Serving Freemind maps in a browser

Ver 1.0 - 29 February 2004

Robert J. Alexander - Rome - Italy

(For any corrections or simple thanks 8-> my email is bob and my provider is ngi.it)

Please read the disclaimer before using this document.

Introduction

After you create your wondrous mind maps using Freemind you will sometimes feel the need to share them with other people. Other than asking them to install Freemind, there is a simpler way: if you have access to a web server you will be able to have your users see your maps in their Java 1.4 enabled browsers without them having to install anything else.

The scenario we will be using is the following:

We will quickly review the setup of an Apache 2.0.x web server on your Windows XP
We will install the Freemind applet and it's launcher HTML on the web server
We will check out if everything works as expected with our browsers

Note

Please note that running a production web server on a Windows platform without being thoroughly skilled can create security issues. In my humble opinion this task is better suited to be carried out on a Unix (Linux, BSD, AIX etc.) machine with proper administration.

The reason for which I am writing this guide with Windows as the platform is that most basic issues are usually already understood by the Unix gurus out there 8-).