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Quick Start

Get up and running with MDW in a hurry.

Prerequisite

• Java 8
  This is the only hard requirement. Type java -version on the command line and if you see 1.8, you’re all set:

    java version "1.8.0_60"
    ...
  

  However, make sure you’re running Java from a JDK installation and not just a JRE (in other words, the JDK bin directory must precede the JRE bin directory on your system PATH).

Install the MDW CLI

The MDW CLI gives you commands for common operations like initializing your workspace and updating assets.

• Download mdw-cli.zip from the latest MDW release on GitHub:
  https://github.com/CenturyLinkCloud/mdw/releases
• Unzip anywhere on your hard drive (e.g.: c:\mdw on Windows).
• Create an environment variable named MDW_HOME pointing to this location, and add its bin directory to your system PATH.

Initialize your workspace

Now you can use the CLI to automatically create a new MDW workspace:

• Open a command window in a directory that’ll be the parent of your new workspace project.
• Use the init command to generate your workspace:

  mdw init my-mdw
  

  This sets up a basic MDW project structure using certain default values that can be overridden. It also creates an mdw.yaml config and downloads some MDW base assets to get you started. (You’ll add your own assets on top of these as you build out your project.) The MDW base assets, along with your own, should be version controlled in Git. You can update these base assets at any time by running mdw update.

Run MDW

MDW comes with a rich set of REST service APIs, and also enables you to quickly spin up your own.
To host these services MDW relies on a Java Servlet container. Your options are:

1. Use the self-contained MDW Spring Boot jar
2. Build your own Spring Boot jar
   Note: To create a project that works this way, rerun mdw init with the --spring-boot option.
3. Install Apache Tomcat (or Jetty)
4. Use the prebuilt MDW Docker image.

Whichever option you choose, MDW behaves in exactly the same way. To get you running quickly we’ll start with the prebuilt Spring Boot option. You can always switch to custom Spring Boot or Tomcat later when you want to debug your assets, or if you need more control over your container.

Spring Boot Setup

• Install the MDW binaries
  On the command line, cd into the project directory created by mdw init. Then type

  cd my-mdw
  mdw install
  

  This downloads the self-contained MDW Spring-Bootable jar file that matches mdwVersion in gradle.properties or pom.xml.

Command-line startup

After installing, make sure you’re in your project directory (not bin) and type:

  mdw run 

Access MDWHub

If everything is set up correctly, after MDW fully starts you should be able to access MDWHub in your browser:
http://localhost:8080/mdw

Import into MDW Studio

• Install MDW Studio for IntelliJ IDEA
• Launch IntelliJ and select “Import Project” from the splash screen
• Browse to and select your newly created project directory
• Elect to “Import project from external model”, and select Gradle or Maven as appropriate

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