Getting Started with FarCry 4.0

System Requirements

FarCry 4.0 (Gonzales) has been developed with a minimum requirement of ColdFusion MX7.0.2. The following database platforms are supported; MSSQL, Postgresql, Oracle, and mySQL. FarCry community works with Windows, OSX and various Linux flavours.

Getting the right code base

FarCry is a little bit different to other CF frameworks. It relies on having a base schema in the database to activate a variety of services and so consequently you need to run an installer to get that base schema in place.

At a minimum you need the FarCry "core" library, Mollio (a sample project) and Installer (the installer). If you download the pre-built ZIP file release, all you should need to do is unpack the contents into your FarCry development workspace. If you are working from Subversion you'll need to do a little more work as these codebases are each managed separately in the repository.

FarCry 4.0 Milestone Release

Milestone releases (includes 4.0 core and release candidate of farcrycms plugin)

Installing the Framework and Sample Application

FarCry Deployment Is Flexible

There are several ways that FarCry can be installed. The default approach described here assumes that your farcry application has its own dedicated host-header and web site. If you'd prefer an example of an alternative set up please comment this page and I'll do my best to accommodate.

Assuming you just unpack the ZIP you should end up with a workspace looking something like this:

(farcry install root)/core
(farcry install root)/projects/mollio
(farcry install root)/plugins/farcrycms

Follow these steps closely:

copy the mollio project and rename it to something; for example, "myproject" (this project name must adhere to standard CF variable naming ie. must start with alpha, and can contain any alphnumeric and/or underscore)
set up a ColdFusion mapping of "/farcry" pointing to the (farcry install root)
set up a blank database and a corresponding datasource in CF administrator
configure a web site in your web server and make the webroot point to ./projects/myproject/www (where myproject is the name of the project folder you just named)
set up a web alias/virtual on the webserver of "/farcry" pointing to the ./core/admin directory

For example, if the installation root was c:\farcry you might have the following directory structure:

c:\farcry <-- your /farcry CF Mapping points here
c:\farcry\core
c:\farcry\core\admin <-- your /farcry web alias/virtual points here
c:\farcry\plugins
c:\farcry\projects
c:\farcry\projects\myproject
c:\farcry\projects\myproject\www <-- the root of your website points here

The Code Base

core

Core is the core farcry libraries and is always required. It's the core of everything funnily enough.

Inside core you'll find a subdirectory called "admin". You will need a web alias (or virtual in IIS) of /farcry pointing to this directory to get access to the webtop. Although strictly speaking this is not necessary to run the framework it nevertheless provides so many useful features its a shame not to make use of them.
NOTE: If your installation of Farcry will be running in a sub-folder of your site then the /farcry alias should be /projectname/farcry

./projects/mollio

Mollio is just a sample application. Its a template if you like for building your own application. It's actually totally unnecessary but its a great way to get started. In the standard installation ZIP we've included the FarCry installer as a subdirectory of the Mollio webroot. You use this to install the default database schema for FarCry.

./plugins/farcrycms

FarCry CMS is a popular plugin for FarCry providing additional CMS functionality. It's not really needed at all if you are not building an application that uses these features. But its a useful example of how a library is put together, and if you are installing FarCry as a content management platform then its a great out-of-the-box solution.

Running the Installer

To access the installer you need to open a web browser and go to: http://myproject.local/install

Where "myproject.local" is the domain you are using as a host header for your website. This might even be localhost or 127.0.0.1 depending on how you have set up your website.

The installer has a series of checks and balances that try to ensure your environment is correctly configured before continuing. This has been done in an effort to head off the most common installation problems people have had in the past. If the installer does block you from proceeding read the help note carefully and see if you can address the issue it is raising.

Fill in the relevant parts of the install wizard and install.

With any luck you should be able to run your sample application immediately – if you can't get it going please drop us a line at http://groups.google.com/group/farcry-beta and we'll see if we can help you.

Next Steps

Might be a good idea to have a look at the FarCry Technology Whitepaper. It's a little bit out of date (doesn't have all the latest features represented) but it should give you a good view of how things are put together.

Join the Community!

The Farcry online community is very active:
FarCry Developers: http://groups.google.com/group/farcry-dev
Beta Forums: http://groups.google.com/group/farcry-beta
User Forums: http://groups.google.com/group/farcry-user