Following install guide results in backend not installed

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dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

Greetings.

I'm installing OpenEMM on a CentOS platform and am stuck at a complaint on restart: "/home/openemm/bin/backend.sh: No such file or directory."

I see in other threads here a few others running into this problem, with advice to the effect of "see wiki for instructions on installing backend."

Other than advice to build from source, there are no such instructions on the indicated wiki page.

Would you please describe where I may obtain an installer for the backend, and where I may find documentation for how to do that, if it's necessary?

Emphasizing "as a polite request" and to save needless bother, it seems like it would be a good idea to indicate in the OpenEMM installation guide that backend installation is necessary, is a separate step, and how to do that.

Thanks very much for the obviously hard effort that has gone into making this product available.
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

Or, perhaps it would be good to include the backend in the "obtain binaries" procedure?

The download process now leads to a single download with no indication that the binary on offer does not include everything necessary for an installation.
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

Unfortunately building the backend works but the corresponding other bits then fail to build.
Buildfile: /home/openemm/frontend/build.xml

checkForPropertiesFile:
[echo] basedir: /home/openemm/frontend
[echo] Using Java version 1.8

parseApplicationVersion:
[echo] Building version: 19.10.000.000
[echo] ApplicationMajorVersion: 19
[echo] ApplicationMinorVersion: 10
[echo] ApplicationMicroVersion: 000
[echo] ApplicationHotfixVersion: 000

checkDeployTargetRunstage:

setDeploytarget:

createPropertiesFiles:
[delete] Deleting directory /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000
[mkdir] Created dir: /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes
[copy] Copying 1 file to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes
[echo] emm/log4j.properties deleted
[copy] Copying 1 file to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes
[copy] Copying 1 file to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes
[echo] emm/log4j.properties build with data from 'build/properties/openemm.asp.xml'

copyEhcacheConfig:
[copy] Copying 1 file to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes

replaceEmmPropertiesPlaceholders:
[echo] Replaced placeholders in emm.properties

copyDbChanges_Oracle:

createMandatoryDbChanges_Oracle:

copyDbChanges_MySQL:
[copy] Copying 67 files to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/sql
[copy] Copying 4 files to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/sql

createMandatoryDbChanges_MySQL:
[echo] Created mandatoryDbChanges_mysql.csv

setupBuildPaths:

compile:
[echo] Java Home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.275.b01-1.el8_3.x86_64/jre
[echo] JAVA_HOME: /opt/agnitas.com/software/java
[echo] CATALINA_HOME: /opt/agnitas.com/software/tomcat
[javac] Compiling 2914 source files to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes

BUILD FAILED
/home/openemm/frontend/build.xml:295: Error running /opt/agnitas.com/software/java/bin/javac compiler
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

One further observation: time is money, and time is being wasted here.

OpenEMM is an attractive product in many ways, possibly worth paying for, but as an introduction to how customer time might be spent this installation experience is not encouraging.
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

Sorry, that last observation was tempered by some hours spent carefully following installation docs, with a couple of versions.

I still do appreciate the generous gift of time spent on this by Agnitas. :)
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

Update: after figuring out what build-birt.properties etc. seemed to want in the nature of path to javac, we've arrived at:
compile:
[echo] Java Home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.275.b01-1.el8_3.x86_64/jre
[echo] JAVA_HOME: /usr
[echo] CATALINA_HOME: /opt/agnitas.com/software/tomcat
[javac] Compiling 2914 source files to /home/openemm/webapps/openemm-19.10.000.000/WEB-INF/classes
[javac] /home/openemm/openemm/frontend/src/java/com/agnitas/emm/core/commons/filter/CharacterEncodingFilter.java:26: error: cannot access Filter
[javac] public class CharacterEncodingFilter extends org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter {
[javac] ^
[javac] class file for javax.servlet.Filter not found
[javac] /home/openemm/openemm/frontend/src/java/com/agnitas/taglib/AbsolutePathTag.java:22: error: cannot access BodyTagSupport
[javac] public class AbsolutePathTag extends SetSupport {
Which makes me wonder if we've got the right version of openjdk here? That's far outside of my normal beat.

Any advice?
andrearossi
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:30 am

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by andrearossi »

dbostrom wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:11 am Sorry, that last observation was tempered by some hours spent carefully following installation docs, with a couple of versions.

I still do appreciate the generous gift of time spent on this by Agnitas. :)
First time I tried to install OpenEMM I had the same issue.
Eventually I solved restarting OpenEMM every time it was prompted to screen in the installation phase (sec. 5 of the install and admin guide).
Also be sure to actually use python 3.8+ (in Centos there is no need to compile it, just follow page 50 of the guide) and the root user when installing.

I suggest you to restart from 0 (yes more time wasted) and prepare snapshots in the critical phases, in particular before starting bin/OMT.sh for the first time.
dbostrom
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:17 pm

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by dbostrom »

andrearossi wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:24 am
dbostrom wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:11 am Sorry, that last observation was tempered by some hours spent carefully following installation docs, with a couple of versions.

I still do appreciate the generous gift of time spent on this by Agnitas. :)
First time I tried to install OpenEMM I had the same issue.
Eventually I solved restarting OpenEMM every time it was prompted to screen in the installation phase (sec. 5 of the install and admin guide).
Also be sure to actually use python 3.8+ (in Centos there is no need to compile it, just follow page 50 of the guide) and the root user when installing.

I suggest you to restart from 0 (yes more time wasted) and prepare snapshots in the critical phases, in particular before starting bin/OMT.sh for the first time.
Many thanks, Andrea. I'll follow your advice to the letter, cross my fingers. Snapshots: great idea. :-)

We did a big survey of offerings after running into growing affordability problems with Mailchimp, and OpenEMM is the only alternative we could find that fully ticks all the boxes. Hence seems worth spending some time. With a little more work the installer could really make this easier. But: time is indeed money, and somebody of course has to work on the installer.

One thing that might be helpful for Agnitas and the cloud offering: publish some pricing info. Forming a sales relationships just to obtain cost data is another means of wasting time, best avoided.
maschoff
Site Admin
Posts: 2596
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:20 am
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by maschoff »

Please do not start with OpenEMM 19.10, but use the latest version of 20.10 instead. The code packages of OpenEMM 20.10 include 3 frontend and 1 backend tarball. To be able to install OpenEMM 20.10, you need to deploy a 20.10 runtime first.
OpenEMM Maintainer
mykp
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2020 6:05 pm
Contact:

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by mykp »

Installation is a nightmare, but I still hope we'll be happy afterwards.

I think the numbers of users would increase incredibly,
if you could make the installation process easier!

OpenEMM is by far the best free mailing software,
but the installation is falling behind.
maschoff
Site Admin
Posts: 2596
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:20 am
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

Re: Following install guide results in backend not installed

Post by maschoff »

Please feel free to fork OpenEMM at GitHub and improve it.
OpenEMM Maintainer
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