Overview
Yellowfin generally is installed via its own branded installer. However, the use of a silent installer allows Yellowfin to be wrapped into the existing application‟s installer, deploying “silently” in the installation process.
The installers would essentially be a wrapper around the Yellowfin silent installer.
The installer will create the Yellowfin database and aggregate information about the application. This aggregated information gets inserted into some properties files which enable clients to create the data sources OOTB on the installation. Yellowfin provides a command line java process to do this.
The installation process may also invoke the content import (another java procedure) to pre-load content on installation and by calling the deployment descriptor include the Yellowfin database connection details.
In additional to this, initialisation steps can be performed on the start up of the application. On start up, make sure that the configuration settings are correct
(dashboard width, custom header, support email address, etc.). Permissions for roles can also be set in a customisable way. For example, because users may be created in the existing system, and then only create users in Yellowfin on Single Sign On, disallow the use of the UI to create/modify/delete users, groups, or roles. This allows all user administration to remain within the existing product.
Download the silent installer jar
The silent command-line installer is available for download please contact Yellowfin to get the latest version.
1. It can be run using the following command from the command line:
java -jar <yfsilentinstall-file name>.jar install.properties.txt
2. Ensure that the properties options are specified via the associated properties file.
3. If successful, it won't print anything out and exits with return code 0.
4. On error, an error message will be printed out and a non-zero value returned. The installation process will be logged in more detail to a file in the installation directory (specified in the properties file).
Silent Installer Properties File
# Yellowfin silent installer properties file
# Properties for installer:
# Java Home path - Not required. Defaults to the current JVM home.
#
#JavaHome=C:/j2sdk1.4.2
#JavaHome=/usr/local/j2sdk1.4.2
# Installation path - Required.
#
#InstallPath=C:/Program Files/Yellowfin
#InstallPath=/usr/local/Yellowfin InstallPath=C:/Program Files/Yellowfin
# Install Tutorial Database? - Not Required. Defaults to True.
# Options: True, False
#
InstallTutorialDatabase=True
# Licence File - Not required, but user will need to upload on first login to Yellowfin.
#
#LicenceFilePath=C:/Licence.lic
#LicenceFilePath=/home/peter/Licence.lic
# TCP Port - Not Required. Will default to Port 80 if none specified.
#
ServicePort=8080
# Install a system service? - Not required. Windows only. Defaults to False.
# Options: True, False
#
#InstallService=True
# Yellowfin Database Type - Required
# Options: SQLServer, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, Ingres, Progress
#
DatabaseType=PostgreSQL
# For SQL Server Only: SQL Server Authentication or Windows Authentication. Not Required, Default "SQL"
# Options: SQL, Windows
#
#Authentication=SQL
# For SQL Server Only: Windows Authentication Logon Domain name. Required if Authentication=Windows.
#
#LogonDomain=WorkGroup
# For Progress Only: Path to Client Networking tools for JDBC Type 2 driver.
#
#ProgressDriver=/usr/dlc/java/jdbc.jar
# Create new Yellowfin DB / or use existing - Not required. Default True.
# Options: True, False
# Note: database creation is only supported for the following DatabaseTypes:
# MySQL
# Create new tables in the Yellowfin DB - Not required. Default True.
# Options: True, False
# Note: This property is only used if CreateYellowfinDB is False.
#
#CreateYellowfinTables=True
# Create new Yellowfin User or use existing - Not required. Default True.
# Options: True, False
# Note: user creation is only supported for the following DatabaseTypes:
# MySQL
# Database Hostname/Ip Address - Not Required. Default "localhost"
#
DatabaseHostname=localhost
# Database Port - Not required, will use default for specified DB.
#
#DatabasePort=1433
# Database Name - Not required, will default to "Yellowfin"
#
DatabaseName=yellowfin
# Database DBA Username - Required.
#
DatabaseDBAUser=system
# Database DBA Password - Required.
DatabaseDBAPassword=
# Database Yellowfin User - Not Required, will default to "YellowfinUser"
DatabaseUser=yellowfin
# Database Yellowfin User Password - Not Required, will default to "password"
DatabasePassword=
Error Messages
The silent installer will output all error messages to stderr, and will return non-zero return codes for specific errors.
Error Codes:
1 – Properties file not specified.
2 – Could not parse properties file.
3 – Installation path is not a directory, or could not be created.
4 – Unable to create log file.
5 – There is no error number 5.
6 – Installation process has failed.
7 – Installation of the tutorial database has failed.
Once the installation has started all activity will be logged to the installation log file in the installation directory.
Deploying inside the Yellowfin tomcat container.
Deploying the existing application within the same tomcat container as Yellowfin means that the code is deployed into the same location as Yellowfin.
Additional JSP pages will be put into Yellowfin/appserver/webapps/ROOT and additional compiled code can be placed in Yellowfin/appserver/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/classes or Yellowfin/appserver/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib (if they are compiled to libraries).
Deploying the application with Yellowfin means that Yellowfin code can be used for accessing the Yellowfin database and Yellowfin internal objects. This is not
documented as there are approximately 20,000 public functions that can be called from inside Yellowfin.
Please consult the user forum or support on what data will need to be accessed in Yellowfin.
If the application is to be deployed in Yellowfin it is good to know how to use the struts framework. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Struts to learn about struts, this is how navigation and form data is managed in Yellowfin.