geWorkbench

Download Instructions | License Information

This section contains instructions for downloading and installing geWorkbench.

Notice - Downloads from NCI not usable

October 1st, 2013 - Downloads of geWorkbench from the NCI GForge site are not usable due to a server error. The files appear to download correctly but have a server-side error message prepended to them, making them unusable. Because of the government shutdown, it may be some time before this download site is again usable.

You can now download geWorkbench instead directly from our own site, using the links in the section below.

Downloads

You can now download geWorkbench directly from our server. Choose the appropriate version below.

geWorkbench 2.5.0 (released October 10th, 2013)

geWorkbench 2.5.0 adds a number of new features, and restores geWorkbench compatibility with external BLAST and gene annotation services.

geWorkbench_v2.5.0.md5.txt

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_Generic.zip

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_Linux_installer_noJRE.bin

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_Linux_installer_with_JRE6.bin

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_Windows_installer_noJRE.exe

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_Windows_installer_with_JRE6.exe

Special instructions for Mac OSX

In recent versions of Mac OSX, the Gatekeeper function may not allow the downloaded geWorkbench file to install. The initial zip file can be unpacked, but the resulting "install" app will not execute.

To allow geWorkbench to install, you must temporarily tell Gatekeeper to allow installation of files from "anywhere".

You can do this by going to System Preferences, Security and Privacy, and then on the "General" tab select "Allow applications to download from: Anywhere". After you have installed geWorkbench, this preference should be reset to a more secure setting.

geWorkbench_v2.5.0_MacOSX_installer.zip

--

geWorkbench 2.4.1 (released October 26th, 2012)

geWorkbench 2.4.1 MD5 Sums file

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Generic.zip

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Linux_installer_noJRE.bin

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Linux_installer_with_JRE6.bin

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_MacOSX_installer.zip

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Windows_installer_noJRE.exe

geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Windows_installer_with_JRE6.exe

geWorkbench 2.4.1 - System Requirements

Java

• The Java 6 Runtime Environment (JRE6) is required. geWorkbench will run using Java 7, but has not been tested extensively in that environment. Several incompatibilities have already been seen under Java 7 (see Known Issues for details).
• For Windows and Linux, geWorkbench is distributed in two installer forms, one with and one without the JRE6 included. To install a version of geWorkbench that does not include the JRE, the JRE6 must be installed separately on the machine.
• On MacOSX, the Java 6 JRE is included with MacOSX versions 10.5 and higher with the latest updates (Intel platforms only). Java 6 is not available for the PowerPC platform.
• The "Generic" distribution of geWorkbench does not include the JRE6. It must be installed separately.
• geWorkbench can run on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Java on appropriate OS platforms.

How to choose

• Using an installer version of geWorkbench that inludes the JRE6 allows you to be sure that you are running geWorkbench with the correct version of the JRE.
• You may wish to install a "no JRE" version of geWorkbench if you want to choose between 32 and 64 bit JREs, to keep up with the latest updates to the JRE, or to experiment with Java 7.

Obtaining the Java 6 JRE

• The JRE6 can be downloaded from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads
• Note: Java 6 is also referred to as Java 1.6.

Display Driver

• This requirement pertains only to using the PCA component 3D graph viewer.
• When using a 64-bit JVM, the Java 3D library requires that OpenGL version 1.2 or higher be supported by your display driver.

Memory

At least 2 GB is recommended. geWorkbench 2.4.1 by default will request up to 1 GB of memory for the Java VM.

Operating System

• Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit): no special requirements.

• MacOSX: Version 10.5 with latest updates, or any higher version (10.6, 10.7 +) is required to provide the Java 6 JRE (Intel platform only).

• Linux: A version of Java must already be installed on the machine in order to run the geWorkbench installer.

geWorkbench, unless otherwise noted for particular components, can be run on both 32 and 64-bit operating systems and JREs.

Graphics Driver

At least one component, the PCA viewer, uses a Java 3D library. When using a 64-bit JVM, the Java 3D library requires OpenGL version 1.2 or higher to be supported by the graphics display adapter in your computer.

R server

The SAM analysis component can use a local installation of R on your desktop computer.

This has been tested with R version 2.15.0.

At least for Windows 7 installations, it may be necessary to have R installed in a user directory rather than in a system directory, e.g. to "c:\users\username\R-2.15.0", where "username" is your own account name.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT THE LICENSE

Use of geWorkbench is governed by the rules specified in the software license. Please make sure to read the license and understand your obligations before proceeding to download the application.

Installation Instructions

All three platform-specific versions of geWorkbench (Windows, Linux, and Macintosh) provide an installation wizard (generated using InstallAnywhere).

• Using an installer version of geWorkbench that inludes the JRE6 allows you to be sure that you are running geWorkbench with the correct version of the JRE.
• You may wish to install a "no JRE" version of geWorkbench if you want to choose yourself between 32 and 64 bit JREs, or to keep up with the latest updates to the JRE.
• On Windows and Linux, geWorkbench was tested using installer versions which included the JRE6. The included JREs are 32-bit versions.

A generic version of geWorkbench, which does not use any installer, is also available, and should run on any machine which supports Java 6.

Further information about the InstallAnywhere requirements are found at the Flexera website.

Windows (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Special note for Vista/Windows 7

If you run the installer on Vista or Windows 7, the installer will prompt you to install geWorkbench to your user home directory, e.g. C:\Users\username\geWorkbench_2.4.1, where username is your Windows login name.

