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olca-app

This repository contains the source code of the openLCA application. openLCA is a Java application that runs on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (Eclipse RCP). This project depends on the olca-modules and olca-update projects which are plain Maven projects that contain the core functionalities (e.g. the model, database access, calculations, and data exchange) and update logic for databases.

This repository has the following sub-projects:

  • olca-app: contains the source code of the openLCA RCP application.
  • olca-app-build: contains the build scripts for compiling openLCA and creating the installers for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
  • olca-app-html: contains the source code for the HTML views in openLCA (like the start page or the report views).
  • olca-app-runtime: contains the build scripts for creating the Eclipse RCP runtime for openLCA.

See also the README files that are contained in these sub-projects.

Building from source

openLCA is an Eclipse RCP application with parts of the user interface written in HTML5 and JavaScript. To compile it from source you need to have the following tools installed:

When you have these tools installed you can build the application from source via the following steps:

Install the openLCA core and update modules

The core and update modules contain the application logic that is independent from the user interface and can be also used in other applications. These modules are plain Maven projects and can be installed via mvn install. See the olca-modules and olca-updates repositories for more information.

Get the source code of the application

We recommend that to use Git to manage the source code but you can also download the source code as a zip file. Create a development directory (the path should not contain whitespaces):

mkdir olca
cd olca

and get the source code:

git clone https://github.com/GreenDelta/olca-app.git

Your development directory should now look like this:

olca-app
  .git
  olca-app
  olca-app-build
  olca-app-html
  olca-app-runtime
  ...

Building the HTML pages

To build the HTML pages of the user interface navigate to the olca-app-html folder:

cd olca-app/olca-app-html

Then install the Node.js modules via npm (npm is a package manager that comes with your Node.js installation):

npm install

This will create a folder olca-app-html/node_modules with the dependent modules. After this, you can create the html package via Gulp:

gulp

This will build and package the HTML files to olca-app/olca-app/html/base_html-.zip.

Prepare the Eclipse workspace

Download the current Eclipse package for RCP and RAP developers (to have everything together you can extract it into your development directory). Create a workspace directory in your development directory (e.g. under the eclipse folder to have a clean structure):

eclipse
  ...
  workspace
olca-app
  .git
  olca-app
  olca-app-build
  olca-app-html
  olca-app-runtime
  ...

After this, open Eclipse and select the created workspace directory. Import the projects into Eclipse via Import > General > Existing Projects into Workspace (select the olca/olca-app directory). You should now see the olca-app, olca-app-build, and olca-app-runtime projects in your Eclipse workspace.

Build the Eclipse runtime

Within Eclipse right-click on the olca-app-runtime/build.xml file and select Run as.../Ant build. This will download the RCP platform on which openLCA is built. When this script is finished (note that this could take a while) open the file olca-app-runtime/platform.target within Eclipse. Modify the current location to an absolute path which points to the olca-app-runtime/platform folder. After this click on Set as target platform on the top right of the editor.

After this, go back to the command line and navigate to the olca-app/olca-app folder:

cd olca-app/olca-app

and run

mvn package

This will copy the installed openLCA core modules and dependencies (see above) to the folder olca-app/olca-app/libs.

Add the JavaFX-SWT bridge

Since version 1.6, openLCA uses JavaFX components (e.g. the JavaFX WebView or charting components). The Java runtime contains a JavaFX-SWT bridge with which it is possible to embed JavaFX components in SWT applications. This bridge is contained in the library jfxswt.jar which you need to add to the Java runtime in Eclipse.

To do this, open the preferences for the installed Java runtimes Window > Preferences > Java > Installed JREs, select the enabled JRE and click on Edit. In the upcoming dialog, click on Add External JARs and select the jre/lib/jfxswt.jar library from the respective Java installation.

Test the application

Refresh your Eclipse workspace (select all and press F5). Open the file olca-app/openLCA.product within Eclipse and click on the run icon. openLCA should now start.

If you want to build an installable product, see the description in the olca-app-build sub-project or simply use the Eclipse export wizard (Export/Eclipse product).

Build the database templates

The openLCA application contains database templates that are used when the user creates a new database (empty, with units, or with all reference data). There is a Maven project olca-refdata that creates these database templates and copies them to the olca-app/olca-app/db_templates folder from which openLCA loads these templates. To build the templates, navigate to the refdata project and run the build:

cd olca-app/olca-refdata
mvn package

License

Unless stated otherwise, all source code of the openLCA project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. Please see the LICENSE.txt file in the root directory of the source code.