Prerequisites for Hands-On Automation with STAF/STAX 3 Exercises

  1. It is recommended that you run these exercises on a Windows 32-bit machine. At least 200MB of hard drive space is required for the exercises.

  2. It is recommended that you have network connectivity on the machine where you will be running the exercises (only exercise 1.9 requires network connectivity).

  3. Install Java 1.4 SDK or later on the machine where you will be running the exercises. Installing a JRE is *NOT* sufficient. You must install an SDK so that the Java compiler will be available. Do not install Java to C:/Program Files/... Instead install it to a directory like c:/ibmsdk1.4.2. To verify that you have an SDK, must sure the "javac.exe" file exists in c:/ibmsdk1.4.2/bin

  4. Add the following to your machine's System PATH environment variable: 
    c:\ibmsdk1.4.2\jre\bin;c:\ibmsdk1.4.2\bin
  5. If you have User environment variables for PATH and/or CLASSPATH, ensure that they have references to the System PATH/CLASSPATH: 
    c:\abc\xyz;%PATH%
c:\abc\xyz;%CLASSPATH%
  6. Create a directory on the machine where you will be running the exercises called "c:\STAFCD". Download the education package to this directory and unzip the file (by using PKZip or WinZip). The education package can be downloaded from: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/staf/STAF-STAX-HandsOn-Education-344.zip

  7. If you have a c:\winnt\system32\java.exe file, rename it or remove it for the class.

  8. Print a copy of the exercises (c:\STAFCD\Part1\Part1-Exercises.html) (c:\STAFCD\Part2\Part2-Exercises.html) (c:\STAFCD\Part3\Part3-Exercises.html) (c:\STAFCD\Part4\Part4-Exercises.html) and bring these printouts to the class.

  9. To view the presentations in PowerPoint format (.ppt), you will need Microsoft PowerPoint. To view the presentations in OpenDocument format (.odp), you will need IBM Lotus Symphony, which can be downloaded from the IBM Lotus Symphony web site, or another tool that supports the OpenDocument format.