Release Notes - VUE 1.5 Final

These release notes describe the 1.5 release of VUE. Updates to these notes may be found at http://vue.uit.tufts.edu/release_notes.

VUE is a desktop, concept mapping application. It enables users to graphically represent relationships among ideas, images, digital assets, and documents. These items can be located locally or remotely.

What's new in 1.5 Final?

Redesigned UI
Image Support
Enhanced Resources
Federated Search

Installation Instructions

These installation instructions are intentionally brief. A more detailed installation guide is included in the VUE User Guide 1.5 located at http://vue.uit.tufts.edu/userdoc/VUEUserGuide1-5.pdf

If you are already running VUE 1.4, you don't have to uninstall that version to install VUE 1.5. (You may want to continue to use VUE 1.4 while you evaluate VUE 1.5.) On the other hand, if you are already running a VUE 1.5 Beta release, we recommend that you remove it before installing VUE 1.5 Final. We also recommend that you remove your existing installed data sources. You will find instructions for both these operations below.

VUE 1.5 Final is distributed in three forms based on operating system.

For Microsoft Windows

The VUE distribution for Microsoft Windows is provided as an InstallAnywhere installer. Simply run the installer executable to install VUE.

For OS-X

The VUE distribution for OS-X is provided as an application bundle. After downloading and extracting the zip file, simply drag VUE.app to your applications folder to install VUE.

For Linux/Unix

The VUE distribution for Linux/Unix is provided as a jar contained in a zip file. Simply extract the VUE.jar to a convenient location on your system.

Linux users may need to install a different Java runtime package on your system. Run
java -version
in a terminal window. If it reports that "gij (GNU libgcj) ..." is installed, you are running GNU Java. The GNU Java libraries don't currently offer sufficient graphics support to run VUE. While it's outside the scope of this document to provide instructions for installing Java support on Linux/Unix, Sun Microsystems makes Java runtime environments freely available on their web site: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp.

The /Library/OsidProviders directory doesn't exist by default on Linux/Unix systems; you will need to create this directory and set its permissions. This directory supports the "Enhanced Data Sources" feature. If you won't use this feature, you don't need to create the directory.

The ability to make these changes to your system requires system access privileges that you may not have. The following instructions presume you have root access to your system.

  1. Open the terminal application
  2. enter this command to create the directory: sudo mkdir -p -m 777 /Library/OsidProviders

If you are running a VUE 1.5 Beta version, we recommend flushing your installed data sources before installing the VUE 1.5 Final release. See the topic in Troubleshooting below for instructions.

Known Issues

If you encounter problems with VUE, please inform us by posting them to our forums at http://vue.uit.tufts.edu/forums/. You can also contact us directly at vue-help@tufts.edu, though we recommend the forums because more people will see the issue, increasing the pool of responders. It also builds the body of information available to the VUE user community.

Troubleshooting

Resources

Some problems with loading resources can be solved by removing and reinstalling your resources.

Instructions for removing installed resources

Installed resources and their configuration are stored in two locations in your local file system. The names of these directories differ depending on your operating system.

For Windows

Following these steps will delete all your resources and their associated configuration information. You will have to re-enter access keys and passwords just as you did when you first added the resources.

Step 1: Removing resources
Individual resources are stored under the C:\Library\OsidProviders directory.

Step 2: Removing configuration information
Configuration information is stored in the vue_2 directory in your home directory, usually C:\Documents and Settings\<YourUsername>\vue_2.

For OS-X and Linux

Following these steps will delete all your resources and their associated configuration information. You will have to re-enter access keys and passwords just as you did when you first added the resources.

Step 1: Removing resources
Resources are stored under the /Library/OsidProviders directory.

Step 2: Removing configuration information 
Configuration information is stored in your ~/.vue_2 directory. Since the directory name begins with a period, you will have to open the Terminal application to delete these files. (The Finder doesn't display items that start with a period.)

  1. Open the Terminal application by opening Finder and navigating to Applications/Utilities.
  2. Double click Terminal to open the application.
  3. In the Terminal, type each of these commands, following each by pressing the "return" key.