How to install OSDEA-GUI

Before proceeding, you need to have downloaded OSDEA-GUI.

Installing OSDEA-GUI requires the three following steps:

  1. Unzipping the OSDEA package you’ve downloaded.
  2. Identify which java version you have installed on your system.
  3. Copying the swt.jar library which corresponds to your system into the OSDEA lib folder.
  4. Installing lpsolve on your machine.

Each step is detailed below.

1. Unzipping the OSDEA-GUI zip file

  • Create a folder wherever you want on your system (e.g. ‘OSDEA-GUI’).
  • Put the OSDEA-GUI-vX.X.zip file in this folder.
  • Unarchive the zip file in this folder. On windows 10 you can right click the zip file and select “Extract here” (or use 7zip). On linux you should have the option from the right-click menu as well; alternatively find some unzip tools in your package manager.

2. Installing java and verifying java version

Next, you need to make sure you have java installed on your computer and which version you have installed (32 bits vs 64 bits).

  1. Open a command prompt (Windows) or terminal (linux). If you do not know how to do this, google “command prompt on windows” or “how to open the terminal on ‘linux’ “.
  2. Type “java -version”.
  3. The output should tell you the version of java you have installed (e.g. java 8) but also and very importantly the type: 32 bits java or 64 bits java. This 32/64 bits information will be important for the rest of the installation.
  4. If the output is “command unknown” or ” ‘java -version’ command unknown”, then you do not have java installed on your machine. If so, you need to install java. You can download java from Oracle https://www.java.com/en/download/ or (linux) using your own package manager (e.g. openJDK). After you have installed java, check your installation by typing “java -version” in your command prompt / terminal again.

3. Copying the swt.jar file to the lib folder

For OSDEA-GUI to run, you need to copy the right swt.jar library to the ‘OSDEA-GUI-vX.X_lib’ folder.

  1. In the installation folder, browse to the SWT folder. Under the SWT folder, there is a lists of all compatible systems (windows, linux, mac) and corresponding architecture (32 bits vs 64 bits).
  2. You need to browse to the folder corresponding to your achitecture:
    • If you are on a windows machine with a 32 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “win32”.
    • If you are on a windows machine with a 64 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “win64”.
    • If you are on a linux machine with a 32 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “linux32”.
    • If you are on a linux machine with a 64 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “linux64”.
    • If you are on a mac machine with a 32 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “mac32-cocoa”.
    • If you are on a mac machine with a 64 bits java version (step 2 before), you should browse to “mac64-cocoa”.
  3. In each folder, there is a swt.jar file. You need to copy the swt.jar file from the folder corresponding to your machine (step before).
  4. Then, you should paste the swt.jar file to the ‘OSDEA-GUI-vX.X_lib’ folder. This folder already contains a lot of “jar” files.

4. Installing lpsolve

In order to solve a DEA problem, OSDEA-GUI need a linear solver. This linear solver is the open source solver lpsolve. If you do not have this installed correctly on your system, you will get an error message when solving a DEA problem.

  1. Browse to the lpsolve-v5.X in your OSDEA installation folder.
  2. Again, browse to the corresponding folder based on your architecture (e.g. windows with a 64 bits java version, go to win64; linux with a 32 bits java version, go to ux32 etc.).
  3. There are two files inside the folder, lpsolve55.dll and lpsolve55j.dll. Copy both of them.
  4. You then need to paste those files onto your system:
    1. On windows, check your Windows architecture (go to “my computer” and properties and check whether it says “Windows XX 32 bits” or Windows XX 64 bits”).
      1. If you have a 64 bits Windows but a 32 java version, you must paste both files (lpsolve55.dll and lpsolve55j.dll) to “C:\Windows\SysWOW64”.
      2. In all other cases, paste both files to “C:\Windows\System32”.
  5. On Linux (*nix) systems:
    • Select the 32 or 64 bits lpsolve libraries (resp. liblpsolve55j.so and liblpsolve55.so) and copy them to the “/usr/lib” directory. You can also copy  them to “/usr/local/lib” or run ldconfig to add the lpsolve libraries to your system’s libraries path).
  6. On mac (osx32):
    • Use the build-osx build file with the liblpsolve55.dylib library.

Running OSDEA

Congratulations, you’ve installed OSDEA-GUI. You can now run the program by double-clicking on the OSDEA-GUI-vX.X.jar file in the main installation folder. If your system does not show the file extension (the “.jar” at the end), it will simply be displayed ‘OSDEA-GUI-vX.X’. If double clicking does not open OSDEA, you should check the throubleshoot.

If you are using Mac, you must unfortunately start the program from a terminal by using the following command in the folder where you have extracted OSDEA GUI (do not copy paste the double inverted commas):

  • “java -jar -XstartOnFirstThread OSDEA-GUI-v0.2.jar”

Troubleshoot

If you’re having problem running the application, you will probably find the throubleshoot useful!