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Tips for Running RSIG2D

There are two ways to run the Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG): either inside your Web browser or as a standalone application.


Running RSIG2D inside your Web browser

The Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG) applet requires the following:

  • Internet Explorer 7 (or later), Firefox 3 (or later, for Windows, Mac, and Linux). Note: Running RSIG on Safari 6 under OSX 10.8 is problematic.
  • Java runtime environment (JRE) 1.5 or greater. The JRE should be configured to use the following memory settings: -Xms64m -Xmx256m (see instructions below on configuring the JRE).

To prepare your Web browser to run RSIG, follow this procedure to set the Java applet memory requirements. These directions should work on Mac OS X and Windows systems. This is a one-time-only operation. Specific differences between operating systems are noted. If you experience any problems, please contact RSIG Technical Support.

  1. Most computers already have the JRE installed. It is recommended that you uninstall older JREs from your computer before installing a newer version.If your computer does not have the latest JRE, you can get it from the Java download site. Exit Follow the instructions on that page to install the JRE.

  2. Configure the JRE Memory settings.

    • OS X
      1. Go to Applications > Utilities and open Java Preferences.
      2. On the General tab, select the 32-bit Java SE item and click the Options... button.
      3. In the Apple Runtime Parameters window, enter the following (without quote marks): "-Xms64m -Xmx256m". These entries set minimum and maximum memory limits for the Java applet. There should be a space between the two entries.
      4. Click OK and close the Java Preferences window.
    • Windows
      1. Open the Java control panel.
      2. Click the Java tab and then click the View button. The Java Runtime Environment Settings window opens.
      3. On the User tab, click in the Runtime Parameters box and enter the following (without quote marks): "-Xms64m -Xmx256m". These entries set minimum and maximum memory limits for the Java applet. There should be a space between the two entries.
      4. Click OK twice to save the settings and exit the Java Control Panel.
  3. Shut down and restart your browser. Return to this page to run the RSIG applet.

  4. Click this link to run the RSIG applet.

After RSIG is running in your browser, bookmark the RSIG applet.

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Running RSIG2D as a Standalone Java Application

  1. Right-click over rsig2d.zip, and then select "Save target as..." OR "Save as..." to begin the download; when saving, the file name should be "RSIG2D.zip". Save the RSIG2D.zip file to your computer's Home directory. On Windows 7, for example, this would be C:\Users\userid; on Mac OSX, it would be /Users/userid; on Linux, it would be /home/userid.

  2. Double-click the RSIG2D.zip file to extract its contents to your home directory.

  3. For Windows users, run the rsig2d.bat file; for Mac and Linux users, run the rsig2d script file. These files start the rsig.jar file with the appropriate Java memory parameters.

If RSIG does not start: You will need to ensure the directory containing java.exe is in your system's path. The PATH is the system variable that your operating system uses to locate needed executables; in this case, rsig.jar requires java.exe to be in the path in order to run. On Mac and Linux systems, the Java path is /usr/bin/java. The following instructions will help Windows users locate and add the Java directory path to their system.

Windows users: Adding the Java directory path to the system path

Step 1: Locate and copy the Java directory path

  1. Open the Java control panel.

  2. Click the Java tab and then click the View button. The Java Runtime Environment Settings window opens.

  3. On the User tab, double-click in the Path box. The Path will look something like this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe. The bin directory also holds the java.exe file.

  4. Select the entire directory path EXCEPT for the javaw.exe. You want to select ONLY the directories up to the executable name.

  5. Press Control + C to copy the selected directory path to the Clipboard.

  6. Click Cancel twice to exit the Java Control Panel.

Step 2: Add the Java directory path to the Windows system path

If you have write access to your system's path, follow these instructions Exit for editing the Path on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. If you do not have access privileges to do this, you can instead add the path to your User Account. The following steps describe how to do this in Windows 7.

  1. Open the User Accounts control panel.

  2. Click the link for "Change my environment variables." The Environment Variables dialog box displays.

  3. In the box labeled "User variables for userid", select the Path entry and click Edit. The Edit User Variable dialog box displays.

  4. Click in the Variable value box and move the insertion point to the very end of the path.

  5. Enter a semi-colon (;).

  6. Paste the Java directory path after the semi-colon; there should not be any spaces between the semi-colon and the path name.

  7. Click OK twice to save the information.

The Path should be immediately updated and you should be able to run the rsig.bat file. If the file does not start RSIG, then restart the computer and try running rsig.bat again.

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Technical Support

If you have any questions or difficulties running RSIG, please send an email to RSIG Technical Support describing the issue. Please include your operating system information: type, version number, service pack, etc.

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