How to get Woopra running under OS X

April 27th, 2008 by Raj

Woopra is a great new web analytics package that is currently in private beta. I’m not here to talk about how exciting this fantastic service is, instead I’m here to let you know how to get their application to actually RUN under OS X. It’s not that hard, they’ve just made a little mistake when packing it for the Mac. Lets get to it, but before we do let me just add you must be running OS X 10.5.1+ and a 64bit Intel Mac.

1. Download the Woopra installer. You’ll need to to log into your Woopra account to do this
2. Next run off to Apple’s Developer Connection and download Java SE 6 (currently preview 9). You’ll need an ADC login (which is free) or run Software Update as Apple have just released this as a stable upgrade.

At this point you’d think all you’d have to do is run the Woopra Installer application but if you do that all you get is this stupid message that you don’t have Java 1.6 installed, which as we all know you just did.

To fix this and get everything up and running we need to tell the application that we want it to use the newly installed Java runtime. Just out of interest OS X doesn’t automatically switch to the new version because it’s a preview and not deemed stable. Here’s how you fix the installer…

1. Copy the “Woopra Installer” application from the disk image to your hard drive. If you do not do this you will not be able to edit & save the required files
2. Right (Control Click) on the “Woopra Installer” application
3. Select “Show Package Contents”
4. Open the file “Contents/Info.plist” in your favourite text editor
5. Under the line <key>JVMVersion</key> change <string>1.3+</string> to <string>1.6+</string>
6. That’s it, save the file & launch the installer again

Now you’d think that would be it now wouldn’t you, but no you need to now repeat the process for the installed application, which if you’ve gone for the default location will be in your Applications folder. Once you’ve done all of that (again) you can finally launch “Woopra” and get your fantastic looking web stats!!

Finally!!

Filed under Mac having

14 Responses

1. Diego Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 12:08 am

   Thanks for the tip¡ Unfortunately, when I try to follow these instructions, I cannot edit the info.plist file in the “Package Contents” view of the installer, as it seems to be locked and/or in write mode only, which prevents me from actually changing it.

   I am quite a newbie in the Mac OS X world, so perhaps there is something that needs to be done to the .dmg file in order to be able to edit its contents. Perhaps some kind soul can point out a solution?

   Many thanks in advance!

   Cheers,

   Diego

2. Andy Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 3:16 am

   Hi, I can’t save the changes, the file is read-only. Please could you tell us how to persuade it to let us save changes? Thanks!

3. Diego Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 3:22 am

   Never mind :P I just copied the installer into a folder on my local disk and had no problem editing the info.plist data there. Rookie mistake!

   Againg, thanks a lot!

4. Raj Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 9:42 am

   I’ve updated the instructions so allow you to save the file. Like others have found in the comments you just need to copy the installer to your hard drive first.

5. Becca Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

   Thank you so much for these instructions! They were very helpful.

6. Andy Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   Thanks for responding so quickly, it worked great following your revised instructions!

7. Mike Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

   Thank you so much for this!!! It was driving me crazy trying to install Woopra!

   Can’t thank you enough!

8. Vinko Says:
   May 4th, 2008 at 2:44 am

   Doesn’t the latest Java SE 6.0 update requires a 64 bit intel Mac?

   Is there a way to get a copy of the JVM 6.0 installed on a MBP (Core Duo)?

9. Raj Says:
   May 4th, 2008 at 3:16 am

   @Vinko - Yes you’re right, I’ve updated the entry accordingly. Thanks.

10. Woopra – Cool Realtime Analytics Tool | Just Talk About Web Says:
    May 12th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    [...] may not have the latest Java install, version 1.6 can be found at this page and you can get helps here). This tool is well-designed and seems very stable. Moreover, it has slick UI that you can change [...]

11. Darran Says:
    June 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Worked well for me.

    Thanks! Really appreciate it.

12. Analytics Has A Whole New Meaning With Woopra | LimeTouch Says:
    June 4th, 2008 at 12:35 am

    [...] from keeping one eye on Woopra’s installation guide, be sure to take a look at how to install Woopra on OS X. Once you are done, you will encounter some problems launching the [...]

13. Andrea Says:
    June 4th, 2008 at 3:19 am

    Thanks! This was great!

14. Gavin Says:
    June 15th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

    Cheers for the guide Raj, worked a treat! Now I can track all 6 people that go to HundredPennies! Woo!

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