Chapter 2 - Installing Smart Development Environment for Eclipse with No-Install

While most of the applications nowadays require an installation, the No-Install approach is considered to be a lightweight alternative. This chapter will give you an introduction to what the No-Install version is, and show you how to get SDE-EC started from downloading to running the application. Here are the covered topics:

Introduction to the No-Install version

There is no separate installer made for SDE-EC. In order to install SDE-EC, you must download and install Visual Paradigm Suite, an application suite that includes all the Visual Paradigm products, and install SDE-EC from the suite.

No-Install, as suggested by its name, is a compressed file that contains the Visual Paradigm Suite in a ready-to-run form. Although the suite is ready to run, the products inside the suite still require an installation. You can run the product(s) inside the suite as soon as the file is decompressed and the post-installation procedures are completed. A characteristic that makes a No-Install different from the installer is that, it will not register itself to the system, nor to create any shortcuts during the post-installation. This make the installation more flexible as you can move the installation to somewhere else simply by moving the whole installation folder without the concern of breaking any linkage to the system.

Downloading Visual Paradigm Suite

To download Visual Paradigm Suite:

  1. Visit Visual Paradigm's official download site at:
    http://www.visual-paradigm.com/download/
  2. Click on the image for Visual Paradigm Suite.
    Figure 1 - Click to visit the download page of Visual Paradigm Suite
  3. Enter your account information, and click Continue to proceed.
    Figure 2 - Login to proceed to download
  4. Under the list of Evaluation Product(s), press on the plus sign near Smart Development Environment to expand the list of SDEs. Then, select for Eclipse. This option will affect the capability of the evaluation key, which will be sent upon downloading the suite.
  5. Choose the way of receiving the evaluation key, or not to receive it. Here are the description of each of the possible ways:
    Ways of receiving an evaluation key Description
    Do not send me the evaluation key Just to download the suite without the need of an evaluation key.
    Send via email as attachment You will receive an email attached with the key file. Make sure your server allows email with attachments for choosing this option.
    Send via email as URL You will receive an email, which includes a download link of the key file.
  6. Select your operating system from the Platform drop-down menu. Choose the item with a bracket (No-Install) added to the name of the platform.
  7. From the Mirror Site drop-down menu, choose the location that is closest to your current location for a faster download speed.
  8. Click Download to proceed with downloading the Visual Paradigm Suite.
    Figure 3 - Visual Paradigm Suite download page

Installing SDE-EC

To install SDE-EC:

  1. Decompress the No-Install file.
    Figure 4 - The No-Install file (zipped)
    Note
     For Linux platforms, run the following command to decompress the No-Install file:
    tar -zxf %NO-INSTALL-FILE.tar.gz% -C %DESTINATION-FOLDER%
  2. Execute %NO-INSTALL-DECOMPRESSED_FOLDER%/bin/VP Suite.exe.
    Figure 5 - Executing VP Suite.exe
    Note
     For Linux and Mac OS X platforms, execute the file VP Suite inside %NO-INSTALL-DECOMPRESSED-FOLDER%/bin/

  3. Select SDE for Eclipse (SDE-EC). Click Next > to proceed to the product configuration page.

    Figure 6 - Selecting SDE-EC for installation

  4. SDE-EC features vary by product edition. For more details on the features supported by different editions, click the hyperlink Edition Comparison which brings you to the web page of SDE-EC feature comparison for different editions.

    Select the product edition from the Edition drop down menu.

    Figure 7 - Selecting the product edition

  5. Specify the IDE folder. To install SDE-EC in an existing Eclipse home directory, select Install in existing Eclipse. If your machine does not have the Eclipse ready, you can select the option Download Eclipse from Internet, which allows the setup program to download the Eclipse for you from the Internet. (This option is available for SDE for Eclipse and SDE for NetBeans only)

    Figure 8 - Specifying the installation directory of the installed IDE
    Note
     Only one kind of integration can be installed to an IDE folder. For instance, either SDE for Eclipse or DBVA for Eclipse can be installed to the same Eclipse folder.
  6. Select Download Online Help if you want to be able to access the Help contents from within the tool.
    Figure 9 - Selecting the option for downloading online help
  7. Select Download PDF/HTML Version if you wish to read the documentation in this two types of formats.
  8. Press Next > to proceed to the license import page.

  9. A combined license key is a key file which allows unlocking multiple products. To import a combined license key, select Combined License Key and specify the file path of the key.

    A single license key is a key file which allows unlocking only one product. To import a single license key, select Single License Key and specify the file path of the key.

    The import of license key is optional at this point, because you can import it when you run SDE-EC. Click Next to proceed with copying files.

    Note
     For evaluation, the key should be sent to your email box (unless you have chosen not to receive it before download). If you have not received the email with key yet, and if you have selected to receive the key as attachment, the email might be treated as spam by mistake. Click on Request Evaluation Key to ask for another one. This time, try not to select sending the key as attachment.
  10. Upon finishing, you can select whether to start SDE-EC or not. Keep SDE for Eclipse 4.0 selected and click Next > will run SDE-EC right away. Click Next > to finish the installation.
    Figure 10 - Finishing the installation and start SDE-EC
  11. Click Finish to close the setup program.

Starting SDE-EC

  1. Start Eclipse.
    Figure 11 - Attempting to start Eclipse
  2. Select a Java project.
  3. Select Modeling > Start SDE-EC from the main menu.
    Figure 12 - To start SDE-EC from the main menu

    If the Memory Requirement dialog box appear, it is recommended that you should adjust the configuration file to increase the value of the maximum memory.

    Figure 13 - The Memory Requirement dialog box

  4. If you have imported a valid license key before, SDE-EC should be started now. If not, the License Key Manager appears. The License Key manager is a utility for importing a license key. To import a key:

    1. Select License Keys > Import... from the menu.
    2. Specify the file path of the key file.
    3. Press Import to import the key file.

    Click Close to close the License Key Manager and start SDE-EC. If it prompts you with an invalid license key message, make sure the key you imported does match with the tool that you are running in terms of the following aspects:

    Figure 14 - The License Key Manager

  5. The Project Structure dialog box appears. Select the path of saving the SDE project and click OK to create the project.

    Figure 15 - The Project Structure dialog box
    Here are the description of each of the possible ways of creating the project:
    Ways of creating the SDE project Description
    Create in default path To create and save the project inside the current Eclipse workspace.
    Create or select existing project at external location To create and save the project to an external location that does not exist before. Alternatively, select an existing project path to link that project to the Java project, which act like importing.

Uninstalling SDE-EC

Uninstalling SDE-EC will cause SDE-EC to be removed from Visual Paradigm Suite. To uninstall SDE-EC:

  1. Close SDE-EC if it is running.
  2. Run %VP-SUITE-INSTALLATION-DIR%/uninstaller/uninstall_sdeec.exe
    Note
     For Linux and Mac OS X platforms, execute the file 'uninstall_sdeec' inside %VP-SUITE-INSTALLATION-DIR%/uninstaller