• is fully done in AJAX, has therefore all the possiblities of XML
• and so also XHTML and all the browser capabilites
• is faster then the great Ext.JS
• offers an increadibly amount of interface widgets
• keeps beeing fast after loading a couple of examples
• is easier to use probably easier to use than FLEX
• because everything is done via server side Java Code
• and it is licensed under LGPL!

Congratulations! This will set new standards for AJAX driven web applications… we will see how it compares to GWT-EXT 2

But let’s do that step-by-step:

Installing JAVA on your Debian box

1. You’ll need the JavaVM, so get it at http://java.sun.com/ and search for the latest version. The filename should be something like jdk-1_5_0-linux-i586.bin.
2. If not yet done, install the tools from java-package as root-user:
   apt-get install java-package

3. Then build a DEB-Package from the downloaded file. This can and should be done only as standard user (no root!)
   fakeroot make-jpkg <java-binary-package-name>.bin

4. If everything goes fine, you should see something like

   The Debian package has been created in the currentdirectory. You can install the package as root (e.g.dpkg -i sun-j2sdk1.5_1.5.0+update00_i386.deb).

5. Then just install the package by ther given command:
   dpkg -i <created-package-name>.deb

6. Check if it works by typing java -version. Following should be seen as standard and root user:

   java version "1.5.0"Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0-b64)Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0-b64, mixed mode, sharing)

Installing Apache FOP on your Debian box

1. Check if Java is installed and running.
2. Get the latest binary from http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/ . The file should be named something like fop-0.93-bin-jdk1.4.tar.gz.
3. Extract the contents of the archive by tar -zxvf <fop-tarball>. This should results in a directory called fop-0.93.
4. Move the directory to /usr/local/lib
   mv fop-0.93 /usr/local/lib
   
5. Make a symlink for the directory without the version number
   ln -s /usr/local/lib/fop-0.93 /usr/local/lib/fop
   
6. Make a symlink for the command line wrapper script in your /usr/bin
   ln -s /usr/local/lib/fop/fop /usr/bin/fop

7. Edit /usr/bin/fop and put following at the beginning of the file (and below the header comment section!):
   export FOP_HOME=/usr/local/lib/fop

8. Test the installation not only by typing fop -v, but instead by converting a fo file. This is necessary, because the command line wrapper is still very experimental:
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
   <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">

   <fo:layout-master-set>
     <fo:simple-page-master master-name="A4">
     <fo:region-body /><
     </fo:simple-page-master>
   </fo:layout-master-set>

   <fo:page-sequence master-reference="A4">
     <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
       <fo:block>Hello World!</fo:block>
     </fo:flow>
   </fo:page-sequence>
   </fo:root>

More help

You can get in-depth installation guides and instructions here:

• http://www.crazysquirrel.com/computing/debian/java.jspx
• http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/InstallingAnFO.html