Getting Started

1. Get the files - Point your browser at http://jfixclient.sourceforge.net to visit the project page. From there you'll find links to either the CVS repository or the release page. Download the files to your local machine.
   
   
2. Get required libraries - JFIXClient currently relies on the open source project log4j to do its logging and debug printing. As such, if you don't already have the log4j jars on your machine you'll need to get a copy. Check out http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/docs/index.html for the necessary jars. (Currently, version 1.4.8 is known to work with JFIXClient.)
   
   
3. Get ant - JFIXClient is built using ant. If you don't already have ant installed on your system, go to http://ant.apache.org to get ant. (Currently we are using version 1.5.3 for our own builds.)
   
   
4. Edit the build.xml file - The build.xml file, located in the JFIXClient directory, controls how the project is built. It needs to know where to find the log4j jar file downloaded in a previous step. Change the log4j property to point to your particular log4j jar file. For example, if you downloaded log4j-1.2.8.jar and have it in a directory called /usr/local/log4j, then the build.xml file will contain the following line:
   
   <property name="log4j" location="/usr/local/log4j/log4j-1.2.8.jar" />
   
   
5. Build the project - This generally consists of entering the JFIXClient directory (e.g. 'cd <some path here>/JFIXClient') and typing 'ant'. The project should compile cleanly. If not, then please check to make sure that the path to your log4j jar file is specified correctly in the build.xml file. It is, of course, possible that one of us has horribly, horribly broken the source tree, and as such it's not your fault at all! :)
   
   
6. Edit the configuration file - The sample configuration file, jfixclient.xml comes with the distribution, and can be found in the config directory. See configuration.html for a description of how the configuration file works.
   
   In particular, the following tags and attributes should be edited:
   
   
   • Protocol - change the Version attribute to the version of your FIX server. NOTE: the protocol string should be the same as the expected BeginString field. (e.g. FIX.4.2 or FIX.4.0)
   • FIXServer - change Host and Port to reflect your FIX Server's host and port.
   • SenderID - change it to be whatever your FIX server is expecting your client's ID to be. This almost certainly means changing SenderCompID to a particular value. Other tags can be added as needed.
   • TargetID - change it to be the identity of your FIX server This almost certainly means changing TargetCompID to a particular value (i.e. the SenderCompID of your FIX server). Other tags can be added as needed.
   
   
   
7. Edit the start scripts - This step is purely optional. There are some scripts used for starting JFIXClient available in the bin directory of the project. They need to be edited to reflect your partcular environment if you intend to use them.
   
   
8. Run the client - Left as an exercise to the reader!