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For more info contact us at support@actitime.com

Installation Guide: Custom installation package for Microsoft Windows

 


System Requirements

  1. Java SDK

    actiTIME requires Java 2 SDK 1.4.2 or higher which may be obtained at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. (This link points to the latest release of JDK. To get a previous JDK release use the following links: J2SE 5.0 or J2SE 1.4.2.)

  2. Apache Tomcat Application Server

    actiTIME requires Tomcat 4.1.x or higher which may be obtained at http://tomcat.apache.org/index.html

    NOTE: It is strongly recommended to install Tomcat into a directory which name and path do not contain spaces.

  3. MS Access

    If you want actiTIME to work with MS Access database, you will need Microsoft Data Access Objects(DAO) 3.0 or later installed.

    Microsoft DAO is installed as a part of MS Access 97 or higher as well as a part of Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. If you want to install actiTIME on other Windows operating systems which do not have MS Access 97 or higher installed, you can install Microsoft DAO as a part of Microsoft Jet 4.0 Database Engine as described at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114/

    Please choose the MS Access database only if the expected number of actiTIME users is less than ten (10). Otherwise, please consider using the MySQL database platform to avoid performance degradation and collisions when updating data.

  4. MySQL

    If you want actiTIME to work with MySQL database it will need MySQL 4.1.17+, 5.0.x or 5.1.x installed (you can download MySQL installation package from http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html).

    Please note that this version of actiTIME was not tested for compatibility with MySQL 6.0. So it is not recommended to use it with the current version of actiTIME.

  5. Version of Microsoft Windows

    actiTIME supports Microsoft Windows 2003, XP, 2k, and NT 4.0 SP6 and Vista.

Installing actiTIME

  1. Unzip installation package (for actiTIME Basic this file is named actiTIME15_windows.zip) into a local directory. Subdirectory 'actiTIME' will appear. Note that if you extract the archive into the '<tomcat home>\webapps' you will only need to restart Tomcat server. Otherwise you will have to configure Tomcat to make it able to run actiTIME in another directory.

  2. Enter the 'actiTIME' directory.

  3. If you want actiTIME to work with MS Access database one of the following scripts without parameters:

    • setup_access_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • setup_access.vbs otherwise

    If you want actiTIME to work with MySQL database server you must create a MySQL user account with all privileges on the database that will be created during the subsequent steps of installation. The default name of this database is 'actiTIME'. You can choose any other name, but then you have to specify this name as a parameter for the installation script.

    Launch one of the following scripts:

    • setup_mysql_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • setup_mysql.vbs otherwise

    Both these scripts have the same launch format:

    (script name).vbs [/mysqlhome <MYSQLHOME>]
                      [/username <USERNAME>] [/password <PASSWORD>]
                      [/host <HOST>] [/port <PORT>] [/dbname <DBNAME>]


    where

    <MYSQLHOME> - The path to the MySQL installation directory. If not specified, setup script will ask for it when running.

    Setup script will then search for MySQL executable file at the following location: <MYSQLHOME> + "/bin/mysql".

    <USERNAME> - the MySQL user name under which actiTIME will create and use the database. If not specified, setup script will ask for it when running.

    <PASSWORD> - the password of user <USERNAME>. If not specified, setup script will ask for it when running.

    <HOST> - host name of the the server where MySQL server runs. if not specified the local host is assumed. Required if actiTIME has to use a remote MySQL database.

    <PORT> - port on which MySQL server is running. If not specified the default MySQL port will be used

    <DBNAME> - the name of the database to be created. If not specified 'actiTIME' will be used as the database name.

    NOTE: If the script finds the previous version of the actiTIME database then it will back up the database to the actiTIME.mysql4.sql.backup_[current date] file.

  4. If you are using Tomcat 5.5.27 or Tomcat 6.0.17+, add the following parameter to the configuration file '<tomcat home>\conf\catalina.properties':

    org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false

  5. Make necessary activities to the Tomcat application server if you want to run actiTIME in non-default configuration (different port, virtual host etc.).

    1. If you want to configure actiTIME to work via secure connections (HTTPS) you can use Tomcat's facilities, but it will significantly decrease the system performace since Tomcat's HTTPS module is built on Java and requires considerable computational resources.

      It is better to use Tomcat together with Apache web server (http://httpd.apache.org/). In this case secure requests will be processed without serious loss of performance. Apache HTTP server will handle HTTPS requests, decrypt them and then transfer decrypted data forwards to Tomcat. To make it work this way see the Tomcat and Apache documentation.

    2. If you want to run Tomcat with "-security" option, you will need to add special permissions to $CATALINA_HOME/conf/catalina.policy file (or $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat.policy depending on the Tomcat version). Set of permissions depends on Tomcat version and its configuration.

