Building Orbeon Forms
This page explains how to build Orbeon Forms.
Please note that the build system has changed over time. Building a full distribution with
ant orbeon-dist
has remained a constant though.You need to have already installed:
brew install git
brew install ant
brew install sbt
brew install nvm
nvm install node
If you have never obtained the Orbeon Forms source code, you need to get it from github. To get the latest code from the
master
branch, run the following command line:git clone g[email protected]:orbeon/orbeon-forms.git ~/my/projects/orbeon-forms
where
~/my/projects
is an existing directory on your system where you want to place the Orbeon Forms source code.This clones the git repository into a child directory called
orbeon-forms
.NOTE: There is no guarantee that the master branch is stable, as it contains some of the latest changes to Orbeon Forms!
You don't have to use the following, but in case you care, the Orbeon Forms developers use:
- the latest version of MacOS (Monterey as of 2022)
- the latest version of IntelliJ IDEA (2022.2 as of 2022-08) and the Scala plugin
Starting with Orbeon Forms 2021.1, some packages are hosted by GitHub Packages. Unfortunately, as of May 2022, there is no way to enable downloading these packages fully anonymously via tools like Maven or sbt. There is a now multi-year thread on GitHub about this.
This means that until that is addressed, or until we move to another host for packages, a GitHub token is needed to build Orbeon Forms.
If you have a GitHub account:
- Export that token before launching sbt:
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...
This can also be stored in your shell profile file.
If you don't have a GitHub account, either create one or ask us for a token.
To build files for development:
sbt
: launch sbtproject /
: this is the default (with older versions of sbt:project root
)package
: compile Scala, Java and assets, create JARs, and create the exploded WAR
The exploded WAR is available under:
orbeon-war/jvm/target/webapp
To run all the tests:
sbt
: launch sbtproject /
: this is the default (with older versions of sbt:project root
)Test/test
: run unit tests (with older versions of sbt:test:test
)Db/test
: run database tests (with older versions of sbt:db:test
)
To create a distribution:
ant orbeon-dist
You need:
- the Scala plugin for Scala source code support
Currently, compiling and packaging is done via
sbt
and not from IntelliJ. You use IntelliJ for:- editing
- debugging
To open the Orbeon Forms project:
- Go to the "File" → "Open Project" menu and select the
orbeon-forms
directory. - IntelliJ then indexes the project, which can take a minute the first time you do it.
- Open the "sbt" tab which should appear on the right side of IntelliJ.
- If this doesn't show, search for "sbt" in the list of commands (Ctrl-Shift-A).
- Do "Refresh all sbt projects".
- Open
build.sbt
and click "Refresh" to let IntelliJ create modules based on the sbt build.

IntelliJ sbt module import
Create a new context in Tomcat's
conf/server.xml
:<Context
path="/orbeon"
docBase="/path/to/orbeon-forms/orbeon-war/target/webapp"
reloadable="false"
override="true"
crossContext="true"
allowLinking="true">
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.0"
value="org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.0.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory"
value="/path/to/orbeon-forms/form-runner/jvm/src/main/resources"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.1"
value="org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.1.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory"
value="/path/to/orbeon-forms/form-builder/jvm/src/main/resources"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.2"
value="org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.2.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory"
value="/path/to/orbeon-forms/resources-local"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.3"
value="org.orbeon.oxf.resources.WebAppResourceManagerFactory"/>
<Parameter
override="false"
name="oxf.resources.priority.3.oxf.resources.webapp.rootdir"
value="/WEB-INF/resources"/>
</Context>
Tomcat has a file called
bin/setenv.sh
where you can set environment variables. In it, set the JAVA_OPTS
for Tomcat. For Java 11:ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS="-Xms300m -Xmx3g -verbosegc -XX:+PrintGCDetails"
ORBEON_DEBUG_OPTS="-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=61155"
JAVA_OPTS="-ea $ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS -Dapple.awt.UIElement=true $ORBEON_DEBUG_OPTS"
export JAVA_OPTS
NOTE: You don't have to set
-verbosegc -XX:+PrintGCDetails
if you are not interested in garbage collector output.NOTE: The
-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
can help in some cases.NOTE: Older options for Java 8 included:
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
, -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps
.Finally, you can start Tomcat with:
./apache-tomcat-9.0.56/bin/catalina.sh run
And test by going to:
http://localhost:8080/orbeon/
This will show the Orbeon Forms landing page.
