Installing LargoRecipes consists of three steps: first, check your Java version; next, install Java 1.4 if you need it; finally, download and run LargoRecipes itself.
If you choose, you can also download the source code and javadoc documentation for LargoRecipes. There is a troubleshooting section you can use if you have problems.
If you already have an earlier version of LargoRecipes, you may be able to upgrade using only a small patch file, instead of downloading the whole LargoRecipes file. Also, you can keep the recipes from your earlier version and use them when you upgrade to this version. Read about this on the upgrade page.
The box below contains a Java applet, a little piece of Java code that runs inside this web page. The applet tries to check your Java version to tell you if you need a later version to use LargoRecipes. If it tells you that your version is OK, go on to Step Three; if not, get the latest Java version using Step Two
Note that all this version-checker can examine is the Java version in your browser, so if you have one version in your browser and another on your system, it may not give accurate results.
For computer whizzes: the foolproof way to check your Java version is to type
java -version at a command prompt; Java itself will then tell you what version it is.
(If you don't have Java at all, of course, you'll get an error.)
If you have determined that you need Java 1.4, here's what to do:
To install LargoRecipes, first create a directory on your computer in the location where you would like to install LargoRecipes. For instance, in Windows Explorer, create a folder on your C drive called LargoRecipes. If you already have a version of LargoRecipes installed in a folder on your machine, give this new folder a different name (for instance, LargoRecipes-0.9.1 to show the version number). Also, create two folders inside the new folder, with the names "demo" and "lib".
Each of the buttons below downloads a different piece of LargoRecipes. You only need the first one (the main file), but I recommend you download at least the demo as well. Each button takes you to a new page where you can select which server to download from (pick the one closest to your geographic location).
The button below gets the main LargoRecipes file. Before clicking it, decide whether you want the full version or the small version of LargoRecipes and select appropriately from the drop-down list. The full version has all the nifty LargoRecipes features, but is about a megabyte bigger - that is, it takes about 10 minutes longer to download on a typical dialup line. The small version is smaller (surprise!) but is missing some fancy features: imports and exports, creating a web page, and MealMaster conversion. This file is required. Save it in the main LargoRecipes folder. (Note that there is no need to download both versions.)
The next button gets the LargoRecipes demo, in English. This file is optional; I recommend
it for new users. Save this file in the demo folder.
The next button gets files necessary for using LargoRecipes in French. This file is only useful
to French speakers. Save this file in the lib folder.
When all downloads are complete, open the main directory and double-click the largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar
file (Windows users may just see largorecipes-x.x.x.x, without the .jar). LargoRecipes
will install itself and run! (If you are using a command line instead of a windowing system, navigate
to the LargoRecipes directory you created and type java -jar largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar.)
Don't forget to follow the steps on the upgrade page to use recipes from an earlier version, if you have them.
To download the source code JAR file, click the first button below, select a mirror, and download the file wherever you
would like it. Then use the jar program as normal to unpack the file - the easiest version of the
command is jar xvf largorecipescode-x.x.x.x.jar. You get a LargoRecipesBuild folder containing
LargoRecipes source code and necessary static files.
It's easiest to use Ant to build LargoRecipes; to do this, simply install
Ant and type either ant test or ant dist while located in the LargoRecipesBuild
directory. The first of these creates a test installation of LargoRecipes at LargoRecipesBuild/out/test,
while the second builds everything and puts all the jar and war files in LargoRecipesBuild/out/dist.
The file itself contains more detailed instructions (just open it in any text editor).
To download the Javadoc class documentation for LargoRecipes - which documents all public and protected classes and methods in
the program - click the second button below and then proceed as for the source code itself. Upon running jar, you
get a classdocs folder containing the Javadoc documentation.
(Note that the above instructions assume you have the Java 1.4 SDK installed, and therefore have
the jar executable at hand. If you don't, you won't be able to compile LargoRecipes, so
I'm not sure why you'd want the source - but if you insist anyway, just change the .jar
part of the filename to .zip and unzip using your favourite zip utility.)
Here are some things to check if the installation doesn't seem to be working.
Filenames. Ensure that the file you downloaded has the right filename: largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar,
where the xs are the file version numbers. Rename the file if it has the wrong name (really only the
.jar part at the end matters).
Windows Explorer sometimes hides file extensions, like the .jar at the end of
largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar. To display file extensions on my version of Windows, I click Tools and choose
Folder Options, click the View tab, then clear the checkbox that says
"Hide file extensions for known file types". (Your version of Windows Explorer may have a different way
of showing extensions; check the Help if you're not sure.)
Permissions. LargoRecipes unpacks a number of files when it starts for the first time, and it requires permission to create new files in the directory you created for it. If it doesn't have this permission, it prints an error on startup. To correct this, grant it permission to create and alter files in the folder where you installed it. For instance, on my Windows 2000 machine you right-click the folder, click the Security tab, then adjust the permissions and click OK.
Corrupt download of jar file. Suspect this first if you double-click largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar and
nothing at all happens, or if you get strange-looking Java errors in dialog boxes. Delete the
largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar file and download it again.
Not auto-executing. If nothing at all happens when you double-click largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar
and you've already tried re-downloading, it may be that your system is refusing to auto-execute JAR files. Get to
a command line (on Windows, for example, click Start, then Run, and type either command or
cmd) and type java -jar largorecipes-x.x.x.x.jar (replacing the x's with the real numbers
of course).
If these solutions don't work. Send me email (for the address, see the home page). I'm keen to help you get LargoRecipes properly installed.
Last updated 11 January 2004
LargoRecipes source code, program, and web site copyright 2001-3 D. Squirrel
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