.. -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

.. _SetUpWindowsEnv:

Installing a development environement on Windows

================================================

Setting up a Windows development environment is not too complicated

but it requires a series of small steps.

We propose an example of a typical |cubicweb| installation on Windows

from sources. We assume everything goes into ``C:\\`` and for any

package, without version specification, "the latest is

the greatest".

Mind that adjusting the installation drive should be straightforward.

Install the required elements

-----------------------------

|cubicweb| requires some base elements that must be installed to run

correctly. So, first of all, you must install them :

  (`Download Python <http://www.python.org/download/>`_).

  You can also consider the Python(x,y) distribution

  (`Download Python(x,y) <http://code.google.com/p/pythonxy/wiki/Downloads>`_)

  as it makes things easier for Windows user by wrapping in a single installer

  applications (including Eclipse + pydev, which is an arguably good

  IDE for Python under Windows).

* `Twisted <http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/>`_ is an event-driven

  networking engine

  (`Download Twisted <http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/>`_)

* `lxml <http://codespeak.net/lxml/>`_ library

  (version >=2.2.1) allows working with XML and HTML

  (`Download lxml <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/lxml/2.2.1>`_)

  an object-relational database system

  (`Download Postgresql <http://www.enterprisedb.com/products/pgdownload.do#windows>`_)

  and its python drivers

  (`Download psycopg <http://www.stickpeople.com/projects/python/win-psycopg/#Version2>`_)

* A recent version of `gettext`

  (`Download gettext <http://download.logilab.org/pub/gettext/gettext-0.17-win32-setup.exe>`_).

* `rql <http://www.logilab.org/project/rql>`_,

Install optional elements

-------------------------

We recommend you to install the following elements. They are not

mandatory but they activate very interesting features in |cubicweb|:

* `python-ldap <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-ldap>`_

  provides access to LDAP/Active directory directories

  (`Download python-ldap <http://www.osuch.org/python-ldap>`_).

* `graphviz <http://www.graphviz.org/>`_

  which allow schema drawings.

  (`Download graphviz <http://www.graphviz.org/Download_windows.php>`_).

  It is quite recommended (albeit not mandatory).

Other elements will activate more features once installed. Take a look

at :ref:`InstallDependencies`.

Useful tools

------------

Some additional tools could be useful to develop :ref:`cubes <AvailableCubes>`

with the framework.

* `mercurial <http://mercurial.selenic.com/>`_ and its standard windows GUI

  (`TortoiseHG <http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/>`_) allow you to get the source

  code of |cubicweb| from control version repositories. So you will be able to

  get the latest development version and pre-release bugfixes in an easy way

  (`Download mercurial <http://bitbucket.org/tortoisehg/stable/wiki/download>`_).

* You can also consider the ssh client `Putty` in order to peruse

  mercurial over ssh (`Download <http://www.putty.org/>`_).

* If you are an Eclipse user, mercurial can be integrated using the

  `MercurialEclipse` plugin

  (`Home page <http://www.vectrace.com/mercurialeclipse/>`_).

Getting the sources

-------------------

There are two ways to get the sources of |cubicweb| and its

:ref:`cubes <AvailableCubes>`:

* download the latest release (:ref:`SourceInstallation`)

* get the development version using Mercurial

  (:ref:`MercurialInstallation`)

Environment variables

---------------------

You will need some convenience environment variables once all is set up. These

variables are settable through the GUI by getting at the `System properties`

window (by righ-clicking on `My Computer` -> `properties`).

In the `advanced` tab, there is an `Environment variables` button. Click on

it. That opens a small window allowing edition of user-related and system-wide

variables.

We will consider only user variables. First, the ``PATH`` variable. Assuming

you are logged as user *Jane*, add the following paths, separated by

semi-colons::

  C:\Documents and Settings\Jane\My Documents\Python\cubicweb\cubicweb\bin

  C:\Program Files\Graphviz2.24\bin

The ``PYTHONPATH`` variable should also contain::

  C:\Documents and Settings\Jane\My Documents\Python\cubicweb\

From now, on a fresh `cmd` shell, you should be able to type::

  cubicweb-ctl list

... and get a meaningful output.

Running an instance as a service

--------------------------------

This currently assumes that the instances configurations is located at

``C:\\etc\\cubicweb.d``. For a cube 'my_instance', you will find

``C:\\etc\\cubicweb.d\\my_instance\\win32svc.py``.

Now, register your instance as a windows service with::

  win32svc install

Then start the service with::

  net start cubicweb-my_instance

In case this does not work, you should be able to see error reports in

the application log, using the windows event log viewer.