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original version by: Nikos Drakos, CBLU, University of Leeds
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* revised and updated by: Marcus Hennecke, Ross Moore, Herb Swan
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Jens Lippmann, Marek Rouchal, Martin Wilck and others -->
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Desktop Shortcuts</TITLE> |
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<!--Table of Child-Links-->
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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></A> |
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<UL CLASS="ChildLinks"> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html433" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00610000000000000000">Defining Shortcuts</A> |
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<UL>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html434" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00611000000000000000">Introduction</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html435" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00612000000000000000">What to Add to the Installer</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html436" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00613000000000000000">Why Native Code to do the Job on Windows?</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html437" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00614000000000000000">The Shortcut Specification</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html438" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00615000000000000000">Shortcut Attributes</A> |
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<UL>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html439" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00615100000000000000">Unix specific shortcut attributes </A> |
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</UL>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html440" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00616000000000000000">Selective Creation of Shortcuts</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html441" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00617000000000000000">Summary</A> |
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</UL>
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<BR>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html442" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00620000000000000000">Shortcut Tips</A> |
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<UL>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html443" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00621000000000000000">The Desktop</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html444" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00622000000000000000">Icons</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html445" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00623000000000000000">Targets</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html446" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00624000000000000000">Command Line</A> |
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</UL>
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<BR>
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html447" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00630000000000000000">Trouble Shooting</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html448" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00631000000000000000">Problems You Can Solve</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html449" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00632000000000000000">Problems That Have No Solution (yet)</A> |
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<LI><A NAME="tex2html450" |
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HREF="node6.html#SECTION00633000000000000000">A sample shortcut specification file for Unix</A> |
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</UL></UL> |
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<!--End of Table of Child-Links-->
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<HR>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00600000000000000000"> |
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Desktop Shortcuts</A>
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</H1> (by Elmar G<SMALL>ROM</SMALL> and Marc E<SMALL>PPELMANN</SMALL>) |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00610000000000000000"> |
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Defining Shortcuts</A>
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</H1>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="SECTION00611000000000000000"> |
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Introduction</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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On todays GUI oriented operating systems, users are used to launching |
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applications, view web sites, look at documentation and perform a |
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variety of other tasks, by simply clicking on an icon on the desktop or |
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in a menu system located on the desktop. Depending on the operating |
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system these icons have different names. In this context we will refer to |
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them collectively as shortcuts. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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Apart from actually placing an application on the target system, users |
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routinely expect an installer to create the necessary shortcuts for the |
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application as well. For you as application developer, this means that |
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for a professional appearance of your product you should also |
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consider creating shortcuts. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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In contrast to the general specification of an IzPack installer, the |
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specification of shortcuts in IzPack requires a little more effort. In |
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addition, some of the concepts are a bit more complex and there are some |
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operating system specific issues to observe. Fortunately, you only need |
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to worry about operating system specifics if you want to deploy your |
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application to multiple different operating systems. In any case, it |
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will pay off to spend some time to study this documentation and the |
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example spec files before you start to implement your own shortcuts. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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At the time of writing this Chapter the current IzPack Version 3.7.0-M3 is only |
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capable to creating shortcuts on |
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<OL>
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<LI>Microsoft Windows
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<BR>
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and |
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</LI>
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<LI>Unix and Unix-based operating systems (like Linux), which use the <A NAME="tex2html21" |
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HREF="http://www.x11.org/">X11</A> |
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GUI-System and <A NAME="tex2html22" |
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HREF="http://www.freedesktop.org/">FreeDesktop.org</A> |
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based shortcut handling (such as <A NAME="tex2html23" |
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HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A> |
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and <A NAME="tex2html24" |
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HREF="http://www.gnome.org/">Gnome</A>). |
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<P>
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</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>
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Other operating or GUI systems, such as MacOS <TT><</TT> MacOS-X are |
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not supported. However, there is a special UI-variant that automatically pops up |
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on unsupported systems. It informs the user about the intended targets of your shortcuts and allows |
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the user to save this information to a text file. While this is not an |
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elegant solution, at least it aids the user in the manual creation of |
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the shortcuts. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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If you would like to review what an end user would see if the target |
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operating system is not supported, you can do the following. Simply |
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place the tag <TT><notSupported/></TT> in the spec file. This tag requires no |
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attributes or other data. It must be placed under <TT><shortcuts></TT>, just like |
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the individual shortcut specifications. Be sure to remove this tag |
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before getting your application ready for shipment. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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We expect other operating systems to be supported in the near future and |
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as always, contributions are very welcome. At present someone is |
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actively working on Mac support. |
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="SECTION00612000000000000000"> |
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What to Add to the Installer</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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There are some things that you have to add to your installer to enable |
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shortcut creation. Obviously you need to add the panel |
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responsible for creating shortcuts. This panel is aptly enough called |
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ShortcutPanel. However, in order for the ShortcutPanel to work |
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properly a number of additional items are required. These must be added |
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manually to the installer, as all other resourcs, since the front-end will be rewritten. |
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In this chapter we will explain which of these items are |
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required and for what reason. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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First, we would like to discuss items that are supplied with IzPack and |
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only need to be added to the installer. After that, we move on to the |
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things you have to prepare yourself before you can add them. The way in |
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which shortcuts are created varies widely among operating systems. In |
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some cases it is possible to do this with pure Java code, while |
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other systems -such as MS-Windows- require native code to accomplish |
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this task. On the other side, the current implementation, which creates shortcuts on |
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Unix based systems needs no native library at all, since it works with 'these' pure Java code. |
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The native library required for the Windows operating |
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systems are supplied with IzPack is called <TT>ShellLink.dll</TT>. |
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Note: They will not be automatically added to your installer file. |
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You need to list them yourself in the XML file for |
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the installer. A describtion how to do this follows in the next section. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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Native libraries can be added to the installer by using the |
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<TT><native></TT> tag. To add the <TT>ShellLink.dll</TT>, you just |
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have to add the following line to the installer XML file: |
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<BR><TT><native type="izpack" name="ShellLink.dll"/></TT> |
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<BR>
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For more details about the use of the <TT><native></TT> tag see the |
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chapter about the format of the XML file. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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You have also to add an extra specification file for each platform family to enable shortcut creation on these platforms. |
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At least one (the default file) is required by the shortcut panel. The format of all spec files is XML and they must be |
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added to the installer as a resource. The source name of this |
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specification does not matter, however its resource name (also called id or alias) when added to the |
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installer must be <TT>(prefix)+shortcutSpec.xml</TT>. |
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<BR>
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At this release, there are only two prefixes supported: "Win_" for the Windows family and "Unix_" for all Unixes. |
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If the prefix is ommited the shortcut panel searches for a named resource: <TT>shortcutSpec.xml</TT>. This is the default resource name. |
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As the default resource name will be used on Windows platforms, the <TT>"Win_shortcutSpec.xml"</TT> can be ommited. |
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<BR>
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Hint: If the shortcut panel does not find one of these named resources, it will never appears. |
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So, do not use different resource names and do not add a path to these. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Example</SPAN> |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<PRE>
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<res src="C:\MyDocuments\Installer\default_shortcut_specification.xml"
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id="shortcutSpec.xml"/>
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<res src="C:\MyDocuments\Installer\unix_shortcut_specification.xml"
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id="Unix_shortcutSpec.xml"/>
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</PRE>
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<P>
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Why use different shortcut spec files? |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>The Target filenames are most different.(batch files on Windows vs. shell scripts on Unix.)
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</LI>
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<LI>The Icon file formats are different. ICOs on Windows-, PNGs on Unix-platforms.
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</LI>
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<LI>The Target locations can be different.
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</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>
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This is the simple reason. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="SECTION00613000000000000000"> |
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Why Native Code to do the Job on Windows?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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by Elmar |
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<BR>
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<P>
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This little chapter is not strictly part of the documentation but I have |
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been asked this question sufficiently often that I think it's worth |
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explaining right here. It is certainly a natural question to ask. After |
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all IzPack is an application completely written in Java and primarily |
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targeted for the installation of Java based programs. So why wouldn't we |
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try to keep everything pure Java and avoid the use of native code |
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altogether? There must be some personal preference of the developer |
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hidden behind this approach you might think. Well, not really, but I |
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admit at first it seems quite feasible to write it all in Java. On |
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virtually any operating system or GUI surface around, Shortcuts are |
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simply files on the local file system. Files can be created and accessed |
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directly from within Java, so why should there be a need for using |
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native code? |
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<BR>
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<P>
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Well, it turns out that just creating a file is not good enough, it also |
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needs to have the right content. Shell Links as they are called in |
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Windows land are binary files. I actually managed to find documentation |
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on the format. Naturally this was hacker data, you won't get this sort |
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of thing from Microsoft (by the way: thanks a lot to Jesse Hager for a |
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smash job!). Armed with this information I tried to create these files |
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myself in Java. The problem was that the documentation was not entirely |
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accurate and had some gaps as well. I tried for over a month to get this |
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to work but finally I had to give up. Even if I would have succeeded, it |
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would have been a hack, since a shell link requires some information that |
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is impossible to obtain from within Java. Usually you can successfully |
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create a shell link by only filling in the bare minimum information and |
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then ask Windows to resolve the link. Windows then repairs the shell |
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link. Unfortunately this was only the beginning, soon I encountered a |
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host of other problems. For one thing, the installer needs to know the |
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correct directories for placing the links and it turns out they are |
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named differently in different countries. In addition, there are ways of |
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manually modifying them, which some people might actually have done. The |
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only way to place the shortcut files reliably is through accessing the |
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Windows Registry. Naturally, this operation also required native code. |
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Same thing with asking Windows to resolve the link... On the bottom |
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line, at every step and turn you run into an issue where you just need |
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to use native code to do the trick. So I decided that I would do it the |
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proper way all the way through. That is in a nutshell the reason why I |
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used native code to create shortcuts on MS-Windows. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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As I am writing this I am at work with a friend to replicate this work |
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for the Mac and it looks very much like we need to take the same |
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approach there as well. On the various Unix GUIs on the other hand, we are lucky that we |
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can do the job without native libraries. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="SECTION00614000000000000000"> |
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The Shortcut Specification</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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As we say above, the specification for shortcuts is provided to the ShortcutPanel in the |
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XML fileformat. At the time of this writing (for IzPack version 3.7.0-M3) |
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the front-end will be rewritten. Until these work is in progress |
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you have to write the specification files manually. For your convenience, there are two annotated sample |
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specification files in the sample subdirectory of your IzPack installation. At the beginning you might want to experiment with these files. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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Both specification files have one root element called <TT><shortcuts></TT>. |
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This root elements recognizes 3 different child elements: |
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<BR><TT><programGroup></TT>, <TT><skipIfNotSupported/></TT> and <TT><shortcut></TT>. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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<TT><skipIfNotSupported/></TT> can be used to avoid the panel to show the alternative UI which shows the shortcut information |
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that would have been created on a system that supports it. In other words, |
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using this tag will make the panel be silent on non-supported systems. The |
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default is to show the alternative UI. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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The <TT><programGroup></TT> tag allows you to specify the name of the |
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menu, or more precise, the folder in which the shortcuts will be grouped. The exact location and |
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appearance of the program group depends on the specific target system on |
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which the application will be installed, however you can partially control it. |
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Please note that <TT><programGroup></TT> may only appear once |
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in the specification. If more than one instance occurs, only the first |
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one will be used. This tag requires two attributes: <TT>defaultName</TT> |
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and <TT>location</TT>. <TT>defaultName</TT> specifies the name that the |
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group menu should have on the target system. You should be aware that |
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the ShortcutPanel will present this name to the user as a choice. The |
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user can then edit this name or select a group that already exists. As a |
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result, there is no guarantee that the actual name of the program group |
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on the target system is identical with your specification. |
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<TT>location</TT> specifies where the group menu should show up. There |
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are two choices: <TT>applications</TT> and <TT>startMenu</TT>. If you |
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use <TT>applications</TT>, then the menu will be placed in the menu that |
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is ordinarily used for application shortcuts. <TT>applications</TT> is recommended for Unix shortcuts. |
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If you use <TT>startMenu</TT>, the group menu will be placed at the top most menu |
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level available on the target system. Depending on the target system, it |
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might not be possible to honor this specification exactly. In such |
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cases, the ShortcutPanel will map the choice to the location that most |
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closely resembles your choice. Unix shortcuts do not need to support the <TT>startMenu</TT>, because the <TT>applications</TT> menu is already on the highest level. This means this has no affect on thess platform. |
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<BR>
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<P>
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For each shortcut you want to create, you have to add one <TT><shortcut></TT> tag. |
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Most details about the shortcut are listed as attributes with this tag. |
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The following sections describe what each attribute does, which |
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attributes are optional and which ones are required and what the values |
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are that are accepted for each of the attributes. Note that all |
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attributes that have a yes/no choice can also be omitted. Doing so has |
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the same effect as using a value of no. The shortcut attributes can be |
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divided into two groups |
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<BR>
|
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<P>
|
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|
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<UL>
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<LI>attributes that describe properties of the shortcut
|
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</LI>
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<LI>attributes that define the location(s) at which a copy of the
|
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shortcut should be placed. |
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</LI>
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</UL>
|
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<P>
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The following attributes are used to define location: |
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|
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<UL>
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<LI><TT>programGroup</TT> |
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</LI>
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<LI><TT>desktop</TT> |
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</LI>
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<LI><TT>applications</TT> |
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</LI>
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<LI><TT>startMenu</TT> |
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</LI>
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<LI><TT>startup</TT> |
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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|
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<H2><A NAME="SECTION00615000000000000000"> |
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Shortcut Attributes</A>
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</H2>
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|
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<P>
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There are three classes of attributes. Some are required, most are |
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completely optional and some are semi-optional. The set of semi-optional |
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attributes are all the attributes used to define the location of a |
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shortcut. These are semi-optional because for any individual one it is |
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your choice if you want to include it or not. However they are not |
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completely optional. You must specify at least one location. If all were |
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omitted, the instruction would essentially tell the panel that a copy of |
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this shortcut is to be placed at no location. In other words no copy is |
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to be placed anywhere. |
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|
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<P>
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<SPAN CLASS="textbf">name</SPAN> <TT>- required</TT> |
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<BR>
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<P>
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The value of this attribute defines the name that the shortcut will |
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have. This is the text that makes up the menu name if the shortcut is |
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placed in a menu or the caption that is displayed with the shortcut if |
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it is placed on the desktop. |
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<BR>
|
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<P>
|
438 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">target</SPAN> <TT>- required</TT> |
439 |
<BR>
|
440 |
<P>
|
441 |
The value of this attribute points to the application that should be |
442 |
launched when the shortcut is clicked. The value is translated through |
443 |
the variable substitutor. Therefore variables such as |
444 |
<TT>$INSTALL_PATH</TT> can be used to describe the location. |
445 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">You should be aware that the use of this tag is likely to change |
446 |
once other operating systems are supported</SPAN>.
|
447 |
<BR>
|
448 |
<P>
|
449 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">commandLine</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
450 |
<BR>
|
451 |
<P>
|
452 |
The value of this attribute will be passed to the application as command |
453 |
line. I recommend to work without command line arguments, since these are |
454 |
not supported by all operating systems. As a result, your applications |
455 |
will not be portable if they depend on command line arguments. Instead, |
456 |
consider using system properties or configuration files. |
457 |
<BR>
|
458 |
<P>
|
459 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">workingDirectory</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
460 |
<BR>
|
461 |
<P>
|
462 |
This attribute defines the working directory for the application at the |
463 |
time it is launched. I would recommend some caution in relying on this |
464 |
too heavily if your application should be portable, since this might not |
465 |
be supported by all operating systems. At this time I don't have enough |
466 |
information to make a definite statement one way or the other. The value |
467 |
is translated through the variable substitutor. Therefore variables such |
468 |
as <TT>$INSTALL_PATH</TT> can be used to describe the directory. |
469 |
<BR>
|
470 |
<P>
|
471 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">description</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
472 |
<BR>
|
473 |
<P>
|
474 |
The value of this attribute will be visible to the user when a brief |
475 |
description about associated application is requested. The form of the |
476 |
request and the way in which this description is displayed varies |
477 |
between operating systems. On MS-Windows the description is shown as a |
478 |
tool tip when the mouse cursor hovers over the icon for a few seconds. |
479 |
On some operating systems this feature might not be supported but I |
480 |
think it is always a good idea to include a brief description. |
481 |
<BR>
|
482 |
<P>
|
483 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">iconFile</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
484 |
<BR>
|
485 |
<P>
|
486 |
The value of this attribute points to the file that holds the icon that |
487 |
should be displayed as a symbol for this shortcut. This value is also |
488 |
translated through the variable substitutor and consequently can contain |
489 |
variables such as $INSTALL_PATH. If this attribute is omitted, no icon |
490 |
will be specified for the shortcut. Usually this causes the OS to |
491 |
display an OS supplied default icon. <SPAN CLASS="textbf">The use of this attribute |
492 |
is also likely to change once other operating systems are supported. |
493 |
Read the Section about Icons below, for more information.</SPAN>
|
494 |
<BR>
|
495 |
<P>
|
496 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">iconIndex</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
497 |
<BR>
|
498 |
<P>
|
499 |
If the file type for the icon supports multiple icons in one file, then |
500 |
this attribute may be used to specify the correct index for the icon. I |
501 |
would also advise against using this feature, because of operating |
502 |
system incompatibilities in this area. In file formats that do not |
503 |
support multiple icons, this values is ignored. |
504 |
<BR>
|
505 |
<P>
|
506 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">initialState</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
507 |
<BR>
|
508 |
<P>
|
509 |
There are four values accepted for this attribute: <TT>noShow</TT>, |
510 |
<TT>normal</TT>, <TT>maximized</TT> and <TT>minimized</TT>. If the |
511 |
target operating system supports this feature, then this value will have |
512 |
the appropriate influence on the initial window state of the |
513 |
application. <TT>noShow</TT> is particularly useful when launch scripts |
514 |
are used that cause a command window to open, because the command window |
515 |
will not be visible with this option. For instance on MS-Windows |
516 |
starting a batch file that launches a Java application has the less than |
517 |
pretty side effect that two windows show: the DOS command prompt and the |
518 |
Java application window. Even if the shortcut is configured to show |
519 |
minimized, there are buttons for both windows in the task bar. Using |
520 |
<TT>noShow</TT> will completely eliminate this effect, only the Java |
521 |
application window will be visible. <SPAN CLASS="textit">On Unix use </SPAN> <TT>normal</TT> |
522 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">, because this is not supported</SPAN>. |
523 |
<BR>
|
524 |
<P>
|
525 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">programGroup</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
526 |
<BR>
|
527 |
<P>
|
528 |
The value for this attribute can be either yes or no. Any other value |
529 |
will be interpreted as no. If the value is yes, then a copy of this |
530 |
shortcut will be placed in the group menu. |
531 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">On Unix (KDE) this will always be placed on the top level.</SPAN> |
532 |
<BR>
|
533 |
<P>
|
534 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">desktop</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
535 |
<BR>
|
536 |
<P>
|
537 |
For this attribute the value should also be yes or no. If the value is |
538 |
yes, then a copy of the shortcut is placed on the desktop. |
539 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">On Unix the shortcuts will only be placed on the (KDE-) desktop |
540 |
of the user, who currently runs the installer. For Gnome the user can |
541 |
simply copy the *.desktop files from </SPAN> <TT>/Desktop</TT> <SPAN CLASS="textit"> to </SPAN> |
542 |
<TT>/gnome-desktop</TT>. |
543 |
(This is already a TODO for the Unix-shortcut implementation.) |
544 |
<BR>
|
545 |
<P>
|
546 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">applications</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
547 |
<BR>
|
548 |
<P>
|
549 |
This is also a yes/no attribute. If the value is yes, then a copy of the |
550 |
shortcut is placed in the applications menu (if the target operating |
551 |
system supports this). This is the same location as the applications |
552 |
choice for the program group. |
553 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">This makes no sense on Unix.</SPAN> |
554 |
<BR>
|
555 |
<P>
|
556 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">startMenu</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
557 |
<BR>
|
558 |
<P>
|
559 |
This is a yes/no attribute as well. If the value is yes, then a copy of |
560 |
the shortcut is placed directly in the top most menu that is available |
561 |
for placing application shortcuts. |
562 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">This is not supported on Unix. see above.</SPAN> |
563 |
<BR>
|
564 |
<P>
|
565 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">startup</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
566 |
<BR>
|
567 |
<P>
|
568 |
This is also a yes/no attribute. If the value is yes, then a copy of the |
569 |
shortcut is placed in a location where all applications get automatically |
570 |
started at OS launch time, if this is available on the target OS. |
571 |
<SPAN CLASS="textit">This is also not supported on Unix.</SPAN> |
572 |
<BR>
|
573 |
<P>
|
574 |
|
575 |
<H3><A NAME="SECTION00615100000000000000"> |
576 |
Unix specific shortcut attributes </A>
|
577 |
</H3>
|
578 |
|
579 |
<P>
|
580 |
This extension was programmed by M<SMALL>ARC </SMALL>E<SMALL>PPELMANN</SMALL>. |
581 |
This is still in development and may be changed in |
582 |
one of the next releases of IzPack. |
583 |
<BR>
|
584 |
<P>
|
585 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">type</SPAN> <TT>- required</TT> |
586 |
<BR>
|
587 |
<P>
|
588 |
This must be one of <TT>Application</TT> or <TT>Link</TT> |
589 |
<BR>
|
590 |
<P>
|
591 |
|
592 |
<UL>
|
593 |
<LI>Application: To start any application, native, Java or shell-script based,
|
594 |
the <SPAN CLASS="textbf">type</SPAN> has to be <TT>Application</TT>. The GUI-System will launch |
595 |
this Application, so as is, thru their native shell or application launcher. |
596 |
In this case, note that the right <TT>workingDirectory</TT> |
597 |
is always important on Unix platforms. If the users PATH environment |
598 |
variable does not contain the path, where the application is located, |
599 |
this can never be run, until the <TT>workingDirectory</TT> does not contain |
600 |
these path. The needed current path: ".", this is the case on most |
601 |
systems, should be in the users PATH environment variable. |
602 |
Consult the Unix manuals for more details. |
603 |
|
604 |
<P>
|
605 |
</LI>
|
606 |
<LI>Link: If you want to open a URL in the users default Webbrowser,
|
607 |
you have to set the <SPAN CLASS="textbf">type</SPAN> to <TT>Link</TT>. Note: The <TT>url</TT> attribute |
608 |
must be set to work properly. |
609 |
|
610 |
<P>
|
611 |
</LI>
|
612 |
<LI>Other: There are more supported types on KDE, like FSDevice,
|
613 |
but these types makes no sense for IzPack, in my opinion. |
614 |
</LI>
|
615 |
</UL>
|
616 |
|
617 |
<P>
|
618 |
Without the type the Unix shortcut does not work. |
619 |
<BR>
|
620 |
<P>
|
621 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">url</SPAN> <TT>- semi-optional</TT> |
622 |
<BR>
|
623 |
<P>
|
624 |
If you want to create a shortcut as type <SPAN CLASS="textit">Link</SPAN>, then you have |
625 |
to set the <TT>url</TT> attribute. The value can be a locally installed |
626 |
html or another document, with a known MIME type, like plain text, |
627 |
or a WWW Url i.e. 'http://www.izforge.com/izpack'. |
628 |
<BR>
|
629 |
<P>
|
630 |
A local document can be referenced by i.e. "$INSTALL_PATH/doc/index.html". |
631 |
<BR>
|
632 |
<P>
|
633 |
The IzPack variable substitution system is supported by the <SPAN CLASS="textbf">url</SPAN>. |
634 |
<BR>
|
635 |
<P>
|
636 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">encoding</SPAN> <TT>- required</TT> |
637 |
<BR>
|
638 |
<P>
|
639 |
This should always set to <SPAN CLASS="textbf">UTF-8</SPAN>. |
640 |
<BR>
|
641 |
<P>
|
642 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">terminal</SPAN> <TT>- optional</TT> |
643 |
<BR>
|
644 |
<P>
|
645 |
If you want, the user can see the console output of a program |
646 |
(in Java applications "System.outs"), set the <TT>terminal</TT> attribute to <SPAN CLASS="textbf">true</SPAN>. |
647 |
<BR>
|
648 |
<P>
|
649 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">KdeSubstUID</SPAN> <TT>- unused</TT> |
650 |
<BR>
|
651 |
<P>
|
652 |
This is not fully implemented by IzPack. |
653 |
I the future this is the sudo option for a shortcut. |
654 |
<BR>
|
655 |
<P>
|
656 |
|
657 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00616000000000000000"> |
658 |
Selective Creation of Shortcuts</A>
|
659 |
</H2>
|
660 |
|
661 |
<P>
|
662 |
Usually all shortcuts that are listed will be created when the user |
663 |
clicks the 'Next' button. However it is possible to |
664 |
control to some degree if specific shortcuts should be created or |
665 |
not. This is based on install conditions. By including one or more |
666 |
<TT><createForPack name=''a pack name'' /></TT> tags in the |
667 |
specification for a shortcut, you can direct the ShortcutPanel to |
668 |
create the shortcut only if any of the listed packs are actually |
669 |
installed. The 'name' attribute is used to define the name of one of |
670 |
the packs for which the shortcut should be created. You do not need to |
671 |
list all packs if a shortcut should always be created. In this case |
672 |
simply omit this tag altogether. |
673 |
<BR>
|
674 |
<P>
|
675 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">A word of caution</SPAN> |
676 |
<BR>
|
677 |
<P>
|
678 |
For any shortcut that is always created, I would recommend to omit this |
679 |
tag, since I have seen a number of problems related to changing pack |
680 |
names. You can save yourself some troubleshooting and some Aspirin by |
681 |
not using this feature if it's not required. On the other hand if you |
682 |
need it I would advise to be very careful about changing pack names. |
683 |
<BR>
|
684 |
<P>
|
685 |
|
686 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00617000000000000000"> |
687 |
Summary</A>
|
688 |
</H2>
|
689 |
|
690 |
<P>
|
691 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Native Libraries</SPAN> |
692 |
|
693 |
<UL>
|
694 |
<LI>ShellLink.dll <TT>- required by Microsoft Windows</TT> |
695 |
</LI>
|
696 |
<LI>'Nothing' <TT>- for KDE/Gnome shortcuts</TT> |
697 |
</LI>
|
698 |
</UL>
|
699 |
<P>
|
700 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Names of the Specification Files</SPAN> |
701 |
<BR><TT>shortcutSpec.xml</TT> for Windows and as default. |
702 |
<BR><TT>Unix_shortcutSpec.xml</TT> for Unix. |
703 |
<BR>
|
704 |
<P>
|
705 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Specification File Layout - Windows</SPAN> |
706 |
|
707 |
<P>
|
708 |
<PRE>
|
709 |
<shortcuts> |
710 |
<skipIfNotSupported/> |
711 |
<programGroup defaultName="MyOrganization\MyApplication"
|
712 |
location="applications||startMenu"/>
|
713 |
<shortcut
|
714 |
name="Start MyApplication" |
715 |
target="$INSTALL_PATH\Path\to\MyApplication\launcher.bat" |
716 |
commandLine="" |
717 |
workingDirectory="$INSTALL_PATH\Path\to\MyApplication" |
718 |
description="This starts MyApplication" |
719 |
iconFile="$INSTALL_PATH\Path\to\MyApplication\Icons\start.ico" |
720 |
iconIndex="0" |
721 |
initialState="noShow||normal||maximized||minimized" |
722 |
programGroup="yes||no" |
723 |
desktop="yes||no" |
724 |
applications="yes||no" |
725 |
startMenu="yes||no" |
726 |
startup="yes||no">
|
727 |
|
728 |
<createForPack name="MyApplication Binaries"/> |
729 |
<createForPack name="MyApplication Batchfiles"/> |
730 |
</shortcut> |
731 |
</shortcuts> |
732 |
</PRE>
|
733 |
<P>
|
734 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">A sample Specification File for Unix is at the end of this chapter</SPAN> |
735 |
|
736 |
<P>
|
737 |
|
738 |
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00620000000000000000"> |
739 |
Shortcut Tips</A>
|
740 |
</H1>
|
741 |
|
742 |
<P>
|
743 |
I wrote this section to provide additional information about issues |
744 |
surrounding the creation of shortcuts. Reading this section is not |
745 |
necessary to successfully create shortcuts, but it might help you |
746 |
creating an installation that works more smoothly. In addition, it might |
747 |
give you some knowledge about operating systems that you don't know so |
748 |
well. In fact most of the issues described in this section are focused |
749 |
on differences in operating system specifics. |
750 |
<BR>
|
751 |
<P>
|
752 |
|
753 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00621000000000000000"> |
754 |
The Desktop</A>
|
755 |
</H2>
|
756 |
|
757 |
<P>
|
758 |
You should recognize that the desktop is precious real estate for many |
759 |
people. They like to keep it uncluttered and keep only the things there |
760 |
that they use on a regular basis. This is not true for everybody and you |
761 |
might personally think different about this. Still, the fact remains |
762 |
that a lot of people might have different feelings about it, so you |
763 |
should not automatically assume that it is ok to place all of your |
764 |
shortcuts on the desktop proper. While your application is certainly one |
765 |
of the most important things for you, for your customers it is probably |
766 |
one of many applications they use and maybe not even the most important |
767 |
one. Accordingly, placing more shortcut icons there than they feel they |
768 |
will use on a regular basis and especially doing this without asking for |
769 |
permission might trigger some bad temper. |
770 |
<BR>
|
771 |
<P>
|
772 |
Annotation: But even the experienced user should be able to organize their Desktop. |
773 |
On Linux the users desktop is the only place, which supports any kind of shortcuts. |
774 |
<BR>
|
775 |
<P>
|
776 |
It is common practice to create a program group in the application menu |
777 |
system of the OS and place all shortcuts that go with an application in |
778 |
that program group. In addition, only one shortcut to the key access |
779 |
point of the application is placed directly on the desktop. Many |
780 |
installers first ask for permission to do so, as does the ShortcutPanel |
781 |
in IzPack. |
782 |
<BR>
|
783 |
<P>
|
784 |
I would like to recommend that you always create a shortcut in the menu |
785 |
system, even if your application has only one access point and you are |
786 |
placing this on the desktop. Note that shortcuts can also be placed directly |
787 |
in the menu, they don't need to be in a program group. There are two |
788 |
reasons for doing so. |
789 |
<BR>
|
790 |
<P>
|
791 |
|
792 |
<UL>
|
793 |
<LI>If the user elects not to create shortcuts on the desktop, they
|
794 |
will end up with no access point to your application |
795 |
</LI>
|
796 |
<LI>Even if this works fine, occasionally people 'clean up' their
|
797 |
desktop. They might later find that they accidentally deleted the |
798 |
only access point to your application. For the less technology |
799 |
savvy users, recreating the shortcut might be a rough experience. |
800 |
</LI>
|
801 |
</UL>
|
802 |
|
803 |
<P>
|
804 |
|
805 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00622000000000000000"> |
806 |
Icons</A>
|
807 |
</H2>
|
808 |
|
809 |
<P>
|
810 |
Icons are supplied in image files, usually in some kind of bitmap |
811 |
format. Unfortunately there is no format that is universally recognized |
812 |
by all operating systems. If you would like to create shortcuts on a |
813 |
variety of operating systems that use your own icons, you must supply |
814 |
each icon in a number of different formats. This chapter discusses icon |
815 |
file formats used on various operating systems. Fortunately there are |
816 |
good programs available that allow you to convert between these formats, |
817 |
so that creating the different files is not much of a problem once the |
818 |
icons themselves are created. |
819 |
<BR>
|
820 |
<P>
|
821 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Microsoft Windows</SPAN> |
822 |
<BR>
|
823 |
<P>
|
824 |
Windows prefers to use its native icon file format. Files of this type |
825 |
usually use the extension *.ico. These so called ICO files can hold |
826 |
multiple icons in one file, which can be useful if the same icon is |
827 |
to be provided in a number of sizes and color-depths. |
828 |
|
829 |
<P>
|
830 |
Windows itself selects the icon with the most matching dimensions and displays it. |
831 |
While the Start menu displays the icon with 16x16 pixel if available, the desktop displays |
832 |
the 32x32 pixel resolution of the same ICO if this is in. |
833 |
|
834 |
<P>
|
835 |
In other words, a ICO file has embedded one or more dimensions of the same Icon. |
836 |
We recommend to play with <A NAME="tex2html25" |
837 |
HREF="http://www.microangelo.us">microangelo</A>. |
838 |
|
839 |
<P>
|
840 |
Dlls and Exe files on the other side, can store, amongst other things, a collection of different Icons. |
841 |
You can select your desired Icon by its index. The lowest index is 0. |
842 |
Use the iconIndex attribute in the spec file to specify this index. |
843 |
<BR>
|
844 |
<P>
|
845 |
As a sample look into |
846 |
<PRE>
|
847 |
%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll |
848 |
</PRE>
|
849 |
These contains a lot of Windows own icons. |
850 |
You can use the <A NAME="tex2html26" |
851 |
HREF="http://www.heaventools.com">PE Explorer</A> |
852 |
or another Resource Editor to extract or modify |
853 |
Icons in dlls or exe files. But be warned. You can also destroy a working |
854 |
application with these kind of tools. |
855 |
|
856 |
<P>
|
857 |
At least Windows also supports the use of bitmap files in the *.bmp format as |
858 |
icons. Note that this format does not support multiple icons. |
859 |
<BR>
|
860 |
<P>
|
861 |
We might have overlooked other file formats that are supported by Windows. |
862 |
However, we suggest to test other formats for compatibility as they |
863 |
might not work all the way back to Windows 95 or on the NT/non-NT strain. |
864 |
Sticking with one of these two formats should keep you out of trouble. |
865 |
<BR>
|
866 |
<P>
|
867 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Apple</SPAN> |
868 |
<BR>
|
869 |
<P>
|
870 |
Apple Macintosh systems use the Macintosh PICT format, extension *.pct. |
871 |
If you are working with an apple system you know a whole lot more about |
872 |
this format than I do. If you don't but would like to be able to install |
873 |
your application on a Mac, simply start with any bitmap format that you |
874 |
feel comfortable to work with. Then find an application that is capable |
875 |
of converting this format into a *.pct file. I like to use Paint Shop |
876 |
Pro (PC based), because it provides conversion capabilities among |
877 |
several dozen different file formats. |
878 |
<BR>
|
879 |
<P>
|
880 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">UNIX flavors</SPAN> |
881 |
<BR>
|
882 |
<P>
|
883 |
by Marc Eppelmann |
884 |
<BR>
|
885 |
<P>
|
886 |
As my knowledge, all X based Unix Window systems supports |
887 |
the (ASCII-) XBM (X-Bitmap ) and the better XPM (X-PixMap) format. |
888 |
The modern GUI systems like KDE and Gnome can display additionally |
889 |
a lot of other ImageIcon formats, such as GIF, JPG, and PNG. |
890 |
<BR>
|
891 |
<P>
|
892 |
I suggest to use PNG, because this can lossless compress like the GIF format, |
893 |
however this format is absolutely free. And not least, this can store true |
894 |
transparency informations (It has an alpha channel). |
895 |
|
896 |
<P>
|
897 |
|
898 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00623000000000000000"> |
899 |
Targets</A>
|
900 |
</H2>
|
901 |
|
902 |
<P>
|
903 |
So, you thought you could escape the ugly mess of operating system |
904 |
dependencies at least with the way how your Java application is started? |
905 |
Sorry but I have just another bad message. The one positive thing is |
906 |
that here you have a way of escaping, even if doing so has a few less |
907 |
pretty side effects. At first, I would like to discuss various launching |
908 |
options you have available on different operating systems. At the end of |
909 |
the chapter I write about a way to make launching your application OS |
910 |
independent. |
911 |
<BR>
|
912 |
<P>
|
913 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Microsoft Windows</SPAN> |
914 |
<BR>
|
915 |
<P>
|
916 |
On Microsoft Windows you have a variety of options for launching your |
917 |
application. Probably the most simple case is directly starting the Java |
918 |
VM from the command line and typing out all parameters, such as class |
919 |
path, the class name etc. In principle, this can be placed right in a |
920 |
shortcut and should work. |
921 |
<BR>
|
922 |
<P>
|
923 |
A little more elegant solution is to place this in a batch file and have |
924 |
the shortcut point to this batch file. This will also make it more |
925 |
likely that users can repair or recreate shortcuts. Recreating shortcuts |
926 |
with sophisticated command lines is practically impossible. |
927 |
<BR>
|
928 |
<P>
|
929 |
Another method is less commonly used but just as possible. Implement a |
930 |
native executable that launches the VM with your Java application. The |
931 |
VM comes as DLL and is used by java.exe in just the same way. |
932 |
As a sample look at the exlipse.exe provided by the <A NAME="tex2html27" |
933 |
HREF="http://www.eclipse.org">Eclipse-IDE</A> |
934 |
<BR>
|
935 |
<P>
|
936 |
Clearly, even though the first option is a bit ugly and has some |
937 |
restrictionss, it is the most portable solution among the three. |
938 |
<BR>
|
939 |
<P>
|
940 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">Apple</SPAN> |
941 |
<BR>
|
942 |
<P>
|
943 |
We hope, there is a IzPack developer currently researching |
944 |
for the details for the Mac environment. We expect |
945 |
an updated chapter in one of the next releases. |
946 |
<BR>
|
947 |
<P>
|
948 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">UNIX</SPAN> |
949 |
<BR>
|
950 |
<P>
|
951 |
UNIX provides essentially the same options as Windows. You can simply |
952 |
use the command line option, you can write a shell script and you can |
953 |
write a native launcher. Naturally this stuff is in no way compatible |
954 |
with the equivalent Windows implementations. The native option is even |
955 |
more problematic in this environment, since the code can not even be |
956 |
moved from one UNIX platform to another, without recompilation. |
957 |
<BR>
|
958 |
<P>
|
959 |
<SPAN CLASS="textbf">OS Independent Launching</SPAN> |
960 |
<BR>
|
961 |
<P>
|
962 |
So, after all this rather discouraging news, there is actually a |
963 |
portable way to launch Java applications? You bet! although I have to |
964 |
admit that it is not necessarily the most pretty way of doing things. |
965 |
<BR>
|
966 |
<P>
|
967 |
This approach is currently used by IzPack. Package your application in a |
968 |
*.jar file if you don't already do so and make it executable by including the |
969 |
necessary METAINF/MANIFEST.MF information file. I am not |
970 |
going into all the details on how exactly to do this, the Java |
971 |
documentation will have to do. You might have noticed that even though |
972 |
the instructions to install IzPack say to type : |
973 |
<PRE>
|
974 |
java -jar IzPack-install.jar |
975 |
</PRE>
|
976 |
|
977 |
<P>
|
978 |
You can just as well double click on IzPack-install.jar and it will |
979 |
start up. This procedure will work on all GUI based Java supported operating |
980 |
systems -though you might have to replace double clicking with dropping |
981 |
the file on the VM. In just the same way, you can make the *.jar file |
982 |
itself the target of a shortcut. Note: This works only, if jars are registered |
983 |
as files, which have to launch by the installed JRE (with: javaw.exe -jar *) |
984 |
<BR>
|
985 |
<P>
|
986 |
The one restriction with this approach is that a *.jar file can only have |
987 |
one main file. So, if you have multiple targets, they need to be |
988 |
packaged each into a different *.jar file. They can be in one *.jar file |
989 |
but then you have to start them explicitly, which gets you back to the |
990 |
problems that I mentioned before. This brings me to the ugly part. If |
991 |
you have just one target, then you are all set. If you have multiple |
992 |
targets, you need to create a *.jar file for each of them. In addition, |
993 |
you have a much harder time setting the classpath, because each of the |
994 |
*.jar files that contain supporting code must be listed. In fact, at |
995 |
present there is no way of setting this during the installation, because |
996 |
IzPack does not yet (version 3.0) support the setting and modification |
997 |
of environment variables. |
998 |
<BR>
|
999 |
<P>
|
1000 |
|
1001 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00624000000000000000"> |
1002 |
Command Line</A>
|
1003 |
</H2>
|
1004 |
|
1005 |
<P>
|
1006 |
Before I start to write a lot about the use of command line arguments |
1007 |
let me state this: If you can avoid using them, do it! Not that there |
1008 |
is anything wrong with command line arguments as such. The issue is |
1009 |
simply that if you want your application to be usable cross platform |
1010 |
(the big Java promise) you should shy away from using command line |
1011 |
arguments. The problem here is that not all operating systems actually |
1012 |
support command line arguments. To be more precise, to my knowledge only |
1013 |
Apple operating systems do not support command line parameters. If you |
1014 |
don't care for running your application on a Mac, then you might not |
1015 |
worry about his at all. If you are interested to support the Mac as |
1016 |
well, read on. |
1017 |
<BR>
|
1018 |
<P>
|
1019 |
In fact the Mac lower than MacOSX supports command line parameters in a way. |
1020 |
More to the point, it supports a single parameter that your application should |
1021 |
interpret as the name of a data file to open. You have no way of |
1022 |
supplying this to your application through the command line attribute. |
1023 |
The operating system generates this when the user drops the file on your |
1024 |
application and then passes it as command line argument. That's it. This |
1025 |
same behavior will probably fly well on pretty much any system and |
1026 |
should therefore be an ok implementation. |
1027 |
<BR>
|
1028 |
<P>
|
1029 |
So what to do if you want to modify program behavior based on runtime |
1030 |
switches? For one thing, you could set system properties accordingly. |
1031 |
The disadvantage here is the same as with the command line parameters: the |
1032 |
way of setting these might vary between operating systems. The best way |
1033 |
seems to be using a property file that contains the configuration |
1034 |
data. |
1035 |
<BR>
|
1036 |
<P>
|
1037 |
|
1038 |
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00630000000000000000"> |
1039 |
Trouble Shooting</A>
|
1040 |
</H1>
|
1041 |
|
1042 |
<P>
|
1043 |
by Elmar |
1044 |
|
1045 |
<P>
|
1046 |
It has been some time since I wrote this chapter during which a good |
1047 |
number of users had a chance to gather experience. Unfortunately I |
1048 |
never know how many have used it successfully without much difficulty. I |
1049 |
only hear from those that have encountered one problem or another. The |
1050 |
type of problems that I have seen prompted me to write this section, |
1051 |
because I think it will help you in locating most problems that you might |
1052 |
encounter or at least give you some idea where the problem might be |
1053 |
located. |
1054 |
<BR>
|
1055 |
<P>
|
1056 |
|
1057 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00631000000000000000"> |
1058 |
Problems You Can Solve</A>
|
1059 |
</H2>
|
1060 |
|
1061 |
<P>
|
1062 |
If you see an exception that essentially says that a library can not be |
1063 |
loaded (ShellLink.dll) you have an easy problem to deal with. Your |
1064 |
installer file is probably missing the native tag that adds the Windows |
1065 |
dll to the installer or something with this tag is no quite right. Read |
1066 |
'What to Add to the Installer' for all details on this topic. |
1067 |
<BR>
|
1068 |
<P>
|
1069 |
Most other problems cause the ShortcutPanel not to show at all during |
1070 |
the installation process. The reason is simply that the ShortcutPanel |
1071 |
skips if it does not know what to do or if it has nothing to do (no |
1072 |
point showing then and confusing the user). The problem is that this is |
1073 |
not always what you intended. The most simple but not so uncommon |
1074 |
case is, that the ShortcutPanel cannot find their spec file. This can be caused by |
1075 |
a number of reasons. The associated resource tag might be missing in the |
1076 |
installer specification file, the target file name might be misspelled (the |
1077 |
name you specify for the <TT>id</TT> attribute) or the target file name |
1078 |
has a path or package name pre-pended. You have only to use |
1079 |
<TT>shortcutSpec.xml</TT> or <TT>Unix_shortcutSpec.xml</TT> and nothing else, |
1080 |
just as described in 'What to Add to the Installer'. |
1081 |
You can always verify if this part is ok by |
1082 |
inspecting the content of the installer *.jar file. The file |
1083 |
shortcutSpec.xml should be located in the directory <TT>res</TT>. This |
1084 |
inspection can be performed with any zip tool. If the file is not there, |
1085 |
first correct this before proceeding. |
1086 |
<BR>
|
1087 |
<P>
|
1088 |
If the file is there and the panel does not appear, you have a problem |
1089 |
within the specification file. In most cases that I have seen, it comes |
1090 |
down to a spelling mistake of an attribute or tag name. You just have to |
1091 |
carefully make sure that everything is spelled correctly. Don't forget |
1092 |
that all names are case sensitive! In a few cases it is also happend, |
1093 |
that required or semi-optional attributes are omitted, so you might want |
1094 |
to verify if all attributes that you need are actually supplied. |
1095 |
<BR>
|
1096 |
<P>
|
1097 |
If everything is correct up to this point the problem becomes more |
1098 |
elusive. Most likely the panel will not be displayed, because it is instructed |
1099 |
not to show. There are be several reasons for this. The simple |
1100 |
case is that no location has been specified for the shortcuts in your |
1101 |
installation. This can happen if all five location attributes are |
1102 |
omitted or if all the ones that are listed are set to <TT>no</TT>. |
1103 |
Remember, you have to specify at least one location for every shortcut. If |
1104 |
this is also correct, you might have used the <TT><createForPack></TT> tag. Review |
1105 |
the details in 'Selective Creation of Shortcuts'. One possibility for |
1106 |
the panel not to show is that based on the packs that are currently |
1107 |
selected for installation no shortcut qualifies for creation. In this |
1108 |
case the panel will not show, this is perfectly normal behavior. More |
1109 |
likely this condition is true because of some accident and not because |
1110 |
it's intended. Make sure the packs that you list for the shortcut are |
1111 |
actually defined in your installation and verify that they are all |
1112 |
spelled correctly. Remember: case matters! Did the ShortcutPanel use to |
1113 |
work in your installation and all of a sudden stopped working? Very |
1114 |
likely you are dealing with the last problem. A package name might have |
1115 |
been modified and the shortcut spec was not adjusted to stay in sync. |
1116 |
<BR>
|
1117 |
<P>
|
1118 |
|
1119 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00632000000000000000"> |
1120 |
Problems That Have No Solution (yet)</A>
|
1121 |
</H2>
|
1122 |
|
1123 |
<P>
|
1124 |
Unfortunately one problem has been very persistent and only recently one |
1125 |
user found the reason. The problem occurs when installing on some target |
1126 |
systems where non-English characters are used in the storage path for |
1127 |
the shortcuts. The problem is that these characters don't seem to be |
1128 |
properly translated across the Java Native Interface. This leads to a |
1129 |
situation where the proper path can not be located and the shortcut |
1130 |
creation fails. I write 'some target systems' because it does not fail |
1131 |
everywhere. After much agonizing over this problem, one user found the |
1132 |
solution: The shortcut creation works fine if a Sun virtual machine is |
1133 |
installed, but fails if a version from IBM happens to be installed. So |
1134 |
far I have no solution for this problem but I am trying to find a |
1135 |
workaround the problem. |
1136 |
<BR>
|
1137 |
<P>
|
1138 |
|
1139 |
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00633000000000000000"> |
1140 |
A sample shortcut specification file for Unix</A>
|
1141 |
</H2>
|
1142 |
|
1143 |
<P>
|
1144 |
<PRE>
|
1145 |
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> |
1146 |
|
1147 |
<shortcuts> |
1148 |
|
1149 |
<programGroup defaultName="IzForge/IzPack" location="applications"/> |
1150 |
|
1151 |
<!-- Disabled since there is no Frontend
|
1152 |
shortcut |
1153 |
name="IzPack" |
1154 |
programGroup="yes" |
1155 |
desktop="yes" |
1156 |
applications="no" |
1157 |
startMenu="yes" |
1158 |
startup="no" |
1159 |
target="$INSTALL_PATH/bin/izpack-fe.sh" |
1160 |
commandLine="" |
1161 |
workingDirectory="$INSTALL_PATH/bin" |
1162 |
description="Front-End for IzPack installation tool" |
1163 |
iconFile="$INSTALL_PATH/bin/icons/izpack.png" |
1164 |
iconIndex="0" |
1165 |
type="Application" |
1166 |
encoding="UTF-8" |
1167 |
terminal="true" |
1168 |
KdeSubstUID="false" |
1169 |
initialState="normal">
|
1170 |
<createForPack name="Core"/> |
1171 |
</shortcut --> |
1172 |
|
1173 |
<shortcut
|
1174 |
name="IzPack Documentation" |
1175 |
programGroup="yes" |
1176 |
desktop="yes" |
1177 |
applications="no" |
1178 |
startMenu="yes" |
1179 |
startup="no" |
1180 |
target="konqueror" |
1181 |
workingDirectory="" |
1182 |
commandLine="" |
1183 |
initialState="noShow" |
1184 |
iconFile="help" |
1185 |
iconIndex="0" |
1186 |
url="$INSTALL_PATH/doc/izpack/html/izpack-doc.html" |
1187 |
type="Link" |
1188 |
encoding="UTF-8" |
1189 |
description="IzPack user documentation (HTML format)">
|
1190 |
|
1191 |
<createForPack name="Documentation-HTML"/> |
1192 |
</shortcut> |
1193 |
|
1194 |
<shortcut
|
1195 |
name="Documentation" |
1196 |
programGroup="yes" |
1197 |
desktop="yes" |
1198 |
applications="no" |
1199 |
startMenu="yes" |
1200 |
startup="no" |
1201 |
target="acroread" |
1202 |
workingDirectory="" |
1203 |
commandLine="$INSTALL_PATH/doc/izpack/pdf/izpack-doc.pdf" |
1204 |
initialState="noShow" |
1205 |
iconFile="acroread" |
1206 |
iconIndex="0" |
1207 |
url="$INSTALL_PATH/doc/izpack/pdf/izpack-doc.pdf" |
1208 |
type="Application" |
1209 |
encoding="UTF-8" |
1210 |
description="IzPack user documentation (PDF format)">
|
1211 |
|
1212 |
<createForPack name="Documentation-PDF"/> |
1213 |
</shortcut> |
1214 |
|
1215 |
<shortcut
|
1216 |
name="Uninstaller" |
1217 |
programGroup="yes" |
1218 |
desktop="yes" |
1219 |
applications="no" |
1220 |
startMenu="no" |
1221 |
startup="no" |
1222 |
target="/usr/lib/java/bin/java" |
1223 |
commandLine="-jar &quot;$INSTALL_PATH/Uninstaller/uninstaller.jar&quot;" |
1224 |
initialState="noShow" |
1225 |
iconFile="trashcan_full" |
1226 |
iconIndex="0" |
1227 |
workingDirectory="" |
1228 |
type="Application" |
1229 |
encoding="UTF-8" |
1230 |
description="IzPack uninstaller">
|
1231 |
<createForPack name="Core" /> |
1232 |
</shortcut> |
1233 |
|
1234 |
</shortcuts> |
1235 |
</PRE>
|
1236 |
<DIV CLASS="navigation"><HR> |
1237 |
<!--Navigation Panel-->
|
1238 |
<A NAME="tex2html431" |
1239 |
HREF="node7.html"> |
1240 |
<IMG WIDTH="37" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="next" SRC="next.png"></A> |
1241 |
<A NAME="tex2html427" |
1242 |
HREF="izpack-doc.html"> |
1243 |
<IMG WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="up" SRC="up.png"></A> |
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HREF="node5.html"> |
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1250 |
<BR>
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1251 |
<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html432" |
1252 |
HREF="node7.html">Creating Your Own Panels</A> |
1253 |
<B> Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html428" |
1254 |
HREF="izpack-doc.html">izpack-doc</A> |
1255 |
<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html422" |
1256 |
HREF="node5.html">Advanced Features</A> |
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1259 |
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|
1260 |
<ADDRESS>
|
1261 |
Julien Ponge |
1262 |
2005-04-22 |
1263 |
</ADDRESS>
|
1264 |
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1265 |
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