Hacking NodeBox on Windows

This tutorial shows how to install the necessary tools to start hacking on NodeBox 3. We’re using a clean Windows 7 install, and will walk through installing the necessary tools to get started.

This tutorial doesn’t show you how to setup an IDE, rather showing you the tools from scratch. You can pick any IDE you like to actually work on the source.

Install the Java Development Kit

Download Java 6 SE for Windows X86. You need the Windows x86 (i586) version (not the 64-bit version).

Download the JDK 6

Install the JDK to C:\java\jdk6.

Setting up the JDK path

Install the JRE to C:\java\jre6.

Setting up the JRE path

Install Apache Ant

Download Ant from ant.apache.org. Unpack the ZIP file into C:\java and rename it to "ant". Your C:\java folder should now look like this:

Java directory

Setup environment variables

Ant uses environment variables to find your Java install.

• Click Start and type "environment". Click "Edit environment variables for your account"

Type environment

• Click on "Environment Variables".

• Create the following User variables by clicking New...:

  • Variable name: JAVA_HOME
    Variable value: C:\java\jdk6
  • Variable name: ANT_HOME
    Variable value: C:\java\ant
  • Variable name: PATH
    Variable value: %ANT_HOME%\bin;%PATH%

Environment setup

• Test the setup. Start a new command prompt by clicking Start and typing cmd.
• In the command prompt, type ant. It should give an error Buildfile: build.xml does not exist! Then you know Ant is installed correctly. (If it mentions a missing tools.jar, double-check your setup).

Testing our environment setup

Install Git

Download Git for Windows and run the installer. Accept all the defaults. Git setup

Double-click the "Git Bash" icon on the Desktop. Decide where you want to store the NodeBox project. In our case, we’re going to put it on the desktop, so type:

cd Desktop

Then, to clone the repository from GitHub, type:

git clone git://github.com/nodebox/nodebox

Git clone

Run NodeBox

From a new Git Bash shell:

cd Desktop/nodebox
ant run

Create a distributable .EXE file

We use NSIS and Ant to build executable files.

• Download NSIS Unicode.
• Run the installer. The install location should be C:\java\nsis. This path is set in our build.properties.

Setting up NSIS

Change the version number in nodebox\version.properties. Then, from a new Git Bash shell:

cd Desktop/nodebox
ant dist-win

The binary will be in the nodebox\dist folder, under the name NodeBoxSetup.exe.

Finished EXE file