You should have at least 15MB of free disk space available for installing the ACE Scoring software. The tool installation requires approximately 8MB of disk space, with additional disk space required depending the amount of race result and scoring data you work with.
The ACE Scoring software is based on the Java® software technology and can be installed and run on any system for which the Java runtime environment (JRE) is available. Standard implementations of the JRE for Windows, Mac, and certain Unix platforms can be freely downloaded from Oracle's web site, as described below.
Version 1.8 or Java 11 of the Java® 2 Runtime Environment (Standard Edition) is required for the ACE Scoring tools. (Java 11 recommended unless you need to continue using an older Java 8 installation) The J2RE 1.8 installation documentation recommends that you have 130MB of free disk space available.
Note: due to changes in the Java license terms from Oracle, it is strongly recommended that new Java installations to support ACES should use a Java JRE from OpenJDK. ACES 8.6 is supported on both Mac and Windows using the Java 11 LTS release (although some rendering problems have been observed in window sizing and layout on Windows 10 systems with higher resolution screen displays). It is anticipated that the ACES release for the 2022-2023 season will be based on Java 17.
You can download and install Java 8 or Java 11 for either Mac or Windows from AdaptOpenJDK:
Select "OpenJDK 8 (LTS)" or "OpenJDK 11 (LTS)" and follow the installation instructions provided by AdaptOpenJDK. (** Java 11 is recommended **)
You can download and install the latest version of the Java® SE 1.8 Runtime runtime environment (JRE 1.8) from Oracle's Java SE Downloads page:
Locate the Java SE 8 section on the Downloads page, where there are links to the Installation Instructions and Release Notes for the current Java SE 8 release. Click on the JRE Downloads button to download the Java installer.
Note: ACES requires J2SE 1.8. It has not yet been tested on Java 1.9. Developers may wish to install a JDK rather than the JRE - if you know what that means you know enough to decide which version to install for your purposes.
Choose the Java SE Runtime Environment for your system and click on the download link to download the appropriate Java installer.
Run the downloaded installer and follow the instructions. You will need to have administrative permissions for your system in order to install Java.
TIP: it is strongly recommended for security reasons that Java be disabled in your Web browser. This is now the default installation option on most platforms but it is good practice to confirm if you are not sure.
You can check whether you already have Java installed and what version you are running.
Windows
You can determine whether Java is installed by looking for the Java section in your Windows Start menu
or using the Add/Remove Programs tool from the Control Panel.
Mac
You can determine whether Java is installed by typing which java in a Terminal window.
If you have java installed, the path to the executable java program will be reported.
You can determine which version of Java is installed by typing java -version in a Terminal window.
You can also open the Java Control Panel from your Mac System Preferences to check the version
and installation options. The installed version information is available from the General tab.
Click the Security tab to verify that Java is disabled in your web browser.
### TO DO: add instructions on how and why to set JAVA_HOME (Windows launcher) ###
The ACE Scoring software is delivered in a compressed file containing the software,
along with supporting files for the current season. You can place the
ACEScoring installation directory anywhere on your hard drive.
For Mac installation, download the aces.tgz installation tarball,
open a Terminal window in your downloads directory, and unpack the tarball
into the ACEScoring installation directory. Move the ACEScoring directory
to the final installation location where you want to run ACES and manage
your scoring data. Optionally remove the tarball when installation completed.
cd ~/Downloads
tar -xvf aces.tgz
mv ACEScoring /path/to/your/installdir
# OPTIONAL: delete the tarball after installation completed
rm aces.tgz
Tip: consider installing ACES in your user home directory Applications folder.
If you follow this convention, the ACE Scoring installation directory
will be ~/Applications/ACEScoring. You will need to launch ACES
from a terminal session by running ~/Applications/ACEScoring/ACEScoring.sh.
Contact Deb to tips on how to create a mac application which runs the launch script
so you can run the app in the usual way on Mac.
For Windows installation, download the aces.zip installation file.
Right-click on the file and select Extract All... to unpack the ACES release.
After unpacking, move the ACEScoring directory to the final installation location
where you want to run ACES and manage your scoring data. Optionally remove the installation zip file
when installation completed.
Tip: consider installing ACES on your root C: hard drive.
If you follow this standard convention, the ACE Scoring installation directory
will be c:\ACEScoring. You can then add shortcuts on your desktop
to open the ACESData scoring data directory and to launch ACES.
ACEScoring Installation DirectoryAfter unpacking the ACES installation file, the ACEScoring installation directory on your hard drive will contain two subdirectories (folders) and several command files for launch ACES, as follows:
The data files that you work with in the ACE Scoring software
are stored in the ACESData folder under the top-level ACEScoring installation directory.
Initially, the ACESData directory contains only a short ReadMe text file describing the purpose of the directory.
The files for each race series that you create will be stored in a separate folder in the ACESData directory.
The ProgramFiles folder in the top-level ACEScoring installation directory
contains this Installation documentation and a DocIndex documentation file with links
to the User's Guide and other documentation on operating the ACES software.
