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h1. How toChecking check out and then buildbuilding Felix with in NetbeansNetBeans

In this how-to we go over the process of checking out and then building Felix from source all from with in the NetBeans IDE.

h2. Required Software:

# NetBeans 6.1 - You can get NetBeans [Here|http://download.netbeans.org/netbeans/6.1/final/]
# Subversion command line client - NetBeans uses the subversion command line client for its subversion integration. You can get the subversion command line client [here|http://subversion.tigris.org/] or if you are working on a Unix machine it will most likely be in your os's package repository.
# NetBeans Maven plugin - You can install this from with in NetBeans by selecting Tools->Plugins then choose the Maven plugin from the Available Plugins tab and press the Install button on the bottom of the dialog. For a good introduction of what you can do with this plugin see [MavenBestPractices|http://wiki.netbeans.org/MavenBestPractices] on the NetBeans wiki.
# Maven - You will also need a local install of maven to complete this how-to as well. You can find maven [here|http://maven.apache.org/]
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{note:title=Why do we need maven}The NetBeans Maven plugin comes prepackaged with Maven so why do we need a local copy of Maven? The version of Maven that comes prepackaged with NetBeans is 2.1-SNAPSHOOT which currently has issues building Felix so we need a copy of the current release version of Maven installed locally so we can use that instead.
{note}

h2. Check out Felix

*1)* From NetBeans main menu select Versioning->Subversion->Checkout as shown in Figure1
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure1 : NetBeans Subversion Menu{color}
!figure1.png!
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*2)* Now we need to fill in the checkout dialog box. For this dialog box all we need to do is fill in the Repository URL (See below for a what this should be). Once you have set the Repository URL you can press the Next button. See Figure2 for what the dialog should look like when you are done.
{noformat}Repository URL: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/felix/trunk{noformat}
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure2 : NetBeans checkout dialog box{color}
!figure2.png!
{div}

*3)* In the next panel of the checkout dialog box we need to set where we want to put the source code as well as some parameters that will get passed to the subversion client. 
* Repository Folder(s) - This should be set for you but if it is not it should be "felix/trunk"
* Repository Revision - Leave this one blank. *NOTE:* If you want to check out a particular version of felix you can put the revision number here and that revision will be checked out. For our purposes here we want to get the latests revision. 
* Skip "trunk" check box - Check this. This option means that the source code will be checked out into the root of the folder/directory that we supply.
* Local Folder - This is the location that the source code will be checked out to. You can press the browse button to select a directory. *NOTE:* If you need to create a sub directory pick the parent then in the edit box add it to the path. It will be created for you during the check out. 
* Scan for NetBeans Projects after checkout check box - You can either uncheck this or leave it checked. Either way NetBeans will not open any of the projects because there are approximately 183 projects in the Felix source tree. Later we will pick the specific project we need for compiling Felix. 

Once you have filled in the second panel of the checkout dialog press the "Finish" button at the bottom of the dialog. See Figure3 for how the dialog should look. 
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure3 : NetBeans checkout dialog box (panel 2){color}
!figure3.png!
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*4)* It may take a while for the check out to complete. If you want to see what is happening take a look at the output window at the bottom of the NetBeans window. If you don't see it select Window->Output->Output to make it display. You should see something like what is shown in Figure4
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure4 : NetBeans output window{color}
!figure4.png!
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*5)* If you left the "Scan for NetBeans Projects after checkout" check box checked you will see the dialog in Figure5 when subversion finished checking out Felix. For now just press the cancel button. 
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure5 : NetBeans open project dialog{color}
!figure5.png!
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*6)* This concludes the section on checking out the Felix source code.

h2. Building Felix
In this section we will be going over how to build Felix from within NetBeans. 

*1)* Setup external Maven in NetBeans
Before we can build Felix we need to setup NetBeans so that it can use our external Maven instead of the one bundled with the Maven plugin. You do this in the NetBeans options dialog (Tools->Options). Select the "Miscellaneous" icon at the top of the dialog. Then select the "Maven 2" tab. What we want to do here is tell NetBeans where we installed Maven. You can press the "Browse" button to browse to the directory where you installed Maven. You can leave the rest of the options as they are. See Figure 6 for how this dialog looks and how I have it setup.
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure6 : NetBeans Maven option dialog{color}
!figure6.png!
{div}

*2)* Open the Felix project folder
New we need to open the Felix build project folder. This will be the "pom" project. It is located in the directory where you checked out the source code. When you locate it select the project and press the "Open Project" button. See Figure 7 for how this looks.
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure7 : NetBeans Open Project dialog{color}
!figure7.png!
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When the project is opened your "Projects" pane should look something like Figure 8
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure8 : NetBeans Project pane{color}
!figure8.png!
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*3)* Configure the Project
We now need to change one aspect of the project configuration. So right click on the project and select the "Properties" menu item. Then select "Actions" category. What we need to do here is check the "Use external Maven for build execution" check box. Once you have done this you can press the "OK" Button. See Figure 9 for how this should look.
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure9 : NetBeans Project properties dialog{color}
!figure9.png!
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*4)* Select a build profile
Felix is built in two phases. These two phases are controlled by Maven profiles so we want to set the profile that we want to build. You do this by right clicking on the project then select profiles->packaging-plugins to select the profile. See Figure 10
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure10 : NetBeans Project profiles{color}
!figure10.png!
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*5)* Build Felix plugins
Now that we have selected the correct profile all we have to do is build it. Right click on the project and select the "Clean and Build" menu item. You should see something like Figure 11 when the build is completed. *NOTE:* If you have not done this before it may take a little while as Maven will need to download a bunch of bundles. 
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure11 : plugins build output{color}
!figure11.png!
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*6)* Build Felix bundle
Now that we have built the plugins it is time to build the felix bundle. Like in step 4 we Right click on the project and select profiles->packaging-plugins (to unselect it) then do it again but this time select profiles->packaging-bundle. Once you have done that you can "Clean and Build" the project. See Figure 12 for what you should see in the output window when the build completes. 
{note:title=Did you get a OutOfMemoryError during the bundle build?}
The Felix bundle build some times will throw this error. Just try to build it again and it should go away after you do it a couple of times as there will be less to build each time. Or if you want you can increase the memory available to Maven. I have found that setting the environment variable MAVEN_OPTS to "-Xmx1024m -Xms512m" would allow me to build Felix completely the first time though. It should be noted that if you change this you may need to shut down and restart NetBeans before Maven will see this environment variable as Maven inherits its environment variables from NetBeans and NetBeans will not get the new or updated variable until you restart it. 
{note}
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{color:#4f81bd}Figure12 : bundle build output{color}
!figure12.png!
{div}

h2. Conclusion 
If every thing went as expected then you should have a built and ready to run Felix installation in the "main" directory under the directory where you checked out Felix. You can now run Felix from the command line by changing to that directory and running this command:
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java -jar bin/felix.jar
{noformat}

h2. Other documentation you may want to read:
* [Integrating Felix with NetBeans|Integrating Felix with NetBeans] - A how-to style document that shows how to run Felix under NetBeans. 
* [Felix usage|Apache Felix Usage Documentation] - Go to the Felix usage page to learn how to launch the Felix framework. 

h2. How to get help
If you need any help or have questions about this document you can ask on the Felix Users Mailing list. See [Felix Mailing lists|mailinglists] for how to subscribe to the list.