enviMass

enviMass is freely available for all contributors, and as part of the enviMass Software- & Support-Package otherwise. This Software- & Support-Package includes download access, provides in-depth user support, a possibility for customized software adaptions and applies to any commercial usage of the software. Special package conditions apply to educational workflow usage at universities. You need to have your institution and an email address → registered for downloading enviMass, which is done as part of the mentioned Software- & Support-Package.

enviMass is a software package to be run locally from the R statistical environment, including a browser-based interface to facilitate its usage.

enviMass is tested and distributed for usage with 64bit Windows 7 or later, and requires installed R version 4.1.2 and the latest version of a web-browser (preferably Firefox), both freely available. A memory minimum of 16GB RAM is highly recommended; the more and the larger files analyzed, the more RAM will be required though. You must be online for installation and when accessing certain help pages and internal data sets thereafter. Ensure you have administrator rights on your computer and write/read access to all concerned folders, both during installation and also when running calculations.

enviMass and all its R dependency packages can be downloaded as described in the below installation section. Please read the installation instructions carefully and adhere to them.

After installation: get an → introduction to the enviMass workflow structure and UI.

1. Have the the latest version of, e.g., Firefox or Google Chrome installed on you computer and set as default browser.

2. Open the → enviCloud file exchange, using your download Institute credentials as password. From there, download the files R-4.1.2-win.exe (86MB, R statistical environment version 4.1.2) and enviMass_packages.zip (189MB, enviMass and dependency R packages for 64bit Windows).

3. Install R-4.1.2-win.exe on your computer, and allow for the creation of a desktop icon in the installation menu.
   

4. Unzip/extract enviMass_packages.zip (but not the library folders contained therein); you may need to install a zip-program first (e.g., →7zip).

5. Open R as administrator by, e.g., RIGHT-clicking on its x64 desktop icon (select 'Run as administrator') - the R console pops up. In the console, navigate to Packages and then Install package(s) from local files to get to a Select files menu. With this menu, navigate to the unzipped packages and select all packages in that folder to be opened, i.e., installed (you can use the shift key to select all these zip-files at once). (If a message with '...install into your personal library instead' appears, you are not running R as adiministrator; abort)

6. enviMass and all its dependency packages should now have been locally installed into the R library folder and the enviMass user interface (UI) available. Simply, in the R console type&enter:

   library(enviMass);
webMass(); # Press Enter

   The enviMass library should thereby be loaded into R and its user interface should appear in your web-browser. Once you start calculations in parallel mode, your OS may ask whether to block R (e.g., via the Windows Defender Firewall) - allow access.

Updating

From time to time, enviMass or the packages it depends on may change as software gets updated or debugged. To update enviMass and its dependencies for 64bit Windows 7 or later, simply repeat steps (3) to (6) of the above installation option 1. Please also ensure to have the appropriate R and latest browser versions installed; repeat all the steps of the above installation option 1 to be in line with that as well.

Developer/Demo version 4.x

Use the below password-protected download button to install either the latest development or the latest demonstration version of enviMass. This replaces above step 3; proceed for installation or updating as described above for all other steps otherwise. The password for the developer version is distributed as part of the → enviMass Software- & Support-Package only. The demo password is distributed upon request.

Your password:

1. You have no administrator rights. Even if, you are not running R as administrator (try right-mouse click on R icon -> Run as administrator).

2. You have opened several R sessions in parallel. Close all, use only one while installing / updating.

3. You are confusing the specific updates for the different installation options.

4. You get an error message on package dependency conflicts or missing packages, e.g., associated with installing a new enviMass update? Close R, reopen it as administrator and repeat the installation. If that does not help, follow below point 10. If this should not help either, best run a clean installation via below point 11 (beware that non-enviMass packages will/must be lost in this process).

5. You have other versions of R than 4.1.2 and/or Rtools and/or out-dated browsers (pre-)installed on your computer. Please update by repeating the above steps (1) to (3).

6. Sometimes, R packages are installed into personal libraries instead of the R library folder if you have no write access to the latter. This may not always result in problems. Nonetheless, avoid doing so. Instead, ensure you can write to the R library folder having appropriate administrator rights: under Windows, navigate to the R library folder (mostly C:/Program Files/R/R-X.X.X/library), right-mouse-click on the folder, select properties and adapt the settings in the security tab accordingly.

7. You keep on trying to install from within RStudio.

8. You cannot properly access the internet (or partly from within R during above steps 4, 5 or 7 of Installation options 2 or 3); consult your network administrator, check your firewall settings.

9. You have used backslash instead of forward slash in R path specifications. You have made typos in R.

10. On installation option 1 - check if any problems arise while the individual packages in the R console get installed - are any error messages reported, even just sporadically? If yes, unzip the packages and brutely copy/paste these to the R library folder directly (mostly to be found under C:/Program Files/R/R-X.X.X/library in Windows).

11. Still no clean installation achieved? Uninstall R (and Rtools if involved), delete the remaining R folders manually (mostly to be found under C:/Program Files/R/... in Windows - unfortunately often not removed automatically while uninstalling R) as well as any 'personal' Windows user R libraries (mostly to be found under sth like XY:\Users\User_XY\Documents\R\win-library). Please repeat the installation (inclusive of renewed downloads) and make sure you adhere to all instructions (administrator rights, no RStudio, 64bit vs. 32bit, no shifting between installation options or unrelated updates, ...).

12. You could install enviMass, but upon starting the interface via webMass() a time-out error message appears before the enviMass interface has been loaded in your browser? This may have different reasons. First, check the timeout-configurations both in your browser and also in R itself (command getOption("timeout")) - the enviMass interface requires more than just a few seconds to build up. Second, check if the proxy settings of your browser interfere with adressing the R localhost server: is a proxy-auto-configuration file adressed? Check if enabling the automatic detection of proxy settings in your browser can solve the problem (at your own risk). Any other security settings which may interfere with adressing the localhost (IP-adress 127.0.0.1)? Talk to your network administrator.

13. If indeed none of all that helps, you may contact us. Please report your problem in a comprehensible way.