PEAR (Processing Engine ARchive) is a new standard for packaging UIMA compliant components. This standard defines several service elements that should be included in the archive package to enable automated installation of the encapsulated UIMA component. The major PEAR service element is an XML Installation Descriptor that specifies installation platform, component attributes, custom installation procedures and environment variables.
The installation of a UIMA compliant component includes 2 steps: (1) installation of the component code and resources in a local file system, and (2) verification of the serviceability of the installed component. Installation of the component code and resources involves extracting component files from the archive (PEAR) package in a designated directory and localizing file references in component descriptors and other configuration files. Verification of the component serviceability is accomplished with the help of standard UIMA mechanisms for instantiating analysis engines.
PEAR Installer is a simple GUI based Java application that helps installing UIMA compliant components (analysis engines) from PEAR packages in a local file system. To install a desired UIMA component the user needs to select the appropriate PEAR file in a local file system and specify the installation directory (optional). During the component installation the user can read messages printed by the installation program in the message area of the application window. If the installation fails, appropriate error message is printed to help identifying and fixing the problem.
After the desired UIMA component is successfully
installed, the PEAR Installer allows testing this component in the CAS Visual
Debugger (CVD) application, which is provided with the UIMA package. The CVD
application will load your UIMA component using its XML descriptor file. If the
component is loaded successfully, you'll be able to run it either with sample
documents provided in the <UIMA_HOME>/docs/examples/data
directory, or with any other sample documents. See CASVisualDebugger.pdf
in the docs
directory for more information about the
CVD application. Running your component in the CVD application helps to make
sure the component will run in other UIMA applications. If the CVD application
fails to load or run your component, or throws an exception, you can find more
information about the problem in the uima.log file in the current working
directory. The log file can be viewed
with the CVD.
PEAR Installer creates the setenv.txt
file in the <component_root>/metadata
directory. This file contains environment variables required to run your
component in any UIMA application. For instance, if you want to run your
component in the Collection Processing Engine Configurator GUI application, you
need to add the environment variables settings from the component's setenv.txt
file to the cpeGui.bat
(cpeGui.sh)
script file in the <UIMA_HOME>/bin
directory.