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Important Installation Information for Compendium

Table of Contents:

I. Welcome!

II. Install Compendium

• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Linux

• General
• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Linux

IV. Contacting Technical Support

I. Welcome! (Back)

Welcome to Compendium

Compendium is a hypertext concept mapping tool which can be used as an individual or group tool to model problems, and capture discussions.

This tool supports the Compendium methodology for Dialogue Mapping and collaborative visual modelling, as described on the Compendium Institute website

II. Install Compendium (Back)

Windows

Compendium is a Java application, so it requires a Java Runtime Environment (v1.5+) 32 bit to be installed.

If you have a previous version of installed you can install this version directly over your existing installation. The default location is: C:\Program Files\Compendium. Your original properties files will not be affected.

Mac OS X

There are two releases of Compendium 1.5 for Mac OS X:
10.3 and 10.4.
The release for 10.3 (Panther) requires Java JRE v1.4.1_02 or later to be installed.
The release for 10.5 (Tiger) requires Java J2SE 5.0 Release 4 (aka 1.5.0_4) 32 bit or later.

If you are unsure which version of Java you have installed, open a terminal window (inside Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type: java -version

The output from running that command will look something like:

java version "1.5.0_07"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_07-164)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_07-87, mixed mode, sharing)

So the above shows that Java 1.5.0_07 is installed in this example which is fine as it is greater than the required 1.5.0_04

Once you have downloaded the relevant .dmg file from the website you need to double click the .dmg file to mount the disk image. This will open a window showing you the compendium .pkg file. Double click the package file and this will run the installer. Follow the installer instructions.

NOTE: Currently, due to unresolved file permission issues, only the user installing Compendium will be able to run it, unless Compendium subfolders have thier permissions changed appropriately.

TECH TIP: You might like to be aware that Compendium sets the Memory allocation for the JRE up to 256mb (the default is 64mb). If you need to change this value for any reason, you will need to open the contents of the Compendium Application file using the 'Show Package Contents' option on the right-click menu, then open the Contents' folder and edit the VMOptions property in the info.plist file. Please only attempt this if you are a confident user.

TECH TIP: In order to automatically open external files and links on the Mac, Compendium stores file extension and application associations in a file in <Compendium home folder>/System/resources called LaunchApplications.properties. This file is added to as the user tries to launch various file types for the first time and picks an application to use. We have preloaded this file with three type, 'www', 'http' and 'https', and we have associated them with the path '/Applications/Safari'. If you do not have this application or have it in another location, you will need to edit this file appropriately.

Linux

Compendium is a Java application, so it requires a Java Runtime Environment (v1.5) 32 bit to be installed before you can run it.

Linux user's have found issues with running Compendium on the OpenJDK so we recommend using Sun's JDK.

Once you have downloaded the relevant .tar file from the website, simply unpack it.

You can run Compendium by navigating to the Compendium directory and typing: ./compendium.sh

TECH TIP: In order to automatically open external files and links on Linux, Compendium stores file extension and application associations in a file in <Compendium home folder>/System/resources called LaunchApplications.properties. This file is added to as the user tries to launch various file types for the first time and picks an application to use. We have preloaded this file with three type, 'www', 'http' and 'https', and we have associated them with the path '/usr/bin/mozilla'. If you do not have this application or have it in another location, you will need to edit this file appropriately.

III. Known Issues (Back)

General

• When you import a map from QuestMap with Pros and Cons, they come out as Arguments in Compendium (even though they are linked to other nodes).
• Exporting to an XML file in an off-line directory can cause the file to be corrupted. (This is a known Windows problem).

Windows

• There is a general bug with Java running on machines with some versions of NVidia video drivers. If you have a graphics card which uses these drivers, and experience problems running Compendium, you should make sure that you have the latest drivers installed.

• There is a problem with some Tablet PCs and graphics drivers. A workaround is to switch off Java 2D graphics. This can be done by editing the compendium.bat file. The final line in the batch file should resemble:
  
  start /b javaw -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Xmx256m 
  -classpath etc.. etc..

Mac OS X

• There can be problems with permissions and Compendium accessing/creating subfolders when the Mac user installing and using Compendium is not part of the Admin group.

Linux

• Compendium can have issues running with the OpenJDK. So we recommend you use only Sun's Java JRE (32 bit) with Compendium.
• Drag and dropping files, images, text etc. from external applications into Compendium cannot currently be implemented for the Linux platform release of Compendium.

IV. Contacting Technical Support (Back)

In case you have problems with the installation or problems with the use of Compendium email the Webmaster

We hope you find Compendium useful, and welcome your feedback! On the Compendium Institute website you will find reports with explanations of the approach, case studies and links to people and other organizations using Compendium. Thank you for trying Compendium.

Sincerely,

The Compendium Team