SetupAndInstallation

Requirements

Java

This software requires Java version 1.5 (aka Java 5) or greater. Java is available as a free download from [www.java.com] and we use it because it allows us to write one program which can easily run on most computers. You probably already have it installed so just click the following link to make sure it's up to date.

Check Java Version

Detect Java Version

That link will check if you have Java installed and tell you if it's up to date. They "recommend" Java 7 (aka Java 1.7), but you'll be fine for this software as long as they show that you have Java version 1.5.0 or higher installed.

Installation

Step 1: Verify and/or Download and Install Java, as detailed above

Step 2: Download the Crop Planning Software package for your computer.

Step 3: Open the Archive

Mac: The Mac version is distributed as a disk image (a .dmg file). To open the file, just double click on the .dmg file. This will open the archive and put it on your desktop like a DVD or hard drive. Double click on the drive icon to view the files in the archive.

Windows: The Windows version is distributed as a file archive (a .zip file). Inside the archive is a directory which contains the "important" files. There are two options for opening this archive: 1. modern Windows computers can simply double click on the .zip file to open it up and view the contents. 1. older Windows computers might not be able to do the double click trick and will have to use a 3rd party archive utility to open the file. We suggest 7-Zip. Open the archive (the .zip file) in 7-Zip and proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Copy/Install Program (Optional for Macs)

With the archive opened and displayed in a window, simply:

Mac: drag the program file (CropPlanning) from the disk image to a folder or directory in which want to "install" the program.

For now, do not put the program in the 'Applications' folder. Note that this step is optional for Mac users. You should be able to run the program from the disk image with no problems. If you have trouble doing so, or you just want the program to reside in a particular place on your computer, then this step is for you.

Windows: just drag the folder CropPlanning from the archive to a suitable location, such as your desktop.

On Windows, you will need to keep the program and it's files together; this means that you cannot just move the '.exe' file, you must keep it in the same directory as the '.jar' file and 'lib' directory. (If you didn't understand what I just said, don't worry; just follow the instructions above and you'll be fine.) We'll be fixing this funny requirement in the next version.

Step 5: Open the program

Open up the disk image (if you did NOT do Step 4 on a Mac) or folder on your hard drive/desktop (if you did Step 4 on either Mac or Windows) that contains the program file. On Windows, the program file is CropPlanning.exe and on Mac the program file is CropPlanning. Just double click on the program icon!

Special Instructions for non-Mac/Windows Users

This software will run on any computer for which a version of Java 1.5 is available. Please download the zip archive and follow the directions below, except that you'll have to run the program from the command line with the command java -jar CropPlanning.jar

For a brief intro on how to use the program, check out the page ProgramUsageIntroduction. As always, let us know if you have any questions!