Simplify NXT installation and configuration

Issue #23 resolved
Lior Yaffe created an issue

Yesterday I setup my first NXT VPS node (107.170.3.62). I think the product is impressive but its not user friendly. In order to bring it to mass market adoption (especially for Windows users) it has to be simplified.

My proposal are as follows 1. Embed Jetty inside NXT instead of running NXT as a web application inside Jetty, see: http://www.eclipse.org/jetty/documentation/current/embedding-jetty.html

This will considerably simplify the setup since: a. Instead of manually editing the web.xml to add your IP address and other parameters you can use your own NXT property file and allow users to edit it using a web page. Some of the configuration changes can be reflected automatically without requiring a server restart. b. server stop and start can be automated using .bat / .sh files c. class loading issues related to web application deployment are no longer an issue. d. simpler control of the environment (memory, threads etc). e. deploy the server as a signed Jar file and thus eliminating the risk of folks creating their own unofficial copies (I don't think I can explain my mother how to verify her server download using MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility.exe2).


Create an installer based on a pure Java tool like Izpack (http://izpack.org/) the installer can (a) install Java JRE at least on Windows (b) configure the properties file discussed above with the machine IP address (c) optionally generate the hallmark (d) serve as basis for automatic update.


Create exe wrappers at for the start and stop scripts using a tool such as JavaExe (http://devwizard.free.fr/html/en/JavaExe.html) again, asking users to run Java from the command line will deter many Windows users and this utility provides a simple alternative.

Comments (2)

  1. Jean-Luc Picard repo owner

    The switch to embedded jetty has been done. The rest of this is really something that those creating windows packages and installers should take care of.

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