Page Comparison

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1. Install Eclipse
2. Install Google Web Toolkit, Google App Engine SDK, and Google plug-in for Eclipse using Eclipse new software from http://www.gwtproject.org/download.html.  Note: if you were using an older version of this plugin you will need to uninstall it and then re-install it to ensure it has GWT 2.7.0 support. Another note: Installing the Google App Engine Maven Integration software made Eclipse error when building the SynapseWebClient. It would not work until I uninstalled it.
3. Install the Maven2Eclipse plugin: http://download.eclipse.org/technology/m2e/releases
4. (Optional) Install the EGit eclipse plugin: http://www.eclipse.org/egit/download/
5. Create a GitHub user account
   
   1. Internal Sage developers will be added as a developer on the project and will be able to push directly
   2. External contributors should fork the repository and submit GitHub Pull Requests for code inclusion

6. Set up Git: https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git

7. Import the project as a maven project
   
   1. File -> Import -> Maven -> Existing Maven Projects
   2. Next, in Root Directory enter the local path to your repository clone
   3. Next, Finish 
8. (Optional) Enable Git Team tracking
   
   1. Now right click on portal (project name) -> Team -> Share Project
   2. Next, Select repository type Git
   3. Next, Check the box "Use or create repository in parent folder of project
   4. Next, Finish 
9. You need to make sure the GWT xml files are on the classpath. All of these resources can be found in src/main/resources and src/test/resources directories. 
   
   1. Right-click on portal (project name) ->Build Path>Configure Build Path...
   2. Remove the "Exclude" filter from the source tab on the src/main/resources and src/test/resources directories.
10. We need to tell the GWT Eclipse-plugin that this is a GWT project. Do this by Right-Clicking on the project in the package explorer and select: Google->Web Toolkit Settings...
    
    1. From the resulting dialog make sure the "Use Google Web Tookit" check box is selected.
    2. Also make sure you are using GWT 2.7.0.8
11. We need to tell the Google plugin where our web app directory can be found.  Right-click on the project in the package explorer and select Properties.
    
    1.  From the tree on the left of the dialog navigate to Google->Web Application
    2. Check the the check box: "This project has a WAR directory"
    3. With the "Browse" button, select "src/main/webapp"
    4. UN-CHECK the "Launch and deploy from this directory"  This is very important, if you keep this checked then Maven will not be able to generate a clean WAR file.  If you see "GWT needs to recompile" when you deploy your WAR then you probably have this box checked.
12. Now that the Portal.gwt.xml file is on the classpath, make sure GWT knows it is the entry point.
    
    1. Right-Click on the project from the package explorer.
    2. Select Google->Web Toolkit Settings...
    3. Under the "entry point modules" you should see "Portal - org.sagebionetworks.web",  if not, then add it with the add button.
13. Now make sure GWT can compile your code
    
    1. Close Eclipse.
    2. From the command line and run 'mvn clean install'
    3. After a successful build, reopen Eclipse.
    4. (Delete?) Google->GWT Compile
    5. (Delete?)The first time you run this you will be asked to select the output directory where GWT will compile the code. You want this to match the Maven WAR output directory, so use "target/portal-<VERSION>-SNAPSHOT"
    6. If you get compilation errors from the JavaScript validator (i.e. NullPointerException), navigate to the project's properties -> JavaScript -> Include Path -> Source, and exclude all files from the source. If an OutOfMemoryError was thrown while compiling, you can click the "Advanced" tab towards the bottom of the Google->GWT Compile window and add "-Xms512M -Xmx1524M" to the VM arguments to increase heap space.
14. In the Portal properties, go to Google->Web Toolkit, and verify that it is using the latest GWT (may not be the default SDK included in the GWT Eclipse plugin).
15. You are ready to run the application in development mode.
    
    1. Right-Click on the project in the package explorer
    2. Select: Run As->Web Application (GWT Super Dev Mode)
    3. Set the run configuration VM Arguments to the following: "-XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Xms512m -Xmx2048m -XstartOnFirstThread".  Also look at your eclipse.ini file (if launching SDM from Eclipse).
    4. Double-click on the link provided in the Development Mode window to view the portal in your browser.  If you get asked what page to start on choose Portal.html.

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1. Change the synapse.version tag to develop-SNAPSHOT.
   1. The synapse.version tag in root pom.xml has the form 2012-08-06-3e90a85-44, it has the date (2012-08-06) and the first 7 chars of the commit hash, 3e90a85.
2. Now, from an up-to-date clone of Synapse-Repository-Services on your local box:
   
   1. cd integration-test
   2. mvn cargo:run

   3. Verify the services are running correctly by visiting http://localhost:8080/services-repository-develop-SNAPSHOT/repo/v1/version you should see something like this:

      Code Block
      {"version":"develop-SNAPSHOT"}

Eclipse Workspace Settings

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We have a shared account to use BrowserStack to test the website for cross browser compatibility issues.
Alternatively, for testing IE on Mac I use VirtualBox with an image provided by Microsoft from modern.IE.  For this to work, in your Windows VM, you will need to map an ip to outer in order to access your local machine (note, Windows UAC requires you to do this as an admin).

How to point to the local stack

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Pointing to prod is especially useful at transitions between releases, so that there is a stack that you can point at.  

Documenting complicated UI in the code

To get the big picture of widget relationships, sometimes it is helpful to have a picture.  We are testing the use of tools like http://asciiflow.com/ to help in these situations.