The settings above start Tomcat in debug mode. This means that you can debug the Java and Scala code from IntelliJ. Select the "Tomcat" configuration in IntelliJ, then "Run" → "Debug". IntelliJ opens the debugging window and connects to Tomcat. You can then set breakpoints and do the usual things one does with a debugger!
Alternatively, for running without debugging enabled, set instead:
JAVA_OPTS="-ea $ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS -Dapple.awt.UIElement=true"
If you modify Java or Scala files, you need to recompile. You do this from the command-line with sbt, which can let run the
compile
task incrementally with:~compile
TODO: document making changes to resources or assets.
The following runs only tests within
FormBuilderFunctionsTest
which contain the string my test
and show full stack traces in case of exception:testOnly *FormBuilderFunctionsTest -- -z "my test" -oF
Orbeon does not provide public instructions or code to build Orbeon Forms PE, which is a commercial, supported build of the product. If you are a PE customer, contact Orbeon at [email protected].
The idea is just that we want to ensure that something called "Orbeon Forms PE" in fact comes from Orbeon.
As of 2016-06-02:
To compile the Scala and Java files from the command-line the first time, run:
ant orbeon-war
To incrementally compile Scala and Java files during further development, run:
sbt
project root
- one of
~copyJarToExplodedWar
: to only update server-side classes~fastOptJSToExplodedWar
: to only update the Form Builder Scala.js artifacts~ ;copyJarToExplodedWar;fastOptJSToExplodedWar
: to update both
The
copyJarToExplodedWar
command in the root
project incrementally:- builds all the sub-projects depended by
root
orbeon-common
orbeon-dom
orbeon-form-builder-shared
(empty currently onmaster
)orbeon-xupdate
orbeon-core
orbeon-form-runner
orbeon-form-builder
orbeon-form-builder-client
- copies the following resulting JAR files to
build/orbeon-war/WEB-INF/lib
orbeon-common.jar
orbeon-dom.jar
orbeon-form-builder-shared.jar
orbeon-xupdate.jar
orbeon-core.jar
orbeon-form-runner.jar
orbeon-form-builder.jar
To run tests from IntelliJ:
- from sbt, first run
test:compile
- run "Unit Tests" from IntelliJ
- there are issues, with the following tests failing:
formRunnerStaticCache
- "Some(false) did not equal None"
formRunnerItemsetActions
- "None.get"
ResourcesPatcherTest.testResourcesConsistency
- "Cannot find resource: /apps/fr/i18n/resources.xml"
MemoryCacheTest
- tries to connect to Selenium?
- "Form Runner and Form Builder - Oracle view column names"
- "Cannot find resource: /apps/fr/persistence/relational/sql-utils.xsl"
VersionTest
because the version used is "2016.2-SNAPSHOT"
NOTES:
- compiling from IntelliJ doesn't work properly yet: files compile, but won't be copied to the exploded WAR
You need to have already installed:
- Java 1.7
brew install git
brew install ant
brew install sbt
With IntelliJ, you need the following plugins, which you can download and enable from IntelliJ directly:
- Scala: to compile Scala source code
- File Watchers: to compile
.less
files to CSS (if you make changes to those)
To open Orbeon Forms in IntelliJ:
- Go to the "File" → "Open Project" menu and select the
orbeon-forms
directory. - IntelliJ then indexes the project, which can take a minute the first time you do it.
- Go to the "Build" → "Make Project" (this takes about 1 mn 10 seconds on a recent laptop).