Installer with JRE6

• File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Windows_installer_with_JRE6.exe
• Includes the 32-bit Sun Java 6 JRE.

Download and double-click the installer file to begin installation.

Installer without JRE6

• File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Windows_installer_noJRE.exe
• No JRE is included, you must make sure that an appropriate Java 6 JRE is installed on your system before installing geWorkbench.

Download and double-click the installer file to begin installation.

MacOSX

• File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_MacOSX_installer.zip.
• This version uses the Java 6 JRE included with recent updates to the MacOSX operating system. (Intel platforms only).

Double-click geWorkbench_v2.4.1_MacOSX_installer.zip to begin installation. This will extract a file called "install". Double-click on this file to install geWorkbench.

Notes

• Requires Mac OS X 10.5 with recent updates, or 10.6 or 10.7+.
• As Java 6 is not available for the PowerPC platform, regardless of OS X version, geworkbench will not run on the PowerPC platform under any version of OS X.
• The compressed installer should be expanded automatically by the system.

Linux

Installer with JRE6

• File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Linux_installer_with_JRE6.bin.
• Includes the 32-bit Sun Java 6 JRE.

Installer without JRE6

• File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Linux_installer_noJRE.bin.
• No JRE is included, you must make sure that an appropriate Java 6 JRE is installed on your system before installing geWorkbench.
• You may need to configure the JRE. See section below, "Java Environment Configuration".

Installation

You must already have installed a version of Java 1.6 or later on your Linux machine in order to run the geWorkbench installer.

The Linux version of geWorkbench relies on X-Windows being installed and running. If you are running Linux on a server and e.g. you wish to view the application on a Windows desktop, you will also need to run an X-windows server on your desktop machine. See X-Windows configuration instructions below.

After downloading, cd (if needed) to the directory to which you downloaded the installer.

To begin the installation, type the command for the particular version, e.g. for the installer with JRE:

"sh ./geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Linux_installer_with_JRE6.bin".

This will extract geWorkbench into a new directory called geWorkbench_2.4.1.

If you requested that a desktop link be created, it will be called rungeWorkbench_2.4.1.

Note - if you made changes to the default installation directory name, the shortcut link may just be called "geWorkbench_2.4.1" rather than "rungeWorkbench_2.4.1".

Running geWorkbench (Linux)

To run geWorkbench, and assuming you are using the Linux bash shell, and that you created a shortcut link during installation, issue one of the following commands from your home directory:

   ./rungeWorkbench_2.4.1 
   or
   sh rungeWorkbench_2.4.1.
   or
   sh geWorkbench_2.4.1 if the link received the alternative name (see above).
         

Alternatively, in the directory in which geWorkbench was installed, you can start geWorkbench with the command:

   sh launch_geWorkbench.sh

Generic

A non-installer-based version of geWorkbench is supplied in a Zip file which should work on any platform.

File: geWorkbench_v2.4.1_Generic.zip

Installation

Unzip the file. It will create a directory geWorkbench_2.4.1.

Running geWorkbench (generic)

You must have the Java 6 JRE installed and the JRE must be in the path for geWorkbench (see Java Environment Configuration below).

Windows: you can double click on the file "launch_geWorkbench.bat" to launch geWorkbench, or run it from a command window.

Linux/Unix: Execute the script "launch_geworkbench.sh".

Any: Alternatively, if you have Apache Ant installed, you can type "ant run" in the geWorkbench directory.

Java Environment Configuration

To run a version of geWorkbench that does not include the Java 6 Runtime Environment (JRE6), the JRE6 must be installed and, depending on the platform configured separately.

Two environment variables may need to be properly configured. These are the JAVA_HOME and the PATH variables. They should be configured to point to your own installation of the JRE6.

Here is an example of setting the two environment variables for a JRE installed in the directory /opt:

JAVA_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_31

PATH=/opt/jre1.6.0_31/bin:$PATH

Typical steps in running X-windows

Here are some typical steps to configure a remote Linux host and a local desktop X-server. Under Windows, a local X-server can be provided for example by the Cygwin package.

On the remote Linux host (assuming you are using the bash shell), issue the command

• "export DISPLAY=(your IP):0"

where (your IP) should be substituted with the IP address of your local desktop machine.

On your local desktop machine, you may need to

1. start the X-windows server with a command such as "startx". You may need to cd to the X11 bin directory to find this command.
2. allow remote connections with a command such as "xhost +".

Quick Start

A Quick Start guide to geWorkbench is being developed.

Community Support Forums

geWorkbench community forums are operated by the caBIG Molecular Analysis Tools Knowledge Center. There are separate user and developer forums. Anyone can browse through existing postings, but to start a new topic one must first register.

The forums can be viewed at https://cabig-kc.nci.nih.gov/Molecular/forums/

Tutorial data

tutorial_data.zip (3.586 MB) - data files in several different formats useful for the tutorials or just trying out geWorkbench.

Bcell-100.zip (5.256 MB) - A large (100 array) microarray dataset in the geWorkbench matrix format. Data is from the lab of Riccardo Dalla-Favera, Columbia University, and is provided only for use in learning and testing geWorkbench. It was obtained from experiments using Affymetrix HG-U95Av2 chips. This file contains the same data as the previously used file "webmatrix", but with the array subsets given more descriptive names.

Training Slides

A set of PowerPoint training slides for an earlier version of geWorkbench is still available, but is of historical interest only. The PowerPoint file is available from the Project Documentation section of this site.