VNCRobot 1.1 Quick Start Guide

Table of contents:

Prerequisities and Dependencies
Installation
VNCRobot Startup
Troubleshooting

1. Prerequisities and Dependencies

VNCRobot depends on two software packages:

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK, also J2SE) - required
VNC Server - optional

Java Runtime Environment
VNCRobot requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.4.2_04 or higher. To verify whether Java is installed on your machine, open a terminal window (Unix/Linux) or a comand line window (Windows) and run the following command:

java -version

If Java is present on your machine, it displays its version. On Unix/Linux systems also check if your /usr directory contains a folder like 'java' or 'jdk' and look for the java executable in there. If Java is not present, you may download JRE for free from the following location:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

VNC Server
You also need to install a VNC server. If someone else is providing a server for you, you may skip this step. If you use Unix or Linux, you may run a VNC server on the same machine as VNCRobot. Since Windows are not capable of running multiple window servers, you can't run a server and a client (i.e. VNCRobot) on the same machine.

You may download the VNC server software for free from one of the following locations:

Tight VNC - http://www.tightvnc.com (recommended)
Real VNC - http://www.vnc.com/

2. VNCRobot Installation

VNCRobot binaries are distributed as a ZIP archive which contains all necessary files. There's no installer. All you have to do is to unzip the file into a folder on your hard drive. There should be at least the following files:

File Name	Description
vncrobot.jar	Java archive with VNCRobot classes.
jh.jar	JavaHelp Java archive.
vncrobot.sh	Start script for Unix/Linux.
vncrobot.bat	Start script for Windows.
quickstart.html	A copy of this VNCRobot 1.1 Quick Start Guide.
LICENSE.txt	Freeware license text. Please read carefully before you start using VNCRobot.

3. VNCRobot Startup

Change to the directory where you installed VNCRobot and un one of the wrapper scripts vncrobot.sh (for Unix/Linux) or vncrobot.bat (for Windows). For help on CLI commands run vncrobot.sh -h, resp. vncrobot.bat --help. If VNCRobot doesn't start, review the Troubleshooting chapter at the end of this document.

The wrapper scripts actually just start java with proper options. Please note that the wrapper can't handle more than 9 parameters. If you need to pass more parameters or customize the VNCRobot start command, use the following command syntax:

Linux/Unix:	`java -classpath jh.jar:vncrobot.jar com.vncrobot.VNCRobot <VNCRobot CLI parameters>`
Windows:	`java -classpath jh.jar;vncrobot.jar com.vncrobot.VNCRobot <VNCRobot CLI parameters>`

VNCRobot can be run in two modes:

GUI Mode - Displays the graphical interface in your window system (MS Windows, X-Windows). This is the default mode when you start VNCRobot without any CLI options.
CLI Mode - No GUI is displayed. VNCRobot starts in this mode only when invoked with the -n or --nodisplay option. Use this way for automated execution of test scripts. All other applicable parameters like -c/--connect and -r/--run must be supplied. Please see the CLI Options Specification document available in the VNCRobot Help or online in the VNCRobot 1.1 GUI Reference document on http://www.vncrobot.com/docs.

Once the GUI is up and running, open Help for instructions on how to use VNCRobot. There should be at least three document collections there:

This VNCRobot 1.1 Quick Start Guide,
VNCRobot 1.1 GUI Reference (description of GUI components and features),
VNCRobot 1.1 Language Reference (specification of the VNCRobot scripting language).

All these documents/document collections are also available online on http://www.vncrobot.com/docs.

4. Troubleshooting

1. The vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat script fails with a message "java: command not found"

There's no Java installed on your machine or the path to the Java executable is not included in your OS path. Read chapter 1. Prerequisities and Dependencies of this document.

2. The vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat script fails with a message

"Exception in thread
"main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/vncrobot/VNCRobot"

This indicates that the VNCRobot JAR (Java ARchive) file vncrobot.jar is not correctly included in the Java class path.

Switch to the directory where you unzipped VNCRobot and make sure that the vncrobot.jar file is there and that you have permission to read it.

Re-run the vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat from this directory.

3. The vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat script fails with a message

"JavaHelp libraries not
found. Please make sure that file jh.jar is included in the Java class
path."

This indicates that the JavaHelp JAR file jh.jar is not correctly included in the Java class path.

Switch to the directory where you unzipped VNCRobot and make sure that the jh.jar file is there and that you have permission to read it.

Re-run the vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat from this directory.

4. The vncrobot.sh or vncrobot.bat script fails to pass some CLI options

The wrapper script can't handle more than 9 options. All options above this limit are ignored. You must run Java directly as is described in chapter 3. VNCRobot Startup.