The installation and setup of Unanet takes about 1 to 2 hours, if you are familiar with configuring databases and web servers. The steps below will walk you through the process. These steps cover the actual / physical installation (e.g. installing the database, configuring the system to connect to your database, creating an initial administrative account, etc.). The result of these step will be a usable (but empty) Unanet application. At the completion of these steps, you will need to proceed with the additional application data configuration steps.
The topics below cover the basic installation and setup steps:
Setting up E-mail (optional)
Setting up Help--UserDocs (optional)
Customizing other Help menu links (optional)
Unanet for the PDA Configuration (optional)
The following steps have to be completed before beginning the Unanet installation and setup procedure:
Have the Web Server installed. Unanet currently supports:
IIS 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0
Netscape Enterprise Server 3.5.1 (NT and Unix)
Apache (NT and Unix)
Java Web Server
WebLogic Applications Server
Have the Database installed. Unanet currently supports:
Microsoft SQL*Server 7.0 and 2000 * Beginning with Unanet 3.3, we no longer support SQL Server 6.5.
Oracle 7.x and 8.x
If your webserver does not have one already, a servlet engine is required on your webserver. In order for the servlet engine to work, a Java Runtime Environment is also required. This can be obtained at java.sun.com. The most current version as of this writing (Unanet 3.4) is version 1.3.1_02. (This actually needs to be installed prior to installing the servlet engine.) This is covered in the servlet engine setup section of the documentation. Setting up the servlet engine.
Unanet is written entirely in Java Servlets so the web server needs to have a Servlet Engine attached in order to run the servlets. JRun is a Servlet Engine that can be obtained from Macromedia. This is not a Unanet product, and is only listed as one possible Servlet Engine that you may choose to install. Some web servers have their own Servlet Engine included, which is supported by Unanet, like Java Web Server or WebLogic. In these two cases JRun is not necessary. If IIS, Netscape Enterprise Server, or Apache is used, JRun (or some other Servlet Engine like Tomcat) needs to be installed. Click here for more information about how to install JRun.
Note 1: Tomcat and JRun can be configured to run as a standalone webserver for Unanet. Neither has to connect to IIS or Apache in order to run the Unanet application.
Note 2: If you are interested in JRun pricing through a reseller, contact support@unanet.com for more information.
After the pre-installation steps are completed, it is time for the Unanet installation and configuration.
Run the Unanet setup program on the Web Server. The Unanet setup executable (unanetNN.exe) (where NN = Release Number), must be run on the web server. This file has to be downloaded from Unanet Technologies. The Unanet setup executable creates a directory called Unanet on the web server. The default location of this directory is [C:\Unanet]. If you are keeping Unanet on a different drive and/or directory, replace [C:\Unanet] with the drive and directory you are using throughout the installation.
Put the license file in the properties directory. The license.properties file is received from Unanet Technologies. This file holds the activation keys that are used to enable Unanet. Make sure to put this file in the [C:\Unanet\properties] where C:\Unanet is the default directory. Click here for more information about the license.properties file. Please note, changes to any of the properties files will require a stop and restart of the Servlet Engine (e.g. JRun service) in order for the changes to take effect.
Set up the Unanet Database. It is assumed that the actual Database Server has already been installed and setup by a Database Administrator (DBA) -- in the pre-installation step above. We suggest that the DBA assists with the Database Setup portion of this installation, especially if using Oracle. Go to the appropriate instructions for the Database that is used: Oracle Setup or SQL*Server Setup.
Connect the Web Server to the Unanet Database. On the web server, there is a file called database.properties in the properties directory [C:\Unanet\properties] (where C:\ is the default). The database.properties keeps the information used to connect to the database, specifically what JDBC Driver is used. Unanet comes installed with the i-Net JDBC Driver.
If a SQL*Server database is used the default assumes that the SQL*Server database is running on the same machine as the web server (localhost). If this is not the case, it is necessary to edit the database.properties file and enter the host and port of the SQL*Server Database.
If Oracle is used, the database.properties file has to be edited and changed to use the Oracle parameters. Click here for more information about the database.properties file.
Please note, changes to any of the properties files will require a stop and restart of the Servlet Engine (e.g. JRun service) in order for the changes to take effect.
To test that the Unanet Application was installed correctly, the Servlet Engine (e.g. JRun Service) has to be stopped and re-started (if this has not already been done). For example, to restart Jrun, open the Services from the Control Panel in NT, and stop the JRun Service. After it is re-started, it is time to test the application.
With the web server running, open a browser. Type in the following URL:
http://<YourWebServerMachineName>.<YourDomainName>/servlet/unanet
Example: If the machine name is joe and the domain is juneau.com, then the following would be entered:
http://joe.juneau.com/servlet/unanet
If the Unanet Application is coming up, but the following message is displayed in the mainframe: "The Unanet database is not currently available. Please try again later or contact your Unanet administrator", you probably need changes to the database.properties file.
To Login or Logout of Unanet, press the Unanet Logo at the top of the screen. The Unanet Logo will always take you to the Login/Logout screen no matter where you are in the system.
