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Running Prompt Courier requires that you have a Java Virtual Machine installed on
any machine that runs the client or server. Prompt Courier is developed and tested using
Java 1.4.1, but it might work in earlier versions back to Java 1.2.
The first step in installing the system is obtaining the Java binary files. You can obtain these files from the download
page. The same set of files will be used for the client and server -- place these files in a permanent location on your computer. For example,
you may want to place them in /usr/local/promptcourier in Unix or C:\Program Files\Prompt Courier in Windows. In order to use Prompt Courier, you
must set up one server and one or more clients.
If you are installing on Windows, you should also copy the DesktopIndicator.dll into your Windows system directory (C:\Windows\System or C:\Windows\System32 by default).
Running the Prompt Courier Server
To start the server, run the following command in the directory where you placed the binary files:
java promptcourier.PromptCourierDriver -m server
This command will run the server on the default port.
You may also include a -p option followed by the port on which the server will run.
Running the Prompt Courier Client
To run the client, run the following command in the directory where you placed the binary files:
java promptcourier.PromptCourierDriver -h hostname -n username
Above, hostname is the hostname of the host running the server, and username is the name used to identify the
user to other users. You may also include a -p option followed by the port on which the server is running.
Running the command above will not activate all the features of Prompt Courier. Namely, the client will not keep itself up to date with the
server version. To perform this function, Prompt Courier is designed to run with the Pigskin
automatic versioning and deployment system. Follow the instructions provided on the Pigskin web site for setting up a Pigskin server and clients.
Then you must place all of the Prompt Courier binary files on the Pigskin server in the apps folder as described in the Pigskin documentation.
Because Pigskin will automatically download and install the Prompt Courier client files for you, it is not necessary to install Prompt Courier
on all the machines which will act as clients.
Once Pigskin is installed on the client, create a folder where you want the Prompt Courier binary files to reside. Create a batch file (script)
inside that folder that will run Prompt Courier inside Pigskin. The file should look something like this:
java -cp "C:\Program Files\Pigskin" pigskin.PigskinDriver -m wrapper -wrapper-command "java promptcourier.PromptCourierDriver -h hostname -n username" -h hostname -a PromptCourier
The code above should appear all on one line -- even if it doesn't look that way in your browser. In windows, you may want to put the above command
in a shotcut and run javaw instead of java so that ugly DOS window won't come up.
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