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<head>
<title>Apache Forrest - quick start</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src="site-author/resources/images/apache-forrest.png" alt="forrest" />
<br /><a href="http://www.apache.org/" class="title">Apache</a>
&gt;<a href="http://xml.apache.org/" class="title">XML</a>
&gt;<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/" class="title">Forrest</a>
<hr />
<h2>What is this?</h2>
<p>
Apache Forrest&trade; software is a publishing framework that transforms
input from various sources into a unified presentation in one or more
output formats. The modular and extensible plug-in architecture of
Apache Forrest is based on Apache Cocoon and the relevant industry
standards that separate presentation from content. Forrest can generate
static documents, or be used as a dynamic server, or be deployed by its
automated facility.
</p>
<h2>What do I do now?</h2>
<p>
Apache Forrest requires that Java 1.5 (or newer) be installed on your
system. If you need help with that, then see the Forrest FAQ. Basically,
if you are only going to use Forrest as-is then you need only the Java
Runtime Environment (JRE) and if you intend to enhance and rebuild Forrest
then you need the full JDK.
</p>
<p>
With a downloaded distribution, Forrest is already built. Just set the
environment variables for convenience: FORREST_HOME to refer to this
top-level of the distribution and add FORREST_HOME/bin to your PATH. That
is it, ready.
</p>
<p>
The source code is also provided, so you can alter it or extend it, and
then re-build by doing <tt>'cd main; build.bat clean; build.bat'</tt>
(Windows) or <tt>'cd main; ./build.sh clean; ./build.sh'</tt> (Unix). If
you need more instructions, then see the
<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/docs/build.html">Building Forrest</a>
document.
</p>
<p>
Forrest is ready to go! Here are some things to try ...
</p>
<h3>Run a local webapp of the Apache Forrest documentation</h3>
<p>
Type <tt>'forrest run'</tt> in the <code>site-author</code> directory. You
can then point your browser to
<a href="http://localhost:8888/">http://localhost:8888/</a> and view the
Forrest documentation generated dynamically. To stop Apache Forrest just
press Ctrl+C.
</p>
<h3>Render the Forrest core documentation</h3>
<p>
Simply type <tt>'forrest'</tt> in the <code>site-author</code> directory.
This will render all of the HTML and PDFs for the Forrest documentation
into the <tt>build/site/</tt> directory. Point your web browser to the
index.html file there.
</p>
<h3>Generate your own site</h3>
<p>
Create a new (empty) directory in your home space, cd to it, and type
<tt>'forrest seed-sample'</tt> which will generate a skeleton directory structure
and template XML. If you like, edit the XML in the
<tt>src/documentation/content/xdocs/</tt> directory. Now type
<tt>'forrest'</tt> to render your new site, or <tt>'forrest run'</tt> to
generate a <a href="http://localhost:8888/">webapp</a> then experiment
with editing docs in <tt>src/documentation/content/xdocs/</tt> and watch
them be instantly rendered.
</p>
<h2>Further information</h2>
<p>
Type 'forrest -projecthelp' to list the available Forrest commands. NOTE:
use the 'forrest.bat' version when running under Cygwin!
</p>
<p>
Install the
<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/tools/forrestbar.html">Forrestbar</a>
a toolbar extension for the Firefox browser. It provides
assisted navigation and search of various Forrest resources.
</p>
<p>
Your distribution has a copy of the Apache Forrest core documentation.
Refer to the online or SVN version for the up-to-date documentation.
</p>
<p>
Release notes are available at
<a href="etc/RELEASE-NOTES-0.9.txt">etc/RELEASE-NOTES-0.9.txt</a>
</p>
<p>
People upgrading from previous versions should see the
<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/docs/upgrading_09.html">Upgrading notes</a>.
</p>
<p>
For further information please read the
<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/docs/your-project.html">Using Forrest</a>
guide. If you have any questions or suggestions, please subscribe to the
<a href="http://forrest.apache.org/mail-lists.html">Forrest mailing
lists</a>.
</p>
<p>
Thanks for using Apache Forrest.
</p>
<hr />
<p>
Copyright 2002-2011 The Apache Software Foundation.
</p>
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