How to start Hippo server processes on MacOSX (this includes: Hippo Repository, Hippo CMS and Hippo Sites)

Introduction

Apache Excalibur Fortress is a standalone container for server processes.

Each of the Hippo components: the Hippo Repository, the Hippo CMS and sites you develop using the Hippo-Cocoon Maven plugin (optional), run in their own Fortress processes.

Some of the distributions still come with wrappers that only work with Linux and Windows. In order to launch your Hippo components under MacOSX, you need to download a special set, then install them in each of the components.

Installation

First you must download the wrappers and install them in the right place.

• Download the JNI Wrappers for MacOSX, osxfix.zip
• Unzip the downloaded file by double-clicking on it in the Finder :
  • fortress.sh
  • libwrapper.jnilib
  • wrapper.osx
• Identify the relevant /bin/ directories of the Hippo components, eg.
  • Where you have downloaded the components as binaries, the directory is:

    [component directory]/bin/
    

  • Where you have built the components from source, the directory is:

    [component directory]/target/hippo-[component name]-[version]/bin/
    

  • Where you have built your own site using the Hippo-Cocoon plugin, the directory is:

    [site directory]/target/hippo-cocoon-[version]/bin/
    

Launching

Each component is launched as a separate process, you will need to use the Terminal to do this.

• Launch the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
• The easiest way to work is to have one window for each component. Hit Command-N a few times to make enough Terminal windows.
• In each of the Terminal windows, cd to one of the components' /bin/ directories
• Make sure Fortress is executable

  chmod u+x fortress.sh wrapper.bin libwrapper.jnilib
  

• The Hippo Repository should be started first, followed by the Hippo CMS, then your projects
• to start a component, type:

  ./fortress.sh start
  

• to stop a component

  ./fortress.sh stop
  

• to re-start a component

  ./fortress.sh restart
  

• to start a component and be able to see it's log messages in the Terminal window

  ./fortress.sh console
  

After you start a Hippo component, the Terminal should report "Starting Hippo Fortress...", then give you a command prompt again.

Depending on the speed of your Mac, you will have to wait a few moments until each newly launched component is ready to receive requests from a web browser. You will see error messages in the web browser if you hit it too soon.

If you choose you may now log out of that Mac and the Hippo Components will keep running.