Getting started
There are two ways to get BlockchainBench, and which one you want depends on whether you intend to use the tool or work on it.
For users
Standalone build
A packaged desktop application bundling the JavaFX front end with the core engine, the shared models and their dependencies. Download it, start it, run simulations — no Eclipse, no update sites, no build path.
For developers
Build from source
Import the projects into Eclipse and activate the target platform, which pulls Palladio, 3SIM and JavaFX for you. This is the route if you want to extend the tool, change the simulator bridge, or work on the models.
Download
Section titled “Download”Builds are produced automatically from every merge to main, so these links always serve the newest version.
Every download needs Java 21 or newer and always serves the latest main build. SeeGetting started for the first launch on your platform. Eclipse users can instead install the features viaHelp > Install New Software… from the update sitejar:https://gitlab.uni-ulm.de/sp_qdse/blockchainbench/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/blockchainbench-updatesite.zip!/(requires Palladio and 3SIM in the target Eclipse).
The application needs Java 21 or newer on the machine — it is not bundled. If none is installed, get it from adoptium.net.
First start
Section titled “First start”Extract the archive first, and keep the folder intact: the launcher looks for its plugins/, configuration/ and data/ folders next to itself. Moving the executable somewhere else breaks it.
Run BlockchainBench.exe from the extracted folder.
If you extracted with the Windows Explorer, right-click the ZIP first, choose Properties and tick Unblock — otherwise Windows may keep parts of the archive blocked.
BlockchainBenchc.exe is the console variant; it exists for log output and is not the normal entry point.
Run ./start-blockchainbench.sh from the extracted folder. It switches into the installation directory (so data/ is found) and starts the native launcher.
The very first start has to go through a terminal:
bash Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/start-blockchainbench.commandConvenient way to type it: enter bash , drag the .command file from Finder into the terminal window, press Enter. Afterwards a double-click on the script works normally.
This detour is necessary because the application is not notarized by Apple. macOS quarantines downloaded files, and current versions kill a quarantined unsigned script when it is executed directly — neither a double-click nor the Open Anyway approval in System Settings gets around that, only starting it through an interpreter. The script strips the quarantine flag on its first run, which is what makes every later start work.
Do not double-click Eclipse.app itself: on macOS the native Eclipse launcher cannot host a JavaFX application (its main-thread event loop conflicts with AppKit), which is exactly what the script works around.
Your first simulation
Section titled “Your first simulation”The download ships with example data, so you can start right away.
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In the configuration view, load the base configuration
data/configuration.jsonand the simulation configurations fromdata/optimized_deterministic_lhs_configurations.csv. -
Start the simulation. Each row of the CSV becomes one run; the models come from
data/testmodels/threesim-<config_id>/. -
When all runs are finished, the results view opens: metrics per run, the comparison across the group, and the Pareto analysis.
See Build and run for the configuration formats and the shape of the result documents, and how the Pareto calculation works for what happens to the numbers afterwards.
Installing into an existing Eclipse
Section titled “Installing into an existing Eclipse”If you already run Eclipse with Palladio and the 3SIM features, you can install the BlockchainBench features instead of using the standalone build. In Help → Install New Software… → Add…, use this location:
jar:https://gitlab.uni-ulm.de/sp_qdse/blockchainbench/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/blockchainbench-updatesite.zip!/The permalink always resolves to the newest main build, so the same location also serves updates.
After the setup
Section titled “After the setup”- Build and run — the
data/layout, the configuration file formats, and what the result documents contain. - Architecture — how the four bundles fit together, if you intend to change something.