[ ePNK Installation (version 0.9.1)]

 
Available versions
The ePNK is a platform for Petri net tools based on the PNML transfer format (see overview).

 

The ePNK version 0.9.1 (as of January 31) works on eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) and on eclipse 3.6 (Helios). Note that the tutorials did not change though; therefore the tutorial feature is still 0.9.0). Since there was a major change in the parsing technology that we use for the labels of high-level Petri nets, which is called Xtext, you need to take care to select the right combination of plugins to make the Petri net type for HLPNGs work with the respective version of eclipse. For eclipse 3.5 (Galileo), you need to select the following features:

  • ePNK Basic Extensions 0.9.1
  • ePNK Core 0.9.1
  • ePNK HLPNGs 0.9.1
  • ePNK Tutorial 0.9.1
For eclipse 3.6 (Helios), you need to select the following features:
  • ePNK Basic Extensions 0.9.1
  • ePNK Core 0.9.1
  • ePNK HLPNGs (Xtext 1.0.1) 0.9.1
  • ePNK Tutorial 0.9.1
If you select "ePNK HLPNGs 0.9.1" on eclipse Helios or "ePNK HLPNGs (Xtext 1.0.1) 0.9.1" on eclipse Galileo, you will get an error message during the installation process, which looks like:
Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found. ...

 

If you should get an error message of this kind in the "Install Details" dialog during the installation, go back in the installation dialog and select the right combination of features for your eclipse version.

 

If you intend to use the ePNK as a user or standard developmer, it is recommended that you use eclipse Helios. Only if you would like to change the graphical editor and change the inner workings of the ePNK (which is not recommended at all in the current stage) and, in particular, want to regenerate parts of the graphical editor with GMF, you need to use eclipse Galileo! The reason is that the GMF version deployed with eclipse Helios has some serious problems with properly generating code for models with phantom nodes; until this GMF problem is resolved in Helios (or maybe only in eclipse 3.7), the GMF code generation should be done under eclipse 3.5.

 

Installation details
For installing the ePNK on you computer, you first need to install eclipse Galileo (3.5) or eclipse Helios (3.6) on your computer. For normal users and standard development, it is recommended to use eclipse Helios (see above). You will find eclipse Helios at http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. It is recommended that you install "Eclipse Classic". You can still obtain eclipse 3.5 from the eclipse Galileo download pages. Since the download speed for outdated releases seems to be not too exiting, you can download Eclipse 3.5 Classic for Windows also from our server here: eclipse-SDK-3.5-win32.zip.

 

Once you have installed Eclipse Classic on your computer, you can install the ePNK extension from the update site: http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~ekki/projects/ePNK/update/ from your eclipse workbench. To this end, proceed as follows:

  • In the eclipse tool bar, select "Help" -> "Install New Software..."
  • In the opened "Install" dialog, press the "Add..." button to add a new update site. In the "Add Site" dialog, enter some name (e.g. "ePNK Update Site"), enter the URL "http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~ekki/projects/ePNK/update/" as location, and then press okay.
  • Now, select the newly created ePNK update site in the still open "Install" dialog. After some time, some ePNK items should pop up in the dialog.

     

    For eclipse Helios (3.6), select

    • ePNK Basic Extensions 0.9.1
    • ePNK Core 0.9.1
    • ePNK HLPNGs (Xtext 1.0.1) 0.9.1
    • ePNK Tutorial 0.9.1

     

    For eclipse 3.5 (Galileo), select

    • ePNK Basic Extensions 0.9.1
    • ePNK Core 0.9.1
    • ePNK HLPNGs 0.9.1
    • ePNK Tutorial 0.9.1
    Also make sure that the box "Contact all update sites during install to find required software" is checked; this will make sure that all plugins from eclipse that ePNK needs, will be installed too (EMF, GMF, Xtext, etc.).
  • Follow through the installation process (don't forget to accept the licence agreement). If you get an error of the kind
    Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found. ...
    you have probably selected the wrong combination of features. In that case, go back and select the right combination as explained above. An other possibility for an error is that you have forgotten to tick the checkbox "Contact all update sites during install to find required software".
  • After you made it successfully though all the dialogs, the ePNK and all other required plugins will be installed; it is a good idea to restart eclipse after that (eclipse will ask you to do that anyway).

 

Resources
Here is a brief overview of the available resources for the ePNK:
  • ePNK Manual (version 0.9.0, January 5, 2011)
  • ePNK-0.9.0.zip: the source projects of the ePNK 0.9.0 for eclipse 3.5 (including tutorials), which you might want to use as a developer. These can be imported to the eclipse workspace via the eclipse import mechanism.

     

  • org.pnml.tools.epnk.example-documents.zip an eclipse project with some PNML examples. These can be imported to the eclipse workspace via the eclipse import mechanism.

     

  • Ekkart Kindler: ePNK: A generic PNML tool - Users' and Developers' Guide : version 0.9.1. IMM-Technical Report-2011-03, DTU Informatics, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark, February 2011.
  • ePNK-developers-helios-version-0.9.1.zip: the source projects of the ePNK 0.9.1 for eclipse 3.6 (including tutorials), which you might want to use as a developer. These can be imported to the eclipse workspace via the eclipse import mechanism.

     

  • There is also a SVN repository in which the ePNK is developed, which is maintained at DTU. People, who would like to join the development team of the ePNK, could contact Ekkart Kindler. Once we reach the critical mass, the repository will probably be moved to some open source collaboration platform such as Source Forge.

     

  • And of course, all the PNML resources mentioned at the ePNK home page could be useful.

 

Ekkart Kindler (), January 31, 2011 (last updated December 12, 2012)