Getting Started with

BACKBASE 3.1
Community Edition

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Introduction

The Backbase Community Edition 3.1 is delivered as a ZIP file in a Developer version
and a Production version:

• Backbase_community_dev_3.1.zip—the Developer ZIP contains the

Backbase Presentation Client (BPC) required to run a Backbase application,
developer resources, documentation, and sample applications to help you get
started.
• Backbase_community_prod_3.1.zip—the Production ZIP contains only the
essential resources required to run a Backbase application in a production
environment, i.e. the Backbase Presentation Client (BPC) and the Backbase
skins.

Installation overview

The following steps provide an overview of how to quickly get started developing
your first Backbase web application:

1. Download Backbase_Community_Edition_3.1.zip
2. Unzip Backbase_community_dev_3.1.zip
3. Deploy—on Apache or MS IIS Web server
4. Test—create your first Backbase web application
5. Explore—going further
6. (Optional) Unzip Backbase_community_prod_3.1.zip

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Compatibility

Backbase supports the following client browser / operating system combinations:

Web Browser Operating System

Internet Explorer 5 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Internet Explorer 5.5 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Internet Explorer 6 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Mozilla 1.7 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Linux Kernel 2.2+
MacOS X 10.2+
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Linux Kernel 2.2+
MacOS X 10.2+
Netscape 7.2 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Linux Kernel 2.2+
MacOS X 10.2+
Netscape 8.0 Windows 98
Windows Me
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Camino 0.82 MacOS X 10.2+

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1 Download
Download the Backbase_Community_Edition_3.1.zip file from www.backbase.com.

Note: The zip file contains both the development and production versions of the
Community Edition, and the Getting Started PDF.

2 Unzip
Unzip Backbase_community_dev_3.1.zip to a location on your hard drive. It is
recommended to extract Backbase to the root of your drive, for example C:\.

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2.1 Check the installation directory structure
The Community Edition (Development) contains the Backbase Presentation Client
(BPC) and additional developer resources.

The Backbase Community Edition (Development) contains the Backbase Presentation

Client (BPC) and additional developer resources. The extracted ZIP file consists of
the following directory structure under Backbase/3_1/:

• bpc—contains the Backbase Presentation Client (BPC) engine (Javascript

libraries)
• controls—Backbase provides out-of-the box user interface controls with
behavior and look and feel defined
• docs—contains the PDFs, Manual, BXML Reference, Release Notes,
Getting Started Guide and descriptions of the starter kits
• gfx—graphics resources
• explorer— a user interface containing developer samples that you can
modify and test.
• ide plugins—Backbase provides plugins for Dreamweaver, Eclipse, and
Visual Studio. For installation instructions, read the plugin readme files.
• skeletons—contains basic-startup.html, a simple startup file, and
4rows-3columns.html demonstrating simple a layout.
• starterkits—contains the source code for the sample applications;
Forms, Petshop, Windows, Portal, and the Sandbox.
• tools—contains Backbase development tools; Runtime Tracer, I/O
Inspector, Quick Inspector, and Reporters. Online help for BXML Reference
is also available. Activate the tools by pressing the Esc key in your
browser when a Backbase application is running.

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2.2 Create a project directory

Create a project directory on your local drive, for example C:\MyBackbaseProjects

to use as your project directory. You will need later need to configure your Web
server to access your project directory and Backbase installation directory.

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3 Deploy
Deployment describes the recommended installation of the Backbase Community
Edition (CE) on the following Web servers:

• Deploying on Apache
• Deploying on MS Internet Information Services (IIS)

The instructions assume the following:

• You have already installed Apache or MS IIS

• Your Backbase installation directory is C:/Backbase
• Your Backbase projects directory is C:/MyBackbaseProjects

If you have set up your environment differently, you will need to make the necessary
path adjustments.