The doc, lib, and Tools subdirectories contain system files for the program;
you should not make changes to the contents of these program file subdirectories.
The top-level ACEScoring installation directory also contains helper command scripts
ACEScoring.bat and ACEScoring.sh which
launch the ACE Scoring software
on Windows or Mac respectively.
NOTE: The ACEScoring installation directory also contains a Windows script
named CreateACESShortcut which
creates an icon on your desktop to launch the ACE Scoring tools,
which is the simpler and recommended technique for launching ACES - simply double-click on the CreateACESShortcut
script to run it. This script is requires that ACES be installed in the standard location c:\ACEScoring
and that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set. See additional information below.
When you run ACE Scoring for the first time, a default race series is automatically created for you
and stored in the Default directory under the ACESData data directory.
You can use the Default race series for experimenting, but generally you will want to
create a new race series for the data you intend to work with. The ACE Scoring User's Guide
is available from the Help menu of all ACES tools and includes a description of how to
create a new race series.
After running ACE Scoring for the first time, a directory named ConfigurationSettings
will also be created under the main ACEScoring installation directory.
This directory contains files used by the ACES tools that you can modify or extend
as you work with ACES to customize your configuration.
To launch ACES Scoring on a Windows system, simply double-click on the ACEScoring.bat command file
in the installation directory (e.g., c:\ACEScoring\ACEScoring.bat) to run ACES.
On a Mac, run the ACEScoring.sh shell script.
Launching the ACE Scoring tools using the helper command file causes a Windows command
line window or Mac Terminal command line shell to be opened, within which the command to actually run ACES is executed.
The command line window on Windows is classically a small black window with white letters
(although it may have a different appearance on newer Windows systems).
Once ACE Scoring is running, you can close the command window at any time - simply click
the standard window close X box at the top right of the command window on Windows or the red dot at
the upper left of the Mac terminal window to close it.
You can also shortcut icon on your desktop to launch ACE Scoring.
This is simpler than using the ACEScoring.bat batch file
and is the recommended approach for running ACES. However, this technique may require an additional
step on Windows to set a system environment variable named JAVA_HOME which
contains the location of your Java installation.
A Windows script named CreateACESShortcut is provided in the ACEScoring
installation directory which you can run to create a shortcut icon on your desktop
to launch ACE Scoring. Navigate to your ACESScoring installation directory
with a file browser (e.g., the Windows explorer or through the hard disk icon in My Computer)
and double-click on the CreateACESShortcut script to run it.
This will create an icon on your desktop named ACE Scoring to launch the ACE Scoring tools.
NOTE: The CreateACESShortcut script requires that the JAVA_HOME
environment variable is set and that you have installed ACES in the standard location c:\ACEScoring.
You can also create a shortcut to launch ACE Scoring manually.
IMPORTANT: In order to create an ACES launcher shortcut, you will need to either know the path
to the Java runtime installation directory on your hard drive or create the Windows JAVA_HOME
environment variable with the path to the java installation.
The standard Java runtime installation directory can be found in the C:\Program Files\Java directory,
with the exact directory name determined by the JRE version you have installed.
To create a Windows shortcut to launch ACE Scoring:
JAVA_HOME enviroment variable set, enter:
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\javaw.exe -jar lib\aces.jar
-jar lib\aces.jar parameter:
"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.X_YYY\bin\javaw.exe" -jar lib\aces.jar
ACE Scoring as the name of the shortcut.Target field will contain the command that you entered in the first step to launch ACESStart in: property, enter the pathname of the ProgramFiles directory
in your ACEScoring installation directory (e.g., c:\ACEScoring\ProgramFiles).ACEScoring.ico file in the ACEScoring installation directory (C:\ACEScoring\ProgramFiles\ACEScoring.ico)You should now be able to launch the ACE Scoring software by simply double-clicking on your ACE Scoring shortcut.
TIP: you can also add this shortcut to your Windows Start menu or pin it to your system taskbar to reduce desktop clutter.
***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
[... explain symptoms of PATH problems manifested by not being able to find the javaw.exe program...]
IMPORTANT: The following step will delete your data files as well as the ACE Scoring software. If you want to remove the program while keeping your scoring data files and reports, be sure to make a copy of the ACESData directory before following the instructions in this section.
To remove the scoring software, simply delete the root ACEScoring installation directory on your hard drive.
If you have created any shortcuts, such as a program shortcut to launch the scoring software
or a file system reference shortcut to the ACESData directory containing your race data and report files,
delete them as well. (It's not harmful to have leftover shortcuts - they simply won't work anymore - but it's much neater
to clean them up if no longer needed!)
If you installed the Java® SE Runtime Environment in order to use the ACE Scoring tools and no longer need the Java technology installed on your system, you can remove it as well after you have finished deleting the ACEScoring files. To remove the JRE components, open the Windows Control Panel and select the Add/Remove Programs tool. In the list of currently installed programs, locate and remove Java.
Last update: 13-Dec-2023