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# Apache Cocoon User Guide

## What's in this track?

This track is meant to help you take your first steps with Cocoon, by running and exploring the samples.

## Prerequisites

You will need a JDK (Java Development Kit) installed on your computer, and (obviously) an Internet connection to download Cocoon.

No prior knowledge of Cocoon is needed to study this track.

## First Steps Track

Here's our suggestion for your first steps with Cocoon:

### Have a look at the samples

Start by reading How to run and explore the Cocoon samples and taking a first look at the Cocoon samples. At this point you might not understand much about how they work, but this will give you a feel of what Cocoon is about.

### Study the pipeline and sitemap concepts

Next, we suggest that you study the basics to find out more about how Cocoon works. You should concentrate on understanding the pipeline and sitemap concepts, you don't need much more at this point.

### Study selected samples in more detail

Once you understand a bit more about how Cocoon works, we suggest that you go back to a few selected samples that might be of interest to you, to study them in more detail.

Going through several iterations of looking at the samples and studying the corresponding documentation will help you focus on what you need to understand about Cocoon.

With more than 45 blocks as of this writing, the samples use a wide variety of tools and technologies, and attempting to understand everything will most probably leave you frustrated, so it is better to limit yourself to a subset of the samples.

Note
Blocks are components which are largely independent of each other, and which are optional when installing Cocoon.

## Comments

Care to comment on this Track? Help keep this document relevant by passing along any constructive feedback to the cocoon-docs mailing list.

Errors and Improvements? If you see any errors or potential improvements in this document please help us: View, Edit or comment on the latest development version (registration required).