Q:

How to set up ATG development environment for use with JBoss

Can somebody please explain all the steps involved in setting up ATG development environment for use with JBoss AS.
My requirement is simple, I need to develop and deploy a simple J2EE applicaiton containing a few forms and backend logic to save the data entered in the forms. 

A:

The answer is also in ATG documentation that comes with the product
Installation and Configuration guide:
http://www.atg.com/repositories/ContentCatalogRepository_en/manuals/ATG9.1/atginstall/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm
and Programming Guide, chapter 3.
At minimum you need:

ATG installed (e.g. in c:\ATG\ATG9.1)
JBoss installed (e.g. in c:\opt\jboss) - make sure you use supported version of JBOss for the ATG version you use - e.g. 4.2.0 for ATG 9.1, 4.0.5 for ATG2007.1
installed JDK - again, version matters, Java 5 is what you want
Eclipse + Eclipse plugin from www.atg.com/eclipse
Ant installed
database installed (for development, MySQL is good choice)

Set the environment variables to ATG_HOME, ATG_ROOT
Verify that the setup works with MotorpriseJSP - start Solid, deploy EAR file and try it out
Now you are ready to start development. At high level, you want:

define database schemas and create ATG tables
load initial data to database
define new module under ATG_ROOT, with proper structure and MANIFEST (this is what Eclipse will help you with)
code custom functionality (this may include extending user profile, product catalog or define custom repositories)
define datasource file for your database and place it into JBOss/server/atg/deploy
using startDynamoOnJBoss try out if your module loads
using Ant task, build the EAR file for standalone deployment

I honestly do not see any way how to avoid following the docs. The real answer would be tens/hundreds of pages long.
You should dedicate enough time reading few thousands pages of ATG documentation and trying it out. There are two way how to speed things up: working along with somebody who did it before and knows ATG or attending the ATG training (Boston or SF). Ideally training first and having mentor / working on real project right after that.

