Before you start the tutorial, you might want to read some more information on the tools we use.
Apache Maven is a "software project management and comprehension tool". In this tutorial we use it to manage the portal build and deployment.
Technically it is not required to use Maven to build a custom Jetspeed portal. But it gives you much more control over your build, dependency and release management, and generally makes your life easier.
You will need Maven version 2.0.9 or newer.
Apache Tomcat is an application server. You need to install it on your system. Generally this involves nothing more than downloading and unzipping the Tomcat distribution in a location of your choice.
Jetspeed can be deployed in other application servers, such as Websphere, but in this tutorial we use Tomcat.
You will need Tomcat version 6.0.33 or newer.
Apache Derby is a lightweight relational database.
You do not need to install Derby, it is embedded in the Jetspeed portal and is automatically set up and populated.
Jetspeed supports other databases, such as MySQL or Oracle, but in this tutorial we assume you use Derby.
Eclipse is an integrated development environment for Java. The use of an IDE is highly recommended as it speeds up development, compiling and debugging.
We used Eclipse 3.4.1 when writing this tutorial.