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The database connector is a web application and can be deployed under any Servlet container. The connector relies on the JDBC API. You can use any relational database as long as you have a JDBC driver for that databasethat allows you to easily integrate your forms and flows with your external database.

Info

frevvo only supports/certifies the Database Connector running in the tomcat container. Refer to our Supported Platforms for the list of Application Servers and databases supported/certified by frevvo.

The Database Connector can be configured to run in:

  • Any servlet container i.e. the frevvo tomcat bundle - if you have installed the tomcat  In-house bundle you already have what you need.
  • Standalone mode - Cloud customers, who are integrating with their database in their on-premise installation, may prefer this mode as it eliminates the need to run a full application on their in-house server. This mode may also be helpful for in-house customers who want to run the connector on a different server than the installation.

The Database Connector requires a JDBC driver for your database. Some pre-installed drivers are included with the connector. See Install a JDBC driver to see if the driver for your database is provided.

The database connector contains a working sample Derby database with BIRT and MyStore query sets and some test data. This makes it very easy to test if the DB Connector is up and running when your installation is complete.

These instructions apply to Cloud customers who want to run the Database Connector on an in-house server and customers who run and the Database Connector in an in-house environment.

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  1. Verify that Java 8 is installed and the Java_Home environment variable has been configured.
  2. Download the latest version of the tomcat bundle.
  3. Unzip the frevvo zip file into a location of your choice: e.g. c:\frevvo.   We'll refer to this directory below as <frevvo-home>.
  4. Ensure that you do not have another server running on ports 8082 or 8983
  5. Navigate to the <frevvo-home>\frevvo\ext\connectors directory.
  6. Unzip the database.zip file to a temporary location of your choice: e.g. c:\tmp. This will create a folder c:\tmp\database. We'll refer to this directory below as <db-tmp>
  7. Copy <db-tmp>\database.war to <frevvo-home>\tomcat\webapps.
  8. Install the JDBC driver, if required
  9. Start the Insight server. and then start Live Forms.

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    titleClick here for the instructions to start the Insight server and Live Forms

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    Note

    The database.war does not extract after startup. You will not see a database subfolder in the <frevvo-home>\tomcat\webapps directory.

  10. Test the connector installation by copying this URL directly into your browser:

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  1. Verify that Java 8 is installed and the Java_Home environment variable has been configured.
  2. Download the Standalone connector zipfile here.
  3. Unzip the database.zip file to a location of your choice. We will refer to this directory as <db-home>
  4. Install the JDBC driver, if required.
  5. You can start the connector using plain java command or execute one of the files provided to install the DB Connector as a Windows service or *nix console instance:
    1. Choose one of these methods to start the connector:
      1. Method 1: Using java in a command window
        1. Navigate to the <directory where you installed the database connector.
        2. Type java -jar database.war
      2. Method 2: for Windows OS
        1. Install the DB Connector as a Windows service by double clicking the Install-Service.bat file. Click the Start DBConnector Service.bat to start the service.
      3. Method 2 for *nix OS
        1. Execute the  DB Connector.sh shell script for *nix operating systems.
  6. Test the connector installation by copying this URL directly into your browser:

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titleClick here for more information about run options for the Database Connector in Standalone mode

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The database.zip file has the following structure:
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Note the files in the database-connector-2.5.0 directory that are used to manage the Database Connector as services on *nix and Windows operating systems: These files should be run as an administrator.

  • Install-Service.bat - installs the Database Connector on a Windows system as a service named frevvo Database Connector.

  • Uninstall-service.bat - uninstalls the frevvo Database Connector on a Windows operating system

  • Start-DB Connector-Service.bat - starts the frevvo Database Connector on a Windows operating system

  • Start-DBConnector.sh - starts the frevvo Database Connector as a *nix console instance.

  • Restart-DBConnector-Service.bat - restarts the frevvo Database Connector on a Windows operating system

  • Restart-DBConnector.sh - restarts the frevvo Database Connector as a *nix console instance.

  • Stop-DBConnector-Service.bat - stops the frevvo Database Connector on a Windows operating system.

  • Stop-DbConnector.sh - stops the frevvo Database Connector *nix console instance.


There is another option for Linux systems. The Database Connector can also run as a service using systemd

Systemd is the successor of the System V init system, and is now being used by many modern Linux distributions. Although you can continue to use init.d scripts with systemd, it is also possible to launch Spring Boot applications using systemd ‘service’ scripts.Copy the sample service file located in /bin/dbconnector.service to /etc/systemd/system, review it's contents and make sure it is executable.You can now use systemd to manager the dbconnector service:

  • systemctl start dbconnector.service

  • systemctl stop dbconnector.service

  • systemctl restart dbconnector.service

  • systemctl status dbconnector.service

To flag the service to start automatically on system boot use the following command:

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systemctl enable dbconnector.service

Consult the service unit configuration man page for more details. Remember to change the User if you plan to run it as a different user name.

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It is also appropriate to copy the driver into any location that is in the CLASSPATH of your servlet tomcat container. In a tomcat installation another Another location would be <CATALINA_HOME>/lib.

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The In-house tomcat bundle:

  1. Download the lates latest v7.2 tomcat bundle from the frevvo websiteSoftware Downloads Directory.
  2. Extract the files to a location of your choice. We will refer to this directory as <frevvo-home>.
  3. Navigate to the <frevvo-home>\ext\connectors directory.
  4. Unzip the database.zip file to a temporary location of your choice: e.g. c:\tmp. This will create a folder c:\tmp\database. We'll refer to this directory below as <db-tmp>
  5. Copy <db-tmp>\database.war to <frevvo-home>\tomcat\webapps.
  6. Start the Insight server. and then start Live Forms.

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    titleClick here for the instructions to start the Insight Server and Live Forms

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  7. Test the connector installation by copying this URL directly into your browser:

    http://localhost:8082/database/status

    After performing these steps you will have:

    • Successfully installed the  database connector and retrieved data from the built-in test database
  8. Create a tenant.
  9. Create a designer user in the tenant
  10. Download the Database Connector Application and upload it to the designer user for some example forms that demonstrate the power of the Database Connector using built-in databases.

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