Windows Quick Start

1. Download COGS

COGS runs on the open source .NET Core platform. You will need to Download .NET Core 2.1 and install it

Next, install COGS as a dotnet tool on your system by downloading the latest stable version.

user$ dotnet tool install -g cogs

Note

Alternatively, you can install the latest development build using this command.

user$ dotnet tool install -g --add-source https://ci.appveyor.com/nuget/cogs/ cogs

After the tool is installed, you can now run cogs from your command prompt.

user$ cogs --help

2. Initialize a Model

Let’s initialize a sample model. On the command line, switch to a directory where you will create your model. Then, run the following.

c:\sandbox>  cogs cogs-new MyModel

Let’s see what’s in the directory that COGS created.

C:\sandbox>  dir MyModel

The output of the directory listing shows us what COGS created.

Directory of C:\sandbox\MyModel

08/09/2017  09:43 AM    <DIR>          .
08/09/2017  09:43 AM    <DIR>          ..
08/09/2017  09:43 AM    <DIR>          CompositeTypes
08/09/2017  09:43 AM    <DIR>          ItemTypes
08/09/2017  09:43 AM                17 readme.md
08/09/2017  10:18 AM    <DIR>          Settings
08/09/2017  09:55 AM    <DIR>          Topics

The folders and files listed above contain everything we need to specify our model.

3. Generate a Schema and Documentation

Now, let’s create an XML Schema to represent the skeleton model that COGS created for us.

C:\sandbox>  cogs publish-xsd MyModel output
C:\sandbox>  dir output

Here is the output of the directory listing.

Directory of C:\sandbox\output

08/09/2017  10:24 AM    <DIR>          .
08/09/2017  10:24 AM    <DIR>          ..
08/09/2017  10:24 AM             6,251 schema.xsd

The schema.xsd file contains our XML schema.

Note

You will need to install Python and Sphinx to generate documentation. For installation instructions see here.

Next, let’s generate some documentation using Sphinx.

C:\sandbox>  cogs publish-sphinx MyModel output/sphinx
C:\sandbox>  cd output/sphinx
C:\sandbox>  make html
C:\sandbox>  dir build/html

Here is the output of the directory listing.

Volume in drive C is Disk
Directory of C:\sandbox\output\sphinx

08/09/2017  10:19 AM               234 .buildinfo
08/09/2017  10:19 AM    <DIR>          composite-types
08/09/2017  10:19 AM             5,401 genindex.html
08/09/2017  10:19 AM             6,667 index.html
08/09/2017  10:19 AM    <DIR>          item-types
08/09/2017  10:19 AM               277 objects.inv
08/09/2017  10:19 AM             5,795 search.html
08/09/2017  10:19 AM               768 searchindex.js
08/09/2017  10:19 AM    <DIR>          topics
08/09/2017  10:19 AM    <DIR>          _sources
08/09/2017  10:19 AM    <DIR>          _static

If we open up the index.html file, we’ll see the HTML documentation that COGS and Sphinx generated.

4. Make the Model Yours

You are now up and running with COGS. Make the model your own by following the Modeler’s Guide. Learn about publishing to other formats in the Technical Guide.