How to build Flowable from a sources under Windows 7

How to build Flowable from a sources under Windows 7

This manual describes (in step by step manner) how to build Flowable from the sources under Windows 7 OS (x64 bit arch).

Install last version of Java JDK

First of all there is needed to install last version of Java JDK (Java SE Development Kit). The Java JDK available at the link.

1.    Download the archive server-jre-8u***-windows-x64.tar.gz
2.    Uncompress the archive to C:\java-8u***

Set the JAVA_HOME variable in Windows

1.    Right click My Computer and select Properties -> Advanced
2.    Click the Environment Variables button.
3.    Under System Variables, click New.
4.    In the Variable Name field, enter either:
       JAVA_HOME
5.    In the Variable Value field, enter your JDK or JRE installation path
        C:\java-8u***
6.    Click OK and Apply Changes as prompted.

Install Apache Ant (original instruction)

1.    Download last version of Ant. Link on Binary Edition.
2.    Uncompress the downloaded file into a directory - C:\ant
3.    Set environmental variables ANT_HOME to your Ant directory: C:\ant
4.    Also add %ANT_HOME%/bin (Windows) to your PATH environment variable.
5.    Optionally, from the ANT_HOME directory run ant -f fetch.xml -Ddest=system to get the library dependencies of most of the Ant tasks that require them. If you don't do this, many of the dependent Ant tasks will not be available. See Optional Tasks for details and other options for the -Ddest parameter.
6.    Optionally, add any desired Antlibs. See Ant Libraries for a list.

Install Maven (original instruction)

1.    Download Maven zip file from the official web site, for example: apache-maven-3.2.2-bin.zip, unzip it to the folder: C:\Program Files\Apache\maven
2.    Add both M2_HOME and MAVEN_HOME variables in the Windows environment, and point it to your Maven folder.

3.    Update PATH variable, append Maven bin folder – %M2_HOME%\bin, so that you can run the Maven’s command everywhere.

4.    To verify it, run mvn –version in the command prompt.

Clone "Flowable" sources on local computer and build it

1.    Install git on local computer (link).
2.    Open console window by cmd command.
3.    Create folder for Flowable sources then navigate to the folder you just created.

4.    Clone the Flowable repository by command: 
       git clone https://github.com/flowable/flowable-engine.git

5.    Once the cloning is completed navigate to the folder - D:\Flowable\flowable-engine\distro
6.    Run the following command in the console: ant
7.    When building process will be completed all installation (war) files will be available in the folder: D:\Flowable\flowable-engine\distro\target\zip\flowable-6.0.1-SNAPSHOT\wars


I hope this instruction will be useful for anybody who want to build Flowable from the sources.

If at the end you received a build error do not worry this error is related to the build of user's manual!

Thanks for reading!