Some time has passed since I worked in Java, and even then I was never responsible for starting a large project from the very beginning ... test / intermediate / production systems, etc. were already launched.
Now I am looking to start a J2EE project from scratch on my reliable workstation, which was never used for Java development and did not run the 64-bit version of Windows 7.
First of all, I will get Eclipse. As for writing code, I am very pleased. And running it through Eclipse is fine, but I really would like to have a VM running MySQL and TomCat on which I can deploy my project correctly and start / debug it “remotely” from my computer. And I guess this should be done using Ant instead of letting Eclipse build a WAR for me so that I don't get addicted to Eclipse. I am sure that Eclipse can do this, so you press the button and run Ant scripts, deployments and debugging, for example, but are very foggy.
Are there any good guides on this? I don’t want to be taught Java or even Ant, but rather the “sticky” parts, such as running my test virtual machine under Windows, getting the assembly / testing / deployment / launch pipeline through Eclipse, etc. One moment, I only plan to use Windows ... hosting a Windows virtual machine on the Windwos desktop. And although I can use command line tools like ant / svn, I am a lot more a GUI person who loves IDE integration ... I would prefer this to not argue about Linux or Vi, etc.!
I am looking for free, but I am a MAPS subscriber and run Win7 Ultimate in case this matters with respect to free VM solutions.