Platform Preparation MariaDB

Author : John Lewis

Date : 11th November 2021
Document Version : 1.0
Chromis System Preparation - MariaDB

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Chromis User Manual

Chromis System Preparation - MariaDB

Document Version History

Version No. Date Author(s) Comments

1.00 11/05/2021 John Lewis Initial release

Chromis User Manual

Chromis System Preparation - MariaDB

Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4
Preparing the System.................................................................................................................... 7
Installing MariaDB ................................................................................................................... 7
HeidiSQL ................................................................................................................................ 14
Installing Java......................................................................................................................... 19

Chromis User Manual

Chromis System Preparation - MariaDB

Introduction

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Overview
The goal of any retail management software is to help you focus on your sales and your customers. It
is this goal that is the driving force behind Chromis.

Chromis Pos is designed to be a feature rich Point of Sale (POS) system, which can run a large variety
of hardware. The overall concept is that the core system can be configured by the user, allowing
functions to be enabled if required.

Background
Since 2013 work has been done on the project, firstly with new features and significant changes to
an open source POS. Most of these changes were born to assist a small shop implementing a
solution that was fit for purpose, and responding to requests of other users.

It was the nature of these changes and the ability to control its own destiny that Chromis was
started. The first release of Chromis was in 2015, since which it has undergone a significant
metamorphosis. There is a strategic plan to continue the development of the product, and offer a
richer platform for the user.

At the time of writing Chromis does not include any Credit\Debit card integration due to PCI
regulations, it is intended to investigate these at a later date.

Hardware and software prerequisites

Hardware

There are 2 elements for Chromis and the hardware requirements

Chromis POS (Point of Sale) is designed to run on hardware which is capable of running
Java\OpenJDK. The better the hardware the better the performance, it has been run on the later
raspberry Pi’s.

• Intel or equivalent processor

• 300 meg free disk space for JRE version, 200 meg pre-installed Java
• 1024 x 768 minimum resolution (Recommended for Point of Sale)
• Receipt printer (optional)
• Report printer (optional)
• Cash drawer (optional)
• Scanner (optional)
• Magnetic swipe reader (optional not for credit cards)
• RFID reader (optional if implementing the use of these)

Chromis Administration needs a high specification of hardware to run effectively.

• Intel or equivalent processor

• 1 gig free disk space, (more if database is on the same machine)

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• 1248 x 1024 minimum resolution (Whilst some element)

• Report printer (optional)
• Mouse & keyboard (A touch screen is not ideal for the admin client due the amount of input
required)
• At least 4gig Ram, (more if database is on the same machine)

However, consideration should be given to the database server that will be used. If it is intended
that the database will reside on the same hardware, ensure that you selection is able to meet its
requirements.

Software

The following software is required to run Chromis. (all versions are correct at the time of writing)

• A supported operating system (Windows only currently)

• A database (local or remote, MariaDB 10.6)
• Java 11, this is the latest version that offers LTS (long term support)

Chromis has been tested with the following OpenJDK platforms (all Java 11.0.11), with limited
testing.

• BellSoft Liberica
• Microsoft JDK
• Amazon Corretto
• Zulu
• AdoptOpen JDk (hotspot)
• AdoptOpenJDk (Open9)

Oracle’s Java has been excluded from the testing due to the licensing changes and any usage that is
not development must be paid for.

Chromis is currently designed to run exclusively using MySQL or MariaDB database, this may change
at a later date.

It is also import to note that upgrading to Version 1.0 and above from a lower version is not possible,
this due the large amount of database changes from the earlier versions.

There is a migration utility available which will export a limited set of data from an older version into
the latest release.

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Preparing the System

Installing MariaDB

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To run Chromis the following prerequisites are needed.

• Windows 10 (64 bit)

• OpenJRE/JDK 11
• JavaFX-SDK 11.0.2
• MySQL 8.0.23 \ MariaDB 10.6

Chromis currently supports 2 database engines

• MySQL
• MariaDB

Our recommendations

• MariaDB, as its footprint is considerably small than the MySQL installation.

• Belloft Liberica Java (full JRE), this negates the need to install the JavaFX package separately.

There are a number of steps and decisions to make, in preparing your system to run Chromis.

Install Database Software

Install Java

Install Chromis Application

Configure Chromis for use

Database Server
As stated, Chromis currently only supports MariaDB or MySQL. Regardless of the database engine
selected, you need to decide where the database installation will reside.

