C H A P T E R  4

Using Your Newly Installed Mobile Edition IDE

After you have successfully installed the Mobile Edition IDE, use the information in this chapter to launch, set up and register your IDE. Details about the available command-line switch options are also included.


Setting up Your Mobile Edition IDE

When you first start up the Mobile Edition IDE, you are prompted to:

Use the following steps to guide you through setup of your initial IDE environment:

1. Start the Mobile Edition IDE.

If this is the first time you are installing this version of the Mobile Edition IDE on a Microsoft Windows system, you are prompted for the user directory.

2. (Microsoft Windows only) Type the name of the directory where you want the IDE to store your settings and project information, and click OK.

Ensure that the directory you create is in a place that is always accessible to your system. If you have different versions of the IDE, use a different user directory for each IDE version. This directory should be different from the directory where the IDE is installed.

The recommended name for the user directory in a Microsoft Windows system is drive:fully-qualified-path\ffjuser40me. This name is entered the UserDir value of the Software\SunMicrosystems, Inc.\Forte for Java key in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry. This value is not deleted when the IDE is uninstalled. The name will be reused by future installations of this version of the IDE if the UserDir value is not explicitly deleted from the Microsoft Windows Registry. Refer to the troubleshooting information in TABLE 6-3, if you want to use a different location for your user directory.

The Settings Import wizard appears.

3. In the Settings Import wizard, specify whether you want to import your settings from a previous version of the IDE.



Note - Because the Community and Enterprise Edition IDEs include several modules not supported by Mobile Edition IDE, Sun does not recommend using previous settings from the Community and Enterprise Edition IDEs with the Mobile Edition IDE.



On a Microsoft Windows system, the user directory is created in the previous step or set to the same user directory you specified in a previous installation of this version of the IDE if you did not remove the previous UserDir value in the registry.
For supported Solaris or Red Hat Linux environments, the default user directory is created and named $HOME/ffjuser40me.

You are prompted for the location of the user directory for the previously installed IDE.

a. Specify the path or click Browse to locate the directory. Click Next.

The IDE imports the settings.

b. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

The IDE continues with the startup and the Setup wizard appears.

4. If you are behind a firewall, specify the proxy server information.

5. Select the window mode, and click Next to continue with the setup.

6. Click Finish to continue with IDE startup, or click Next for additional setup options.

7. In the Module Installation pane, specify which module you want to enable or disable.

By default, all the modules installed with the IDE are enabled. Disable a module by doing the following:

a. Click on the Enabled property value for the module.

b. Click a second time and select False to disable the module.

8. Click Next to continue with the setup, or click Finish to continue with the IDE startup.

9. From the Update Center pane, specify how often you want the IDE to automatically check the Update Center. Select the Sun ONE Studio Update Center as the update center from which you want to obtain the updates for modules of your choice.

Click Finish to continue with the IDE startup. Several windows appear and the registration wizard appears.

10. From the Registration wizard, select your preferred method of registration.

The registration page appears on your web browser and you can proceed to register the product, create a new Sun ONE Studio Developer Resources account, or update your account.

Registering your Mobile Edition IDE through the web enables you to:

If you already registered with the Sun ONE Studio Developer Resources, Sun Download Center, or mysun.sun.com, you can use the same user name and password, but you are prompted for additional information.



Note - To maintain your Sun ONE Studio Developer Resources account using the web, choose Help right arrow Registration Wizard from the main window of the IDE. Or, go to http://forte.sun.com/services/registration/ accountmaintenance.html



This method of registration registers only your Mobile Edition IDE.

If you decide to register with Sun ONE Studio Developer Resources at a later time, choose Help right arrow Registration Wizard from the main window of the IDE.

11. From the Automatic Update Check dialog box, specify whether you want to check for new IDE updates.


Using the Startup Command-Line Options

The IDE startup scripts for all supported platforms can be run with additional options. These command-line options are specified with flags.

On a supported Microsoft Windows system, for example, you might type:

C:\>runidew.exe -help

In a supported Linux or Solaris environments, for example, you might type:

# runide.sh -help

Alternatively, you can put the options in the s1studio-install-dir/bin/ide.cfg file. The IDE reads this file before parsing any command-line options. You can break options into multiple lines in ide.cfg.

TABLE 4-1 lists the startup command-line options for all supported platforms.

TABLE 4-1 Command-Line Switch Options

Switch Options

Description

-h
-help

Prints usage.

-jdkhome jdk-home-dir

Selects an SDK other than the default SDK. On Microsoft Windows, by default, the IDE checks the registry and selects the latest SDK available.

-hotspot
-server
-client
-classic
-native
-green

Explicitly specifies the Java virtual machine (JVMtrademark) variant to be used.

The terms "Java virtual machine" and "JVM" mean a virtual machine for the Java platform.

-cp:p additional-classpath

Prepends the specified class path onto the IDE's class path.

-cp:a additional-classpath

Appends the specified class path to the IDE's class path.

-ui UI_class-name

Selects a given class as the IDE's look and feel.

-fontsize size

Sets the font size, expressed in points, in the IDE's user interface.

-single

Launches the IDE from s1studio-install-dir instead of from your s1studio-user-dir directory. Runs the Mobile Edition IDE in single-user mode. The default mode is multiuser.

-userdir s1studio-user-dir

Explicitly specifies the s1studio-user-dir directory (the location where your user settings are stored). If this option is not used in Microsoft Windows NT, the user is prompted at the initial startup of the IDE for the s1studio-user-dir directory to use. On Microsoft Windows systems, this value is stored in the registry for later use. If this option is not used in Solaris or Linux operating environments, the location is user-home-dir/ffjuser40me.

-Jjvm-flags

Passes specified flags directly to the JVM.

-J-Xverify:none

Tells the JVM not to verify the correctness of the bytecode for faster startup. Bytecode verification is a slow process. Whenever a class is loaded, the JVM scans all bytecode and detects an invalid byte sequence even if a method is never called. Also, the JVM loads certain classes referred to in method signatures and in the method body, even though they are not called during startup. However, setting this flag removes some of the protection that the Java language gives you. (Refer to the JVM documentation for more information.)

-J-Xms24m

Sets up the initial heap size of the JVM to 24 MB. This switch prevents the JVM from extending the heap size during startup, which enables faster startup time for the IDE.


In the Solaris and Linux environments, users can modify startup scripts to suit their needs.


Validating Your Mobile Edition Installation

You can test your installation quickly by executing one of the sample applications included with the Mobile Edition IDE.

1. Open the Explorer and expand the sample directory (s1studio-user-dir/sampledir).

2. Right-click on the Games MIDlet suite and choose Execute.

If the Mobile Editions is installed correctly, the default emulator appears with a menu of games on the screen.