Installation & System Requirements

Contents


1. Marvin Applets or Marvin Beans?

Marvin is separated to two packages depending on how you want to use it

  • Marvin Applets for the web developer
  • Marvin Beans for the chemist's desktop and for the software developer

Marvin Applets are tools for building chemical web pages, which are compatible with most browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.). They offer access from/to JavaScript and are customizable by applet parameters.
Note, that the applets are signed that allows the same feature set as the applications.

Marvin Beans are easy-to-install applications for the desktop and tools for integrating Marvin capabilities into any application.

2. System Requirements

2.1. Marvin Applets

2.2. Marvin Beans for Java

  • Java distributed by Sun (or Apple's Mac OS X built-in Java)
  • Version: Java SE 6

2.3. Marvin Beans for .NET

  • .NET framework 2.0 SP2

2.4. How to get Java?

You can download Sun's Java from Sun's official site or contact your OS manufacturer.

If you use Mac OS X, probably Java is already installed on your machine. If not, select Java in the Software Update center to install or update.

Which Java do I need? You must have a copy of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on your system to run applications and applets. To develop applications and applets, you need the Java Development Kit, which includes the JRE.

If you are not sure whether Java is installed or not on Windows, you can check it the following way:

  1. Select Command Prompt from the Accessories sub-menu in the Start menu.
  2. Type the following commands in the opened Command Prompt window: java -version
  3. You will get the following error message if Java is not available on your machine:
    'java' is not recognized as internal or external command, operable program or batch file
    If Java is installed, the version number of Java will be printed:
    java version "1.6.0_24"
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07)
    Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.1-b02, mixed mode)

2.5. How to get .NET framework?

You can download the .NET framework from Microsoft's official site. The minimum requirement is version 2.0 SP2.

3. Installation

3.1. Marvin Applets

  1. Download the Marvin Applets package according to your platform from the Marvin download page.
    (.tar.gz is recommended for Unix-like platforms, .zip for others).
  2. You need a web server on the machine where you would like to install the Marvin Applets package (because applets work properly only through HTTP protocol). If there is no web server on the target machine, we suggest to use Tomcat.
  3. Extract marvin-all-VERSION.tar.gz (in Unix or in Mac OS X) or marvin-all-VERSION.zip (in MS Windows) in the parent directory of "marvin", where VERSION is the current version number.
  4. Modify the settings of the web server if the directory of Marvin is not accessible from the web server root. Then restart it (if it is necessary) to validate new settings. (Consult with the manual of the web server how to do it.)
  5. Open the index.html file in a browser.

Removing any binary (jar or zip) or configuration (properties or xml) file from the applet package can cause unexcepted error or limitation in the usage.

3.2. Marvin Beans for Java

Download the package according to your platform from one of the links below:

3.2.1. Windows

If you have a 64-bit Windows, you can choose both the normal (32-bit) Marvin Beans installer or its 64-bit version.

The following table helps you to choose which installer can you use on your platform.

Installer 32-bit Windows 64-bit Windows
without Javawith Javawithout Java with 32-bit Javawith 64-bit Java
marvinbeans-VERSION-windows.exe NO YES NO YES NO
marvinbeans-VERSION-windows_with_jre.exe (bundled with 32-bit Java) YES YES YES YES YES
marvinbeans_VERSION-windows_64bit.exe NO NO NO NO YES

If you have a 64-bit Windows, follow the instructions in the 64-bit Windows section.

  1. Double-click on marvinbeans-VERSION-windows.exe or marvinbeans-VERSION-windows_with_jre.exe to install.
  2. You can add the bin folder of Marvin Beans to the PATH environment variable to be able to run Marvin applications from any directory in the command line. Details about editing environment variables is described in Windows Help.
Notes:
  • Please make sure to close all running Marvin applications before starting the installer otherwise it may not be able to perform the installation correctly (overwriting certain .jar files is not possible if they are being used by a running application).
    Running applications may include:
    • Marvin desktop applications
    • MS-Office documents where Marvin Objects are being edited
    • Running applications where Marvin is embedded, like Instant JChem
    In this image, you can see an error message displayed during installation. Checking the running processes you can find that marvinOLEServer.exe is running, which means that an MS-Office document is just using Marvin.
  • You can run the installer in silent/non-interactive mode, which means that in case Marvin is already installed, it will be overwritten with the update without the need of checking the "OK" and "Next" buttons on the installer dialogs. To enable this mode, use the -q option (for example open the command prompt with cmd.exe and type "marvinbeans-5_3_0.exe -q").
64-bit Windows

System requirements: 64-bit Windows system having an installed Java for 64-bit architecture.

