Ranker

The new Ranker program for Babase was developed by [:JunYang: Jun Yang] and [:TylerBrock: Tyler J. Brock] from Fall 2006 to Spring 2007. It was Tyler's Graduation with Distinction project when he graduated from Duke University in 2007.

Prerequisites to Running the Ranker

• If your computer is not on the same trusted network as papio (e.g., your computer is outside the biology.duke.edu domain), you must have VPN access to papio. See [:BabaseVPN: Babase VPN] for details on how to set up VPN on your computer.
• You must have a Babase PostgreSQL account on papio.
• Your computer must have Java Standard Edition 5 or later.

Running the Ranker

• If your computer is not on the same trusted network as papio, first establish a VPN connection to papio. See [:BabaseVPN: Babase VPN] for detailed instructions.

• Point your browser to [https://papio.biology.duke.edu/ranker/ranker.jnlp]; this will launch the Ranker.

  • If, for some reason, the Ranker does not launch automatically and you are shown the text contents of the ranker.jnlp file or are prompted to download it, save the file on your desktop and double-click it to launch the Ranker manually.
• You may get a security warning about papio's certificate; click "Yes" to continue.
• You may get a security warning about the application's digital signature; click "Run" to proceed.
• At the login menu, the host has been preset to papio-vpn.biology.duke.edu. If you are NOT running VPN (because your computer is on the same trusted network as papio), change the host to papio.biology.duke.edu (by removing "-vpn" from the string). If you are running VPN, you do not need to modify the default value.

Software Development for Ranker

This section is currently under development.

Development Environment

You will need the following environment in order to be able to make changes to the ranker code:

• Sun Java JDK with version greater than 5.0 available at http://java.sun.com

• Eclipse Software Development Version 3.2 available at http://www.eclipse.org

• A copy of the code available [http://papio.biology.duke.edu/babasewiki/RankerProgram?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=currentbabase.zip here]

• Obtain the following third-party libraries:

  • PostgeSQL JDBC Driver, at http://jdbc.postgresql.org/

  • TableLayout manager, at http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/apps/TableLayout.jar

Import Project

Once the JDK and Eclipse are installed you can unzip the code for the project and open eclipse. Then, if you import->general->existing project into workspace and select the project file within the extracted folder, the project should appear within your eclipse workspace.

Make Changes

After the project is open one can make changes to the code within the eclipse environment, most of which is within the babase.ranker package.

Compile and Run Program With Changes

To run the program, make sure you are connected to the VPN bring the ranker.java file to the focus of the editor and click on the run menu. From there, select to run as a Java application. Before the program runs, the changes are compiled.

Exporting the JAR file

Export the project choosing Java->Jar File as the type of exported file.

Sign the JAR file

See instructions in signature/README.txt in the ranker development directory on papio. The signed JAR file can now be copied under install/, a symbolic link to the installation directory on papio.