Installing digilib

Start the Servlet Container

Install and run the Servlet Container of your choice: Tomcat or Jetty.

When the Servlet Container runs you should be able to access the start page on http://localhost:8080/

Deploy via WAR file or web application directory?

A web application can be deployed either as a WAR file or a web application directory (aka “exploded web application”).

The advantage of the WAR file is that it is easy to handle because it is just one file.

The disadvantage of the WAR file is that it is not easy to change the digilib configuration file or any of the HTML or Javascript files because they are hidden in the WAR file.

It is possible to unpack a WAR file into a web application directory to be able to change its contents (see below).

Where to get a WAR file or web application directory?

The preferred way is to build your own WAR file or web application directory using the digilib sources. In this way you can change the configuration files in the source directory and create a new WAR file or web application directory any time you need. Also you get the chance to always use the latest digilib version by updating the source code.

You can also download a digilib WAR file with a default configuration from the GitHub release page.

The default configuration will only show a set of sample images. If you want to show your own images you will need to change the digilib configuration to point to your image directories.

Install a digilib WAR file

1. Get a digilib WAR file.
2. Rename the WAR file to digilib.war.
3. Deploy the WAR file by copying it into the webapps directory of your Servlet Container.
4. Restart your Servlet Container (this may not be necessary).
5. Access your digilib instance at http://localhost:8080/digilib/digilib.html.

You will now be able to see the sample images provided with the digilib installation in the default configuration or your own images if you have updated the configuration.

In digilib you can view images by providing the directory and file name as the fn parameter to digilib.html, e.g. if your file is called ruler.jpg and it is in the base directory you can now access the URL

http://localhost:8080/digilib/digilib.html?fn=ruler

Read more about the layout of image files and directories here.

Install digilib as a web application directory

1. Get a digilib web application directory.
2. Rename the directory to digilib.
3. Deploy the directory by copying it into the webapps directory of your Servlet Container.
4. Restart your Servlet Container (this may not be necessary).
5. Access your digilib instance at http://localhost:8080/digilib/digilib.html

You will now be able to see the sample images provided with the digilib installation in the default configuration or your own images if you have updated the configuration.

In digilib you can view images by providing the directory and file name as the fn parameter to digilib.html, e.g. if your file is called ruler.jpg and it is in the base directory you can now access the URL

http://localhost:8080/digilib/digilib.html?fn=ruler

Read more about the layout of image files and directories here.

Unpack a WAR file into a web application directory

You can unpack the WAR file into a directory called digilib using an unzip tool or the jar -xf Java command.

Alternatively you can look into the webapps directory of your Servlet Container (when its not running) to see if it created an unpacked web application directory called digilib. Then:

1. Make sure that your Servlet Container is not running and remove any digilib.war files from the webapps directory.
2. Keep the digilib directory in the webapps directory of the Servlet Container.