There are four versions of the installation program, one for Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2003/NT/2000, one for Solaris/Unix, one for Mac OS X, and a pure Java version.

Each installer also comes with a console install mode where there is no graphical interface and the steps are performed through a terminal/console window. To launch any installer in console mode, add -i console to the end of the command. For example, for the Unix installer, you can execute the following command to run in silent mode: ./installERES.bin -i console

Once the installation program has launched and you agree to the license agreement, the first option that is presented asks you to specify the directory into which you would like to install ERES.

Choose ERES Location Dialog

If the directory already exists and contains an installation of ERES, the installer will give you the option to perform a full or update install. If the directory doesn't contain ERES, the installation will always be a full install. For more information about update installs please see Section 1.3.1.1 - Re-Install/Update.

Install Type Dialog

For full installs, the next step will ask you whether you would like to install the evaluation or release version. The evaluation version is fully functional. However, there will be a water mark on any report, chart, map, and dashboard and the license will expire in 45 days. For update installs, it will always use an evaluation license. Please visit https://www.quadbase.com/register/ to get the full license.

Install Version Dialog

If you select to install a release version, the next dialog will prompt you to enter your license key and verify the host name of the machine on which you're installing ERES.

Enter License Key Dialog

After you have entered the information, the installer will attempt to register the license key with Quadbase. If the registration fails, you will be unable to continue installing the release version of ERES. You will have the option to continue installing the evaluation version. After the installation completes, you can register your key online at https://www.quadbase.com/register/, or contact Quadbase Sales for additional help.

	Note
	After the installation completes, the release version will only run for the hostname specified in this dialog, so double-check to make sure the host name is correct. You can also use the IP address of the machine if you prefer.

The next option that is presented is whether to install Tomcat with ERES or not. As described in the previous chapter, the ERES Server deploys as a servlet collection in an application server/servlet container. For out-of-the box functionality, you can install the Apache Tomcat server with ERES already deployed. If you are installing ERES for the first time, or evaluating the product, it is recommended that you select this option.

If you select to install without Tomcat, the ERES files will be installed in your system and you will need to manually deploy it within your application server. Instructions for different server platforms are in Section 9.3 - Using Other Application Servers.

Use Tomcat Dialog

The next dialog prompts you to select the directory into which you would like to install Tomcat. If you select not to install Tomcat this option will be skipped. Tomcat and ERES will be installed in different directories on the system, and the ERES directory will be mapped as a virtual directory in Tomcat.

Choose Tomcat Location Dialog

The next dialog prompts you to specify the connection options for the application server. This dialog appears whether you choose to install ERES with Tomcat or not. You will need to specify the machine name or IP address, the port number, and the context for the application server on which ERES will be running.

Choose Tomcat Settings Dialog

After specifying the connection details for the application server, the next dialog asks you to choose whether to auto start the ERES Server, i.e., have the ERES Server running whenever the application server is started.

Autostart ERES Server

The next dialog asks you to choose the protocol you wish to use to access ERES, i.e., do you wish to use http:// or https://?

Specify Protocol for ERES

If you choose https:// protocol and have selected to install Tomcat, the following two dialogs will appear. Note that if you have chosen not to install Tomcat, you are responsible for setting the https connection details and the certificate yourself.

The next dialog allows you to install Tomcat as a Windows service.

Install Tomcat as a service

If you choose to install Tomcat as a service, the next dialog will prompt you to select whether the service should start automatically when the machine is started.

Start Tomcat service automatically

The next dialog appears when the option to install Tomcat and the https:// protocol is selected. This dialog obtains information to generate a generic SSL certificate for the installed Tomcat to use.

Specify User and Organization Information

For this dialog, you cannot leave any information blank nor can you use a comma. If either of the two happens or if the two letter country code is not two characters in length, a error message is shown and you will be prompted to enter the information again.

The last option in the installer is only available for the Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2003/NT/2000 installation. It allows you to specify where to create the program shortcuts in the Start Menu, on the Desktop, or both. Note that shortcuts will only be created if you select to install Tomcat.

