Click on the add button under Web Applications to add the webMathematica web application. You will see a

new

we

 page,

bMathe

 entitled

matic

 Deploy

a User Guide

 Web  Application,  with  a  field  called  Source  File  Path.  Click  on  the

27

Browse button   this will bring up a file browsing window. Navigate to the location (e.g. E:\webMathematica)

where you have extracted  the files from the webMathematica archive. Select the webMathematica folder icon, and

click on the Open button. This will change the Source File Path to E:\webMathematica. You can now

click  on Deploy. After a  few moments, you will see  a  screen that allows you to  customize  various details  of  the

installation, depending on the version of JRun that you are using. You can choose the default values and then click

the  Apply  button.  A  message  informing  you  that  the  deployment  of  webMathematica  has  been  successful  will

appear.

At this point you should be able to test your installation as described in the Testing section. Note that the default port

for JRun  is 8100, so a URL such as 

http://localhost:8100/webMathematica

, should  access the webMathematica

front page.

Other Servlet Engines

If  you  are  unfamiliar  with  servlets  then  it  is  recommended  that  you  use  Apache  Tomcat.  You  should  only  use

another servlet engine if you are already experienced with it.

If  you  have  some other  servlet  engine,  follow  its  instructions  for  installing  a  web  application,  which  may  be sup 

ported by some  special tools.  After installing the  web  application,  you will need  to  modify the MSP.conf  file as

described  in  the  section  on  installing  under  Tomcat.  It  may  also  be  necessary  to  make  various  modifications  to

MSP.conf,  such  as  changing  the  WebApplicationName  or  the  JLinkNativeLibraryDirectory

settings. These are described in Appendix: MSP.conf.

2.4 Configuring for the X Window System (Unix only)

There  are special  problems associated  with running the Mathematica  front end  under  X from within a  web server.

This  is  because,  typically,  the  web  server  is  run  as  a  special  account,  such  as  tomcat.  This  means  that  when

webMathematica runs the front end, it is running as this account. For the front end to operate, it must connect to an

X  server;  this  could  be  achieved  by  logging  into the  console  of  the  web  server  machine  with  this  special  account

running an X server. There are a few problems with this approach: first, you may not want to leave the machine with

an  open  login  on  the  console;  secondly,  every  time  the  front  end  does  something,  a  window  will  appear  on  the

screen, which may be distracting for someone using the machine.

If a different user logs into the console and runs an X server, the front end (which is run by the special webMathemat 

ica account) will not be able to connect to this server at all under the standard authentication system of X. While it is

possible  to  configure  the  server  to  allow  these  connections,  it  is not  satisfactory  because  webMathematica  will  be

displaying windows on the screen every time it does something with the front end. This topic is discussed in greater

length in a later 

section

.

These  problems  are  solved  by  running  a  virtual  X  server,  such  as  Xvnc,  as  described  in  the  following  

section

.

Running a virtual server prevents the windows created by the Mathematica front end from displaying on the screen

console of the computer running Mathematica. 

2.4.1 Configuring Xvnc and webMathematica

Xvnc is the Unix VNC server. It provides a virtual X server that can be used by applications, such as the Mathemat 

ica  front  end,  when  it  is  running  for  webMathematica.  It  also  provides  a  VNC  server  so  that  a  VNC  viewer  can

connect to view and control any applications running in the server. This can be useful since it can help track down

problems in running the front end.

Xvnc can be obtained from http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html, which has downloads for a number

of platforms, including Linux, Solaris, and Alpha.

 .