2.3 Installing the SpringSource Tool Suite

The SpringSource Tool Suite (STS) is a development environment based on Eclipse that is already configured with the plugins needed to work with Web Server and OSGi. Although the steps are similar, the details of installing STS depend on the operating system.

Go to the STS download site (http://www.springsource.com/products/springsource-tool-suite-download) and download the variant appropriate to the operating system being used. This guide is consistent with STS version 2.5.0.RELEASE. Previous versions may not work properly with the latest revision of GreenPages, currently 2.3.0.RELEASE.

It is possible to use vanilla Eclipse, and add the SpringSource Tools to it. Please refer to the installation instructions in the Virgo Programmer Guide.

Installing STS on Windows™ operating systems

Unzip the download of STS to the root directory of a drive (this will avoid possible problems with long pathnames).

prompt> cd C:\
prompt> "%JAVA_HOME%"\bin\jar xf \full…path…to\springsource-tool-suite-2.5.0.RELEASE-e3.6.1-win32.zip

To verify the installation, run the eclipse.exe (or sts.exe) executable in the unzipped directory and check that STS displays a welcome panel. The first time there may be a short delay due to the initial set-up of indexes.

Installing STS on UNIX™ operating systems

Unpack the download of STS to a suitable location on the file system, such as /opt or, if root access is not available, the home directory. (If the download was automatically unpacked by the operating system, simply move the unpacked directory to the chosen location.)

To verify the installation, run the STS executable (STS.app on Mac OS X) in the unpacked directory and check that STS displays a welcome panel. The first time there may be a short delay due to the initial set-up of indexes.

Note about Java versions in STS

SpringSource Tool Suite runs on Eclipse using Java Version 1.6, and Web Server requires Java Version 1.6. The GreenPages application built here also requires Java Version 1.6. The default Java compiler settings in STS should not need adjusting, but should be checked.