After you complete the last option you will be shown a summary of the options you've selected. Next, the program will install.

1.3.1.1. Re-Install/Update

If you select a destination directory for the ERES files that already contains an ERES installation, you will be prompted as to whether you would like to update your existing installation, or create a new one.

Install Type Dialog

If you select to create a new installation, then the entire existing installation will be overwritten (and all settings will be re-set to default values). If you select this option and click the Next button, the installation wizard will continue as if you were installing ERES for the first time (as described in the previous chapter).

If you select to update the current ERES installation, only program files will be updated (thus enabling new ERES features and fixing corrupted files), but all ERES settings and the ERES database will be kept as they are (i.e. with your current settings).

If you select to install an update and you are updating from a version prior to 7.0 (in other words: you are not re-installing an existing ERES 7.0 installation), you will be prompted whether you want to install ERES with bundled Tomcat 8.0. Please note that ERES 7.0 requires Tomcat version 8.0 or higher. ERES versions prior to 7.0 were distributed with Tomcat version 6 and lower, so if you are currently using ERES 6.6 or lower with bundled Tomcat, you will need to install ERES 7.0 with Tomcat, or update your Tomcat manually (not recommended). If you're just re-installing ERES 7.0, this step will be skipped, Tomcat will not be installed, and your deployment configuration will not be changed.

Install Tomcat Dialog

If you chose to install ERES with Tomcat 8.0, the next step will be to select a directory for Tomcat. If you choose a directory that doesn't contain an existing Tomcat installation and click Next (recommended), you will be taken straight to the Tomcat configuration wizard step (as described in the previous chapter).

If you choose a directory that already contains the Tomcat installation, the following dialog will appear giving you three options: to overwrite the existing Tomcat installation with a new one, to go back to the previous step, or to tell ERES to assume that the directory already contains Tomcat version 8.0 or higher.

	Tip
	If you want to use an an existing Tomcat 8.0 installation for running ERES, select the existing Tomcat installation directory and then select the Directory already contains Tomcat 8.0 option.

Install Version Dialog

If you are upgrading from a previous version of ERES, make sure to follow the steps in Section 1.3.2.1.3 - Upgrading ERES Database from previous version of ERES to update your existing ERES database.

After you have completed the installation of ERES there are several configuration options available.

1.3.2.1. The ERES Database

Information about users and groups, files in the Organizer, schedule/archive jobs, and security/privilege information is stored in a database. By default this is the HSQL Java application database which is included in the ERES installation. Connection to this database is transparent to users and will work out of the box. This database works fine for development or evaluation environments, however, it is generally insufficient for production environments, as it will not scale to large deployments and provides no failure/recovery features.

1.3.2.1.1. Using a Different Database

ERES provides users the option of using a different database than the HSQL database provided with the installation. To run with a different database, you will need to create the tables used by ERES in your database. Create table scripts are provided in the ERES installation in the data directory, and are available for most major databases.

The database connection that the ERES server uses to connect to the database is specified in the Admin Console, under Setting Info → ERES Repository. You can change the connection information to provide a JDBC connection to the database that you would like to use. The JDBC driver for the database you're using will need to be added/available to the classpath of the application server/servlet container where you have deployed ERES. You can also make a connection to the ERES database using JNDI. You can pass in the JNDI connection details after pointing your application server to the ERES database.

Specific setup instructions for different databases are available in Section 9.1 - Using Other Databases.

1.3.2.1.2. Running HSQL in Client-Server Mode

Normally the HSQL database runs as an application process on the server-side and needs no user interaction to start or stop the database process. HSQL can also be run in client-server mode. This mode can improve performance and scalability for the database when run in a multi-user environment. To run the HSQL database in client-server mode, open a console window and navigate to the /data/ directory of your ERES installation. In this directory run the following command:

java -classpath "../WEB-INF/lib/hsqldb.jar" org.hsqldb.Server -database quadbasedb -port 2857 (or whatever port you would like the database to listen on)
             

The database server process will then start. To configure the ERES Server to connect to HSQL running in this mode, log on as Admin and enter the Admin Console → Setting Info → ERES Repository and change the entry in Database URL to read jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://machinename:port where machinename is the name or IP address of the server, and the port number is the port you selected for the HSQL server.

