These are instructions for installation of cTAKES for developers. With these instructions you can set up your development environment with cTAKES code, compile the code, change or extend the code, and deploy. If you simply want to be a user of the software, refer to the cTAKES 3.2 User Install Guide.
These install instructions do not supply knowledge of what the cTAKES components do. This is found in the cTAKES 3.2 Component Use Guide.
Once you have compiled the code you can process documents with the cTAKES components. The documents upon which you can run cTAKES will take many forms. An example of doing this is covered in the Processing Documents section.
The minimal install instructions below are short but require a lot of prerequisite setup on your own. If you need more help then follow the step by step instructions. The step by step instructions for Eclipse assume a Windows or Ubuntu Linux install environment. You will need to extrapolate for any other environments.
Eclipse minimal install instructions
Prerequisites: Java JDK 1.7+, Eclipse IDE 4.2+, subversive plugin (or svn equivalent with appropriate SVN team provider connectors), m2e plugin (or mvn equivalent)
The following location is the main trunk of cTAKES. See how cTAKES treats the trunk, branches, and tags in the developer FAQs. |
- Import Project > Maven > Checkout Maven Project from SCM and use: svn and https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ctakes/trunk
- Select all projects.
- Wait until Eclipse downloads and builds all of your projects (it may take up to 30 minutes depending on the machine).
- The various build helpers should run jcasgen and build the projects for you. There should not be any reason to run mvn install, etc.
- Merge the version-matching resources ZIP file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ctakesresources/files/ into your ctakes-dictionary-lookup-res project.
- (Optional) If you would like to launch the UIMA CVD or CPE GUI, run ctakes-clinical-pipeline/resources/launch/UIMA_<CVD | CPE>GUI--clinical_documents pipeline.launch
- (Optional) UIMA plug-ins called "UIMA Eclipse tooling and runtime support" can be installed from update site: http://www.apache.org/dist/uima/eclipse-update-site
Eclipse step by step install instructions
The eclipse install for cTAKES 3.2 is similar to the install for cTAKES 3.0, except for the following:
- Recommend choosing "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" package when downloading Eclipse
- The subversive maven m2e plugin recommended in the 3.0 install guide is no longer maintained and difficult to obtain. Subclipse can be used in its place. Instead of steps 2, 3 and 5 under "Preparing Eclipse", install subclipse and the subclipse m2e plugin. To do this, go to Help -> Install New Software... then click the Add... button to add a new repository. Set name to Subclipse and location to http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.12.x Click OK, then check the box next to Subclipse to select subclipse and all of its components, click Next and click through the license agreements until Subclipse installs. Click Yes to restart Eclipse when the install completes. Next, repeat the preceding process, except when you add the repository set name to Subclipse - m2e plugin and location to http://subclipse.tigris.org/m2eclipse/latest/ and check the box next to Maven Integration for Subclipse
- If you chose the "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" package when downloading Eclipse, then m2e is already installed and you can skip step 4 under "Preparing Eclipse"
- Maven now automatically downloads the necessary dictionary and model resources and includes them on the classpath, so you can skip steps 3-6 of "Compile a release in Eclipse"
While noting the things above, see the cTAKES 3.0 Developer Install Guide for the step-by-step instructions.