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The following tutorial gets you started with Aspire in 20 minutes or less. In it, you will install Aspire, an Aspire connector application, and an Aspire publisher application (that simply writes to a file instead of to a search engine for indexing). It will give you an idea of how you install Aspire applications using the System Admin user interface (no programming knowledge needed).

There are also two other quick start tutorials:

• To learn how to get started if you want to use Aspire to create your own applications, see Quick Start Tutorial for Creating Applications
• To learn how to build Aspire distributions from scratch using Maven prototypes and Maven component repositories, you should try the Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype

Additionally, there are also tutorials for each type of connector application you might wish to install; those are located under the section for each Connector.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need to be registered to use Aspire (go to http://aspire.searchtechnologies.com/) if you haven't already done that.

You will need your user registration name and password in order to complete this tutorial.

Step 1: Install Java

The version of Java you should use depends on the Aspire version you are targeting to:

• Aspire 2.1.2 and earlier runs on Java 1.6 or Java 1.7
• Aspire 2.2 and up requires to run at Java 1.7.

Note that we recommend installing the Java JDK (Java Development Kit), just in case you want to create your own Aspire Components in the future. But really, only the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) is absolutely required.

1. Download and install the latest version of the Java JDK appropriate for the system that will run Aspire: http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
   • If you have a 64-bit machine, we recommend installing the 64-bit version of Java. That will allow you to create large-memory instances of Aspire.
     • The Aspire framework itself does not use up that much memory (100mb or so). But some applications may store big hash tables to improve performance, so it's best to have the 64 bit JVM (Java Virtual Machine), just in case you need it someday.
2. Test that you can access the "java" command from your console.
   1. Open up a new DOS command-shell (go to the Start menu, enter "cmd" in the "Run" or "Search for Programs" field, and then execute the cmd.exe program).
   2. At the prompt, enter the following, then press the Enter key: java -version
   3. Success is indicated when version information is returned.

up to Aspire 2.1.2:

> java -version
 java version "1.6.0_18"
 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_18-b07)
 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 16.0-b13, mixed mode)

or as of Aspire  (2.2 Release)  :

> java -version
 java version "1.7.0_79"
 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_79-b15)
 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.79-b02, mixed mode)

Step 2: Download the Quick-Start Distribution

Download and unpack https://wiki.searchtechnologies.com/binaries/. For purposes of this tutorial, we'll use "aspire-quick-start" as the directory name to which you unpack Aspire.

Note: This is not the best way to create a new Aspire Distribution. The official method is to use the Distribution Archetype, which requires also downloading a Maven client. There's a separate tutorial for getting started using this method: Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype.

The download will create a directory structure similar to that described in Aspire Directory Structure.

Step 3: Edit the Aspire settings.xml File

Go to the directory where you unpacked Aspire (such as "aspire-quick-start") and type "config" to go to the configuration directory. Open the settings.xml file with a text or XML editor. Look for the maven repository tag. You need to replace the username and password that displays the username and password you used to register for Aspire.

<repository type="maven">
     <defaultVersion>1.0-SNAPSHOT</defaultVersion>
     <remoteRepositories>
       <remoteRepository>
         <id>stPublic</id>
         <url>
           http://repository.searchtechnologies.com/artifactory/simple/community-public/
         </url>
         <user>YOUR-REGISTERED-USERNAME</user>
         <password>YOUR-REGISTERED-PASSWORD</password>
       </remoteRepository>
     </remoteRepositories>
   </repository>

Once you've entered your username and password, save and close the file.

Step 4: Start-Up Aspire

First, make sure you have access to the internet so that Aspire can download components. Next, still in the Aspire directory you created, change to the bin directory and type "startup" to launch Aspire.

Note that "startup" is a batch script (on Windows) or a shell script (on Unix) that can be modified as necessary if you need more memory or need to set other system properties.

Aspire may take a few seconds to load all of the necessary components.

NOTE: If you are downloading Aspire Community, ignore the error message about being unable to download the com.searchtechnologies:aspire-dcm-enterprise component. The aspire-dcm-enterprise component is available only with Enterprise systems (and is used for Distributed Processing).

Step 11: Congratulate yourself! (and shutdown)

Congratulations!!

You have completed the 20-minute quick start. We hope it was a fun experience.

We recommend that you continue with the Aspire Quick Start with Distribution Archetype next. That will show you how to build Aspire distributions from scratch using Maven prototypes and Maven component repositories.

To shutdown Aspire, go to the home page (http://localhost:50505/aspire) and click on the "Shutdown" button (that's the red button to the right of the server name). Or, you could go to the Aspire console window (where you started Aspire with "bin\startup") and type "shutdown" and then press the Return or Enter key. Either way will shut down Aspire.

Cheers!

The Aspire Development Team