1.3.2.1.3. Upgrading ERES Database from previous version of ERES

In order to support new features, the ERES database structure generally needs to be modified.

If you are running the ERES database on HSQL, MySQL, Oracle, MS-SQL, Informix or Postgres database, the database will be updated automatically during the ERES installation process.

If you are using a different database, you need to run the upgrade program before you can start using the latest version of ERES. The upgrade programs are located in the <ERES-INSTALL>/data/dbupgrade directory.

Currently, the upgrade programs support MS-ACCESS and DB2 databases (besides the six databases that are also supported by the ERES installer). If your database is not in the above list, please contact our technical support staff for more details.

There are two versions of upgrade programs, namely, DBUpgradeGUI and UpgradeAppl.

The former is the graphic user interface version, the latter the command line version.

Please note that ERES log records are not preserved during the upgrade process.

	Warning
	As a precaution, you are recommended to backup your ERES database before you proceed with the upgrade. This is to safeguard the unlikely event that any abnormal situation may occur during the upgrade process.

Upgrade User Repository Database Using Graphic Interface

1. Change directory to <ERES-INSTALL>/data/dbupgrade/

2. Enter command:

   java -classpath "<DB_Driver>;DBUpgrade.jar;.;" quadbase.DBUpgradeGUI
                        

The upgrade program graphic interface is shown below:

Upgrade DB Program GUI

You need to specify the database information so that the program can proceed to do the upgrade.

Please note that the default database connection information is provided only as a guideline, you need to fill in the exact connection information for the upgrade program to run. Also, please make sure that the database driver is included in the –classpath flag in the command.

For example, if you are using Oracle, you may run the command with classpath as follows:

java -classpath "c:\ERES\WEB-INF\lib\jdbc_oracle.jar;DBupgrade.jar;." quadbase.DBUpgradeGUI
             

Press the Start button and the upgrade process will begin.

If you entered wrong database information, the program will prompt you with an error message complaining wrong database connection settings.

After the upgrade program is finished, the status bar at the bottom of the window will show Done.

If you click the Cancel button during the upgrade process, it will terminate the upgrade program. But it will NOT roll back to the original database. In such a case, you have to use your own backup data or use the backup SQL file generated by this program to restore your database.

Upgrading ERES Database Using Command Line:

To upgrade using the command line version, simply type the command as follows:

java -classpath "<DB_Driver>;DBUpgrade.jar;." quadbase.UpgradeAppl <ERES_config_file>
             

The program will use the file specified by <ERES_config_file> to obtain connection information. The config file should be written in the same format as the config.txt in <ERES_INSTALL>/data/dpupgrade/.

1.3.2.2. Starting the Server

If you have selected the option to Auto-Start Server, then the ERES Server is started the moment the application server (Tomcat by default) is started. If the option was not selected, or you change the option in the Administration Console → Server Options → Auto-Start, then you will have to start the ERES Server manually.

The first step in running and administering ERES is to start the server. To start the ERES server, you will first need to start the application server/servlet container in which the server is deployed. If you installed ERES with Tomcat, go to the /bin/ directory of the Tomcat installation and execute startup.bat/.sh to start Tomcat.

Next, load the start page for ERES. This is the index.jsp page in the ERES install directory. If you installed ERES with Tomcat then the virtual directory mapped to the ERES install directory is /ERES/ so to reach the index page, you would use the following URL:

http://machinename:port/ERES/index.jsp

	Note
	You must have cookies and javascript enabled in your browser in order to use the ERES interfaces.

There are two versions of the ERES start page. If you performed a clean ERES install (i.e. to an empty directory), the following start page will be displayed:

New ERES Start Page

If you don't like the new ERES start page design, you can use the old design. This can be done in the admin console. See the Section 1.4.1.2 - Setting Info for more details.

