08 AM EDT

By Scott Pascoe

Thanks,

I guess my first question would be what plugins did you set up in your eclipse environment?

How do you deploy and debug with the eclipse enviornment?

Thanks, Scott

7. 10/10/2006 1:12 PM EDT

By Aliaksei Yarotski

I guess my first question would be what plugins did you set up in your eclipse environment?

I use MyEclipse (Enterprise Workbench) which contains all the necessary plugins that are helpful for development process. At the stage of a new project creation I do the following:
1) set up the pathes at home.properties & build.properties & execute ant deploy & ant installdb through the command prompt.
2) I create a new project at Eclipse -> New Project -> «Java Project from Existing Ant Buildfile». The final setup is made through the Project Properties settings.

How do you deploy and debug with the eclipse enviornment?

First of all I define the Application Server name which I use & set up it. Then I start the server from MyEclipse panel.
If you need any screenshots to illustrate all the steps, please inform me. All this steps are suitable for WTP (Web Tools Platform) excluding some details.

8. 10/11/2006 11:17 PM EDT

By Scott Pascoe

> Project from Existing Ant Buildfile». The final setup is made
> through the Project Properties settings.

I've downloaded the MyEclipse plugin and successfully gotten my build path's setup, but I'm unsure about the final setup, could you tell a little more about that?

> How do you deploy and debug with the eclipse enviornment?
> -----
> First of all I define the Application Server name which I use & set up it. Then I start the server from MyEclipse panel.
If you need any screenshots to illustrate all the steps, please inform me. All this steps are suitable for WTP (Web Tools Platform) excluding some details.

-- some screenshots on this would be really helpful. I've been able to get the tomcat to start and can see the logs in my eclipse console, but can't get breakpoints to set in the java files. It keeps telling me that the line numbers aren't compiled in.

Thanks,

9. 10/16/2006 11:38 AM EDT

By Aliaksei Yarotski

Scott Pascoe wrote:
but can't get breakpoints to set in the java files. It keeps telling me that the line numbers aren't compiled in.

You should use “dev” ant target. It determinates the line numbers when compiling.

10. 11/10/2007 8:57 PM EST

By David Dionne

Greetings, was the Eclipse CCRM howto ever released?

I'm kinda new at this and I have a few seemingly dumb questions:

1. Do I first download the entire source into my own SVN or CVS server and then connect to it using Intellij and it's SVN plugin? If not, how do I save my changes? If I'm totally off base, I guess what I'm really asking is...
2. What is the best way to get started developing?

I am going to be working on or trying to work on a Quickbooks to CCRM Timecard module.

Thanks,

David

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