Table of Contents
After reading this chapter you will be able to understand:
Start DHIS 2 from the desktop
How to log-in from the desktop
Create new users and user roles
What steps are needed to design a DHIS 2 database for your organisation
You must be sure that you have a current version of the Java Runtime installed on your machine. Depending on your operating system, there are different ways of installing Java. The reader is referred to this website for detailed information on getting Java installed.
The DHIS 2 Live package is the easiest way to get started with DHIS2. DHIS2 Live is appropriate for a stand-alone installation and demos. Simply download the application from here. Once the file is downloaded, you can simply double-click the downloaded file, and get started using DHIS 2.
The live package comes with a demo database just like what you see on the online demo (which is based on the national Sierra Leone HMIS), and if you want to start with a blank system/database and build up your own system then you need to do the following:
1) Stop DHIS2 live if it is already running. Right click on the tray icon and select Exit. The tray icon is the green symbol on the bottom right of your screen (on Windows) which should say' DHIS 2 Server running' if you hold your mouse pointer over it.
2) Open the folder where the DHIS 2 live package is installed and locate the folder called "conf".
3) In conf/ open the file called 'hibernate.properties' in a text editor (notepad or similar) and do the following modification: locate the string 'jdbc:h2:./database/dhis2' and replace the 'dhis2' part with any name that you want to give to your database (e.g. dhis2_test).
4) Save and close the hibernate.properties file.
5) Start DHIS 2 Live by double-clicking on the file dhis2-live.exe in the DHIS 2 Live installation folder or by using a desktop shortcut or menu link that you might have set up.
6) Wait for the browser window to open and the login screen to show, and then log in with username: admin and password: district
7) Now you will see a completely empty DHIS 2 system and you should start by adding your users, organisational hierarchy, data elements, and datasets etc. Please refer to the other sections of the user manual for instructions on how to do this.
DHIS 2 Live uses an embedded H2 database. This has several advantages - there is no need to install a separate database engine such as PostgresSql or MySql, and backup can be made by just copying the file. The whole database exists in memory, which means high performance. The disadvantage is need for RAM. It is also not suitable for muliti-user server installations.
In general, it is recommended to work with the database through the DHIS2 user interface, but in some situations one may need to manipulate the data directly. If one downloads H2 separately, it comes with a web interface. It can also be manipulated using OpenOffice.org, using the following procedure. This assumes that dhis2-live is located in the user's Linux home directory (represented by ~). Substitute the absolute path to your dhis2-live installation.
Start OpenOffice Word Processor and select Tools - Options, then Java - Class Path ... and click on Add Archive...
Select the following file (version may differ): ~/dhis2-live/webapps/dhis/WEB-INF/lib/h2-1.1.119.jar
Close OpenOffice completely and then open OpenOffice.org Database. Select connect to an existing database - JDBC
Datasource URL is h2:~/dhis2-live/database/dhis2;AUTO_SERVER=TRUE, and JDBC driver class is org.h2.Driver
User name is sa, password not needed. Finally, select a name and folder for the .odb file.
The latest stable server version can be downloaded from this website. For detailed information on how to install it please refer to the installation chapter in the implementation manual.