If you updated from a previous ERES version, the ERES start page will be the same as before. The default ERES start page looked like this in previous versions:

Old ERES Start Page

You can start the server directly in the start page. If the “Autostart” feature has been enabled (see Section 1.3.1 - Installing ERES for more details), the ERES server should be already running. If it's not, click the Start Server button. Once the server is started, you can log-in to access other EspressReport ES functions (the default administrator login is username: admin password: admin).

	Note
	Any user can start the server, but only the administrator can shut down the server. Even with the server running, the Shut Down button will only become active when you login as the system administrator.

ERES server is running, Administrator is logged in

Old ERES start page, ERES server is running

If you upgraded from an older version, you may notice some changes in the default behavior. Although the backward compatibility is kept as much as possible, sometimes a new behavior is preferred. The new behavior should be better for most users, but if you already have some charts or reports from an older version, you may want to keep the old behavior, so your charts and reports look exactly the same as before. That is why we provide backward compatibility patches.

	Caution
	Patches are for advanced users only. Please apply them only if you need them and if you know what you are doing. If you are not sure, please contact support.

The patches can be found in <ERES_Installation_Directory>/lib/Patches directory. They are stored in JAR archives. To apply a patch, you only need to add the appropriate JAR file to the classpath of your application as described below.

If you want to apply a patch to all designers (Report Designer, Chart Designer, Dashboard Builder, etc.) and viewers (Report Viewer, Chart Viewer, Dashboard Viewer, etc.), you have to copy the appropriate patch JAR file to <ERES_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY>/WEB-INF/lib/ directory. Then you have to edit ERESOrganizer.bat file (if you use Windows), or ERESOrganizer.sh file (if you use other OS) in your ERES installation directory and add relative path to the patch JAR file (e.g. /lib/Patches/patch1.jar) to the classpath parameter. Then you need to edit ERESOrganizer.jnlp file in the ERES installation directory and add relative path to the patch JAR file to the archive attribute of the applet tag.

If you are using API, you have to include the patch JAR file in the classpath of your application.

Below is a list of all available patches in the current version.

Trying to run Java Applets in newer browsers and/or with newer Java versions can lead to problems with Applets being deprecated or not supported any more. Officially were Applets blocked to run in common browsers from about year 2016. However, it is still possible to run Applets in a similar use case as before (open a Java application from a remote server via your browser) thanks to Java WebStart technology that's supported by Java 8. Both Applets and Java Web Start are marked as deprecated technologies from Java 9.

Applets vs WebStart

In this case, ERES is Java 8 compiled application and is best to use it with Java 8. For using Applets with WebStart in newer versions, you must use some different implementation of WebStart. Popular choices are OpenWebStart or IcedTea-Web and it is already included in some newer Java distributions.

To run a Java Applet via a Java Web Start JNLP file, you have to specify the applet-desc parameter in the JNLP file configuration file.

   <applet-desc
      name="Chart Viewer"
      main-class="quadbase.chartviewer.Viewer"
      width="800"
      height="600">
	<param name="filename" value="help/examples/ChartAPI/data/test.tpl"/>
	<param name="preventSelfDestruct" value="true"/>
  </applet-desc>

The param tags specify parameters for the applet. The parameters are different for each applet. The specific parameters are mentioned in the documentation chapter for each applet.

JNLP files can be either run locally when the required libraries (containing the compiled source code) are loaded as a local file or remotely when the libraries are loaded via HTTP/HTTPS.

When running JNLP files remotely via HTTP/HTTPS, the parameters comm_protocol, comm_url and servlet_context need to be added to the applet-desc element. You can either fill in the values manually (as the following code example shows) or you can have the values filled automatically in a JSP file.

<applet-desc
	 name="Espress Report Designer"
	 main-class="quadbase.reportdesigner.designer.ReportClient"
	 width="380"
	 height="160">
	<param name="comm_protocol" value="servlet"/>
	<param name="comm_url" value="http://127.0.0.1:8080"/>
	<param name="servlet_context" value="Espress70/servlet"/>
</applet-desc>

	Note
	If you want to pre-fil the values automatically in a JSP file, the actual values highly depend on your server configuration. The previous example is just illustrative.