GeoExplorer

These instructions describe how to deploy GeoExplorer assuming you have a copy of the application source code from GitHub.

Getting a copy of the application

To get a copy of the application source code, use subversion:

you@prompt:~$ git clone git://github.com/geodata/GeoExplorer.git

Dependencies

The GeoExplorer repository contains what you need to run the application as a servlet with an integrated persistence layer.

To assemble the servlet or run in development mode, you need Ant. In addition, to pull in external dependencies, you'll neeed Git installed.

Before running in development mode or preparing the application for deployment, you need to pull in external dependencies. Do this by running ant init in the geoexplorer directory:

you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer/
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant init

Running in development mode

The application can be run in development or distribution mode. In development mode, individual scripts are available to a debugger. In distribution mode, scripts are concatenated and minified.

To run the application in development mode, run ant debug:

you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant debug

If the build succeeds, you'll be able to browse to the application at http://localhost:6969/.

By default, the application runs on port 6969. To change this, you can set the app.port property as follows (setting the port to 9080):

you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant -Dapp.port=9080 debug

In addition, if you want to make a remote GeoServer available at the /geoserver/ path, you can set the app.proxy.geoserver system property as follows:

you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant -Dapp.proxy.geoserver=http://example.com/geoserver/ debug

Preparing the application for deployment

Running GeoExplorer as described above is not suitable for production because JavaScript files will be loaded dynamically. Before moving your application to a production environment, run ant with the "dist" target. The "dist" target will result in a war file that can be dropped in a servlet container.

you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant dist

Move the geoexplorer.war file to your production environment (e.g. a servlet container).

GeoExplorer writes to a geoexplorer.db when saving maps. The location of this file is determined by the GEOEXPLORER_DATA value at runtime. This value can be set as a servlet initialization parameter or a Java system property.

The GEOEXPLORER_DATA value must be a path to a directory that is writable by the process that runs the application. The servlet initialization parameter is given precedence over a system property if both exist.

As an example, if you want the geoexplorer.db file to be written to your /tmp directory, modify GeoExplorer's web.xml file to include the following:

<init-param>
    <param-name>GEOEXPLORER_DATA</param-name>
    <param-value>/tmp</param-value>
</init-param>

Using custom profiles

You can run and build GeoExplorer with a custom profile, which will personalize your GeoExplorer instance with a specific environment and configuration, both at build time and at runtime. This specific configuration is pulled from the GEOEXPLORER_DATA location.

So, to use a specific profile, set the geoexplorer.data environment variable:

you@prompt:~$ ant -Dgeoexplorer.data=profiles/my-custom-profile debug

Profile dissection

The default profile can be found in profiles/default directory. Use it as a base profile to setup your own. here are several directories:

• build: Files used at debug or build time.
• The build.properties file will override the generic ant environment variables. Use it to set the development environment, such as app.proxy.geoserver.
• The web.xml file will be used when the war file is built. Use it to set the production environment, such as the final GEOEXPLORER_DATA dir.
• documents: The contents that will be used to render the document tree in the index page.
• templates: A collection of map templates. Used when creating new maps.
• custom: Custom static files, such as custom.css, a profile specific CSS stylesheet.