Installing the Biological Information Browser Client on Windows 2000/XP

About: BIBE runs as a client - server architecture. The BIBE client runs on your computer. The BIBE server usually runs on a larger computer and may process information requests from many clients simultaniously. There are two kinds of client. One runs only inside a browser window such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. The other client type is a stand-alone application that runs somewhat faster than the browser version. This documentation includes instructions for installing the stand-alone version.

The BIBE Applet (runs in the browser) is at: http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~webvibe/webvibe_applet/RunClient.html. It may take quite a while for the applet to load depending on connection and the computer. It usually runs faster after the first time, depending on user configuration.

Installation overview: To install this stand-alone version you need to :
Step 1) Install the Java Virtual Machine from java.com (Sun Corp), Microsoft, or a number of other locations.
Step 2) Install the BIBE Client Software

Step 1) Installing the Java Virtual Machine. version 1.4.2 or higher.

• You can get the Java Virtual Machine from http://www.java.com.
  You can also install it from other locations. Use version 1.4.2 or higher.
  
• Press the "Get It Now" button. Follow the instructions if there are any (see note 1).
  

Step 2) Installing the BIBE Client

1. Download the latest stable version at http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~webvibe/download/bibe-client.zip(newest) or http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~webvibe/download/bibe-client7212004.zip.
   It will extract to the folder bibe-client.
   
2. Uncompress the file.
   Usually you can do this by just double-clicking on the downloaded file in your windows explorer and following the instructions to extract.
   Notes: winzip should do this automatically.
   If it doesn't unzip like this, you may not have winzip installed. Winzip is a very good thing to have on your machine for compressing and uncompressing files.
3. Double-click on startClient.bat (it is a batch file) to start the application.

Caveats:

• You may have to configure your computer to find the Java Virtual Machine and the BIBE Client.
  To do this, set the PATH environmental Variable to point to the new virtual machine.
  For example if you installed java at C:\Program Files\Java\java1.4.2 set the path to
  

  PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Java\java1.4.2\bin

  This will keep the old paths and add a new one.
  Windows 2000 and XP allow you to set the PATH in the "Environmental Variables" dialog. This can be found under the Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/, Advanced tab of "System Properties" dialog box, "Environmental Variables" button. Edit the PATH.
  

• You may need Administrator privileges to install the Java Virtual Machine from some sites. We did not need such privileges when we auto-installed from Sun, but we did when we manually installed it from the same site.
  The name of the saved executable will most likely start with : "j2re" and then a version. (for example: j2re1.4.1, or j2re1.4.2, j2re-1_4_2-windows-i586.exe ...)
  The virtual machine is also called the Java Runtime environment.
  The default location might be C:\Program Files\Java.

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