This document is a set of release notes for the first beta (test) version of CATS, leading to version 3. It contains discriptions of
Please read these notes before downloading and installing this CATS beta release.
This is a test release (beta) of CATS leading to version 3. Version 3 is a major rewrite of version 2 (the previous version) of CATS. It contains a lot of new and modified code; thus, is not as robust or error-free as version 2. This is being released as a test version so that it can be exercised and the bugs discovered and corrected. If your interest is in solid, well known behavior, then download and install CATS release package 2046. However, if you are willing to tolerate problems in an effort to uncover the causes and try the new features, then download and install the beta version.
In general, the beta version of CATS can use older XML files; however, some things (particularly signal aspects protecting end of track) will look different. Version 2 of CATS protected end of track (no next signal) with an Approach (typically yellow aspect) indication. The beta version protects end of track with a Restricting (typically flashing red or lunar) indication. Furthermore, the indications on the signals in approach change from Clear, Advance Approach, and Stop to Clear, Advance Approach, Approach, and Stop. Signal templates are likely the area most affected by upgrading from version 2 to the beta, closely followed by adding restricting colors to Signal Head definitions.
Layout files created or modified by this version of designer are not backwards compatible. They cannot be used with version 2 of designer or CATS.
designer needs only Java 8, a jdom2 jar file, and a log4j2 jar file. It will run with Java 11.
The beta CATS will run with any of the following configurations:
Begin by downloading the beta.zip file. The exact keystrokes for donig this depend on your browser. Very important - remember where it was downloaded.
Looking ahead a little, the designer application can run anywhere that your operating system allows programs to run. The CATS applicaton needs several files to be placed with the JMRI application. Often it is easiest to create the folder for all but the CATS application before extracting the beta.zip file. This is the time to decide where the beta files will live and move the beta.zip file there.
The .zip format is a well known and popular scheme for combining multipls files into one and compressing the results. There are many program that understand how to extract the contents of a .zip file. Most operating systems provide at least one with the standard installation. So, barring using a specialty extractor (e.g. 7zip, Winzip, etc.), navaigate to the location of beta.zip, right click on the file, and a menu should pop up, with an entry for "extract" or extract all". Select that entry. There could be more pop up as to where to extract all. People typically select "here", where beta.zip resides.
After the extraction process completes, there should be two new folders (named lib and Operations) and 19 other files. The user documents contain information on installing the applications, as well.
The designer application can run from almost anywhere, as long as its two required libraries reside in a folder named lib, in the same folder as the designer launcher (designer.bat or designer.csh) and designer.jar.
Depending upon the operating system, it may be necessary to make the launcher executable before it will run. It should also be possible to create a desk top shortcut to the launcher at this time. If given the option, tell the shortcut to "start" here, the folder containing the launcher.
If you are upgrading, only the designer.jar file needs to be replaced in your old installation.
Three files must be copied from the extraction folder to the JMRI program folder. Typically the JMRI program folder resides in
The three files to copy from the extraction folder to the JMRI program folder are:
As with designer, it may be necessary to make the launcher executable. It is a also possible to create a desktop shortcut to the launcher; however, the shortcut should "start" in the JMRI folder.
If performing an upgrade, then only the cats.jar file need be replaced. One word of warning is in order. The CATS launcher under Windows collects all the library (.jar) files before telling Java to run. Renaming the old cats.jar may not be good enough to install the new one. The best procedure is to move the existing cats.jar out of the JMRI folder before putting the new one in.