Obtain and install JDK 1.4.x.

Obtain and install Sun's Web Service Developer Pack, JWSDP.

Obtain and install Ant version 1.5.3 or greater and make sure that it is in your search path.

Obtain the Ant contrib jar and put it into the lib subdirectory under your base Ant installation diretory. (If the contrib jar file does not have a version number in the file name, I recommend that you rename it with the version number). Ant Contrib can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=36177.

Export the variable JAVA_HOME to the base directory of your JDK. Ant requires this, regardless of whether javac is in your search path.

Obtain source code using CVS or by downloading the source zip at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=98416 and unzipping it.

If you use CVS, the distribution will expand into a directory under your current directory named jamama. If you use unzip, the distribution will expand into a directory under your current directory named jamama plus version number. (If you got the zip from somewhere other than the SourceForge Files page, then the version number may end with "+". If so, then the code does not correspond directly to a Jamama release but has some development module modifications on to of the version without the +). The root directory "jamama" or "jamama" and version numer is referred to as JAMAMA_HOME in the Jamama documentation (including this document).

If you don't want to set up your own runtime logging system, then copy the sample files in JAMAMA_HOME/localres to the same filenames without the .sample suffixes.

Copy the sample file in JAMAMA_HOME /config to the same filename without the .sample suffix.

Look at the top of JAMAMA_HOME/build.xml. If the value of jwsdp.home is not set to the directory that you installed JWSDP to, then make a build.properties file in the same directory and set the value of jwsdp.home like this.

    jwsdp.home:  /path/to/where/you/installed/jwsdp

Run ant -projecthelp in the JAMAMA_HOME directory. This shows you all the stuff that you can do using ant. You always run ant from the JAMAMA_HOME directory.

N.b. that interactive mode of Jamama does not work when it is run through Ant. This is because Ant does something with stdin/stdout so that your input never makes it to the application. Because of this, you have to shut down Jamama by using a JMX interface (like the Html adaptor) or just Ctrl-C at the command-line.

When you run Ant with the Jamama build file, if you ever get any error messages or warnings telling you that some variable is not set, then set it in a properties file in the same directory named build.properties. (If it's a one-time setting... or to override a setting in build.properties or build.xml, you can set properties on the Ant command line like

    ant -Dpropname=propvalue -Dothername=otherval target1...

To add things to your classpath (like a log4j jar file), set the property 'local.runtimeclasspath' in your build.properties file. It takes a colon/subcolon delimited path. You don't need to add the stuff in JAMAMA_HOME/lib, but you do need to add JAMAMA_HOME/localres if you are using resources from that directory.

See the Jamama User's Guide for instructions on how to run Jamama without Ant (which you will want to do if you want to use the interactive command-line as opposed to working with the HTML, XML file, or other interfaces).

Also see the Jamama User's Guide for how to configure Jamama, including how to set up logging.