Downloading and Installation

Registration, including name, email and institutional information is required to download HomER. This information is gathered for annual reporting reasons to the National Institutes of Health. This program was developed under NIH grants (R01-EB002482, P41-RR14075) and is distributed as a shared resource under that grant. Registration information IS NOT distributed for any private or commercial use. We appreciate that registrats be as accurate as possible in filling out this form, for these NIH reporting issues.

Homer-users list server:

Registratants are also automatically signed up to be on the homerusers@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu email server. This email list is used to communicate changes/fixes to the HomER program. Questions or comments can be sent between all registered users through to this email server. Information about how to be remove your email address from this list or change email settings can be found at http://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/homer-users Previous questions and answers are archived and can be viewed by registered users at http://mail.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/homer-users

1.1: Unpacking program:

After downloading the HomER setup file, windows should guide you through the installation process. A shortcut icon (of Homer Simpson) will be put on the computer desktop following installation. Following selecting the root directory, the HomER program will unpack into a number of directories including:

Documentation -- Contains the documentation support guides and setup information

 Sample Data ----- Contains a sample set of data as well as sample code to generate the *.nirs files which HomER accepts. See chapter 10 for a walk through using these sample files.

Open Source ---- Contains a limited number of the Matlab *.m scripts which are being run by HomER.

 HomER.exe --- The actual binary executable file  

HomER.ctf --- The configuration file required by the Matlab Runtime Component to execute HomER.  

MRCINSTALLER.exe --- This is the setup program for the Matlab Runtime Component.

1.2: MRC Installer:

HomER.exe requires the Matlab Runtime Component to execute. Information about the MRC deployment process can be found on the Matlab website ( www.mathworks.com ). Additional information installing the MRC can be found at: ( http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/compiler/deployment_process 6.html ). In most cases, no additional setup changes (other then those automatically installed by the HomER setup code) should be required. The MRC MUST be installed the first time HomER is setup. Subsequent installations, including future updates and new releases to the program do not require the MRC to be reinstalled.

1.3: Running HomER for the first time:

The first time HomER is run, the MRC must generate several files. These files are created into a folder entitled HomER_MCR. This folder contains the hundreds of binary codes that are part of the HomER program. The process of generating these files may take several minutes. This means that the FIRST time HomER is executed, the program may be unresponsive while these files get generated. Subsequent times HomER is run, the program should launch almost immediately.

1.4: Updating future releases:

Future releases of the HomER program will be available distributed containing only the HomER.exe and HomER.cfg files. These files will be signifigantly smaller in size, since they will not include the MCR installer. To update the HomER program, simply replace the original (older) copies of these two files. The HomER_MCR folder should also be erased. This folder will be recreated the first time the new release is run.