- Go to the "Ant Build" pane and run the
orbeon-war
target. - Manually create the directory
orbeon-forms/src/resources-local
if it is missing.
This builds Orbeon Forms in development mode, where the Java/Scala class files are not placed into JARs. This way you can quickly recompile incrementally.
In this mode, running the
orbeon-war
ant target skips compilation but processes resources and creates an "exploded" WAR file which Tomcat can point to.Create a new context in Tomcat's
server.xml
:<Context
path="/orbeon"
docBase="/your/path/to/orbeon-forms/build/orbeon-war"
reloadable="false"
override="true"
crossContext="true"
allowLinking="true"/>
Then set
JAVA_OPTS
for Tomcat:ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS="-Xms300m -Xmx1000m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -verbosegc -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:+PrintGCDetails"
ORBEON_DEBUG_OPTS="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=61155,suspend=n,server=y"
export JAVA_OPTS="-ea $ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS $ORBEON_DEBUG_OPTS -Dapple.awt.UIElement=true"
NOTE: You don't have to set
-verbosegc -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:+PrintGCDetails
if you are not interested in garbage collector output.Finally, you can start Tomcat with:
./apache-tomcat-7.0.53/bin/catalina.sh run
And test by going to:
http://localhost:8080/orbeon/
This will show the Orbeon Forms landing page.
Alternatively, for running with the YourKit profiler, you need to set
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
and use a different JAVA_OPTS
variable:export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/Applications/YourKit\ Java\ Profiler\ 12.0.6.app/bin/mac/
export JAVA_OPTS="$ORBEON_MEMORY_OPTS -agentlib:yjpagent"
Note that the debugging and profiling settings above are different: you either run in debug mode, or in profiling mode.
If you modify Java or Scala files, you need to recompile. Go to menu "Build" → "Make Module 'Orbeon Forms'", or use the keyboard shortcut (
F7
).If you are connected to Tomcat via the debugger AND you are lucky, changed classes will reload in the JVM via HotSwap. See also the IntelliJ doc on Reloading Classes. Otherwise, you need to restart Tomcat to see your changes.
NOTE: HotSwap has limitations, especially with Scala code which produces and modifies more class files. It is not a silver bullet and there will be cases where you will need to redeploy the web application or restart the application server. But you will spare yourself a redeployment or restart in the cases where your modification to the Java or Scala code does not significantly change the structure of classes.
If you modify resource files, re-run the ant
orbeon-war
target from IntelliJ.If you make changes to
.less
files and want those recompiled automatically, you need the "File Watchers" IntelliJ plugin, as well as the less compiler. You can install it with:brew install lessc
This installs the less compiler to
/usr/local/bin/lessc
, which is where the included IntelliJ "File Watchers" configuration points to. If it's in a different location, you'll need to adjust the path.Select the "Unit Tests" configuration in IntelliJ, and run it. This should take about a minute.
IntelliJ then shows : "Done: 723 of 731 Failed: 8"
The tests that fail are the following:
CombinedClientTest
: this requires Selenium to be setup.DDLTest
andRestApiTest
: these require a database setup.
We hope to provide instructions to run these in the future.
You can then run, from the
orbeon-forms
directory:ant orbeon-war
A related known issue, from the command-line, is that running
ant classes
twice in a row fails with errors. You must remove classes under build/classes
before running ant classes
again.NOTE: With ant, class files are produced under
build/classes
, but with IntelliJ they are produced under build/orbeon-war/WEB-INF/classes
. You should be aware of this is you switch between building from IntelliJ and building with ant.WARNING:
ant clean
deletes everything under the build
directory. This includes the data for the embedded eXist database. If you have some test data, including form definitions and data in there, backup build/orbeon-war/WEB-INF/exist-data
first!- run
ant clean
- run
ant orbeon-dist-war
to build the WAR files
Alternatively:
- run
ant teamcity-release
to clean, test, and build the entire release
Last modified 1yr ago