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For the purpose of this documentation, it is assumed that all of the required software will reside on
a single piece of hardware.

You need to ensure that the hardware is capable of running a database server, administration client
and Pos if that is your choice.

If you intend to run a multi till setup then the database must always be available to service all the
tills.

In this section we will take a look how to install MariaDB. It does not cover any configuration away
from the basics to setup a running database server ready to run Chromis. These notes are based
around using the Windows MSI installer.

You will need to download MariaDBL from their web site;.

Go to the MariaDB downloads page and download the latest version 10.6.5 release at the time of
writing.

https://mariadb.org/download/?t=mariadb&p=mariadb&r=10.6.5&os=windows&cpu=x86_64&pkg=
msi&m=serverion

Run the msi package you downloaded ‘mariadb-10.6.5-winx64.msi’

Click ‘Next’

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Accept the ‘License Agreement’ and click ‘Next’.

Leave all the settings as the defaults (change the location if required) and click ‘Next’

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Assign a password for the ‘root’ user, keep this in a secure location, as it will also be required later.
If you wish to allow the server to be accessed from another machine by the ‘root’ user enable this
option.
Select ‘Use UTF8 as default’

Then click ‘Next’

Leave the ‘Default instance properties’ as its default. Then click ‘Next’.

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Click ‘Install’

If the ‘User Account Control’ screen appears click ‘Yes’.

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The software will now install, once completed click ‘Finish’.

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HeidiSQL

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As part of the Windows installation of MariaDB, HeidiSQL will be installed, this a free database
administration GUI tool.

This tool will now be used to configure MariaDB ready for use.

Open HeidiSQL.

Once open a session needs to be created. Click ‘New’ to create a new session.

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The first time that a connection is required the only details we have are the ‘root’ user, these will be
used at this stage. Enter the password created earlier into the password field.

If required the session name can be changed,

Click ‘Open’ to connect to a database session.

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Now the user which will be used by the Chromis application stack needs to be created.

To create a new user select ‘Tools – User Manager’ or click

Click ‘Add’

Enter the details for the account that will be used for Chromis.

Set ‘From host’ to the required access type.

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Select ‘Global Privileges’ this will grant all permissions to user you have created.

Once complete ‘Save’ the user.

Test the account by closing HeidiSQL and re-opening only this time pass in the details of the new
rather than ‘root’.

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Installing Java

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The next stage is to ensure that Java & JavafX are installed. Since Version 8 of Java, JavafX no longer
comes as part of the install process. There are some releases that do include the JavaFx runtimes.

OpenJDK is also no longer available as a 32bit installation.

This installation covers the use of Liberica JRE 11 (BellSoft), (as this does come with the JavaFX
runtimes needed and development is completed against this supplier’s release), but a couple of
other versions have been tested.

This can be downloaded from https://bell-sw.com/pages/downloads/#/java-11-lts

It is recommended that the full version is downloaded as this comes with the JavaFX files required to
run the application and the JavaFX install can be skipped.

The JavaFX-SDK also needs to be downloaded from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/

Once downloaded run the installer bellsoft-jre11.0.10+9-windows-amd64-full.msi

Click ‘Next’

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Ensure that ‘Add to PATH’ and ‘Setup JAVA_HOME’ are enabled.

Click ‘Next’

Click ‘Install’

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Allow the installation to complete.

Click ‘Finish’

Now test that java is installed, Open a command window

Run ‘Java -version’

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If all is good so far, there should be a screen similar to the above.

JavaFX-SDK

Now we need to install Javafx-SDK. This is required if the java version installed does not include the
JavaFX runtime files).

This can be downloaded from https://gluonhq.com/products/javafx/

The package does not come with an installer therefore must be done manually. The zip contains a
folder (javafx-sdk-11.0.2), with all the files required, extract this to your ‘Program Files’ directory.

Now the path variable needs to be updated.

From the windows search box open ‘Advanced System Settings’

Click ‘Environment Variables’

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The JavaFX directory must now be added to the PATH variable. Select ‘Path’ from the lower panel
and ‘Edit’

Select ‘New’ and enter the folder path to the SDK

Providing you used the default the entry is as above. Click ‘OK’ to save the entry and exit out the
‘Advance System Setting’ by click on ‘OK’ all the way.

You are now ready to move the next stage, setting up Chromis.

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