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Getting started

There are several ways to get up and running with binjr:

Download an application bundle

The simplest way to start using binjr is to download an application bundle from the download page.

These bundles contain all the dependencies required to run the app, including a copy of the Java runtime specially crafted to only include the required components and save disk space. They are less than 60 MB in size and there is one for each of the supported platform.

Build from source

You can also build or run the application from the source code.

Prerequisites:

Optional

If you want to build native installer packages, you’ll also need the following platform specific prerequisites:

  • Debian package archive manipulation tool (dpkg-deb)
  • RPM Package Manager
  • Xcode command line tools.

Build

  1. Clone the repo from Github: 

    git clone https://github.com/binjr/binjr/

  2. Use the included gradle wrapper to:

    • Build all the modules

      sh gradlew build

      gradlew.bat build

    • Build and start the application 

      sh gradlew run

      gradlew.bat run

    • Build all application bundles for the platform on which you run the build 

      sh gradlew clean packageDistribution  

      gradlew.bat clean packageDistribution

      Warning

      Make sure you run the clean task in between two executions of a package<...> task in the same environment.

    • Build a specific application bundle for the platform on which you run the build

      sh gradlew clean packageAsTar  

      sh gradlew clean packageAsDeb  

      sh gradlew clean packageAsRpm  

      sh gradlew clean packageAsTar  

      sh gradlew clean packageAsDmg  

      gradlew.bat clean packageAsZip  

      gradlew.bat clean packageAsMsi

      Warning

      Please note that it is generally not possible to cross-build application bundles (e.g. build a bundle for macOS while running under Windows)

From the command line

You can also start binjr simply by running a single command line. Running binjr that way means that you don’t need to worry about keeping your copy up to date: it will always start the latest version that was published over on Maven Central.

Note

In order to run binjr that way, you need to have Apache Maven installed on your machine and your JAVA_HOME environment variable must point at a copy of a Java runtime version 21 or later.

mvn exec:java@java -f <(curl https://binjr.eu/run-binjr.pom)

curl https://binjr.eu/run-binjr.pom > %temp%\run-binjr.pom & mvn exec:java@java -f %temp%\run-binjr.pom

You can also use the binjr.versionproperty to start a specific version of binr:

mvn exec:java@java -f <(curl https://binjr.eu/run-binjr.pom) -Dbinjr.version=2.17.1

curl https://binjr.eu/run-binjr.pom > %temp%\run-binjr.pom & mvn exec:java@java -f %temp%\run-binjr.pom  -Dbinjr.version=2.17.1

Tip

Downloaded components are cached locally by Maven, so it doesn’t need to download them again every time you run the application.

Trying it out

If you’d like to experience binjr’s visualization capabilities but do not have a compatible data source handy, you can use the demonstration data adapter.

It is a plugin which embeds a small, stand-alone data source that you can readily browse using binjr.

  1. Make sure binjr is installed on your system and make a note of the folder it is installed in.
  2. Download the binjr-adapter-demo-3.x.x.zip archive from https://github.com/binjr/binjr-adapter-demo/releases/latest
  3. Copy the binjr-adapter-demo-3.x.x.jar file contained in the zip file into the plugins folder of your binjr installation.
  4. Start binjr (or restart it if it was runnning when you copied the plugin) and open the demo.bjr workspace contained in the zip (from the command menu, select Workspaces > Open..., or press Ctrl+O)