Q: What are the possibilities to perform an automated configuration, without human interaction?

A: There is a mechanism for ConcourseSuite CRM to locate the preferences during startup. If the application finds the necessary files and configuration, then it skips the web-based installer. While the .war wasn't meant for this, it could be tweaked for the specific case you mention.

There are 4 components:

1) ConcourseSuite CRM must know where the external fileLibrary is located. This can be done in one of two ways...

A) The Java preferences file must be installed or setup for the corresponding O/S. In the case of WAS, a /WEB-INF/instance.property file must be located in the ConcourseSuite CRM .war. This is a unique identifier if multiple ConcourseSuite CRM .wars are located on the same system. This is used to map the .war to a fileLibrary using the Java Preferences API. This is generally done using the web-based installer.

or

B) ConcourseSuite CRM looks for a path.txt file in a specific place depending on the O/S. If it finds it, then it records the path using the Java Preferences API.

2) Once ConcourseSuite CRM knows where the fileLibrary path is, it checks for a build.properties file there; this file declares all of the preferences for ConcourseSuite CRM including Connection URL and more. The version of ConcourseSuite CRM must be accurately recorded here or else the webapp goes into upgrade mode.

3) The fileLibrary must also have a default set of files. One of these files is a unique license for the system. Typically this is generated during the web-based install and requires internet access. We could work something out to pre-generate these. The other files are easy to copy from a working instance.

4) The ConcourseSuite CRM database must exist and have the schema and default data.

Here are the details that should allow you to install ConcourseSuite CRM and bypass the web-based ui...

1. Create a text file in one of the following locations... (Linux is specified first and /opt is tried if it exists)

/opt/centric_crm/fileLibrary/path.txt
/var/lib/centric_crm/fileLibrary/path.txt
c:\CentricCRM\fileLibrary\path.txt
/Library/Application Support/CentricCRM/fileLibrary/path.txt

2. This text file can have 2 lines maximum, the first line being an optional comment:

1. This file is used by ConcourseSuite CRM to determine where the fileLibrary is

/opt/centric_crm/fileLibrary/instance1