Setting Up a Development Environment

Owned by Andrew Hill (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 11, 2019
2 min read

On This Page:

Setting Up a Development Environment.

A guide to setting up a Revive Adserver development environment.


Pre-Requisites

In order to carry out Revive Adserver development, you will need:

  • A supported web server;
  • A supported version of PHP, with all of the required PHP extensions; and
  • A supported database.

The currently supported web servers, versions of PHP and databases are all listed on the Technical requirements for Revive Adserver page on the Revive Adserver website.

You will also need:

  • An appropriate source code editor (e.g. a PHP IDE, with debugging capabilities), as well as a working knowledge of developing applications in PHP and JavaScript; and
  • An appropriate tool Git RCS tool.

Code Checkout

The source code for Revive Adserver is stored in our Revive Adserver GitHub project.

The current stable code being prepared for the next release is in the master branch.

Please see the GitHub page on how to clone a repository for further details on how to check out the master branch.

Web Server Configuration

After checking out the Revive Adserver master branch, you will need to configure your webserver to ensure that you can access the Revive Adserver source code via your browser. 

Please consult your web server documentation on how to do this.

Install Dependencies

In the Revive Adserver master branch:

  • Install the Composer dependency manager for PHP; and
  • Install the required dependencies for the development environment:
php composer.phar install

Create var/UPGRADE 

In order for the install process to be triggered, you will need to create an empty file in Revive Adserver's var  directory, called UPGRADE.

The var/UPGRADE file will need to be re-created to trigger future upgrades in a development environment as well.

Install Revive Adserver

Install Revive Adserver from the master branch, using the standard web-based installation process.

Configure Revive Adserver for Development

To assist with development, the following configuration options are recommended:

  • Set the banner delivery cache to 0 seconds.
    • This will ensure that code changes that affect the calculation of priorities, or selection of banners for display, will be instantly visible.