IProMonitor - Client / Server Project Management Software

Installation

IProMonitor is a software system composed of various components. The basic components are the Java runtime system and the EJB server you can download from the internet free of charge. The installation and configuration of these components together with the system itself will be explained in combination with the MS-Windows operating system as an example.

But first of all you are requested to read the License agreement and to proceed with the installation only if you agree with the terms thereof.

Basic Requirements

Both the server system and the client systems should reside on computers having a minimum of 128 MB RAM and processors with a minimum clock rate of 1 GHz. Of course you can also install all the software on one computer. In this case a minimum of 256 MB RAM is recommended.

The displays the client systems are connected with should have a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels.

Java Runtime Environment

A Java runtime environment version 1.4.x or higher must be installed on the server and the clients. You can find this out by simply entering
java -version
into the command line. A typical output then should be displayed as follows: 

C:\>java -version
java version "1.4.2_02"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_02-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_02-b03, mixed mode)

If a version below 1.4.x is displayed or if the command is not understood by the command interpreter you can download the Java runtime environment free of charge from SUN Microsystems at
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html
and install it.

EJB Server

The IProMonitor project server is composed of so-called Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components. EJB is a standard defining an infrastructure of distributed server systems based on the Java programming language. Developers providing components for such an infrastructure only need to implement their application-specific access methods as components users can then deploy into an EJB system of their choice.

To make life easier for you, we decided to configure our EJB components for a specific EJB server (JBoss) to spare you further administrative expenses in this respect.

It was easy for us to choose the JBoss EJB server because

  1. it is a stable, excellently designed and high-performance implementation of the EJB standard,
  2. it is already provided with a database,
  3. it can be run with minimum administrative efforts,
  4. it has an important share in the market and is well supported, and
  5. it is free of charge for you.

We have tested our system together with the JBoss EJB server versions 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5 and 4.0.2. We recommend installing the latest of these versions (4.0.2), which you can download free of charge from
http://sourceforge.net ....

In the following we assume that you have extracted the JBoss installation file to C:\ and we reference the directory C:\jboss-4.0.2 created in the process as JBossHome in our further description. If you have extracted the file into a different directory or if you have installed a different version you have to take into account this JBossHome declaration accordingly.

After extracting the JBoss server installation file

  • the EJB server can be started with the command JBossHome\bin\run.bat
  • and stopped with the command JBossHome\bin\shutdown.bat -S

IProMonitor

The project management software IProMonitor itself can be extracted after downloading into a directory of your choice. If e.g. you have extracted the files to C:\ a directory C:\IProMonitor is created and we will refer to this directory as IProMonitorHome in our further description. If you have extracted the files into a different directory, you have to take into account this IProMonitorHome declaration accordingly.

Next we have to introduce the systems to each other, i.e. the EJB server has to house the server-specific components of the project management system, and the clients of the project management system need to know which EJB server houses these components.

  1. Preparing the EJB server
    To deploy the server-specific components of the project tracking system into the JBoss server you just copy 
    IProMonitorHome\Server\IProMonitorServer.jar
    into the JBoss directory 
    JBossHome\server\default\deploy
    That's all. By the way, it is irrelevant here whether the JBoss server is running while the file is being copied. While running or when the JBoss server is started next time, the database tables are created and the server is configured to communicate with the IProMonitor clients, so that there is nothing more to do for the administrator with regard to the JBoss server.
     
  2. Preparing the clients
    In order for the clients to know how to connect to the server you first have to copy 
    JBossHome\client\jbossall-client.jar
    into the IProMonitor directory 
    IProMonitorHome\Client
    Next the client has to know on which computer the EJB server is running. For this purpose you have to edit the file 
    IProMonitorHome\Client\IProMonitor.xml
    This configuration file contains a line 
    <java.naming.provider.url>localhost</java.naming.provider.url>
    describing the network name of the computer where the EJB server is running. Within this line you have to change the entry localhost to the real computer name, and keep in mind not to change the so-called markup (within the angle brackets) because otherwise the application is not able to read the content. If by the way the client should reside on the same computer as the EJB server, this file has not to be changed, because the entry localhost describes exactly this scenario.
    Now the clients are configured and you can copy the directory 
    IProMonitorHome\Client
    to any computer from which the project management system is to be used, and you can start this application by entering the command 
    IProMonitorHome\Client\IProMonitorClient.bat

PLEASE NOTE! Before starting the program for the first time you should keep in mind that the first user logging in is defined as the Administrator and that you should be very careful when entering a password the first time. If you mistype here and the assumed password is not understood by the system more than three times, you have no chance to log in, and you have to reinstall the system. To make life easier you can enter a very simple, one-digit password the first time. Within the system you can then create another Administrator within the Employee Maintenance Dialog to activate you again, if you are locked. Afterwards you can open the Password Dialog to change your simple password.

More information is available in the online documentation of the application (press F1 to view it) under

  • Login and Security and
  • First Steps
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