What is ProjectLibre?
ProjectLibre is project management software, the leading alternative to Microsoft Project. A compliment to LibreOffice. ProjectLibre is compatible with Microsoft Project 2003, 2007 and 2010 files.

Some features of ProjectLibre;
  • Microsoft Project replacement
  • Gantt Chart
  • New and updated version of OpenProj with hundreds of updates/bug fixes
  • Earned Value Costing
  • PERT Charts
  • Project Management software
  • RBS Chart

System requirements
  • Version 1.6.0ga5


ProjectLibre on an eComStation machine with Open JDK


Installing ProjectLibre
Download projectlibre-1.8.0.zip (17Mb). The easiest way; open the zip file and copy the directory/map "projectlibre-1.8.0" to the drive of your choice. After that rename the directory/map "projectlibre-1.8.0" to "projectlibre-180"or something you like. You can delete the files "projectlibre.bat" and "projectlibre.sh". That's about it!

The versions 1.9 and up don't work in full on our version of Java. At some point with saving or importing xml projectlibre will halt and stay there forever. If you shut down the program and if you had included a "2>projectlibre-bugs.txt" then you can read at the end of the file the line "java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/sun/xml/bind/v2/ContextFactory : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0" which is a mouthfull for Java 7. I have made a ticket for it on SourceForge: #160, but as far as I can see all tickets are still open, so I don't expect anything from it. That said, version 1.8 also has bugs, but its unknown if this is the Java program or if this is our version of Java.

Another matter is that you can't follow the contents from the files "projectlibre.bat" and "projectlibre.sh". As soon as you add "-Xms128m -Xmx768m" to the commandfile you will end up with "hs_err_pidxxx.log" files and a halt at startup. Seems our version of Java does have a bug of some sort.

The used cmd file
ProjectLibre version 1.8.0 works with Open JDK in OS/2-eCS. I have a projectlibre.cmd file with the following contents; 
@echo off
SET CLASSPATH=
SET SWING_HOME=
SET path=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
SET BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
[drive: projectlibre]
cd [drive: projectlibre]\projectlibre-180
java -Duser.home=[drive: projectlibre]\projectlibre-180 -jar projectlibre.jar 2>projectlibre-bugs.txt
I use 2 separate folders (directories), one for Java and one for ProjectLibre with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;

  • [drive: java] = drive with Java
  • [drive: projectlibre] = drive with ProjectLibre

should be replaced with real drive letters. Save the file and name it "projectlibre.cmd" or use the file from "projectlibre-ecs.zip", see below. This file is copied to the "projectlibre-180" directory/map. Furthermore, different paths?, adjust according to your needs.
Create a new program object. Specify the path and file name: "[drive: projectlibre]\projectlibre-180\projectlibre.cmd". In the tabpage Session check the boxes "OS/2 window", "Running as an icon" and "Close Window to end program". In the tabpage General you can enter the name "ProjectLibre". There is an OS/2 icon in the file "projectlibre-ecs.zip".

Parameters / options explained
  • The statement "-Duser.home=[drive: projectlibre]\projectlibre-180" will ensure that ProjectLibre will save all necessary files in own directory instead of saving them in the home directory.
  • The addition "2>projectlibre-bugs.txt" ensures that errors are saved in the file "projectlibre-bugs.txt". The 2 in "2>" is not a typo! The file stays not empty, the program dumps also a log into this file!

Download
In the file you can find above command file (all drive letters are on set to C:) and an OS/2 ProjectLibre icon: projectlibre-ecs.zip.

revision June 28, 2020