  1. After downloading marvinbeans-VERSION-windows_64bit.exe, take a double-click on the downloaded file (accept running if Windows expects verification).
  2. Installer is started: go through the installation wizard. The installer will setup the 64-bit version of JChem_NET_API automatically (that is wrapped into the installer).
Notes:
  • JChem_NET_API is required to be able to insert Marvin OLE (embedded object) into MS-Office document or transfer it between Marvin and the MS-Office applications.
  • Earlier versions of MS-Office suites are not available in 64-bit format. If your Office does not support 64-bit platform, you cannot use the OLE functionality of 64-bit version of Marvin. In this case, install 32-bit version of Marvin Beans and JChem_NET_API that can incorporate with 32-bit Office applications.
  • When you edit an embedded Marvin Object in Office, the editor can be different depending on the platform.
    • MS-Office 32-bit requires 32-bit JChem .NET API for Marvin embedding. It uses 32-bit .NET implementation of MarvinSketch unless 32-bit Marvin Beans package is installed. In this case, it prefers the 32-bit Java implementation.
    • MS-Office 64-bit requires 64-bit JChem .NET API for Marvin embedding. The 64-bit .NET implentation of MarvinSketch is used in all cases.
  • See further notes in 32-bit Windows section: here.

3.2.2. MAC OS X

  1. Double-click marvinbeans-VERSION-macos.dmg to install.
  2. You can add the bin folder of the Marvin Beans folder to the PATH to be able to run Marvin applications from any directory in command line.
Notes:
  • Requires Mac OS X 10.0 or later
  • The compressed installer should be recognized by Stuffit Expander and should automatically be expanded after downloading. If it is not expanded, you can expand it manually using StuffIt Expander 6.0 or later.
  • If you have any problems launching the installer once it has been expanded, make sure that the compressed installer was expanded using Stuffit Expander. If you still have problems, please contact our technical support.
  • You can run the installer in silent/non-interactive mode, which means that in case Marvin is already installed, it will be overwritten with the update without the need of confirmation. To enable this mode, use the -q option.

3.2.3. Linux / Solaris

  1. Open a shell and cd to the directory where you downloaded the installer.
  2. Type the following to install: sh marvinbeans-VERSION-linux.sh (or sh marvinbeans-VERSION-linux_with_jre.sh depend on which package has been downloaded).
  3. You can add the bin subdirectory of the Marvin Beans directory to the PATH to be able to run Marvin applications from any directory.
Notes:
  • If the installer does not start, check whether JAVA_HOME/bin is in PATH (where JAVA_HOME is the directory of Java).
    To check it, type the "which java" command that shows the location of the Java launcher. You should get something like this:
    /usr/java/jdk1.5/bin/java
    If Java is missing from PATH, you will see something like that:
    /usr/bin/which: no java in (/usr/java/jdk1.5/bin:/opt/apache-ant-1.6.1/bin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/vertset/bin)
  • You can run the installer in silent/non-interactive mode, which means that in case Marvin is already installed, it will be overwritten with the update without the need of confirmation. To enable this mode, use the -q option. If you are in terminal mode (GUI is not accessible), we recommend to use this option.

3.2.4. Other Platforms

  1. Go to the directory where marvinbeans-VERSION.zip was downloaded then uncompress the zip file.
  2. You can start applications via scripts or batch files that you can find in the marvinbeans/bin directory.
Notes:
  • You need an expander which can handle zip extension.
  • Batch files (bin/*.bat) have to be initialized before the first use. Set the MARVINBEANSHOME variable in the files to the full path of the directory where Marvin Beans is located.

3.2.5. How to uninstall?

Use the uninstaller to remove Marvin Beans from your machine. If you give the -q command line parameter by running the uninstaller, it will run in silent mode (no GUI, non-interactive mode).
  • Windows: Double click on uninstall.exe in the Marvin Beans's home folder or select Marvin Beans from the Add / Remove programs list on Control Panel.
  • OS X: Double click on uninstall in the Marvin Beans' home directory.
  • Linux / Solaris: Launch the uninstall script in the Marvin Beans' home directory.

3.2.6. Additional package

Who needs this package?

Install marvinbeans-lib-VERSION-signed.zip only if you need the signed version of the Marvin Beans package.
If you would like to launch Marvin applications via Java Web Start from your server, you will need the signed version for security reasons.
Please note that this archive can only be used as an extension of the already installed Marvin Beans package.

Installation
  1. Check the product version of the Marvin Beans package you have already installed. You can find the product version of your installed disribution in the Help > About dialog or in the version.properties file located in the Marvin Beans installation directory.
  2. Download the additional package for exactly the same version: marvinbeans-lib-VERSION-signed.zip.
  3. Create a backup of the lib sub-directory of your Marvin Beans package.
  4. Extract the marvinbeans-lib-VERSION-signed.zip archive file into the Marvin Beans directory. Your extractor tool (e.g. unzip or WinZip) may ask confirmation to update all files by unwrapping. In this case let it overwrite all. This operation will update the jar files (overwrite them with the signed versions) in the lib sub-directory of the installed Marvin Beans package.

3.3. Marvin Beans for .NET

The Marvin Beans package for .NET platform can be downloaded from this link.

4. Version Number

From the Marvin version 5.7, in the file name of any downloadable artifacts, an identifier appears that indicates the internal build number of the file. This identifier begins with _b and continous with a number. It is automatically generated and help to identify the file in the build system of ChemAxon.

 

 

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