Complete Noob can't compile Spark

I am a hobbyist with no real Java experience, and I am trying to compile Spark myself so I can do some minor customization (Windows XP sp3 32bit).

I downloaded the trunk via SVN and installed the most recent JDK and NetBeans, then I tried following the instructions at

http://community.igniterealtime.org/docs/DOC-1521

but I keep getting errors. When I choose Clean and Build the project seems to compile successfully, but when I try to run it, it tells me no main class has been set, and gives me a list of classes. Figuring “startup” seemed as likely as any, I tried that, but get a bunch of messages saying “One or more projects were compiled with errors.” I tried picking some other classes instead, but the same results.

Looking at the netbeans interface, I see a bunch of red exclamation points all over, so I assume I’m missing some libraries that are needed, but I have no clue where to look in order to find them. I’ve tried searching for the specific messages I’m seeing, but the results are all aimed at people who wrote their own code and are having problems. I’m just trying to compile the existing source.

So my first question is why is it asking me which module has the main class, and what’s the right answer?

Second, what’s wrong with my build environment? What are the actual minimum requirements I need to have installed in order to successfully compile Spark?

It is ok if it shows some warnings while compiling. The problem with startup (btw, are you trying to run startup.bat file?) could be because you didn’t specify java path in your system variables. To be able to run startup.bat need to add System variable JAVA_HOME with value C:\Program Files\Java\jdk_version (no trailing slash) (My computer > Advanced > Environment variables)