This is the readme file for the Shield Nickel Viewer. The Shield Nickel Viewer (SNV) provides high resolution photos and other assistance in attributing the many shield nickel varieties. Please review the online help after installation. SNV is a Java application. This means that you MUST have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your computer before this software will function. Because SNV is a Java application, it should work for you on any platform - Windows, Mac, Linux, or any other system for which a compatible JRE is available. For Windows and Linux, although there may be multiple JRE providers, I recommend the free JRE available from Sun at: http://www.java.com/ Please download and install version 1.7 or newer of the JRE. For Macintosh users, a JRE comes built-in to Mac OS X so Mac users should be in good shape. If your Sun JRE is installed correctly you should be able to issue the following command in a command window: java -version and get a response showing the version number of the installed JRE. (This may or may not work with the Mac JRE - somebody let me know, please.) --------------------- Windows Installation from the Web (Trial Package) Download and run ShieldNickelViewer.exe. You will have a choice of installation directory, and whether launch icons are installed on the desktop and in the Programs menu. The trial package has everything setup automatically, so there is no further configuration to perform. To uninstall, use the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs feature. --------------------- Windows Installation from DVD Put the SNV Program Disk in your DVD drive. The SNV installation program should start to run automatically. If for any reason the installation program does not run automatically, open the DVD drive and run the "Setup" program. During setup, you will have a choice of installation directory, and whether launch icons are installed on the desktop and in the Programs menu. Valid users of SNV will have been provided a license key by email. The first time you run SNV if the license key file is not found in the installation directory SNV will prompt you to enter the license key. It is recommended that you copy and paste the license key instead of trying to type it in. (Highlight the license key by sweeping over it with your mouse, hit Control-C or Edit/Copy, then click on the SNV dialog box for the license key and hit Control-V to paste the license in.) Launch SNV either by double-clicking the desktop icon or using the Start menu, depending on where you asked the installation program to place icons for you. If you receive a message that says "Java not found. See readme". Click 'Yes' for Java website, 'Cancel' to install from SNV Disk", it means that an appropriate Java Runtime was not found on your computer. Click "Cancel" to exit the warning message. Put the SNV Program disk back in your DVD drive if you removed it previously, navigate to the JRE subdirectory of the disk, and double- click the JRE installation program in that subdirectory. Alternatively, if you wish, click "Yes" to exit the warning message, and you will be taken to Sun's website to download Java. If you need a JRE that is not provided on the DVD, please download it from Sun's website. After SNV launches successfully, you will see a splash screen while the data files load, and then you will see the main SNV screen - a list of available varieties. If no data files load this probably means that setup misidentified your DVD drive. If it is necessary to change the Data Disk directory, choose File/Preferences. Locate the line that says "Browse: CD Directory" (near the bottom). By default, the data directory is set to "x:\snvdata", where "x" is the drive letter from which setup was run. Change the "x:" to the correct drive, or click on the "Browse: CD Directory" button to bring up a file browser from which you can choose the directory. Once you choose a new directory, SNV will prompt you to exit the program and restart. To uninstall, use the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs feature. --------------------- Mac Installation from the Web (Trial Package) Note: If you are a Mac user and wish to install the trial package, you must contact me first to make arrangements to do so. Follow the directions on the download web page to run the installer. The trial package has everything setup automatically, so there is no further configuration to perform. To uninstall, use the Uninstall program that gets installed in the installation folder. --------------------- Mac Installation from a CD This section to be written. --------------------- Manual Installation Note: If you wish to perform a manual installation, you must contact me first to obtain the files. If you are running on a system other than Windows or Mac (or if you choose to manually install SNV), the manual installation is very easy. There are no registry changes or other system tweaks that need to be made. These steps apply whether you have a trial version from the Web or a DVD version. 1. Create a directory on your hard disk where you wish to install the program. 2. Copy the contents of the "program" directory to the directory you created in step 1. Make sure you copy including subdirectories, so that the bin/doc directory is also copied. (Do not create a directory named "program" on the destination - just copy the files to the installation directory.) 3. Copy the license key file "install.key" to the directory you created in step 1, or be prepared to paste license key into the dialog box when SNV first runs.. 4. Using the snv.cmd file that you copied to the installation directory as a template, create a launch file for SNV. For example, under Linux, assuming you have installed the JRE to the default locations used by the JRE package, you probably want to do the following: a. Rename snv.cmd to snv b. Set snv executable (chmod +x snv) c. Add the path to the JRE to command line so it looks like this: /usr/java/j2re1.4.2_04/bin/java -jar ShieldNickelViewer.jar 4. Using a plaintext text editor (such as notepad under Windows or vi under Linux) edit the file ShieldNickelViewer.ini that you copied to the destination directory. Locate the line that says cdDataDirectory = d:\data Change the "d:\data" part to point to the data directory on your DVD drive. The ini file contains a lot of other self-documentation on the settable fields that you may wish to read. Do not use a formatting text editor such as Microsoft Word unless you are careful to save in plaintext format. If you prefer not to edit the INI file by hand, use the built-in preference editor. The first time you run SNV, choose File/Preferences, and the program will provide you with a dialog box for editing the INI file. Locate the box labelled "CD Directory" and change its value to the data directory on your CDRom drive. 5. To uninstall, simply delete the files you copied to your hard disk. --------------------- If someone would like to write installers for Macintosh or Linux systems and donate them to the cause, it would be greatly appreciated. :-) Howard Spindel updated 4/21/2012