Requirements for using the Component SDK

Required knowledge and skills

In order to work with the Component SDK, you should be familiar with Java development and JavaScript.

Components are extensions of a custom version of the Java Portlet class, so to develop a custom component, you should also have some understanding of Java portlets and the Portlet specification.

The Component SDK generates Eclipse projects, so it also helps to be familiar with Eclipse.

Supported platforms

While Big Data Discovery is always deployed on a Linux system, you can use the Component SDK from either a Windows or Linux system.

There are .bat and .sh versions of each of the Component SDK scripts.

Software requirements

All Component SDK work requires the following:

Eclipse. You must use a version that supports JDK 1.7.
JDK 1.7 or above
Apache Ant 1.8.4 or higher, to build your custom items

For custom components, you may also need:

Software or License	Description
Ext JS	While Ext JS is not required, and the sample component provided with the Component SDK does not use it, most Big Data Discovery components were developed using Ext JS 3.4. Big Data Discovery does not include a license for Ext JS. If you want to use Ext JS for custom component development, you must obtain your own copy of it.
YUI Compressor 2.4.8	By default, when you compile a custom component, JavaScript minification is not used. While components do build successfully without JavaScript minification, for performance purposes you may want to enable it. If you enable minification, then files in the docroot/js directory of your custom components are minified. In order to be able to use minification to build components, you must obtain the .jar file for version 2.4.8 of YUI Compressor. The file is available at https://github.com/yui/yuicompressor/releases/download/v2.4.8/yuicompressor-2.4.8.jar.
JUnit	If you are planning to create unit tests for your custom components, you will need to first obtain junit.jar. The Component SDK can use JUnit for unit tests, but does not come with the junit.jar file.

Software or License

Description

Ext JS

While Ext JS is not required, and the sample component provided with the Component SDK does not use it, most Big Data Discovery components were developed using Ext JS 3.4.

Big Data Discovery does not include a license for Ext JS. If you want to use Ext JS for custom component development, you must obtain your own copy of it.

YUI Compressor 2.4.8

By default, when you compile a custom component, JavaScript minification is not used.

While components do build successfully without JavaScript minification, for performance purposes you may want to enable it.

If you enable minification, then files in the docroot/js directory of your custom components are minified.

In order to be able to use minification to build components, you must obtain the .jar file for version 2.4.8 of YUI Compressor.

The file is available at https://github.com/yui/yuicompressor/releases/download/v2.4.8/yuicompressor-2.4.8.jar.

JUnit

If you are planning to create unit tests for your custom components, you will need to first obtain junit.jar.

The Component SDK can use JUnit for unit tests, but does not come with the junit.jar file.