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These instructions assume that you are performing a clean install, including emptying an existing database, emptying the VIVO home directory, and removing a previous installation from the Tomcat webapps directory. VIVO may not work as expected if you install over an an earlier version. If you are upgrading an existing service, please consult the Upgrade Instructions for VIVO release 1.6.

The first section entitled A simple installation describes a standard, simple installation for those who want to get VIVO up and running. The second called Installation options section describes several installation optionschoices; some options are intended for a full-scale production installation of VIVO, and some are intended for a person who is developing VIVO on their own machine.

A simple installation

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This section describes the process of getting VIVO up and running on your computer, for testing or experimentation, or just to gain familiarity with the process.

If you want to install VIVO on a production server, or if you want to develop VIVO code, you should also read the section on installation Installation options.

Where is VIVO on your computer?

Preparing for VIVO

Install required software

Create an empty database

Building VIVO

Download the VIVO source code

Before beginning the installation, let's look at the four locations on your computer that will hold VIVO.

The VIVO distribution directory

This is created when you unpack the VIVO distribution file (see Download the VIVO source code, below). This is where you will create your build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below), and where you will make any modifications to the VIVO theme or code. You can create this wherever you choose.

VIVO inside Tomcat

When you run the build script to compile and deploy VIVO (see Compile and deploy, below), the files will be deployed to a directory inside Tomcat. This is the actual executing code for VIVO, but you won’t need to look at it or change it. If you need to change VIVO, make the changes in the distribution directory, and run the build script again. Tell the build script where to find Tomcat by setting tomcat.home in the build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below).

The VIVO home directory

This directory contains the runtime configuration properties for VIVO. VIVO will also use this area to store some of its data. Uploaded image files are stored here, and the Solr search index is stored here also. This is also a place for the files or RDF data that will initialize the VIVO knowledge base. You can create this wherever you choose. Tell VIVO where to find the home directory by setting vitro.home in the build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below). You must create this directory before starting VIVO. You must create the runtime.properties file in this directory (see Specify runtime properties, below), and you must ensure that Tomcat has permission to read and write to this directory when it runs.

The VIVO knowledge base

By default, nearly all of the data that you enter into VIVO will be stored in MySQL. The actual location of this data depends on what system you have, and on how you install MySQL (see Install required software, below). but you won’t need to know the location. You will access the data through VIVO, or occasionally through the MySQL client application.

Preparing for VIVO

Install required software

Before installing VIVO, make sure that the following software is installed on the desired machine:

• Java (SE) 1.7.x http://java.sun.com
  • VIVO has not been tested with OpenJDK
• Apache Tomcat 6.x or 7.x http://tomcat.apache.org
• Apache Ant 1.8 or higher, http://ant.apache.org
• MySQL 5.1 or higher, http://www.mysql.com

Be sure to set up the environment variables for JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME and add the executables to your path, as required. This requirement depends on the operating system you are using. Consult the installation directions from the software support websites.

The following browsers are supported for this release

• Mac:
  • Chrome 30.0.1599.69 and above
  • FireFox 3.6.28, 10.0.12, 24
  • Opera 12.02
  • Safari 5.0.3
• PC:
  • Chrome 25.1364.2 and above
  • FireFox 10.0.12, 24
  • Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10
  • Opera 12.02

You can test the software installation by typing these commands:

java -version
mysql --version
ant -version

Each of these command should print a response that tells you what version is installed. If any of these commands prints an error message, or reports an unexpected version number, you should review your installation.

Create an empty database and a database account

Decide on a database name, username, and password.You will need these values for this step, and again when you Specify runtime properties.

Log into your MySQL server and create a new database in MySQL that uses UTF-8 encoding. At the MySQL command line you can create the database and user with these commands substituting your values for dbname, username, and password. Most of the time, the hostname will be localhost.

CREATE DATABASE dbname CHARACTER SET utf8;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username'@'hostname' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Building VIVO

Download the VIVO source code

Download the VIVO application source as either rel-1.6.zip or rel-1.6.gz file and unpack it on your web server:
http://vivoweb.org/download

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Specify build properties

At the top level of the VIVO distribution directory, copy the file example.build.properties to a file named simply build.properties. Edit the file to suit your installation, as described in the following table.

These properties are used in compiling VIVO and deploying it to Tomcat. They will be incorporated into VIVO when it is compiled. If you want to change these properties at a later date, you will need to stop Tomcat, repeat the Compile and deploy step, and restart Tomcat.

Compile and deploy

Running VIVO

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Using a database other than MySQL

Using a servlet container other than Tomcat

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