Instant JChem can now be installed in three different ways:
Download the Instant JChem installer to install a new version of Instant JChem. If you are using this approach then uninstall any previously installed versions first.
Note: Since IJC 2.4 administrator mode is needed to install IJC on Windows, so as to be able to register the OLE server and to avoid re-installation problems on Vista.
Once you have installed don't forget to load any updates that might be available (Tools -> Plugins).
Since version 2.2 Instant JChem can be launched using Java Web Start (JWS). This allows you to load it directly from a webpage rather than needing to install it first. The Java Web Start version should be fine for most users, but it is slightly less flexible, for instance should you wish to install your own or a third party's extension. For more information about the Java Web Start versions look here or you can launch it right now:
Alternatively, you can launch using Java Web Start including some demo data and see the IJC URL feature in action by using the:
Autoupdate allows you to pick up the latest updates for Instant JChem without needing to re-install. Autoupdate only applies to the installer based versions of IJC, not the Java Web Start versions which are updated automatically. You access it by using Tools -> Plugins. Documentation on using autoupdate can be found here.
Important note for Windows Vista users: You must use autoupdate when running as an administrator to avoid problems when installing later versions. See here for details.
Note: You cannot update to IJC 2.4 using autoupdate. You must uninstall any previous versions and re-install as described above.
Updating Instant JChem from version 2.2 onwards to the latest version can be done using the update center and should be straight forward.
In the 2.2.1 release the autoupdate mechanism was improved to allow better reporting of the IJC version (e.g. on startup). A consequence of this is that the update has to be performed in multiple steps. Please restart IJC and go to Tools->Plugins to look for the updates. Repeat this process until you see version 2.2.1 reported in the Welcome Screen. This will require multiple restarts.
If you already have Instant JChem 2.1 installed you should be able to update it to 2.2 using the update center. However this upgrade is quite complex as it involves updating the NetBeans platform (upon which Instant JChem is built) as well as major updates to Instant JChem itself. This involves multiple steps so you are recommended to uninstall and install 2.2 from fresh as this should be more straight forward. However if you want to use autoupdate then you can do this selecting Plugins from the Tools menu. This will initiate the update process:
When upgrading Instant JChem by any mechanism it is possible that significant changes to the JChem version and/or the organisation your project information will occur. We try to make sure that these upgrades work transparently and smoothly, but if any of your projects contain important information that cannot be easily regenerated we do recommend that you backup your data prior to updating. To do this do one (or all!) of the following:
The Windows and Linux installers since Instant JChem 2.1 now use Java 1.6 (this version of Java is not yet available on Mac OSX so Java 1.5 is still used). Java 1.6 provides some minor performance improvements, so you may wish to switch to this version of Java (however there is no functionality difference, so sticking with Java 1.5 is perfectly OK). If you update to Instant JChem 2.1 using the update center (Tools -> Plugins) you will not get the upgrade to Java 1.6. However if you install Java 1.6 on your computer you can switch to this. You can do this by:
If you are having problems installing or running IJC then these notes might help
IJC saves various settings and all updates it gets from the Update Center in
a "userdir" which is usually found in
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\.instantjchem\ijc_<version number>
(on Windows) or
$HOME/.instantjchem/ijc_<version number>
(on Linux) or
${HOME}/Library/Application Support/ijc_<version number>
(on Mac).
The exact location is described in the Help -> About Instant JChem box.
If you are having problems installing or running IJC then
try deleting this directory. You will loose your current settings and will
need to re-open your projects, but you will not loose any data.
One possible scenario that could need this action is if you have downloaded some updates from the Update Center, but that these updates have become corrupted for some unknown reason. In this case you must delete your userdir to clear out these files.
Windows Vista has peculiar security settings that are know to cause problems with many different softwares. The Windows IJC installer must be run with administrator settings to avoid these problems and to be able to register the OLE server. If you do not have administrator privileges then you will not be able to install. See here for more information about installation issues on Vista.