Introduction

• Any future Expresso / Silverstream issues should be posted to:
  http://www.jcorporate.com under the Expresso forum “Expresso discussions about features, installation, direction & ideas”; Thread “SilverStream App Server”
• Before continuing, it would be wise to confirm that your Silverstream installation starts without any errors. If this is not the case, fix them now.

Required Software

Expresso Source

1. Extract “expresso5-0-4-complete.zip” to a folder eg. “C:\expresso504”. This will be known as <EXPRESSO_HOME> from here on
2. Before creating a WAR and deploying, there are a few additional steps to be followed

Deploying to the file system

1. Silverstream does not currently fully explode web archives to the file system. When WAR files are not deployed to the file system, any getRealPath method call returns null - expected behavior according to the Servlet 2.2 specification
2. Expresso 5.0.4 supports a new system property that solves the getRealPath issue: "+Dexpresso.home=<EXPRESSO_HOME>"
   

Silverstream JSP Include Bug

1. When deploying a JSP to Silverstream, all JSP files are compiled. Many of the Expresso JSP pages use the include directive to import common tag libraries
2. You will encounter a known bug (#35318) where the import directives are not processed properly if you deploy the Expresso WAR without applying a patch. Contact Silverstream to obtain the patch or manually insert the missing imports (very tedious)
   

Deployment Preparation

1. Shut down Silverstream application server
2. If you will be using Oracle as your database instead of Hypersonic, copy classes12.zip (Oracle 8i JDBC classes) from your Oracle installation - normally <ORACLE_HOME>\ora8\jdbc\lib - to <SILVERSTREAM_HOME>/lib
3. Edit <SILVERSTREAM_HOME>/bin/AgJars.conf and under section “MODULE COMMON” add the following line (only if you’re using Oracle):
   $SS_LIB classes12.zip
4. This document does not cover the additional steps that are necessary to configure Expresso to use your Oracle database. Refer to the "Database-specific Setup Notes" section at the Expresso documentation page for more info
   

Build & Deploy WAR File

1. Create the webapps deployment folder for Silverstream: <SILVERSTREAM_HOME>/webapps/
2. From <EXPRESSO_HOME> execute: Ant expresso-binary
3. If the build is successful, you should end up with “expresso5-0-4-bin.war” in <EXPRESSO_HOME>/dist/
4. Open exteNd Workbench:

5. 1. Create a profile for Silverstream server (Edit/Profiles/New)

                    i.      Profile name: Silverstream4

                    ii.      Server type: SilverStream 4.0

                    iii.      Deployment tools directory: <SILVERSTREAM_HOME>/bin/

                    iv.      Rapid Deployment directory: <SILVERSTREAM_HOME>/webapps/

                    v.      Server name: Enter your machine name

                    vi.      Database name: SilverMaster40 (Silvermaster ODBC name)

2. Create Deploy only project (File/New Project/Deploy-only)

                    i.      Archive File: Select the “expresso5-0-4-bin.war” archive created by the Ant build process. It should be located under: <EXPRESSO_HOME>/dist/

                    ii.      Project Type: WAR (war 2.3)

                    iii.      Project Name: expresso504

                    iv.      Project Location: <EXPRESSO_HOME>

3. Create deployment plan (File/New/Deployment/Deployment Plan)

                    i.      Project: expresso504

                    ii.      Destination server type: SilverStream 4

                    iii.      Close and save the deployment plan: Expresso504WARDeplPlan.xml

                    iv.      If asked to mark as the current deployment plan, answer Yes

6. Start the application server using the system property: "+Dexpresso.home=<EXPRESSO_HOME>"
   
7. Deploy the archive (Project/Deploy Archive)
8. Test whether Expresso is up and running by using your browser to access the following URL:

http://localhost/expresso5-0-4-bin/

A screen similar to the following should appear: