Getting Started

This page provides a quick example to get started assuming you've followed the steps on the Environment Setup page.

Building and running Cineast

There are two ways to run Cineast: using a jar built with Gradle or starting it directly from within an IDE.

Additionally, Cineast has two entry points (jars): API and Standalone. The Standalone entry point is used to run individual commands and automatically exits once the specified command has been completed (but does not start API endpoints), while the API entry point does not accept commands at startup, but offers a CLI with the same functionality as the Standalone entry point and responds to Websocket / REST queries.

If you plan on using Cineast with vitrivr-ng, use the API entry point.

Building with Gradle

Generate the API jar with gradlew cineast-api:shadowJar or the Standalone jar with gradlew cineast-runtime:shadowJar. You can then start Cineast using a config file with java -jar cineast-api/build/libs/cineast-api-x.x-all.jar cineast.json or run a command using the standalone version with java -jar cineast-runtime/build/libs/cineast-runtime-x.x-all.jar cineast.json <command>. Remember that the standalone version does not offer API endpoints for vitrivr-ng or other frontends.

Building with an IDE

Starting the API is done via the org.vitrivr.cineast.api.Main class, which takes one argument: the config file (e.g. cineast.json). Depending on the configuration, this launches the WS / Rest / Proto Endpoints.

To run a command directly with the Standalone entry point, use the org.vitrivr.cineast.standalone.Main class.

Make sure that the retriever modules are consistent with those that you have used or plan to use during extraction or import into cottontail.

CLI / Util Commands

The Cineast CLI provides a bunch of utilities for developing. Please check out org.vitrivr.cineast.standalone.cli.CineastCli for a complete overview. We just provide an example here.

Run with the arguments cineast.json help or use the command help from the CLI to see a complete list.

You're reading to either start extracting features or, if you are working on a research project work with existing data