The RSNA MIRC Source Code

This article is intended for software developers who wish either to participate in the development project or simply to adapt the software for a special purpose.

1 Obtaining the RSNA MIRC Source Code

The software for the RSNA MIRC implementation is open source. It is maintained on a CVS server at RSNA headquarters. To obtain the source code, configure a CVS client as follows:

Protocol:           Password server (:pserver)
Server:             mirc.rsna.org
Port:               2401
Repository folder:  /RSNA
User name:          cvs-reader
Password:           cvs-reader
Module:             MIRC-Development

Together, this results in the following CVSROOT (which is constructed automatically if you use something like Tortoise-CVS on a Windows system):

:pserver:cvs-reader@mirc.rsna.org:2401/RSNA

This account has read privileges, but it cannot write into the repository, so it can check out but not commit. If you wish to be able to commit software to the CVS library, contact the MIRC project manager.

2 Building the Software

When you check out the MIRC-Development module from CVS, you obtain a directory tree full of the sources and libraries for building all the components of MIRC, including the MIRC site software and all the related applications and tools (FieldCenter, FileSender, DicomEditor, etc.). The top of the directory tree is MIRC-Development. It contains several subdirectories. The source code is in the source directory, which has three child directories, one each for the Java sources, any files required by the applications, and the web.xml files required by the MIRC site webapps.

The RSNA MIRC implementation requires Java 1.5 JDK and the JAI ImageIO Tools.

The Ant build file for all the MIRC software is in the MIRC-Development directory and is called build.xml. To build the software on a Windows system, launch a command window, navigate to the MIRC-Development directory, and enter “ant all”. On a reasonably fast computer, a complete build takes about one minute, about half of which is consumed by the Javadocs.

The build file contains many targets, allowing you to build individual components. The all target does a clean build of everything, including the Javadocs, which are put into the documentation directory and can be accessed with a browser by opening the file:

MIRC-Development/documentation/index.html

To save a little time, the quick target can be used to do a clean build of everything except the Javadocs.

The default target, mircsite just builds the MIRC site software.

3 Getting Help

If you have questions about something, probably others will as well. Please go to the RSNA Forum site, navigate to the MIRC Developers’ Corner forum and post a message there.