Getting Started??

[Thomas4188]

Hello everyone, My name is Thomas and I am the IT Specialist at
Triangle Transit in RTP NC. My commuter resources manager asked the
IT department to put this together and I was assigned the task. I am
a network admin and have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this
software development stuff. Here are my problems:
1. Apache Ant, I think I have it downloaded but have no idea how to
run it or where to go from there. I have downloaded 1.7.1 and 1.6.5
to see if either one made a difference. I have Java and Tomcat
downloaded and when I start Tomcat I can get to the localhost 8080
page. I'm not even sure what Ant really is. I know I'm supposed to
use it to build my code, but thats it.
2. ttpub.war, I have downloaded this and dropped it in the Tomcat
home\webapps folder and nothing happens. As far as I can see until
Tomcat unzips that and creates the files it needs to i really cant do
anything. Do i drop the zipped file in there or do i unzip it and
then drop it? Do i have tomcat running before i do it or after i drop
it in there. Also when starting tomcat #4 dir command it always gives
me cannot find specified path. I write dir C:\Program Files\apache-
tomcat-6.0.20\webapps? what goes after that? I have the unzipped
file sitting in there, but no matter what I have tried nothing
happens.
3. Order, Is there a specific order in which to do these tasks? The
directions are all over the place to me and not being a software guy I
am having to research and fill in things I'm sure are common knowledge
to others. Its seems like they tell you to drop ttp.war into tomcat 3
different times. Besides those two problems I think I am grasping
what this is and after I have ttpub running I'm sure using wont be a
problem implementing my data. I say that now, but I'm sure I'll be
begging for help when I get to it. Thank you in advance for your help
and I look forward to working with everyone on this and learning this
new skill.

Thanks,
Thomas
Triangle Transit
RTP North Carolina