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Intro

This is an abbreviated guide for Ubuntu-based developers who want to build Mifos from source. See Ubuntu WAR Install if you wish to install Mifos using a pre-built war file instead.

This guide

  • is written for Ubuntu 10.04 for the 32-bit x86 architecture, but may work on other versions
  • attempts to call out steps required for different versions of Ubuntu
  • applies to the current Mifos development code in the version control system in "trunk"

Fixed-width text below is assumed to be entered (or viewed) in a terminal like gnome-terminal or xterm.

Please give feedback on any discrepancies or needed additions or corrections to the developer mailing list.

Quick Start

Install Ubuntu

Download and install

Install prerequisites

Java-6 JDK

The default JDK on Ubuntu is OpenJDK 6, which Mifos should support (at least one developer is successfully using soylatte, the OpenJDK 6 port to Mac OS X).

Oracle/Sun Java-6 is what we recommend for production, so it's the best bet for development, too. Execute the following:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk git-core mysql-server

Notes:

  • running this command more than once has no effect
  • You can make sun-java6-jdk the default for your applications by executing

sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

Tomcat 7

Mifos requires Tomcat 7.x. Download Tomcat tarball from http://tomcat.apache.org/ (look under Downloads → Binary distributions → Core) and unpack it. In the instructions that follow, we'll assume you unpacked Tomcat to $HOME/tomcat7. If you've put it somewhere else, adjust accordingly.

If using extended characters, be sure server configuration includes URIEncoding="UTF-8 " in the Connector definition.

Maven

Download Maven and install following bundled instructions. The "mvn" command must be on your path. The version of Maven we currently recommend is found on Developer Setup.

If you run into java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space during mvn's e.g. javac invocation, an "export MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx512m" helps, best appended to your ~/.profile file.

Set up the database

OPTIONAL: create a file named mifos.cnf in /etc/mysql/conf.d/ and put in it:

[mysqld]
# optional, but saves disk space
innodb_file_per_table

Restart the database for the new settings to take effect.

sudo service mysql restart

Then

  • Create mifos and mifostest databases. Use: 
    ~$ mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE DATABASE mifos;
mysql> CREATE DATABASE mifostest;
mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mifos              |
| mifostest          |
| mysql              |
+--------------------+
  • Grant permissions to user 'mifos' (doing these grants more than once has no effect). If you choose a different user name and password, adjust these instructions accordingly: 
    mysql> GRANT ALL on mifos.* to 'mifos'@'localhost' identified by 'mifos';
mysql> GRANT ALL on mifostest.* to 'mifos'@'localhost' identified by 'mifos';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  • test database connection as user 'mifos' 
    mysql -u mifos -pmifos mifos
...repeat for other databases

Get the source

This page shows you how.

The root of the working copy should be $HOME/mifostrunk.

Create production tables

See "Initializing the Mifos Database" in $HOME/mifostrunk/INSTALL, with one exception: the SQL files in your working copy are in application/src/main/sql. INSTALL assumes you have a release .zip file, with SQL files in sql.

Set up the build - Mifos

Create a Local Properties File.

Database connections

Database connections can be configured by customizing the following settings in your Local Properties File:

main.database=mifos
main.database.user=mifos
main.database.password=mifos
integration.database=mifostest
integration.database.user=mifos
integration.database.password=mifos
acceptance.database=mifostest
acceptance.database.user=mifos
acceptance.database.password=mifos

Build Mifos and run integration, unit and acceptance tests

Execute the following:

cd $HOME/mifostrunk
mvn clean install

Deploy

Execute the following:

cd $HOME/mifostrunk/mifos
cp target/mifos_webapp.war $HOME/tomcat6/webapps/mifos.war

Start Mifos

Set up environment variables for Tomcat:

cat >> ~/.bashrc
export CATALINA_HOME=$HOME/tomcat6
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun

Hit CTRL-D to stop writing to .bashrc, then logout/login or source your ~/.bashrc file as follows:

source ~/.bashrc

If this is a production system, be sure to thoroughly read Configuring Mifos. Some configuration must be performed before starting your Mifos instance for the first time.

Now we're ready to start Tomcat. Execute the following:

cd /tmp
$HOME/tomcat6/bin/startup.sh

Visit http://localhost:8080/mifos/ in a browser to use Mifos. (username: "mifos", password: "testmifos").

Done!

Details

Timezone fix

If you're seeing time-related failures in the unit tests, you may need to alter your timezone. See this post for details.

Tomcat cd to /tmp

In the last step of the quick start guide, you may notice that we actually change to the /tmp directory before starting Tomcat. This is because (currently) the Mifos log writer is somewhat broken and writes a logfile to the current directory. Changing to /tmp avoids cluttering up other directories. Also, in Ubuntu, /tmp is automatically cleaned up on reboot.

Firewalled?

If your machine has a firewall, you need to at least unblock the ports necessary to connect to your Web server. For Tomcat, the default port for serving HTTP traffic is 8080.

Debian Package

There is a shell script to help Ubuntu users install Mifos. See application/release/install-ubuntu.sh in the head repository. There's also a script to build a debian package that works fairly well, it's called resources/linux/build_deb_package.sh. If you are interested in helping us further improve our debian package, please see the volunteer project page.

Security and Encryption

Mifos v1.1 provides no encryption and little security. Current discussion appears to recommend securing HTTP traffic over SSL, and possibly also using a VPN.

Still can't connect to MySQL?

Ensure that a TCP listening socket is active; ensure "skip-networking", if extant, is commented out of the config file.

Running 64-bit Ubuntu?

Use 32-bit Java. While Using a 64-bit Java VM appears to increase Mifos memory requirements. On Ubuntu, a 32-bit Sun JRE is pre-built (the ia32-sun-java6-bin package), and a JDK can be built if needed.

What Next?

Install some Development Tools and start fixing some bugs!

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