--- /dev/null
+INTRODUCTION
+============
+
+Yaz4j is a Java binding for the high-level, client-side portion of the YAZ
+toolkit known as the ZOOM API. With Yaz4j you can program clients for YAZ-
+supported protocols like z3950, SRU/W and SOLR. Yaz4j includes a native
+component and supports Windows, Linux and OSX.
+
+
+INSTALLATION
+============
+
+Index Data provides ready to use yaz4j RPMs for CentOS 5 and 6, available from
+our public YUM repository. On Windows yaz4j can be installed with the YAZ
+[installer][4]. Those methods are the simplest ways to get yaz4j up and running
+on the particular platforms and are highly recommended.
+
+
+Index Data YUM repository (CentOS)
+----------------------------------
+
+Yaz4j with it's runtime and compilation dependencies are provided through
+Index Data's YUM repository, the repository is enabled by placing the following
+contents:
+
+ [indexdata-main]
+ name=Index Data Main Repository
+ baseurl=http://ftp.indexdata.com/pub/yum/centos/6/main/$basearch
+ failovermethod=priority
+ gpgcheck=1
+ gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-indexdata
+ enabled=1
+ priority=1
+
+at `/etc/yum.repos.d/indexdata.repo`.
+
+With the above repository enabled, yaz4j can be simply installed with:
+
+ yum install yaz4j
+
+And the installation can be verified by running a provided test program which
+executes a search against a public Index Data z3950 test server:
+
+ java -jar /usr/share/java/yaz4j.jar
+
+
+YAZ Installer (Windows)
+-----------------------
+
+YAZ Windows installer can be downloaded from [here][2]. Yaz4j is bundled with
+the installer: just make sure during the installation yaz4j box is checked.
+It is also recommended to check the box for updating updating PATH environment
+variable with a path to yaz binaries. After installation yaz4j can be tested
+with (Java runtime environment required):
+
+ java -jar C:\Program Files\YAZ\java\yaz4j.jar
+
+
+COMPILATION FROM SOURCE
+=======================
+
+Checking out the source code
+----------------------------
+
+Yaz4j can be checked out from Index Data's Git repository:
+
+ git clone git://git.indexdata.com/yaz4j
+
+It's recommended to build the latest tagged version (see tags with `git tag`),
+e.g:
+
+ git checkout v1.5 -b v1.5
+
+
+Linux (e.g CentOS)
+------------------
+
+Compilation requires [JDK][1], [Maven][2], [Swig][3] and [YAZ][4] development
+packages installed.
+
+Installing build dependencies can be done through the package manager specific
+for the distribution (subject to availability), for CentOS 5/6 (YUM) JDK and Swig RPMs can be installed with:
+
+ yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk-devel swig
+
+While YAZ development package needs to be installed from Index Data's YUM
+repository (see INSTALLATION on how to enable the YUM repo):
+
+ yum install libyaz5-devel
+
+Maven is not part of CentOS so a binary distribution needs to be downloaded
+from Maven [website][2] and installed manually. Refer to Maven's website for
+details. In case Index Data's YUM repo is enabled, Maven 3 can also be
+installed with:
+
+ yum install maven3-indexdata
+
+in which case Maven program is called `mvn-id` rather than `mvn`.
+
+With all dependencies in place you can continue the yaz4j compilation with:
+
+ cd yaz4j
+ mvn install
+
+Which will also run tests that open a connection to Index Data's public z3950
+server.
+
+Notice that `yaz-config` binary must be on the PATH (this is assured when
+`libyaz5-devel` package is installed), if it isn't e.g if a local YAZ (source)
+installation is used, the binary location can be specified with:
+
+ mvn -Dyaz.config=/path/to/yaz-config install
+
+The compiled jar file ends up in any/target/yaz4j.jar while the native library
+in unix/target/libyaz4j.so.
+
+Windows
+-------
+
+Besides the exact same requirements as in the Unix case (JDK, Maven, Swig, YAZ), you will need the Windows [SDK][5] installed (which in turn requires .NET
+Framework 4) to compile yaz4j. Again it's much easier to use the
+YAZ Installer. Git must be installed to checkout yaz4j source code.
+
+Use the command prompt provided with the Windows SDK, navigate to the yaz4j
+source directory and run:
+
+ mvn install
+
+Default 64-bit YAZ installer location is assumed for the 'yaz.path' property.
+Nothing is assumed for 'swig', so you either need to specify an absolute path
+or update the PATH environment to include the directory containing swig.exe.
+Both can be specified with:
+
+ mvn -Dyaz.path=/path/to/yaz/installdir -Dswig=/path/to/swig/binary install
+
+YAZ4J AND A SERVLET CONTAINER
+=============================
+
+
+PREPARING A DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
+===================================
+
+LINKS
+=====
+
+The following is most probably already outdated, consult Google.
+
+[1]: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html "JDK"
+
+[2]: http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi "Maven"
+
+[3]: http://www.swig.org/download.html "Swig"
+
+[4]: http://www.indexdata.com/yaz "YAZ"
+
+[5]: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8279 "Windows SDK"