Download and Installation

TopBraid Composer is implemented as an Eclipse plug-in. Eclipse is a powerful open-source platform for all kinds of modeling and programming languages. The integration of Composer into this platform means that you can exploit the benefits of an integrated development environment. Eclipse also provides an update mechanism that allows users to conveniently update plug-ins such as TopBraid Composer when a new version becomes available.

Note that you can download the software free of charge but you will need to purchase a license key to use it after a 30 day evaluation period. Also note that you need to have a recent Java Virtual Machine (recommended is Java 1.5).

System requirements are the same as for the Eclipse 3.x platform. Note that some MacIntosh configurations may require Eclipse 3.2, and we generally recommend using Eclipse 3.2. However, version 3.1 will work as well.

Quick Installation (for Windows only)

You can get a preconfigured Eclipse 3.2 installation from the following zip file:

Download TopBraidComposer.zip

Unzip the file, for example to c:\TopBraidComposer and execute eclipse.exe.

When prompted for a workspace root, you may specify the example workspace in your installation folder, for example c:\TopBraidComposer\workspace.

General Installation Instructions (Note: Updated for Eclipse 3.2)

If you want to install TopBraid Composer on any non-Windows platform, or you want to add the Composer plugin to an existing Eclipse installation, please follow the steps below.

1. Download and Install Eclipse

Point your browser to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads and get the corresponding version for your operation system. Note that TopBraid Composer has been tested for Eclipse 3.1 and 3.2, but not for earlier Eclipse versions. Also note, if you have an existing installation of Eclipse together with other plugins, you may want to create a fresh Eclipse installation for testing Composer. It is OK to have multiple installations of the Eclipse platform on your computer.
We recommend downloading Eclipse SDK 3.2 as shown below. Optionally you can also get an enriched version of Eclipse 3.2 such as the Eclipse Web Tools Platform which already contains plugins required by TopBraid Composer, such as GEF and EMF.

2. Launch Eclipse and Specify a Workspace Root

When you start Eclipse for the first time, a dialog will ask you to specify a folder for your project files. This will be the physical location of your OWL and RDFS files later. You can specify an existing folder if you wish, but you could also create a subfolder of your eclipse home directory.

3. Verify required Plugins in your Eclipse Platform

Depending on your existing Eclipse installation, you may need to add some basic plugins (GEF, EMF and UML2). These plugins are required by TopBraid Composer, but also from other components of your installation. Therefore, please verify which plugins have been installed using Help / Software Updates > Manage Configuration... In the wizard you should see if GEF, EMF and UML have been installed. If not, please follow the steps below. If all these libraries are already installed, please proceed with step 4.

a) Installing GEF and EMF

If GEF or EMF are not available, please use the Eclipse Update Manager to get them. Since Eclipse 3.2, this has been simplified because GEF and EMF are hosted on the so-called Callisto Discovery Site. Go to Help > Software Updates > Find and Install... > Search for new features and activate the Callisto Discovery Site. Select the following two items and complete the process from there.

b) Installing UML2

If your Eclipse installation does not have UML2 configured yet, then you need to get the UML2 plugin from its dedicated update site. The procedure for this requires you to add http://download.eclipse.org/tools/uml2/updates/site.xml to your update manager. The steps required for this are essentially described below (just replace the corresponding URL).

4. Download TopBraid Composer from its Update Site

After Eclipse has launched you will see a welcome screen. You can close the welcome page if you want, and then proceed to Help / Software Updates > Find and Install...

A wizard will appear. Select Search for new features to install, and press Next.

On the next screen, click New Remote Site:

And enter the information about the TopBraid Composer Update Site as follows:
   Name: TopBraid Composer
   URL: http://www.topbraidcomposer.org/update

Finish the update wizard and walk through the remaining simple steps.

Note: If for some reason the Eclipse update manager fails, in particular inside company firewalls, you may need to change the proxy settings. To enable an HTTP proxy connection, select Window > Preferences from the Eclipse menu bar, and then select Install/Update. In the Proxy settings group, check Enable HTTP proxy connection and fill in your HTTP proxy host address and port.

Finally, restart Eclipse to activate the new plug-in.

5. Create a Project and Download Example Ontologies

Now that Eclipse and TopBraid Composer are set up, you just need to create an empty project to hold your files. Assuming you have closed the Welcome screen, right-click on the Package Explorer (or go to the File menu), and select New > Project...

On the following screen select General / Project (or Simple / Project in Eclipse 3.1) and enter a suitable name:

You can now either copy your existing files into this project, or download example ontologies from the web. To do this, right-click on the project and select Import...

Select RDF/OWL library from the Web:

Finish the dialog to let TopBraid Composer download some RDF and OWL files:

After the files have been downloaded, open the Examples folder in your project and double-click on any example to open it. Welcome to TopBraid Composer!

Further instructions on how to work with files can be found in the documentation.

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