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Table of contents

Concepts

Overview

Community Build Framework (CBF) is an ant build.xml file script and alternate way to setup and deploy Pentaho based applications. Focused on a multi-project/ multi-environment scenario, here are the main characteristics:

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• Supports deploy to local/remote machines

• OS independent

Description

Project pentaho already has a good dev_build.xml ant script, but it wasn't enough for my needs, since I needed to change the svn sources in order to configure a solution. So I built my own structure, and its like this:

Directory layout and code checkout

MyProjectDir
|-- build.xml
|-- pentaho
|   |-- bi-platform-api
|   |-- bi-platform-appserver
|   |-- bi-platform-assembly
|   |-- bi-platform-assembly-open
|   |-- bi-platform-build
|   |-- bi-platform-engine-core
|   |-- bi-platform-engine-security
|   |-- bi-platform-engine-services
|   |-- bi-platform-legacy
|   |-- bi-platform-plugin-actions
|   |-- bi-platform-plugin-services
|   |-- bi-platform-repository
|   |-- bi-platform-sample-data
|   |-- bi-platform-sample-solution
|   |-- bi-platform-scheduler
|   |-- bi-platform-test-foundation
|   |-- bi-platform-ui-foundation
|   |-- bi-platform-util
|   |-- bi-platform-web
|   |-- bi-platform-web-portlet
|   |-- bi-platform-web-servlet
|   |-- dummy-jre
|   |-- mantle
|   `-- test-solutions
|-- project-client
|   |-- patches
|   |   |-- pentaho
|   |   `-- target-preconfiguredinstall
|   `-- solution
|-- target-build
`-- target-dist

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Aside: Heres a screenshot of all the files I changed to make pentaho 3.0 work for me:

Configuration files

The main config file is in config/build.properties; specific environment configurations can then be set in config/build-env.properties . Here's an example file:

#####################################
## GENERIC PROPERTIES
######################################

javac.path = NOT SET

# Solution path. Required for compile time
# Set this to the absolute path to project-client/solution
solution.path = NOT SET


# Solution path required for runtime. Defaults to the above value but can be different if we're
# deploying to another place. Should be used in WEB-INF/web.xml in the solution-path parameter
solution.deploy.path = NOT SET

#accepted values: tomcat or jboss
server.name = tomcat

# Tomcat 5.5 path:
tomcat.path = NOT SET

# Copy the sample solutions to our project directory? true | false
copy.pentaho.samples = true


# Java options for the run command
java.opts = -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8765,server=y,suspend=n

#####################################
## PROJECT DIRECTORIES - The defaults usually work fine
######################################
pentaho.dir = pentaho/
pentaho.build.dir = target-build/

#####################################
## DEPLOY OPTIONS
######################################
deploy.mode = rsync
deploy.args = -avz --exclude '.svn/' --exclude '*.log' --exclude 'work/' --exclude  'temp_user/' --exclude 'temp/' --exclude 'tmp/'
deploy.dest.server = user@host:path
deploy.dest.solution = user@host:path

#####################################
## DYNAMIC TOKENS TO BE USED AS FILTERS
#####################################

DB_LOCATION = 127.0.0.1
DB_USER = pedro
DB_PASSWORD = bar
BASE_URL = http://127.0.0.1:8080/pentaho/

Tokens

To extend customization to a greater extent, I've implemented dynamic filter tokens for changeable attributes, such as database locations and passwords. Whenever CBF finds a text file with a string of the form  ( (DB_LOCATION)) that token will be replaced at compile time.

CBF execution and available targets

Building and executing

After all this environment is correctly set up, CBF is ready to be executed. ant executable needs to be on the path and the properties project and optionally env need to be passed. If no env property is passed only build.properties will be used.

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Just by passing different properties we can immediately build and run a totally different project, in a different platform version or different application server. With the right properties and tokens, we can instantly deploy a solution in a remote server.

Deploy

Despite the property deploy.mode, only the rsync method is currently supported. It's by far the most appropriate way to handle my kind of requirements, but a lot more modes can be implemented, like copy, scp or even ftp transfer.

Debug

With the appropriate JAVA_OPTS parameters, all that's needed to debug the platform is do a socket attach using your favorite IDE.

Ctools

Starting from version 3.10.1, there is an additional target named ctools that can automatically execute the ctools-installer.sh available here. You need to save the script in your CBF root (same folder where you have build.xml) and add the following properties in build.properties in order to have it working:

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ant -Dproject=client dist-clean all run

Download

• CBF Version 3.10.1 - ctools bundle
  • This version works with Pentaho 3.10.0 Stable. It allows automatic setup of ctools (see above Ctools section)
• CBF Version 3.7.0
  • This version works with Pentaho 3.7.0 Stable
• CBF Version 3.5.0
  • This version works for pentaho 3.5 branch as of 9/31/09
• CBF Version 3.0.1
  • This version works for pentaho 3.0 branch as of 5/21/09
• CBF Version 3.0
  • This version does NOT work out of box for pentaho 3.0 branch as of 5/21/09
• CBF Version 2.1-RC1
• CBF Version 2.0
• CBF Version 1.0

Old versions

• Version 2.1 archive
• Version 2.0 archive
• Version 1.0 archive

FAQ

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Changelog