This is a step-by-step guide on how to download, compile and configure Sphene's Hibernate Autoadmin to set up something like http://sphene.net:8080/HibernateAutoadmin/ (or .. exactly like it)

Since it should be a very basic tutorial I make a few assumptions:

• We want to use the latest (and greatest) subversion - And you've already got subversion installed !
• You've got Ant installed & java installed.
• We want to use tomcat (instructions probably work for any other application server) and have it up and running - ready for deployment.

1. Requirements

• Subversion
• Ant
• Tomcat

2. Download

Run the following commands:

svn co http://yourhell.com/svn/sphene/hibernateautoadmin/trunk/HibernateAutoadmin
svn co http://yourhell.com/svn/sphene/hibernateautoadmin/trunk/AutoadminTest

This should give you two subdirectories.

3. Compiling

Change into the 'HibernateAutoadmin/meta' directory and run:

ant dist

Now the same for the 'AutoadminTest/meta' directory:

ant buildjar

Very sophisticated, isn't it ? ;)

It should give you two archives:

• HibernateAutoadmin/meta/build/HibernateAutoadmin.war - the deployable web application
• AutoadminTest/meta/build/out/lib/AutoAdminTest.jar - Your small Test application which only consists of a hibernate configuration file including mappings and the corresponding java beans.

4. Deployment

Copy the file HibernateAutoadmin/meta/build/HibernateAutoadmin.war to your tomcat/webapps/ directory.

Now start tomcat so the web application gets deployed. Afterwards you should have a webapps/HibernateAutoadmin/ directory.

Copy the files:

• AutoadminTest/meta/build/out/lib/AutoAdminTest.jar
• AutoadminTest/meta/dist/lib/hsqldb.jar

to your tomcat/webapps/HibernateAutoadmin/WEB-INF/lib directory.

5. Configuration

You need to tell Sphene's Hibernate Autoadmin where to find the hibernate configuration file - and... what database to use.. obviously..

So first of all, copy AutoadminTest/meta/dist/example-hibernate.cfg.xml to your tomcat/shared/classes directory. (You can keep the name hibernate.cfg.xml).

Now we need to set the system variable 'net.sphene.hibernate.cfg' and assign it the value 'example-hibernate.cfg.xml'. For tomcat the easiest way to accomplish this is by editing/creating the file tomcat/bin/setenv.sh (or setenv.bat for windows) and adding the following line:

export JAVA_OPTS="-Dnet.sphene.hibernate.cfg=example-hibernate.cfg.xml"

(On windows use: set JAVA_OPTS="...")

5.1. Database setup

This is probably the most annoying thing of all time.. And since we don't want to setup a real database, let's stick with a simple memory database - HSQL. the example-hibernate.cfg.xml is already configured correctly - but on each startup the data will be erased and the database layout will be recreated from scratch.

5.2. User setup

By default the webapplication is protected by BASIC authentication and requires the role 'autoadmin'. So we need to create this. Edit the file tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml and add the following two lines:

<role rolename="autoadmin" />
<user username="demo" password="demo" roles="autoadmin" />

(You can adjust demo/demo as you like, but autoadmin is defined in HibernateAutoadmin/WEB-INF/web.xml)

6. Enjoy !!!

So. This should be it. You're Done ... Kind of.

Open your browser and head over to http://localhost:8080/HibernateAutoadmin/ and you should see your brand new Sphene's Hibernate Autoadmin interface. Congratulations ;)

7. And Now ?

The next step would probably be for you to remove the example-hibernate.cfg.xml and add the hibernate configuration, mapping and java beans from your own application and try it out in a real-world application.

8. Feedback

If you've tried Sphene's Hibernate Autoadmin please let me know your thoughts in the Forums - Thanks ! :)