Table Of Contents
- What is JCas?
- What is CAS?
- How is JCas licensed?
- How is the JCas Project organized?
- How do I find out about future releases of JCas?
- How do I run JCas?
- What build should I download?
- Which operating systems does JCas support?
- I have downloaded JCas, but it won't start. How do I start it?
- Where are the JCas manuals?
- How do I ask questions?
- How do I report a bug?
- How do I make feature requests?
- How do I uninstall JCas?
What is JCas?
JCas is an Open Source server-side implementation of the CAS protocol. It provides
extensive authentication methods for JDBC databases and a special connector for
JAAS based authentication. Thus, JCas is most flexible due to the fact that it can
be extended by just plugging in third-party JAAS providers.
What is CAS?
CAS is a protocol for distributed authentication and authorization. It is aimed at
distributed applications that need to integrate various user interfaces into one
single point of authentication. See the
Specification of CAS/1.0 for more
details.
How is JCas licensed?
JCas is published under the General Public License. There is no restriction
regarding distribution, usage or modification as long as the origins of the
software is made clearly visible to all users. We do not force our users
to mention JCas anywhere in their user interfaces, but would be happy if you
do so.
How is the JCas Project organized?
Currently, JCas is organized as a one-man-show. If you like to contribute
in the effort to make distributed computing easier, feel free to join
the development process (see section Get Involved).
How do I find out about future releases of JCas?
There are four possibilities:
How do I run JCas?
JCas is a full Java implementation. Make sure that JCas JAR archive, all JDBC
drivers and JAAS provider classes are available through CLASSPATH variable.
Then issue the following command:
java jcas.JCasServer <path-to-config-file>
If the configuration file is correct and all other prerequisites (e.g. listener port is
available) then JCas will startup and run.
What build should I download?
Use the source release if you need to adopt requirements that JCas cannot fulfill
at the moment. If you want to use JCas "as-is" and just need to add your JDBC and/or
JAAS providers, then you are fine downloading a binary release.
There is no documentation shipped with the releases so far, but it propably will
come shortly. You should go to our website if the release of your version does not
include proper documentation or if you got questions not answered in the shipped
documentation. Also refer to our help forum.
Download the latest build available. We do not release nightly builds so far.
Refer to the download section.
Which operating systems does JCas support?
JCas is not bound to a specific Operating System but to Java 1.4 Virtual Machine.
Additionally you might need JDBC drivers and JAAS provider classes to work
with JCas. Please be aware that these external classes might be coded
platform-specific and therefore bound to these platforms. You better stick to
native Java drivers to keep your server independent of the Operating System.
I have downloaded JCas, but it won't start. How do I start it?
Make sure you've downloaded the latest version and installed it correctly
(although there can't usually be done anything wrong). Check if you
have a correct Java version running (at least Java 1.4.2 is required).
Make sure that all third-party classes are available at runtime (JCas
JAR file, JDBC drivers, JAAS provider packages) and those classes can run
on the system you are using.
Next check the configuration file. JCas will help you on that by telling
you the reason for aborting startup.
Check the manual pages (see next section), help forum and bug tracking system
if your problem is described there. If you can't find it, issue a question
on our help forum (see below).
Where are the JCas manuals?
All documentation can be found in JCas releases. Latest documentation is available
on our homepage jcas.sourceforge.net.
The User's Guide will help you to configure JCas for your specific needs.
How do I ask questions?
The User Help
Forum is created for that special purpose. Post
your question there. We watch this forum on a daily basis and will answer
questions as soon as they arrive.
How do I report a bug?
The JCas Project uses Sourceforge's standard bug tracker as its
bug
tracking system.
Entering a bug report is as simple as filling in a web form on the
JCas Bug Tracking page. The first time you enter a bug you should create a
new Sourceforge account for yourself by providing an email address and
choosing a password but anonymous reports are welcome either. If reported
anonymously, please provide an e-mail address so we can contact you in case
of questions or problems.
But wait! Before you enter a bug report, search the system to see if someone
else has already entered a bug report similar to yours. If you find a bug
report that outlines the problem you are seeing, you can simply annotate it
with your comments to let the developers know that you have also hit the bug.
Once you have searched and not found anything, you can go ahead and enter a
new bug report.
To make your bug report more helpful include the following in all bug reports
you submit:
- The JCas build you are using, for example, JCas/0.1.0
- Your computer's specifications (OS, memory, other pertinent info)
- The contents of your .log file (or lack thereof). This is especially
important if you get a message that reports an internal error.
- The Java runtime or development kit you are using to run JCas (use
java -fullversion)
- A description of what you were doing when you encountered the bug
- An explanation of how the observed behavior differs from the expected
behavior
- Step-by-step instructions that repeatedly expose the bug, so that the
developer can see it for themselves.
How do I make feature requests?
Feature requests can be made through
Sourceforge.
But wait! Just like with bug reports, you should first search Sourceforge to make
sure that nobody has already made a similar request. If the feature request already
exists simply annotate it with your comments.
When entering feature requests, please attempt to be very specific about the feature
you would like, its use cases, and possible pitfalls that the implementor should avoid.
How do I uninstall JCas?
If you installed all files in one directory on your system, then simply delete
it. No other tasks have to be performed.
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