Repast Simphony (almost) without Eclipse

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

This project uses the Repast Simphony JZombies Model, taken from the Repast Java Tutorials and shows how to use Repast Simphony (almost) without Eclipse. This is especially useful, when the model is built in a ci pipeline or one wants to use another IDE, like Intellij IDEA.

The approach is developed and widely used by the team of the topic field Cognitive Social Simulation of the Research Department Smart Data & Knowledge Services at DFKI.

Check out the Code

Requirements

git clone https://github.com/DFKI/Repast-Simphony-Ant.git

Install adoptopenjdk11

To run and build the model, Repast Simphony Runtime Libraries are needed. It is sufficient to just download (and unzip) the plugins folder. Alternatively you can use your local installation of Repast Simphony 2.9 .

• Note the path to the plugins folder. For Eclipse under macOS the path can look like
  /Applications/Repast Simphony 2.9.0/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/
• The path has to be build with forward-slashes (/), on Windows too

Run from Command Line

• Install ant
• Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to your adoptopenjdk11 installation

• Clone the Repository

• In the project root run:

  ant build "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  ant run-model "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  

• Example:

  ant run-model "-Dplugins_loc=/Applications/Repast Simphony 2.9.0/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/" "-Dmodel_loc=./JZombies_Demo.rs"
  

Available Targets

• Headless Batch Run as described in https://repast.github.io/docs/RepastBatchRunsGettingStarted.pdf

  ant run-batch "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]" "-Dargs=-hl -r -model_dir [/absolute/path/to/project/root] -b batch/batch_params.xml -o output -c batch_config.properties"
  

• Build the Model

  ant build "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  

• Debug Model, opening Port 5005 for a Remote JVM Debugging Session

  ant debug-model "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  

• Run the Batch-Runner GUI

  ant run-batch "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  

• Run the Model GUI

  ant run-model "-Dplugins_loc=[/absolute/path/to/plugins]"  "-Dmodel_loc=[relative/path/to/model.rs]"
  

Run the Repast Server as Docker Container

Reference to Repast Server: https://repast.github.io/docs/RepastNG/browser.html

docker-compose up -d --build

Go to http://localhost:5000

• To run a different Ant Target, like a headless batch run, change the executed CMD in the docker-compose.yml

Build and Run in Intellij IDEA

• Clone the Repository
• Create new project from existing sources and choose import project from external model

• Select the build.xml file in the project root and set it as Ant Build File from the context menu
• Open the Ant View and edit the properties of the build Ant Target
• Add the plugins_loc property with the path to the plugins folder as value
• Add the model_loc property with the value ./JZombies_Demo.rs

• 🔨 Build the Model by executing the build Ant Target
• 🚀 Run the Model by executing one of the run-* Ant Targets

Create a Run Config (recommended)

Example for run-model:

• In the Context Menu of Ant Target select Create Run Configuration
• In the pop-up at Before Launch remove the default Build process and dd the build Ant Target

Syntax Highlighting in Intellij

Under File > Project Structure > Project Settings > Modules > JZombies_Demo > Dependencies

• Add the lib folder in the project root
• Add the repast.simphony.bin_and_src.jar from the plugins folder: [path_to_plugins]/plugins/repast.simphony.bin_and_src_2.9.0/repast.simphony.bin_and_src.jar

Add a Debugger 🐞

• Create a Remote JVM Debug run configuration (the default settings should be correct)
• Run the debug-model Ant Target
• Start the Debugger