Overview
This document describes how to check out the ArchStudio (and constituent) code from the ISR Subversion repository and build ArchStudio from source.
Casual ArchStudio users or those evaluating the technology should probably just download and install the latest pre-built release. However, ArchStudio developers - those who are interested in developing new ArchStudio components, making changes to ArchStudio itself, or those interested in having bleeding-edge updates to ArchStudio before they go into official release - should check out the ArchStudio source code and build the environment from source.
The Source Code Environment
ArchStudio and related projects are stored and managed in a github repository. Git is an open-source configuration management system. It is increasingly supported by tools on many popular platforms that make it easy to work with and contribute to our source code in your favorite development environment.
ArchStudio is built in and for the Eclipse development environment. Although you can check out ArchStudio source code without using Eclipse, we recommend doing it in Eclipse so you can actually build the source.
If you are just interested in browsing the source without checking it out, you can browse the raw source archive.
What You'll Need
You will need the following installed on your machine:
- (Required) A Java 2 SE, version 5.0 Software Development Kit;
- (Required) Eclipse 4.2 or better;
- (Required) ArchStudio itself; and
- (Highly Recommended) The EGit Git client plug-in for Eclipse.
A Java 2 Software Development Kit
At the current time, ArchStudio is developed on Java 2 Standard Edition, version 5.0 (J2SE 5.0). You can download the runtime environment or development toolkit from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html More detailed instructions are included on the easy setup page.
Eclipse 4.2 or Better
You will also need to download Eclipse 4.2 or better, and install it on your machine. Downloads and installation instructions are available at http://www.eclipse.org/. If you already have Eclipse, you can also download and extract a second copy in a separate directory solely for ArchStudio if you so desire. More detailed instructions are included on the easy setup page.
ArchStudio Itself
You will also need to install ArchStudio itself in order to build ArchStudio. Follow the instructions to install ArchStudio and install it into your Eclipse environment. More detailed instructions are included on the easy setup page.
EGit Client
A Git client is required to checkout ArchStudio source code. EGit will allow you to check out the ArchStudio source code directly into your Eclipse workspace as a set of projects. Installation of EGit is similar to the installation of ArchStudio, above. However, use the updatesite for EGit. Alternatively, you may use another Git client, but the instructions here will be for EGit.
Checking Out for the First Time
Once you have the tools above installed and running, you can check out the ArchStudio source code. ArchStudio is composed of a number of different sub-projects, each of which contributes a part to the environment.
To check out the code perform the following steps:
- Open up the Git perspective by going to Window | Open Perspective | Other ... | Select "Git Repository Exploring" | Hit OK
- Select "Clone a Git Repository"
- In the dialog box that pops up, enter the following for the URI https://github.com/isr-uci-edu/ArchStudio.git
- Click Next
- Click Next again
- Select "Import all existing projects after clone finishes"
- Click Finish (... wait several minutes for the checkout to complete)
- Return to the Plugin perspective by going to Window | Open Perspective | Other ... | Select "Plug-in Development" | Hit OK.
Common Problems
After completing the steps above, you should have the Eclipse environment populated with the many plugins used to develop ArchStudio and all plugins should compile without any errors.
At times Eclipse will report compile errors even though none really exist and all projects are checked out. To remedy this go to Project | Clean ... | Select "Clean all projects" | hit OK. You may have to repeat this step twice.
Running ArchStudio
From within Eclipse, you can run the version of ArchStudio that you checked out using the ArchStudio launch configuration. To do so, perform the following:
- Go to Run | Debug Configurations...
- Select Eclipse Applications / ArchStudio
- Click Debug
- Click OK on the Validation dialog box
- Select an ArchStudio Workspace location, click OK
Now that you have a running version of ArchStudio, take a look at getting started with an architecture.
Contributing to ArchStudio
If you are looking for a way to contribute to ArchStudio, take a look at the open issues. In particular, some issues are marked as help wanted, indicating that they are good candidates for others to contribute solutions. Or, if you discover an issue, please file it at the same location.
Contact Us
If you have questions not answered by this website, please feel free to
contact the software architectures group at UC Irvine through the
ArchStudio developer's (mailman protected) email list at:
archstudio-dev [@] uci
[.] edu. (Note: You must
subscribe to the mail list
before you can post to it.)