Build instructions

[jpedrick]

I'm not sure what the correct process for building IBC. I know I need to use a compatible java compiler with the java that's bundled in TWS or IB Gateway. Some build instructions would be very helpful. My platform is MacOS and I would like to take a swing at #339

[rlktradewright]

Let me say right at the start that I have no experience of macOS and no access to a macOS computer. So I can't make any spoecific suggestions or recommendations about Java tooling for macOS.

However, I use the NetBeans development environment on Windows, and that is also available on macOS, so I suggest that might be a good starting point. See https://netbeans.apache.org/front/main/download/nb28/ The Netbeans download includes a private JRE: it doesn't matter that this is not the same Java version as the one that IBC includes in their installer, as it's not used for running TWS, just for running NetBeans.

The project includes an Ant build script at:

https://github.com/IbcAlpha/IBC/blob/master/build.xml

This compiles all the sources and generates the three distribution zip files (for WIndows, macOS and Linux).

You can run Ant from the command line, but I never bother: I just do it from NetBeans (build time is typically a second or two).

Try following these instructions which apply to NetBeans: if you use a different development environment, you may have to do things differently but I can't help you there.

1. Install NetBeans from the link above.
2. Clone the IBC project from GitHub to a folder called ibcalpha in your writeable filespace.
3. Locate the jars folder for your TWS installation: on macOS, TWS is installed in ~/Applications/Trader Workstation ${tws_version} where ${tws_version} is the TWS version number (for example 10.44). The jars folder is a subfolder of this.
4. The jars folder contains a file called jts4launch-1044.jar: (NB: no period in this version number, I think). NetBeans needs access to this file to resolve the TWS/Gateway entrypoints, so copy it to ibcalpha/ibc/bin (you may need to create the 'bin' folder).
5. In NetBeans, click the File | Project Properties menu entry, and select the Java Sources Classpath category. Click Add JAR/Folder..., select the bin/jts4launch-1044.jar, and click Load.
6. Setup the IBC_BIN environment variable. See also https://github.com/IbcAlpha/IBC/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#how-to-build-ibc for more on this.
7. With any luck, you should now be able to build the project: Shift+F11 in NetBeans.
8. The IBC.jar and version files should appear in the project's Resources folder.

I hope this will be enough to get you started.