Getting started
From Documentation
In this section, it is described how to download and start the application, and how to create a new database.
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Download openLCA
openLCA is an open source project. The application including the source code are freely available at our sourceforge site http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/openlca. When you visit this site you should see a download button with the respective application package for your operating system. For older versions or other operating systems you can navigate through the uploaded packages using the menu "Files":
NB: please note that you can also download the source code of openLCA from this page. To learn more, see chapter Get the source code
Preparations before you start
Installation of openLCA is straightforward; before you start, however, make sure the following requirements are met by the machine (computer) where you plan to install:
Operating systems:
Since version 1.2.2, openLCA is available for the following platforms:
- Windows (32 and 64 bits)
- Linux (32 and 64 bits)
- Mac Os X (32 and 64 bits)
Ensure you know your specifications before downloading the right version.
Software requirements:
- As a Java application, the application requires a Java runtime environment, JRE, with version 1.6 or higher. On many modern computers, this should already be installed. You can verify your Java version on the web-site http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp. If needed, you can download and install a newer JRE version http://java.com.
- With the openLCA Windows installer it is possible to include MySQL in the installation so it is not required to install a MySQL server on Windows systems. However, for MAC computers it is required to have a MySQL server installed.
- Your firewall needs to allow MySQL (the database server) and openLCA (the application) to start.
Hardware requirements:
We recommend the following hardware configuration:
- CPU with 2 GHz or higher
- 512 MB Ram
- 500 MB free hard disk space (depending on the amount of data you want to store)
Starting openLCA
To install openLCA under Windows just double-click on the downloaded executable file (for instance openlca-20110920-win-32bit.exe) and the installer will be opened.
During the installation of openLCA you need a connection to the internet so that MySQL can be downloaded and installed.
If you install openLCA on a MAC or under Linux MySQL must be installed separetly. The installation on a MAC is described here.
During the installation, you must decide which language you want to use. This setting defines the language of the software menu, but also the language of the future database (names of units, flows, compartment) you will create. It will still be possible to change this setting later, as explain in paragraph "Change the language of openLCA".
Note that you need a recent Java Runtime Environment in order to start openLCA (as any other Java application). See the "requirements" section above for more information. If the firewall blocks the openLCA application, it cannot start, see also the requirements.
NB: If you wish to uninstall openLCA, simply follow the steps described in chapter uninstall openLCA.
Connecting to a database
openLCA is a client server application which works with a MySQL database. In your practical work, you need not be aware of that, and you can use the database in openLCA just as you would use a desktop database and LCA application – but if you like, you can use it as a client server application with a centralised database.
First start
When you start openLCA for the first time, it looks quite empty. Right-click on the navigation window:
Click on "Create a new MySQL connection" and accept the default settings:
Connect to data provider
A default local data provider is registered on port 3306. It contains an almost empty database, only having the default unit groups and flow properties. First you have to connect to a data provider. Right-click on the data provider you want to connect to and select "Connect...".
Create a new database
To create a new database right click on a connected data provider on which you want to create the database and select "Create new database".
It is possible to create several connections and databases.
Runtime directory
For the application, a runtime directory or workspace is created on your machine. It is called "workspace" and usually located in your user directory. If you use an embedded server (i.e. if you checked "use embedded server" at start), then the database is also created in the workspace, in a database subdirectory.
A first glance at the application
With an existing database, the application looks like this:
On the left side you now see the navigation tree containing categories from projects to sources as sub elements of each database on the connected data provider. Each category can have sub categories and model component elements. These will be discussed and explained in detail in the sections of Elements in the application.
Errors during the installation
I cannot connect to the MySQL connection. What can I do? There are two possible reasons for this. Either the fire wall blocks the process or MySQL was not installed correctly. So, check you fire wall settings and if this does not help go to the installation directory of openLCA. In the folder openLCA must contain a folder "data" and "share" and in the folder openLCA/bin must contain two files mysqladmin.exe and mysqld-nt.exe.
If this is not the case MySQL was not downloaded. You can either install openLCA again (after a deinstallation) or install MySQL seperately and put it manually in the installation directory of openLCA. For the manual alternative download first the MySQL server installation file at http://guciodb.googlecode.com/files/guciodb-mysql-5.1.43-win.zip, unzip it, and put the files in the openLCA installation directory that you get the above shown directory structure.
