1.3 Requirements and installation


» System requirements
» Installing on Windows (NT/2000/XP/2003)
» Installing on Linux
» Installing on MacOS X (10.3 or later)
» Installing on other Unixes
» Installing the client Flash API


» System requirements

SmartFoxServer is a multi-platform application written in Java 1.4 that can be run on many different operating systems.

The minimum requirements to run the server are:

- A 300Mhz cpu or better
- At least 64Mb of RAM
- 50Mb of hardisk space
- An operating system capable of running a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) like Windows (98/NT/2000/XP), Linux, MacOS X, other Unix based OS(es)
- The Sun™ Java Runtime Edition (JRE) version 1.4.2 or higher.
(The PRO edition requires Java 1.5 - Linux versions already come with an embedded JRE)

Reccomended basic hardware requirements:

- 800Mhz or higher CPU
- 256Mb RAM

Reccomended hardware requirements for high traffic applications and games:

- Dual 2.0Ghz CPU or higher
- 1Gb Ram
- Server version of the Sun JVM

» Installing the Java Runtime

In order to install or upgrade your Java Runtime, please follow this link.

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» Installing on Windows (NT/2K/XP/2003)

Double click on the installer and follow the simple instructions on screen.
When the process is finished you will find a new SmartFoxServer folder under the Start > Programs menu where you can launch the server and access the other application folders.

Installing SmartFoxServer as a Windows Service:
From the Windows Start Menu open the SmartFoxServer folder and click on the Install Service icon to install SmartFoxServer as a windows service. Once this is done you will find it listed in the windows services under the management console.

You can now start/stop/restart the server following these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, and choose Manage.
2. Expand the Services & Applications tab, and select Services.
3. Select SmartFoxServer and use the control buttons or right click on it to access the context menu.

In order to uninstall the server as a service just click the Uninstall Service icon from the Start > Programs > SmartFoxServer menu.

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» Installing on Linux


From version 1.3.0 the Linux version of SmartFoxServer (Basic and PRO) comes with a simple installer.

First you will need to unpack the software:

1. open a terminal window and move to the folder where you have downloaded the file.
2. type "gzip -d filename.tar.gz" to extract the .tar file (where "filename" is the name of the downloaded file)
3. type "tar xf filename.tar" to extract the files.
4. move inside the uncompressed folder and type ./install

Follow the simple instructions on screen and once you're done you can safely delete the downloaded folder.
To start the server move to the {installation-directory}/Server folder and type ./sfs start

The complete list of commands is the following:

./sfs start Start the server
./sfs stop Stop the server
./sfs restart Restart the server
./sfs status Show the current status of the server ( running / not running etc... )

Installing SmartFoxServer as a Linux daemon:
In order to install SmartFoxServer as a daemon you will need root priviliges.

The simplest method is to move to the /etc/rcX.d folder (where X is your current runlevel)
From there type: ln -s path-to-your-script S99sfs
This will create a symbolic link to the start script in the rcX.d folder. On the next restart the server will be launched as daemon

Example: (root privileges needed)
Suppose your runlevel is 5 (multiuser mode + GUI)

1. Move in the rc5.d folder: cd /etc/rc5.d
2. Create a symbolic link to the start script : ln -s /home/john/SFS_PRO_1.3.0/Server/sfs S99sfs
(assuming your server was installed in /home/john)

The server will be started as a daemon on the next restart

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» Installing on MacOS X (10.3 or later)


In order to install SmartFoxServer on MacOS X follow these steps:

1. double click the downloaded .dmg file
2. drag and drop the content of the disk-image in a folder of your choice
3. open a terminal and run the start.sh script inside the Server/ folder in your installation directory.

Installing SmartFoxServer as a MacOS X service/daemon:

You will need the administrator password to perform this task.

1. open the runAsService/ folder inside your installation directory
2. double click the installer.jar application and follow the instructions on screen

Once the software is installed as a service it will start automatically at boot.
If you want to uninstall SmartFoxServer just follow the same steps showed above.

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» Installing on other Unixes


SmartFoxServer supports other Unix-based operating systems like Free-BSD, Solaris etc...
You will need to download the MacOS X version of the server and follow these steps:

1. open a terminal window and move to the folder where you have downloaded the file.
2. type "gunzip filename.tar.gz" to extract the .tar file (where "filename" is the name of the downloaded file)
3. type "tar xf filename.tar" to extract the files.
4. move to the extracted folder and launch the start.sh script inside the Server/ directory by typing ./start.sh

( .tar.gz files can also be decompressed by simply double clicking them. If you do so, just execute steps 1 and 4, skipping 2 and 3 )

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» Flash API installation


To complete the setup you will need to install the SmartFoxServer API extension for Adobe Flash.
The extension will add new objects that you can use in Actionscript to interact with the server.

To install the API just open the Flash API/ folder in your SFS main directory and choose the appropriate version.

» Flash MX 2004 - Flash 8

Simply double click the Actionscript 2.0/SmartFoxClient_AS2.mxp file to launch the Extension Manager and install the component.
Alternatively you can point the Flash classpath of your current project to the sources/AS2/ folder.

» Flex Builder 2 / Flash 9 alpha

Add the provided SmartFoxClient_AS3.swc library file to your current project build path.
In Flex Builder right click the project icon, choose properties >> Flex Build Path >> Library File >> Add SWC...
If you want to use the JSON based protocol, add also the Adobe corelib.swc library file.

» API documentation

For more info about the Flash Client API, please refer to section 4.1, and section 4.2 of this documentation.

In case you need to upgrade your Adobe Extension Manager please download the latest version.

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