Where is the installation documentation?

[jonnycavell]

Hi

I may be missing something, but I cannot find any information on the most basic thing - how to install Alfresco (Community Edition) on Windows. There is no reference or link to "installation" from the homepage, and my next choice, clicking on the menu item "Documentation", also yielded a page containing no reference to installation. My third choice, typing "installation" into the search box yielded a few Google results for newsletters, but no installation guide. Next, I downloaded the tutorial pdf, but this assumed I had already installed Alfresco.

Not put off, I went to the wiki -> documentation -> server admin guide -> server installation -> installing on ms windows -> download and install Alfresco. This page had the useful information "Having used Documentum for 10 years, everything I have read on Alfresco seems to make a lot of sense. Here I am : discovering the product, installing it and surely promoting it to my customers if it does what it says. Alfresco yours, Pascal".

None the wiser about how to install Alfresco, I have come here. Help!

[mikeh]

Extremely painful to install the application !!
I had installed an earlier version of alfresco a year ago. The new version is impossible to install cleanly.

That's really not a very useful comment. Do you have anything constructive to recommend about your experience? What operating system were you trying to install on? What database? What problems did you get? etc.

We're looking for constructive feedback here; it's no use just saying "it was too difficult".

Mike

[jeedevelopperfr]

Hello,
I must be the twentith developper to complain about installing Alfresco 3.0. It's not normal that i need to debug  an alfresco production version!
Everything seem to be ok during installation. I use the default database.
But i've errors in the console when launching alfresco :
Something like "Error creating bean … WSDL Manager. JAXB2.0 is loaded but RI …need JAXB2.1. Please use endorsed directory mechanism to  put jaxb-api.jar"
I've put the new version in jaxb-ap.jar in %JAVA_HOME%/lib/endorsed, put it on (TOMCAT_ALFRESCO)/lib/endorsed. It doesn't work.

Any Help???? Or a clear installation documentation???

[mrogers]

That error is already well covered on these forums.
e.g. http://forums.alfresco.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=14849

[jeedevelopperfr]

Alfresco is made by developper for developper i must believe

[jeedevelopperfr]

Ok i imagine it must be difficult for you to manage java and tomcat version compability. It would be useful to test the new version and to put some installation instruction if change is needed. Alfresco seems to be good product and fortunately i'm a developer to understand bugs.

[ianlavey]

I agree with this 3 year old post!

I have found the documentation, but it wasn't easy….

So, I'm new to alfresco, I want to get an idea of what the installation involves, what depedancies, supported platforms, hardware requirements etc etc. I come to alfresco.com, looking for docs. There is no obvious link off the home page - but apparently I can join the community to get the docs. So I register…and just get a home page - http://share.alfresco.com/share/page/user/ianlavey/dashboard -  with no links to anywhere useful. So I go back to the home page and try the 'resources' tab. This offers me a documentation link, but when I log in (again) it's back to my dashboard. No help there then.

Interestingly, when I go through the fist few steps I get to some online docs…which is odd.

So - should the login link on this page: http://www.alfresco.com/products/docs/ actually be http://share.alfresco.com/share/page/site/community/documentlibrary#path=%252FDocumentation ?

Anyway, I think it's a bit rude to require registration to read any of the docs, even pre-install stuff.

Ian.

[dkenned]

It is 29 sep 09.  Okay, I'm eager to try Alfresco, but getting frustrated – probably due to my own lack of ignorance.  I tried Alfresco about three years ago and had a bit of difficulty installing but finally got it going under Windows.  Now I'm running Ubuntu and want to try that.  I downloaded Alfresco-Community-3.2-Linux-x86-install; but I'm a business person, not a techie; so what do I do next?  (If I try to launch it, I get an error message "there is no application for this file type.)  I browsed several sites looking for instructions, all of which seem far more technical than I want to get.  So after a few hours I decided to try the Windows version (I have both XP and Ubuntu on the same notebook).  I downloaded that and to my pleasant surprise it (finally) installed.  I launched, and it "worked"; so I COULD explore there; but it is horribly slow (takes 20 minutes after launch to get to a login point, and over a minute to return the Company Home page).  I'm not sure Alfresco is the problem, but this is too painful to continue.  So I'd like to try Linux again; but is that x86-Install file only for RedHat, or will it work with Ubuntu 8.04?  And most importantly, what do I do with (how do I execute) the Install file?  Make it really simple, please.  I know how to go to terminal mode and issue basic commands, but I'm not a Linux guru.  Here's hoping there's really simple answer and I'm just steps away from using Alfresco under Linux.  BTW, the whole motivation behind this is to learn about the product so I can promote it at work as an ECM that is sorely needed.  Thanks.

PS–a couple hours after the above post…..I found I had to make the Install file executable (right click and change a property) and it launched, ran, and completed within minutes.  Now, how to start Alfresco?  I have a dropdown under applications, but the only choice is to uninstall.  I know have a new folder at /home/[myusername]/Alfresco; should it be somewhere else?  If I browse to localhost:8080/alfresco, I get a page not found.  MySQL shows a 'Alfresco' database, but it has no tables.  Seems like something more needs to happen.  Stumped again.  What's next?

[mikeh]

Note you can now "apt-get install alfresco-community" from the Partner repositiories with Ubuntu 9.04 (see http://www.howtoforge.com/alfresco-community-installer-for-ubuntu-9.04)

Alternatively, there's some help on our own wiki here: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Installing_Alfresco_Lab_3_Stable_on_Ubuntu_8.10

Mike

[rliu]

I've been periodically updating the Installing and Configuring Alfresco Community Edition 3.2. Check there for more information.

…but I'm a business person, not a techie; so what do I do next?

Your ambition is nothing short of admirable. Most business people wouldn't even dare to try install. If all you're looking to do is to test out Alfresco, I believe there is a demo server on Alfresco's website. Otherwise, make good use of this forum.

[norgan]

And if testdriving on alfresco.com is not enough, another option is to install a Virtual mashine with ubuntu server > 9.04 - there you can add an alfresco package. See the Alfresco website for more.  Good luck