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3.1 Deploy on Apache
To configure Apache:

1. Open the httpd.config file located in your Apache Group/Apache2/conf

folder.
2. Add aliases and directory authorization to enable your Web server to
locate your Backbase installation directory and project directory:

Alias /icons/ "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/icons/"

Alias /myapps/ "C:/MyBackbaseProjects/"
Alias /Backbase/ "C:/Backbase/3_1/"

<Directory "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/icons">

Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

<Directory "C:/MyBackbaseProjects/">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from localhost
</Directory>

<Directory "C:/Backbase/3_1/">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from localhost
</Directory>

3. Restart Apache.
4. Test that the installation was successful by entering the URL (and clicking
the text): http://localhost:80/Backbase/skeletons/basic-startup.html

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3.2 Deploy on MS IIS
To configure MS IIS:
1. Start the MS IIS console: Choose Start->Control Panel->Admin Tools
2. Select the Default Web Site node and choose New->Virtual Directory

3. In the Virtual Directory Creation Wizard, enter an Alias for your Web
application, for example Backbase.
4. Browse to the directory where you installed Backbase, for example
C:/Backbase, and click OK.
5. Test that the installation was successful; in the /skeletons directory,
select basic-start-up.html, and choose Browse from the popup menu. Click
the text to check the installation.

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 6. Repeat the process to add a virtual directory with an alias
MyBackbaseProjects to enable your Web server to locate your project
directory.

4 Test
Testing describes how to create and test your first Backbase application.

The instructions assume that you have created a directory C:/MyBackbaseProjects

to use as your project directory and configured your Web server to access it.

1. Copy and paste basic-startup.html from /Backbase/3_1/skeletons to

/MyBackbaseProjects
2. Rename the file myFirstApp.html
3. Open the file in a text editor and change the <script> and <body> sections
in the file as follows to enable it to locate the BPC:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:b="http://www.backbase.com/b"
xmlns:s="http://www.backbase.com/s">
<head>
<title>My First Backbase Application</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/Backbase/3_1/bpc/boot.js" ></script>
</head>
<body onload="bpc.boot('/Backbase/3_1/');">

<xmp b:backbase="true">

<div b:action="alert" b:value="You have a working Backbase installation">

Click here to see if your Backbase installation is working
</div>

</xmp>
</body>
</html>

4. Test the configuration in your browser by entering

http://localhost:80/myapps/myFirstApp.html (Apache) or
http://localhost/myBackbaseProjects/myFirstApp.html (IIS)

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4.1 Modify and test project files
When you have got your first Backbase application up and running, add some
functionality then test it:

1. Open myFirstApp.html in a text editor.

2. Replace the contents of the <xmp> </xmp> (the BXML space) with the
following:

<b:box>
<h3>The Seven Samurai (1954)</h3>
<p>A movie by Akira Kurosawa starring Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune.</p>
<p style="display: none" id="sbox-showhide">
The film takes place in war-ridden 16th century Japan, where a village of
farmers
hire seven ronin (lordless samurai) to fight for them against a band of
marauding
robbers. The Seven Samurai is widely regarded as one of the greatest Japanese
films
ever made.</p>
<p b:action="show-hide" b:target="id('sbox-showhide') | a">
<a style="display:none">&lt;&lt;&lt; Show less</a>
<a>Read more &gt;&gt;&gt;</a>
</p>
</b:box>

3. Test the configuration in your browser by entering

http://localhost:80/myapps/myFirstApp.html (Apache) or
http://localhost/myBackbaseProjects/myFirstApp.html (IIS)

4. Click the link to show more contents:

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5 Explore
Explore describes the resources available to help you get started building more
complex Backbase web applications.

Backbase provides starter kits that are sample applications designed to help get you
started developing more complex web applications. You can use the source code
provided by the starter kits as a basis for developing a Backbase Web application.

The starter kits are sample applications that demonstrate the most widely used types
of Web applications. You can access them from the Backbase/3_1/index.html page:

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The starter kits are located folder in your Backbase/3_1/starterkits directory.

You can also open the starter kits in your web browser directly by entering the
following URL: http://localhost:80/Backbase/starterkits/petshop/ (Apache) or
http://localhost/Backbase/starterkits/petshop/index.html (IIS).

The developer tools and reference documentation are available by pressing the Esc
button.

6 Download and unzip production version

The production version of the Community Edition is optimized for deploying a
Backbase application in a production environment. It therefore does not include
developer tools and resources available in the developer version. The installation and
configuration procedures are exactly the same as for the development version.
However, you need to make sure that unzip the production version using the same
directory structure as you used for development, so that you do not need to adjust
the <script> <body onload> path information in your startup file.

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Copyright Notice
Products and technologies mentioned in this document are trade marks or registered
marks of their respective owners.

Backbase may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights or other

intellectual property rights covering the subject matter of this document.

Backbase products include software developed by the Apache Software Foundation

(http://www.apache.org).

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