javasci - Step by step

How to write an application based on javasci v2

Step 1 - The code itself

Javasci v2 allows the call of Scilab engine from a Java API.

Some objects and methods are provided to perform such tasks. The main class being Scilab. This object allows sending / receiving data from the Scilab engine, error management or execution of Scilab script/code.

Classes are split in two packages:

org.scilab.modules.javasci.*; // Contains the main Scilab class
org.scilab.modules.types.*; // Contains Scilab <=> Java mappings

Here is an example of a classical use-case:

/*
 * Copyright (C) 2010 - DIGITEO - Sylvestre Ledru
 *
 * This file is released under the 3-clause BSD license. See COPYING-BSD.
 *
 */

import org.scilab.modules.javasci.Scilab;
import org.scilab.modules.types.ScilabType;
import org.scilab.modules.types.ScilabDouble;

class Example1 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            Scilab sci = new Scilab();
            if (sci.open()) {
                /* Send a Scilab instruction */
                sci.exec("foo = [ 2, 4, 6; 4, 0, 10; 6, 10, 12 ];");

                /* Retrieve the variable foo */
                ScilabType foo = sci.get("foo");

                /* Display the variable */
                System.out.println("Representation of  : "+foo);

                /* Get the data and retrieve the 2,2 value */
                double[][] aReal = ((ScilabDouble)foo).getRealPart();
                System.out.println("foo[1,1] = " + aReal[1][1]);

                /* Change the value of 2,2 */
                aReal[1][1] = Math.PI;

                /* Create a new variable */
                ScilabDouble bar = new ScilabDouble(aReal);

                /* Send it to Scilab */
                sci.put("bar",bar);

                /* Display it through Scilab */
                sci.exec("disp(bar)");

                sci.close();
            } else {
                System.out.println("Could not start Scilab ");
            }

            /* Can be improved by other exceptions: AlreadyRunningException,
             * InitializationException, UndefinedVariableException,
             * UnknownTypeException, etc
             */
        } catch (org.scilab.modules.javasci.JavasciException e) {
            System.err.println("An exception occured: " + e.getLocalizedMessage());
        }
    }
}

Note that the source are available in SCI/modules/javasci/examples/v2/

The output of the program will be:

Representation of  : [2.0, 4.0, 6.0 ; 4.0, 0.0, 10.0 ; 6.0, 10.0, 12.0]
foo[1,1] = 0.0

    2.    4.           6.
    4.    3.1415927    10.
    6.    10.          12.

For more information about the objects and methods, browse the documentation of Javasci v2. (this will open the web browser).

Step 2 - Build

Path to Scilab data is also expected under GNU/Linux and Mac OS X (under Microsoft Windows, it is automatically detected).

# Variable SCI
# Under GNU/Linux with the Scilab binary, the path is:
/path/to/scilab-xxx/share/scilab/
# Under GNU/Linux and Mac OS X with the source tree, the path is the base of the source tree
/path/to/scilab/sources/
# Under Mac OS X, the path is:
/Applications/scilab-xxx/Contents/MacOS/share/scilab/
# On Windows, the path is:
C:\Program Files\Scilab-5.3.0\

To build a code using Javasci v2, two jars files are necessary in the CLASSPATH.

# For example, create a variable CLASSPATH
$(SCI)/modules/javasci/jar/org.scilab.modules.javasci.jar
$(SCI)/modules/types/jar/org.scilab.modules.types.jar

Step 3 - Execution

Like in the building step, both jars are expected.

Path(s) to native libraries have to be set in order for Java to communicate with Scilab.

Two libraries are needed by Javasci v2 on load libjavasci2.{so,dylib,dll} and libscilab.{so,dylib,dll}. Other Scilab libraries will be loaded transparently.

# For example, create a variable LIBPATH
# Under GNU/Linux with the Scilab binary, the path is:
/path/to/scilab-xxx/lib/scilab/
# Under GNU/Linux and Mac OS X with the source tree, the path is:
$(SCI)/modules/javasci/.libs/:$(SCI)/modules/.libs/
# Under Mac OS X, the path is:
/Applications/scilab-xxx/Contents/MacOS/lib/scilab/
# Under Windows, the path is:
set LIBPATH="C:\Program Files\Scilab-5.3.0\bin"

The command to launch the program is the following:

java -cp $CLASSPATH:. -DSCI=$SCI -Djava.library.path=$LIBPATH Example1

A sample Makefile

A simple Makefile would be:

SCI = /path/to/scilab/share/scilab/
CLASSPATH = $(SCI)/modules/javasci/jar/org.scilab.modules.javasci.jar:$(SCI)/modules/types/jar/org.scilab.modules.types.jar
LIB_PATH = /path/to/scilab/lib/scilab
all:
    javac -cp $(CLASSPATH) Example1.java
    java -cp $(CLASSPATH):. -DSCI=$(SCI) -Djava.library.path=$(LIB_PATH) Example1

See build.bat for Windows in SCI/modules/javasci/examples/v2 directory.

Authors

Sylvestre Ledru

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Last updated:
Wed Jan 26 16:25:15 CET 2011