These instructions describe how to deploy GeoExplorer assuming you have a copy of the application source code from GitHub.
To get a copy of the application source code, use subversion:
you@prompt:~$ git clone git://github.com/opengeo/GeoExplorer.git
The GeoExplorer repository contains what you need to run the application as a servlet with an integrated persistence layer.
To assemble the servlet or run in development mode, you need Ant. In addition, to pull in external dependencies, you'll neeed Git installed.
Before running in development mode or preparing the application for deployment, you need to pull in external dependencies. Do this by running ant init in the geoexplorer directory:
you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer/
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant init
The application can be run in development or distribution mode. In development mode, individual scripts are available to a debugger. In distribution mode, scripts are concatenated and minified.
To run the application in development mode, run ant debug:
you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant debug
If the build succeeds, you'll be able to browse to the application at http://localhost:8080/.
By default, the application runs on port 8080. To change this, you can set the app.port property as follows (setting the port to 9080):
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant -Dapp.port=9080 debug
In addition, if you want to make a remote GeoServer available at the /geoserver/ path, you can set the app.proxy.geoserver system property as follows:
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant -Dapp.proxy.geoserver=http://example.com/geoserver/ debug
Running GeoExplorer as described above is not suitable for production because JavaScript files will be loaded dynamically. Before moving your application to a production environment, run ant with the "dist" target. The "dist" target will result in a directory that can be dropped in a servlet container.
you@prompt:~$ cd geoexplorer
you@prompt:~/geoexplorer$ ant dist
Move the build/geoexplorer directory to your production environment (e.g. a servlet container).
GeoExplorer writes to a geoexplorer.db when saving maps. The location of this file is determined by the GEOEXPLORER_DATA value at runtime. This value can be set as a servlet initialization parameter or a Java system property.
The GEOEXPLORER_DATA value must be a path to a directory that is writable by the process that runs the application. The servlet initialization parameter is given precedence over a system property if both exist.
As an example, if you want the geoexplorer.db file to be written to your /tmp directory, modify GeoExplorer's web.xml file to include the following:
<init-param>
<param-name>GEOEXPLORER_DATA</param-name>
<param-value>/tmp</param-value>
</init-param>