Installing Java, Maven, Tomcat, and Eclipse on Mac OS

We will first install Java 8 because it's not installed by default on Mac OS 10.9 or higher version. Then, we will install Maven 3, a build tool similar to Ant, to manage the external Java libraries that we will use (Spring, Hibernate, and so on). Maven 3 also compiles source files and generates JAR and WAR files. We will also install Tomcat 8, a popular web server for Java web applications, which we will use throughout this book. JBoss, Jetty, GlassFish, or WebSphere could be used instead. Finally, we will install the Eclipse IDE, but you could also use NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and so on.

How to do it…

Install Java first, then Maven, Tomcat, and Eclipse.

Installing Java

1. Download Java from the Oracle website http://oracle.com. In the Java SE downloads section, choose the Java SE 8 SDK. Select Accept the License Agreement and download the Mac OS X x64 package. The direct link to the page is http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html.
   
2. Open the downloaded file, launch it, and complete the installation.
3. In your ~/.bash_profile file, set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Change jdk1.8.0_40.jdk to the actual folder name on your system (this depends on the version of Java you are using, which is updated regularly):

   export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ jdk1.8.0_40.jdk/Contents/Home"

4. Open a new terminal and test whether it's working:

   $ java -version
   java version "1.8.0_40"
   Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_40-b26)
   Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.40-b25, mixed mode)
   

Installing Maven

1. Download Maven from the Apache website http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi. Choose the Binary zip file of the current stable version:
   
2. Uncompress the downloaded file and move the extracted folder to a convenient location (for example, ~/bin).
3. In your ~/.bash_profile file, add a MAVEN HOME environment variable pointing to that folder. For example:

   export MAVEN_HOME=~/bin/apache-maven-3.3.1

4. Add the bin subfolder to your PATH environment variable:

   export PATH=$PATH:$MAVEN_HOME/bin

5. Open a new terminal and test whether it's working:

   $ mvn –v
   Apache Maven 3.3.1 (12a6b3...
   Maven home: /Users/jerome/bin/apache-maven-3.3.1
   Java version: 1.8.0_40, vendor: Oracle Corporation
   Java home: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_...
   Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
   OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.9.5", arch... …
   

Installing Tomcat

1. Download Tomcat from the Apache website http://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi and choose the Core binary distribution.
   
2. Uncompress the downloaded file and move the extracted folder to a convenient location (for example, ~/bin).
3. Make the scripts in the bin subfolder executable:

   chmod +x bin/*.sh

4. Launch Tomcat using the catalina.sh script:

   $ bin/catalina.sh run
   Using CATALINA_BASE:   /Users/jerome/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.54
   ...
   INFO: Server startup in 852 ms
   

5. Tomcat runs on the 8080 port by default. In a web browser, go to http://localhost:8080/ to check whether it's working.

Installing Eclipse

1. Download Eclipse from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. Choose the Mac OS X 64 Bit version of Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers.
   
2. Uncompress the downloaded file and move the extracted folder to a convenient location (for example, ~/bin).
3. Launch Eclipse by executing the eclipse binary:

   ./eclipse

There's more…

Tomcat can be run as a background process using these two scripts:

bin/startup.sh
bin/shutdown.sh

On a development machine, it's convenient to put Tomcat's folder somewhere in the home directory (for example, ~/bin) so that its contents can be updated without root privileges.