These are general instructions for installing the Java 1.1 Help Desk Server jar file and using it. This file also is in the jar file. First, unjar the exe file (yes, the files have an 'exe' extension but are actually 'jar' files so a browser will ask you if you want to download the file instead of trying to execute it). This can be done using 'jar', which comes with Sun's Java 1.1.x or 2.x JDK, which can downloaded from the Javasoft web site. Using 'jar', the command line command to use would be 'jar -xvf helpdesk.exe', where 'filename' is the name of the file to unjar.
Included are this readme file, sample html files that can be used to run the clients or the server admin program as applets, sample scripts that can be used to run the clients or the server admin program as applications on Windows and the server as a Windows application, and a 'ready-to-use' jar file which contains all of the class files required to run the server and the client and admin programs as applications or applets.
Besides the admin client, there are two other clients: a 'service rep' and a 'customer', which can be run as applets or applications. The customer client can just put himself on the waiting list to wait for a service rep; however, he can see the waiting list. The service rep has the ability to initiate conversations. There can be more than one service rep to serve customer clients.
The html files included are customer.html, servicerep.html, and helpdeskadminclient.html, which are sample html files that can be used to start the Help Desk Clients and the Help Desk Admin Client from a web browser. They contain the location of the jar files, a host name on which the Help Desk Server runs, and the port number on that host to use. If the hostname is left at '127.0.0.1', then the applet will first check the host from which it was downloaded from before checking the local machine. The initial password for the admin client is 'admin'.
For browser access from a web server, the jar file should remain in the same directory as the html files. If the jar file is placed in a different directory, then the html files should be modified accordingly to reflect the location of the jar file.
To run the client programs locally as applications, just run the appropriate script; customer.bat for the standalone customer client, servicerep.bat for the service rep client, and helpdeskadminclient.bat for the admin client. The jar file can also be put directly into the CLASSPATH environment variable, e.g. c:\directory\helpdesk.jar. Sun's Java runtime virtual machine (VM), version 1.1.8, is the best choice to run the applications, however, a later version should also work fine. Either one can be downloaded from the Sun web site or the Javasoft web site.
The Help Desk Server, of course, is always run as an application. Using Sun's runtime VM, it is invoked by entering 'helpdeskserver arg1 arg2' on the command line in the directory containing chat.jar. It takes two command line arguments, the port number and the maximum number of clients, in that order. The default port number is 9876, which means that chat clients connect on that port, the admin client connects on port 9875, and port 9877 is used internally. The html files use these values as defaults and should be changed if Chat Server is executed with a different port number. The default number of clients is unlimited.
I know these instructions seem vague if you are not an experienced Java user, but the process is really much easier than it seems. I am sure that I can easily answer any questions you may have via the e-mail address listed below.
If you have any questions, please direct them to
software@lpsci.com