Linux Quick Start

1. Download COGS

COGS runs on the open source .NET Core platform. You will need to Download .NET Core 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.

user$ cogs cogs-new MyModel

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

user$ cd MyModel

The output directory listing show us what COGS created

MyModel user$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 4 user staff 136 Aug 9 15:34 CompositeTypes
drwxr-xr-x 4 user staff 136 Aug 9 15:34 ItemTypes
drwxr-xr-x 4 user staff 136 Aug 9 15:34 Settings
drwxr-xr-x 4 user staff 136 Aug 9 15:34 Topics
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff  17 Aug 9 15:34 readme.md

The folder 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

user$ cogs publish-sphinx MyModel output/sphinx
user$ cd output/sphinx
user$ make html
user$ cd build/html

Note

If you get error no module name sphinx, you probbably need to install sphinx to your python using the command python3 -m pip install sphinx, provided you are using python3

Here is the output of the directory listing

MyModel/build/html user$ ls -l
total 64
drwxr-xr-x@  6 user staff  204 Aug 9 2017 _sources
drwxr-xr-x@ 25 user staff  850 Aug 9 2017 _static
drwxr-xr-x@  5 user staff  170 Aug 9 2017 composite-types
-rw-r--r--@  1 user staff 4447 Aug 9 2017 genindex.html
-rw-r--r--@  1 user staff 5407 Aug 9 2017 index.html
drwxr-xr-x@  5 user staff  170 Aug 9 2017 item-types
-rw-r--r--@  1 user staff  323 Aug 9 2017 objects.inv
-rw-r--r--@  1 user staff 4842 Aug 9 2017 search.html
-rw-r--r--@  1 user staff  992 Aug 9 2017 searchindex.js
drwxr-xr-x@  3 user staff  102 Aug 9 2017 topics

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 the publishing to other formats in the Technical Guide.