Xindice 1.1b3 install/configuration frustrations on Windows XP

[Svgdeveloper]

I have spent several hours trying to get Xindice working properly on Windows XP. As the README file states the documentation is badly out of date.

I have Tomcat 5.0.18 installed and Xindice 1.1beta3.

Tomcat runs fine on http://localhost:8080/ and I can access Xindice on http://localhost:8080/xindice/ since I renamed the WAR file to xindice.war. I can navigate in the browser to database.xml without problems and look at an empty <database /> element.

So far so good.

The brick wall arrives when I want to add data to Xindice. I assume (and it isn't clear otherwise from the documents as far as I can see) that I should use the command line tool. But there is no information about how to get that running. The configuration section on http://xml.apache.org/xindice/community/howto/index.html is totally blank!! So not much help there.

I installed the WAR file from the war.zip download which doesn't include the .jar file. The command line tool seems to be only available if the zip file for the jar is downloaded too. I unzipped both the war.zip and jar.zip into c:\xindice-1.1b3.

I have tried so many permutations there is no way I can remember them.

The current situation is that Tomcat is installed in c:\Tomcat 5.0.18 (Yes, there is a space in the directory name). xindice.war (Yes I renamed it from xindice-1.1b3.war or something like that) is installed in webapps and runs correctly.

I have the rest of Xindice in c:\xindice-1.1b3.

Opening a command window and entering echo %environment variable% shows
JAVA_HOME - c:\j2sdk1.4.2_03
CATALINA_HOME - c:\Tomcat 5.0.18 (with a space in it)
XINDICE_HOME - c:\xindice-1.1b3

Somewhere in the docs (not sure if that part is outdated or not) it mentions adding files to the PATH. Which ones?

I added c:\xindice-1.1b3\bin to the end of the PATH.

The current error if I type *xindice* from c:\xindice-1.1b3\bin is here:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: c:\xindice-1.1b3\config\commands.xml (The system
cannot find the path specified)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.initCommandsDocument(XMLTools.java:
185)
        at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.init(XMLTools.java:171)
        at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.process(XMLTools.java:210)
        at org.apache.xindice.tools.XMLTools.main(XMLTools.java:124)
ERROR : c:\xindice-1.1b3\config\commands.xml (The system cannot find the path sp
ecified)

Unzipping both the war.zip and jar.zip hasn't created a config directory nor a commands.xml file in that directory. Looking at all directories under c:\Tomcat 5.0.18 fails to reveal a config directory or a commands.xml file. A Search fails to show a commands.xml anywhere on my machine.

So I am thoroughly confused and stuck.

So can I take steps from the setup I have tried fully to describe to get Xindice working so I can add data to the database? Or do I need to start again? If the latter, then how?

Is there a way to add data to the database without using the command line? I suspect from the documentation that the answer is No (I don't want to try programmatic access at present).

At the moment I no longer trust the documentation. If I knew enough to distinguish which parts of the documentation were accurate or not I wouldn't be in this difficulty. And I have no way other than this lengthy plea for help to fill in the blanks in the documentation.

Please, please, please can somebody bring the documentation up to date? ... Oh and help me get this working.

Thanks.

Andrew Watt