Greenstone 3 Installation on Window 7 (64-bit)

In this blog, I’d like to share my experience on installing Greenstone3, a digital library software for building and distributing digital library collections, in my 64-bit version of Windows 7 machine. My installation approach may certainly not be a good one, but it can get the software up and running.

Requirements

• Sun JDK 1.6.0_17 (jdk-6u17-windows-i586.exe)
• Apache Tomcat 6.0.26 (apache-tomcat-6.0.26-windows-x86.zip)
• Greenstone3 (greenstone-3.04-win32.exe)

(Note: Although my machine and OS are 64-bit versions, the software above is all 32-bit).)

The installation procedure is divided into the following main steps.

1. Install Sun JDK
2. Install Apache Tomcat
3. Install Greenstone3
4. Configure Greenstone
5. Configure Tomcat
6. Run Greenstone3

1. Sun JDK Installation

• Double click on the jdk-6u17-windows-i586.exe file to install it into the default directory, which is C:\Program Files (x86)\Java.
• Set JAVA_HOME.
  • Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Environment Variables.
  • Under the System Variables, click the “New…” button.
  • Enter values for the following two variables: Variable name: JAVA_HOME, and Variable value: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\Jdk1.6.0_17.
  • Click the OK button to complete the setup.
• Add Java to the PATH environment.
  • Under the System Variables, click to highlight the “Path” variable.
  • Click the “Edit…” button.
  • Add %JAVA_HOME%\bin to the end of Path’s variable value.
  • Click the OK, OK and OK buttons to complete the setup.

2. Apache Tomcat Installation

• Unzip the “apache-tomcat-6.0.26-windows-x86.zip” file into any directory
• Copy the unzipped directory and paste it into C:\, resulting in C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26 directory.
• Set up Apache Tomcat home path
  • Go to the Environment Variables, using the same approach as used in setting JAVA_HOME above.
  • Click the “New…” button.
  • Enter values for the following two variables: Variable name: CATALINA_HOME, and Variable value: C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26.
  • Click the OK, OK and OK buttons to complete the setup.
• Test the Apache Tomcat installation
  • Open a web browser
  • Type: http://localhost:8080/ in the address bar.
  • The Apache Tomcat startup page should be displayed.

3. Greenstone3 Installation

• Double click on the greenstone-3.04-win32.exe file.
• Install it into C:\Users\YourUserName directory where YourUserName is the user name used in your machine such as John.
• During the installation, install everything but exclude Apache-Tomcat (by unchecking the textbox) that comes with Greenstone3.
• The installed directory would be C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3.

4. Greenstone3 Configuration

• Edit the greenstone3.xml in the C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3\resources\web\tomcat by replacing @gsdl3webhome@ with C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3\web for the docBase= variable.
• Copy and paste the edited greenstone3.xml file into C:\apache-tomecat-6.0.26\conf\Catalina\localhost.
• Edit build.properties file in the C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3 directory by adding "C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26" to the tomcat.installed.path variable in the file (This step is required for running Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)).

5. Apache Tomcat Configuration

• Copy and paste all the .dll files in the C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3\lib\jni directory into C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26\bin directory.
• Copy and paste all the .jar files in the C:\Users\YourUserName\Greenstone3\lib\jni directory into C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26\lib directory.

(Note: I know that there is a better way to set up these .dll and .jar files for Tomcat server, but I still do not know how to do it yet.)

6. Running Greenstone3

• Start the Apache Tomcat server
  • Open a command prompt.
  • Issue a command to change directory to the C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.26\bin
  • Issue the following command: startup.bat
• Open the Greenstone3 web server
  • Open a web browser
  • Type: http://localhost:8080/greenstone3/ in the address bar.
  • The Greenstone 3 welcome page should shown up. On this page, there are four hypertext links.
    • Run the test servlet.
    • Run the default library servlet.
    • Run the ‘standard’ servlet.
    • Run the gateway servlet.
  • The top three links should be working well. The bottom link requires Apache Axis to be installed. (Note: I have not tried it.)
• Run the Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)
  • Open a command prompt.
  • Issue a command to change directory to C:\Users\YourUserName\gli directory.
  • Issue the following command: gli.bat. The GLI should be activated successfully.

(Note: I am still not able to run GLI from All Programs > Greenstone-3.04 > Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI).)

Concluding Remarks

I was spending so much time to get this Greenstone3 up and running on my 64-bit version of Windows 7 machine, a lot of googling and hair pulling. Well, I am glad that I can get it working eventually although some more things need to be done such as running GLI from the All Programs menu of Windows 7. Anyway, I hope that this blog will save you guys time and resources. Have fun and have a good day.