Before starting on the tutorials, we need to ensure that XPE has been installed correctly and working properly. To do this perform the following steps:

• Edit the file server.xml in the $XPE_HOME/etc directory and ensure that the contextPath is one context set to '/xpe'. Also ensure that there are two xpe listeners configured. One should listen on port 8888 and another on port 8188. A listener on port 8888 is used internally by XPE. For our tutorials we will be using a listener on port 8188. The file should look something like:
  <server  port="2138"  xmlns="http://www.xmlpipe.org/xpe/manual" >
     <listener  port="8888"  minThreads="5"  maxThreads="100" />
     <listener  port="8188"  minThreads="5"  maxThreads="100" />
     <context  path="/"  base="ROOT" >
        <forward>
           <map  from="/"  to="/xpe/console/about" />
        </forward>
        <resource  dirAllowed="no" />
     </context>
     <context  path="/xpe" >
        <xpe  base="./xpe"  temp="../temp"  work="../work"  deploy="../deploy" >
        </xpe>
     </context>
  </server>
  This is to ensure that the URL's we use to access XPE pipelines in these tutorials will be consistent with those applicable to your particular XPE configuration.
• Next edit the file password.xml in the $XPE_HOME/etc directory. This file provides access control to the xpe console which is used to manage xpe applications and the xpe application server. Edit this file by providing and administrative password:
  <xpe  xmlns="http://www.xmlpipe.org/xpe/manual" >
     <account  username="admin"  realm="xpe_console"  password="mysecretpw" />
     <account  username="xpe"  realm="xpe_console"  ha1="b6e123b4bcbb7dee925355d86215c394" />
  </xpe>
• Start the XPE server:
  • Unix:
    • cd <xpe_install_dir>
    • ./run.sh
  • Windows: start->All Programs->XPE->XPE Server

• Ensure that the server is listening for requests. To do this open a browser and enter the following url: http://localhost:8188/xpe/console. You should be prompted for a username and password. Logon on as admin using the password sepecified in the password.xml file. You should see a page similar to:

  

• If you see a page similar to the above, your XPE configuration is fine and ready for our tutorials. If not you will need to check your installation and configuration. Please refer to the XPE Installation and configuration manual.
• Before begining the tutorials, download the tutorials.zip file from www.softtouchit.com. This .zip file contains a skeleton project directory (skeleton) that will simplify getting started with the tutorials. The .zip file also contains complete solutions for all the tutorials in case you have difficulty with any of the tutorials. Unzip the tutorials.zip file and copy this folder to a convenient location where you can use your favoured IDE to edit and build the project. To use this project you will need Jakarta ANT installed along with a java (v1.4+) runtime installed.