Unanet comes with a default username and password for initial setup of users. This default login is case-sensitive. Login to Unanet as: (UNANET / UNANET). The default UNANET user only has access to the Administrator Menu Section. Assuming you are the administrator of this system, you will have to do some initial setup before you can add yourself as a real user. Adding a person to the system requires the following steps to be accomplished first:
- Define the company's Time Period (Administrator / Time Period / Add)
- Define the company name (Administrator / Organization / Add)
Now you can add yourself under the Administrator / People / Add Section. Enter all the information on the screen. At the bottom of the Person screen, there will be a section on Roles. They relate to the Unanet Menu. Each role will allow a user to access particular Unanet Menu Sections. Among the available roles you may find:
| Administrator: | Responsible for adding people and companies (cost centers), assigning user privileges, and defining pay codes, project types, project statuses, time period(s), holidays, and approval chains. |
|---|---|
| Manager: | Responsible for approving peoples time and expenses. These are the people that are in the Approval Chains or defined as alternate approves in the database. |
| Project Manager: | Responsible for entering projects and tasks that people will apply time to. |
| User: | A User has access to their Timesheet and/or Expenses here. Also, any attributes of the timesheet and expense reports are done here (ie, changing their user profile and defining there default project list). |
See Getting Started for more information about configuring system data to meet your organizations needs.
Once the Administrator is added, logout and log back in as the administrator. To logout, click on the Unanet logo at the top of the screen, and then press the Logout button.
Once an Administrator is added to the system, the (UNANET / UNANET) username and password will no longer work. As long as there is always at least 1 active administrator in the database, the UNANET username and password will be disabled. If all the active administrators from the system are deleted, the UNANET username and password will be active again.
Set up the system to use e-mail if this functionality is desired. In order for the E-mail option to work, the Unanet System parameters must be set. Open the unanet.properties file located on the web server (see property files for more information). Add the following lines to the end of the file (if they are not already there), replacing the bold print with your values:
unatime.email=true
mail.host=MAILSERVER.DOMAIN.com
unatime.email.default_from_address=unatime_admin@DOMAIN.com
To disable the E-mail option, set the unatime.email=false.
Please note, changes to any of the properties files will require a stop and restart of the Servlet Engine (e.g. JRun service) in order for the changes to take effect.
By default, the User Docs menu item on the Help menu does not point to any particular help documentation. We strongly recommend you make the following modifications to your menu.properties file in order to provide your users with access to the Unanet Help web pages.
You have two basic options:
1) point the User Docs menu item to your own internal version of the help pages (see instructions below). By choosing this option, you will be pointing to a version of the help documentation that you downloaded with the application. This will likely be located somewhere on your internal network and may provide for faster access. In order to keep the user documentation updated, you will want to download and update the documentation from time to time. You would most likely do this when downloading and installing any new version (e.g. point / patch release, etc).
2) point the User Docs to our master Unanet User Docs -- available from our world wide web site. The url for our "userdocs" is www.unanet.com/unadocs . By choosing this option, you will be pointing to a version of the help documentation on our world wide web site. This version is updated regularly with each new product build. One drawback is that you may not be running the most current version of Unanet -- and our world wide web site version is kept consistent with the most current version of Unanet (although previous major versions are also available as well).
1. First, the
docs directory (in Unanet) needs to be made available in IIS. This is done by
copying or moving the docs directory into the wwwroot directory of the webserver.
<Default
C:\> C:\InetPub\wwwroot\docs.
This can be
tested by typing in the URL http://<machine>.<domain name>/docs/index.html
2. In a text
editor, i.e. Textpad, Notepad, create a menu.properties file with the following
text:
menu.help.documentation=70,UserDocs,http://<machine name>.<domain name>.com/docs/index.html,_blank,unatime|unasense,
3. Place the menu.properties file in the \unanet\properties directory (stop and restart the servlet engine).
Several of the menu items on the Help menu are intended to be modified during your installation process -- to provide custom information to your user community. In particular you may wish customize the following items:
FAQ -- You could update this link to point to a help page that is custom to your site, that could have specific FAQs related to your company's specific procedures and processes. Click on the FAQ menu link below for additional information.
Support -- You could update this link to launch an email window supplied with your internal support contact's email information. Or, perhaps you could link to a customized help page that spelled out your organizations support procedures and points of contact. Click on the Support menu link below for additional information.
License -- By default, this links to the Unanet License Agreement. If you have a customized agreement, or would like to remove this link all together, you may also choose to make modification to this item.
UserDocs -- This page should be customized during installation to point to the location that your help documentation was installed. Click on the UserDocs menu link below for additional information.
You can modify, remove or even add your own custom menu items. For information about customizing the menus, check out the menu.properties help.
Once these installation and setup steps are completed the system is ready for initial data set up -- see the Getting Started section for details on these next steps.
Also note, the functionality within Unanet is highly configurable. Be sure to review the list of unanet.property settings that can be configured to enable or disable various functionality.
If this installation includes the UnaPDA module, there is one additional configuration step that must take place. See the PDA Installation help for additional information.
Back to Installation Table of Contents
Copyright © 1998-2002 Computer
Strategies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Last revised: September 13, 2002.