Can webMathematica be installed and run on Mac OS X?

webMathematica can be installed on Mac OS X with Tomcat 4.0 as its servlet container.

To do so, it is necessary to follow these instructions:

Following the instructions at the Tomcat website http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.0-doc/RUNNING.txt, download and install Apache Tomcat. Some OS-X specific points are given here. Please note that since Mac OS X comes with a version of Java 1.3, there is no need to install a version of Java.

You will need to obtain a copy of GNU tar, whose sources can be downloaded from one of the available mirrors listed in http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html.

Once GNU tar is compiled, download jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz, save it in a temporary location (such as /tmp), and uncompress the archive as follows:

tar xvzf /tmp/jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3.tar.gz

You may want to rename the resulting folder/directory from jakarta-tomcat-4.0.3 to simply tomcat. At this point, you can move tomcat to a directory like /usr/local/.

mv tomcat /usr/local/

We have provided updated MSP.conf and web.xml files that reflect a default installation of Mathematica 4.1.5 on Mac OS X.

MSP.conf.osx

web.xml.osx

Once you have downloaded the MSP.conf and web.xml files, place the files in the corresponding webMathematica web application folder. In this example, the location is

/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/webMathematica/WEB-INF/

J/Link 2.0 provides native support for Mac OS X. Due to this and some of its other features, it is recommended for using with webMathematica on Mac OS X. At present it is available in a beta form from http://www.wolfram.com/solutions/mathlink/jlink/.

This can be unpacked and then installed into the appropriate Mathematica application.

/Applications/Mathematica 4.1.app/AddOns/Applications

In order to make the J/Link classes available to Tomcat you need to copy the JLink.jar file and the SystemFiles directory into the webMathematica layout. In addition to this location, you may also want to place copies of these files in /Library/Java/Extensions/.

This is a sufficient installation for J/Link.

You may also want to consult Apple's own documentation on Java and Tomcat on Mac OS X, which is available at http://developer.apple.com/internet/java/tomcat1.html.

If you are working behind a SOCKS firewall, you may encounter problems when trying to shutdown Tomcat. For additional information on this particular issue, please refer to the following URL: http://www.jguru.com/forums/view.jsp?EID=464586

You should also note that one needs to be logged on to the machine running webMathematica on Mac OS X, in order for all MSPs that use the front end to function properly.

Download this FAQ as a Mathematica 5.2 Notebook

Questions or comments? Send email to support@wolfram.com.