      Examples of lines to add for different server versions are listed below:

      Tomcat 4.1:

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actiTIME/-" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
        // put permissions specific to the type of
        // used database here (see below)
      };

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actiTIME/WEB-INF/lib/*" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessDeclaredMembers";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read";
      };

      Tomcat 5.5.23:

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actitime/-" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
        permission java.io.FilePermission "<<ALL FILES>>", "read";
        //put permissions specific to the type of
        //used database here (see below)
        //note that each pemission shall be written in one line

        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.jasper.compiler";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.jasper.compiler.*";
      };

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actitime/WEB-INF/lib/*" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessDeclaredMembers";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read";
      };

      Tomcat 6.0.14:

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actitime/-" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
        permission java.io.FilePermission "<<ALL FILES>>", "read";
        //put permissions specific to the type of used database here
        //(see below)
        //note that each pemission shall be written in one line

        permission java.net.NetPermission "specifyStreamHandler";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessDeclaredMembers";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina.core";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina.core.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina.util";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina.util.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.catalina.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.javax.servlet.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.sun.util.logging.resources";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.sun.util.logging.resources.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.tomcat.util.buf";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.*";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.coyote";
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "accessClassInPackage.org.apache.coyote.*";
      };

      grant codeBase "file:<PATH>/actitime/WEB-INF/lib/*" {
        permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "getClassLoader";
        permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read";
      };

      where
      <PATH> - path to the actiTIME directory or '${catalina.home}/webapps' if actiTIME is installed to webapps directory.
      If you use MySQL database, then add the following permission to 1-st block of permissions:

      permission java.net.SocketPermission "<HOST>:<PORT>", "connect,resolve";

      where
      <HOST> - host name or IP of the the server where MySQL server runs.

      <PORT> - port on which MySQL server is running (MySQL uses port 3306 by default).
      If you use MS Access database, then add the following permission to 1-st block of permissions:

      permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "loadLibrary.<ACCESS_DRIVER_PATH>";

      where
      <ACCESS_DRIVER_PATH> - shall be replaced with the value of the 'IzmDllPath' parameter taken from the
      '${catalina.home}/webapps/actitime/WEB-INF/classes/com/actimind/actitime/AT.properties' file.
  6. Restart Tomcat.

    Now you can access actiTIME via web browser http://<server name>:8080/actiTIME if Tomcat is configured by default and actiTIME is installed into the '<tomcat home>\webapps' directory).

    Login as user 'admin' with password 'manager' to configure system users.

Upgrading actiTIME from a previous version


We have done our best to ensure that your data stays safe. However it is strongly recommended that you make a backup of actiTIME files prior to upgrading actiTIME.

If current installation works with MySQL database, then it is also recommended that you backup actiTIME database. Please refer to the backup instruction.

  1. Stop Tomcat server.

  2. Unzip the installation package (for actiTIME Basic this file is named actiTIME15_windows.zip) to the parent directory of the 'actiTIME' directory (directory where actiTIME is installed). This will overwrite files of existing actiTIME installation with their new versions.

  3. Enter the 'actiTIME' directory.

  4. If current installation works with MS Access database launch one of the following scripts without parameters:

    • setup_access_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • setup_access.vbs otherwise

    If current installation works with MySQL database server launch one of the following scripts:

    • setup_mysql_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • setup_mysql.vbs otherwise

    Both these scripts have the same launch format:

    (script name).vbs [/mysqlhome <MYSQLHOME>]

    where
    <MYSQLHOME> - The path to the MySQL installation directory. If not specified, setup script will ask for it when running.

    Setup script will then search for MySQL executable file at the following location: <MYSQLHOME> + "/bin/mysql".
    Prior to updating database structure setup script backups database and saves data in a file in the 'actiTIME' directory.

    • For MySQL file name is actiTIME.mysql4.sql.backup_<YYYYMMDDhhmmss>
    • For MS Access file name is actiTIME.access97.mdb.backup_<YYYYMMDDhhmmss>.

    Where <YYYYMMDDhhmmss> is date and time when script was run.

  5. Delete all files from the Tomcat cache directory
    <tomcat>\work\<Engine Name>\<Host Name>\actiTIME\

    Where
    <tomcat> is the directory where Tomcat is installed.

    <Engine Name> - name of the Tomcat engine configured for your installation. Usually is 'Standalone' or 'Catalina'.

    <Host Name> - name of the virtual host configured for your Tomcat installation.

  6. Start Tomcat server.

User Documentation

After actiTIME installation is complete, the full HTML user documentation will be available in the actiTIME interface in the 'Help & Support' menu.

Uninstalling actiTIME

  1. Stop the Tomcat server.

  2. Enter the 'actiTIME' directory.

  3. If you were using actiTIME with MS Access database, backup your database file (actiTIME.access97.mdb) if necessary, and then launch one of the following cleanup scripts without parameters:

    • cleanup_access_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • cleanup_access.vbs otherwise


    If you were using actiTIME with MySQL database and you would like to remove actiTIME database with all the data, launch launch one of the following scripts:

    • cleanup_mysql_vista.vbs if you are using Windows Vista OS.
    • cleanup_mysql.vbs otherwise


    Both these scripts have the same launch format:

    (script name).vbs [/mysqlhome <MYSQLHOME>]

    where
    <MYSQLHOME> - The path to the MySQL installation directory. If not specified, cleanup script will ask for it when running.

    Cleanup script will then search for MySQL executable file at the following location: <MYSQLHOME> + "/bin/mysql".
  4. Delete the 'actiTIME' directory and all its subdirectories.


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