TopBraid EDG Studio

TopBraid EDG Studio is a development tool for EDG users. EDG Studio replaces TopBraid Composer as an IDE for developers and power users of EDG. Learn more about EDG Studio in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ2WWEqiwP8)

EDG Studio is available from the TopBraid EDG download page. Please extract the zip file to your local machine. EDG Studio will run on Mac, Windows and Linux. Windows users should download and unzip Studio outside of the Program Files directory as it may be protected and prevent EDG Studio from launching.

If you are an EDG user, have a license for TBC-ME and would like an EDG Studio license, please contact TopQuadrant support.

Installation

Prerequisites

EDG Studio requires Java 11.

Running this version of EDG Studio on Java versions newer than 11 may or may not work, and is not recommended.

Checking the installed Java version Open Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (macOS/Linux) Type java -version and hit Enter The output should look similar to this:

openjdk version “11.0.11” 2021-04-20 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.11+9-Ubuntu-0ubuntu2.20.04, mixed mode) If the command fails to return something similar, or shows you have an version of Java older than 11.0.0 installed, follow the steps below to install Java 11.

Downloading and installing Java

The recommended Java distribution for EDG Studio is OpenJDK from Adoptium. Installers for Windows and macOS, and archives for Linux, are available.

https://adoptium.net/?variant=openjdk11&jvmVariant=hotspot

Ensuring the PATH variable is set

For EDG Studio to work correctly, the PATH environment variable must be configured to include the directory where the java executable is located.

The Java installers from adoptium.org do this automatically. If Java is installed from another source, this may need to be done manually. Consult your operating system’s documentation.

Launching EDG Studio

Windows

  1. Simple option: Double-click the edg Windows Batch File in the EDG Studio folder. If presented with a popup from Windows or Mac regarding unidentified application, run anyway.

  2. Advanced option: * Open the Command Prompt app (or PowerShell) * Navigate to the EDG Studio folder using the cd command * Type edg (or .edg in PowerShell) and hit Enter * SmartScreen Defender warning: A warning about running an unrecognized app can be safely ignored.

macOS

  1. Open the Terminal app and navigate to the EDG Studio folder (e.g., right-click the edg folder and select Services > New Terminal at Folder)

  2. Type ./edg and hit Enter

Linux

  1. Open a Terminal window and navigate to the EDG Studio folder

  2. Ensure that the edg file has execute permissions (e.g., chmod u+x edg)

  3. Type ./edg and hit Enter

Example:

  • cd edg

  • chmod u+x edg

  • ./edg

Launching with advanced options

Various configuration options can be provided as command-line arguments to the edg command. For a list of available options, run (on Windows):

edg –help

or (on macOS and Linux):

./edg –help

Shutting down EDG Studio

With the Terminal window or Command Prompt in focus, press CTRL+c. On Windows: If prompted to “Terminate batch job (Y/N)?”, hit y and press Enter. Close the Terminal window or Command Prompt.

Increasing memory settings

By default, EDG Studio may use up to 25% of the available system memory. If the application becomes sluggish after importing large amounts of data, or OutOfMemoryError is reported in the terminal, then the memory available to the application may have to be increased.

On Windows, edit edg.bat and insert the following line as the script’s second line (changing 8G to the desired amount of memory, in Gigabytes):

set JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx8G On macOS or Linux, edit edg and insert the following line as the script’s second line (changing 8G to the desired amount of memory, in Gigabytes):

JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx8G

Note: Updated instructions can be found in the readme of EDG Studio download.

Upgrading EDG Studio

After downloading and unzipping the new version of EDG Studio, move the previous workspace folder to the current edg folder. Have your license file available, you will need to register it again after the application starts.

Working with Git in EDG Studio

Teams of developers often use Git-based versioning systems such as GitHub to maintain and coordinate their work. TopBraid’s Sorted Turtle notation is well-suited for versioning systems due its predictable output.

While TopBraid EDG also comes with its own Git integration, we currently recommend using a third-party git client for Studio users. Many users find products such as VS Code or Tortoise Git useful for their typical git operations, and there is little point for TopBraid to compete with these custom-tailored tools for tasks such as conflict resolution.

Here is a typical suggested workflow if you want to use TopBraid EDG Studio to edit Turtle files stored under git control:

  • On the Files tab of Studio, add a symbolic link to a suitable root directory of your local git repository

  • Use EDG Studio to edit those files with the usual graphical user interface of EDG

  • Make sure you have saved your changes back to the files

  • Use a 3rd party git client to commit and push your local changes

Tip

Before committing your changes to git, right-click on the Workspace (root) of the Files tree in Studio and select Save all Files… - if that item doesn’t appear then you don’t have any unsaved changes.

  • After you have pulled from git, make sure that your local editable copies are all up to date

Tip

To refresh all currently edited files after a git pull, press Refresh Workspace and then right-click on the Workspace (root) of the files tree, and select Refresh all editable copies from their files.

Keep in mind that the editor may not be fully aware of changes done outside of TopBraid. So after you have pulled from git and reloaded the editable copies in Studio, make sure to refresh any open browser tabs to bring them up to date.