Setup development environment on Mac with M1 processor

Owned by Patrick Tang
Last updated: Jan 07, 2023
4 min read

The following instructions help to set up the development environment for STEP on a Mac.

Fork the following repositories

Installation

(You probably want to create a project folder. The following assumes this is /dev)

Your Mac need the brew command.  If it is not installed, review the instruction on this page.

Install Java

Install Java JDK (Java 8 is required, but there may be problems with 9 and upwards)

For Mac with M1 processor, I followed instruction similar to this page.  I have the "Zulu 8.66.0.15-CA-macos-aarch64" installed on my Mac.

Configure paths and environment variables

  • This is in my .zshrc file:

    • export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-8.jdk/Contents/Home/jre

Install Maven

brew install maven

Install Git

Install git If it is not already installed

Install Tomcat

Install Apache Tomcat.  On Mac, if you use homebrew run:  brew install tomcat@9

If you are using Tomcat 9, you will need to edit the server.xml file for the tomcat installation.  On my system the file is located at /opt/homebrew/etc/tomcat@9/server.xml

Find the <Connector> which is not commented out and add: relaxedQueryChars="[|]"

It should look something like this:

<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
           connectionTimeout="20000"
           redirectPort="8443"
           relaxedQueryChars="[|]" />

On my system, tomcat repeatedly has a warning message regarding caching.  I added the following line to /opt/homebrew/etc/tomcat@9/logging.properties.

       org.apache.catalina.webresources.Cache.level = SEVERE

Install stand-alone version of STEP

Install the download version of STEP from http://www.stepbible.org/downloads.jsp.  Installing the stand-alone version of STEP will install a few Bible modules (ESV, SBLG, OHB, ...) which is required to run STEP.  If you do not install the stand-alone version of STEP, you will not have any Bible modules and the development environment will not start.

Clone your fork of the source code

For example:

  • Fork JSword into your Github account (from tyndale/jsword - unless already done above)

  • Clone JSword on your computer

cd /dev (use the appropriate directory on your system)
git clone https://github.com/stepbible/jsword.git

We are not using the master branch for JSword. So you will need to switch branch once it is cloned:

cd jsword
git checkout jsword-stepbible-2022
  • Clone STEP

cd /dev (use the appropriate directory on your system)
git clone https://github.com/stepbible/step.git 

Build the code

Run the following commands from a git command prompt:

  • from the JSword source code directory. Make sure to build this first.

cd /dev/jsword (use the appropriate directory on your system)
mvn clean install -DskipTests=true

  • from the Step source code directory

cd /dev/step
mvn clean install -DskipTests=true

Install Intellij

  • Download the Intellij Community Edition from here: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/.  The Community Edition is free and seems to have all the Java development functions.  The Community Edition cannot debug jsp files but we rarely change our jsp files.   
  • Import JSword as a Maven project
    • File>New>"Project from Existing sources":
    • Find, select and open the jsword folder (eg /dev/jsword)
    • Select "Import project from external model", select "Maven", click "Create" button
    • Select (check) the "Import Maven projects automatically" option.  (Not sure if this shows up on the Mac.  This showed on Windows in a previous version of IntelliJ)
    • accept defaults for Import Project
  • Import the STEP software as a Maven project
    • File>New>Module from Existing Sources:
    • Find, select and open the step folder (eg /dev/step)
    • Select "Import project from external model", select "Maven", click "Create" button
    • Select (check) the "Import Maven projects automatically" option
    • for SDK, click on "+" then select JDK and find the Java/jdk folder
    • accept defaults for Import Project
  • Configure the IntelliJ's SDK to Java 1.8
    • In IntelliJ, clicked on File -> Project Structure -> Platform Settings -> SDKs
    • Select Java 1.8
  • Install Plugins Smart Tomcat
    • Click on "IntelliJ IDEA" at the upper right menu bar
    • Click on Settings
    • Select Plugins
    • Search for Smart Tomcat and install it.
  • Create a Run/Debug configuration 
    • menu Run > Run… > Edit configurations > "+" (top left on the screen) > Smart Tomcat >Local
    • setup with:
      • Name= Step - data load
      • Tomcat server: 
        • click on "Configure..." button
        • Select "Tomcat Server" on the left hand pane
        • Click on "+" under Tomcat Server
        • Open the tomcat folder.  On my system it is /opt/homebrew/Cellar/tomcat@9/9.0.70/libexec
      • Back to the "Run/Debug" Configuration" window
      • Tomcat server: It should the Tomcat server selected
      • Deployment directory: /dev/step/step-web/src/main/webapp
      • Context path: /
      • Server port: 8080
      • Admin port: 8005
      •  VM options:
        • -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=64m -Dstep.loader=true -Dstep.skipBookInstallation=true -Dstep.setup.password=P@ss0rd2o14T0pl@dyLuthe3 -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseG1GC -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Xms512M -Xmx512M
  • Test the setup: 
    • menu Run 'Step (with data load)''
      (this should eventually start up the browser and run STEP)
    • Open a new browser page on http://localhost:8080/?debug
  • Create a Run/Debug configuration without loading 
               (this will restart Step without creating/refreshing all your search indexes).
    • menu Run > Run… > Edit configurations >  
    • select "Step - data load" in the left column and click on the Copy symbol above it
    • Changes:
      • Name= Step - no data load
      • VM options=  
        • -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=64m -Dstep.development=true -Dstep.skipBookInstallation=true -Dstep.setup.password=P@ss0rd2o14T0pl@dyLuthe3 -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+UseG1GC -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Xms512M -Xmx512M