Apache POI Environment

This chapter takes you through the process of setting up Apache POI on Windows and Linux based systems. Apache POI can be easily installed and integrated with your current Java environment following a few simple steps without any complex setup procedures. User administration is required while installation.

System Requirements

JDK	Java SE 2 JDK 1.5 or above
Memory	1 GB RAM (recommended)
Disk Space	No minimum requirement
Operating System Version	Windows XP or above, Linux

Let us now proceed with the steps to install Apache POI.

Step 1: Verify your Java Installation

First of all, you need to have Java Software Development Kit (SDK) installed on your system. To verify this, execute any of the two commands depending on the platform you are working on.

If the Java installation has been done properly, then it will display the current version and specification of your Java installation. A sample output is given in the following table.

Platform	Command	Sample Output
Windows	Open Command Console and type: \>java –version	Java version "1.7.0_60" Java (TM) SE Run Time Environment (build 1.7.0_60-b19) Java Hotspot (TM) 64-bit Server VM (build 24.60-b09,mixed mode)
Linux	Open command terminal and type: $java –version	java version "1.7.0_25" Open JDK Runtime Environment (rhel-2.3.10.4.el6_4-x86_64) Open JDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)

We assume the readers of this tutorial have Java SDK version 1.7.0_60 installed on their system.
In case you do not have Java SDK, download its current version from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html and have it installed.

Step 2: Set your Java Environment

Set the environment variable JAVA_HOME to point to the base directory location where Java is installed on your machine. For example,

Platform	Description
Windows	Set JAVA_HOME to C:\ProgramFiles\java\jdk1.7.0_60
Linux	Export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java-current

Append the full path of Java compiler location to the System Path.

Platform	Description
Windows	Linux
Append the String "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_60\bin" to the end of the system variable PATH.	Export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin/

Execute the command java -version from the command prompt as explained above.

Step 3: Install Apache POI Library

Download the latest version of Apache POI from http://poi.apache.org/download.html and unzip its contents to a folder from where the required libraries can be linked to your Java program. Let us assume the files are collected in a folder on C drive.

The following images show the directories and the file structure inside the downloaded folder.

Add the complete path of the five jars as highlighted in the above image to the CLASSPATH.

Platform	Description
Windows	Append the following strings to the end of the user variable CLASSPATH: “C:\poi-3.9\poi-3.9-20121203.jar;” “C:\poi-3.9\poi-ooxml-3.9-20121203.jar;” “C:\poi-3.9\poi-ooxml-schemas-3.9-20121203.jar;” “C:\poi-3.9\ooxml-lib\dom4j-1.6.1.jar;” “C:\poi-3.9\ooxml-lib\xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar;.;”
Linux	Export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH: /usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-3.9-20121203.tar: /usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-ooxml-schemas-3.9-20121203.tar: /usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-ooxml-3.9-20121203.tar: /usr/share/poi-3.9/ooxml-lib/dom4j-1.6.1.tar: /usr/share/poi-3.9/ooxml-lib/xmlbeans-2.3.0.tar

Platform

Description

Windows

Append the following strings to the end of the user variable

CLASSPATH:

“C:\poi-3.9\poi-3.9-20121203.jar;”

“C:\poi-3.9\poi-ooxml-3.9-20121203.jar;”

“C:\poi-3.9\poi-ooxml-schemas-3.9-20121203.jar;”

“C:\poi-3.9\ooxml-lib\dom4j-1.6.1.jar;”

“C:\poi-3.9\ooxml-lib\xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar;.;”

Linux

Export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:

/usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-3.9-20121203.tar:

/usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-ooxml-schemas-3.9-20121203.tar:

/usr/share/poi-3.9/poi-ooxml-3.9-20121203.tar:

/usr/share/poi-3.9/ooxml-lib/dom4j-1.6.1.tar:

/usr/share/poi-3.9/ooxml-lib/xmlbeans-2.3.0.tar