Before proceeding to create a new [fleXive] application, make sure you have a working build system, i.e. at least

For running the application you need a working environment including MySQL as described in the installation chapter.

To get started with your first [fleXive] application, open a command shell and change to the directory containing the [fleXive] distribution. Type ant. You should be greeted by the welcome page of the [fleXive] build system:

Buildfile: build.xml

info:
  [flexive]
  [flexive] Welcome to the flexive build tool. Feel free to use the following build targets:
  [flexive]
  [flexive] project.create
  [flexive]     Creates a new flexive project directory.
  [flexive]
  [flexive] component.create
  [flexive]     Creates a new flexive UI component directory.
  [flexive]
  [flexive] db.create
  [flexive]     Create or reset the database schema of a flexive division.
  [flexive]     Warning: if the schema already exists, it will be dropped (i.e. you will lose all data
  [flexive]     stored in the schema).
  [flexive]
  [flexive] db.config.create
  [flexive]     Create or reset the global flexive configuration schema.
  [flexive]
  [flexive] ear
  [flexive]     Create a flexive.ear distribution including any flexive application stored in
  [flexive]     flexive-dist/applications.
  [flexive]
  [flexive] glassfish.libs
  [flexive]     Copies libraries needed for Glassfish compatibility to a directory
  [flexive]
    [input] Please enter a target name, or quit to exit:

Let's create a new project. Type project.create and hit return. You will be asked for a project name. This name will be used as the root directory name for the project, so be careful to include only characters that may appear in filenames and URLs. For a start, enter flexive-test.

[fleXive] will create the project folder in the same directory where the [fleXive] distribution is stored, i.e. in the current parent directory. The major reason for this is that the project references the distribution directory, i.e. it includes all the libraries from the distribution directory and does not use its own copies. Thus new [fleXive] projects use little disk space, and you need only one [fleXive] distribution for all your projects.

After confirming your selection, the root directory layout for flexive-test will be created. Your screen should look approximately like this:

    [input] Please enter a target name, or quit to exit:
project.create

check:

project.create:
    [input] Name of the project you want to create:
flexive-test
  [flexive]
  [flexive] Please confirm your input:
  [flexive] Project name:        flexive-test
  [flexive] Base directory:      ../flexive-test
  [flexive]
    [input] Are these settings correct? ([y], n)
y
    [mkdir] Created dir: /home/daniel/dev/idea-workspace/flexive/flexive-test
     [copy] Copying 4 files to /home/daniel/dev/idea-workspace/flexive/flexive-test
     [copy] Copied 14 empty directories to 9 empty directories under /home/daniel/dev/idea-workspace/flexive/flexive-test
     [copy] Copying 1 file to /home/daniel/dev/idea-workspace/flexive/flexive-test
     [copy] Copying 1 file to /home/daniel/dev/idea-workspace/flexive/flexive-test
     [echo] Project flexive-test created successfully. The project root directory is
     [echo] ../flexive-test

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

When the build tool has finished successfully, go to the newly created directory, e.g. cd ../flexive-test. The directory structure contains a blank project structure, which looks like the following:

.
|-- build.xml
|-- lib
|-- resources
|   |-- META-INF
|   |   |-- faces-config.xml
|   |   |-- template.taglib.xml.sample
|   |   `-- web.xml
|   |-- messages
|   |-- scripts
|   |   |-- library
|   |   |-- runonce
|   |   `-- startup
|   `-- templates
|-- src
|   `-- java
|       |-- ejb
|       |-- shared
|       `-- war
`-- web
    `-- index.xhtml

Before examining the directory structure, let's do a quick test if the the environment is working. Type ant. The build should complete successfully, leaving you with some artifacts in the dist/ subdirectory:

To deploy the application, first you need to setup the database schemas. Type ant db.create db.config.create and when prompted for the database schema use the default name, flexive. When the command completed successfully, your can deploy flexive-test.ear and have a working (albeit empty) [fleXive] application, including the backend administration application.

The project root directory contains a build file, build.xml, that can be customized for the project. By default, it builds JAR files for all layers, including an EAR archive. The major subdirectories are: