Zcore Software Development
The main Zcore distribution is designed to be used as a foundation for data system projects. Although the Zcore system provides a very easy-to-use interface for creating forms, it is still necessary for a software developer to perform initial configuration of a Zcore project implementation, as well as to create reports and custom functionality.
Location of code
Zcore code is in the zcore-base project in the Subversion (svn) repository: http://www.ictedge.org/repos/zcore-base/
Command-line access
Use this command to anonymously check out the latest project source code:
svn checkout http://www.ictedge.org/repos/zcore-base/trunk zcore-base-readonly
Projects based on Zcore are be located in their own svn directories - see the project's site for the exact URL.
Software Development Process
The development process typically has the following steps:
- Checkout the Zcore project code from SVN.
- OS-dependent setup:
- If you are develping on Wndows, install the current version of the Zcore-baed application. Zcore apps include Tomcat and make it easier to get started with development.
- For other operating systems, download the Zcore Tomcat 6 dev bundle, which includes the Zcore libs, database, and conf files. Also download the Zcore webapp archive module, expand, and place in your Tomcat 6 webapp dir. See Configuring a fresh installation of Tomcat 6 for Zcore development for more information.
- Modify Project settings: Go to Properties -> Java Build Path - Libraries. There may be an error about the location of tests-openmrs-api.*.jar. Edit the reference to tests-openmrs-api.*.jar so that it points to the version in the lib directory. Also confirm that it is pointing to the Tomcat server installation. I typically use the zcore.exe installer and point to the version of Tomcat that is included with it. If you're on Windows or MacOS, point to your Tomcat 6 installation.
- Modify the project jsp templates as needed.
- Import forms from other zcore projects or create new forms using the Zcore dynasite form builder.
- Create reports in BIRT or java.
- Test the application.
- Package the build.
The document Creating a Zcore-based project (315kb PDF) describes how to setup Eclipse and import forms into the project.
It is also very easy to create a new Eclpse RCP container for a project. One may even modify some text files in an existing standalone instance in order to create a new project, although that moves towards the realm of hackery.
The following links have more detailed information about the Zcore development process. The ZEPRS Documentation site also has information about the ZEPRS application that may be applicable to Zcore development.
PDF version