2. Installation
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## 2. Installation

Before developing an application with Web Server, it is essential to install Web Server, the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE), the Eclipse-based SpringSource Tool Suite (STS), and a build system integrated with Eclipse. The build system used here is Apache Maven.

STS is supplied as a fully configured Eclipse IDE, with Virgo Web Server and Maven plugins built-in.

## 2.1 Pre-requisites

Before proceeding, ensure that a Java™ Standard Edition Development Kit for Java 6 or later is installed and that the `JAVA_HOME` environment variable is set to the correct value. (A Java Runtime Environment (JRE) alone is not sufficient, a development kit is necessary to use the facilities in STS.)

To verify this, issue the command `"%JAVA_HOME%"\bin\java -version` from a command prompt on Windows or `$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version` from a terminal window on UNIX and ensure that the command completes successfully and reports a Java version `1.6.x` (denoting Java 6) or greater.

Also issue the command `"%JAVA_HOME%"\bin\jar` to ensure that there is a means of extracting files from zip archives. If the `jar` command is unavailable, download and install a suitable zip program such as `7zip`, `gzip`, or `WinZip`. This is most relevant for Windows operating systems where the inbuilt zip extraction utility may mishandle long pathnames.

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