Tools: Application launcher

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What is CTK Application Launcher ?

CTK Application launcher is a lightweight open-source utility allowing to set environment before starting a real application. The launcher is available on Linux, Windows and MacOSX.

Getting started

You could either:

• download the pre-built binaries matching your operating system

or

• build from the source

See also #How to integrate the launcher in my existing project ?

How does CTK Application Launcher work ?

The launcher looks for a setting file where the path of the real application and its associated environment variable are reported. While setting the environment and loading the real application, it can also display a splash screen.

The settings file follows the format as specified here: http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qsettings.html

Settings file location

The launcher successively looks for a setting file located either in the current directory or in bin and lib subdirectories. The setting file should match the following pattern <LAUNCHERNAME>LauncherSettings.ini

For example:

 /home/jchris/Projects/AwesomeApp
 /home/jchris/Projects/bin/AwesomeApp-real
 /home/jchris/Projects/bin/AwesomeAppLauncherSettings.ini
 /home/jchris/Projects/lib/libFoo.so

Setting file description

The setting file should have the following format:

[General]
launcherSplashImagePath=bin/Splash.png
launcherSplashScreenHideDelayMs=1000

[Application]
path=bin/AwesomeApp-real
arguments=--multithreading-enabled

[Paths]
1\path=./bin
size=1

[LibraryPaths]
1\path=./lib
size=1

[EnvironmentVariables]
FOO_DIRS=<APPLAUNCHER_DIR>/lib<PATHSEP>/usr/local/lib

Note that the special strings <PATHSEP>, <APPLAUNCHER_NAME> and <APPLAUNCHER_DIR> will be expanded by the launcher to match the current context.

Launcher command line arguments

As described below, the launcher also provides a broad set of command line arguments.

jchris@karakoram:~/Projects/CTK-AppLauncher-Debug/bin $ ./CTKAppLauncher --launcher-help
Usage
  CTKAppLauncher [options]

Options
  --launcher-help                Display help
  --launcher-verbose             Verbose mode
  --launch                       Specify the application to launch
  --launcher-detach              Launcher will NOT wait for the application to finish
  --launcher-no-splash           Hide launcher splash
  --launcher-timeout             Specify the time in second before the launcher kills the application. -1 means no timeout (default: -1)
  --launcher-generate-template   Generate an example of setting file

Why should you use CTK Application Launcher ?

• Very easy to configure
• Standalone executable
• Available on Windows, linux and MacOSX
• Thoroughly tested

How to integrate the launcher in my existing project ?

Superbuild

• Integrate the external project definition
• Use the macro ctkAppLauncherConfigure as described below

    INCLUDE(${CTKAPPLAUNCHER_DIR}/CMake/ctkAppLauncher.cmake)
    INCLUDE(${Slicer_CMAKE_DIR}/SlicerCTKAppLauncherSettings.cmake)

    ctkAppLauncherConfigure(

      TARGET SlicerQT-real

      APPLICATION_INSTALL_SUBDIR ${Slicer_INSTALL_BIN_DIR}
      APPLICATION_NAME Slicer

      SPLASH_IMAGE_PATH ${Slicer_SOURCE_DIR}/Applications/SlicerQT/Resources/Images/SlicerSplashScreen.png
      SPLASH_IMAGE_INSTALL_SUBDIR ${Slicer_INSTALL_BIN_DIR}
      SPLASHSCREEN_HIDE_DELAY_MS 3000

      ADDITIONAL_HELP_SHORT_ARG "-h"
      ADDITIONAL_HELP_LONG_ARG "--help"
      ADDITIONAL_NOSPLASH_LONG_ARG "--no-splash"

      DESTINATION_DIR ${Slicer_BINARY_DIR}

      LIBRARY_PATHS_BUILD "${SLICER_LIBRARY_PATHS_BUILD}"
      PATHS_BUILD "${SLICER_PATHS_BUILD}"
      ENVVARS_BUILD "${SLICER_ENVVARS_BUILD}"

      LIBRARY_PATHS_INSTALLED "${SLICER_LIBRARY_PATHS_INSTALLED}"
      PATHS_INSTALLED "${SLICER_PATHS_INSTALLED}"
      ENVVARS_INSTALLED "${SLICER_ENVVARS_INSTALLED}"
      )

    install(PROGRAMS "${Slicer_BINARY_DIR}/Slicer${CMAKE_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX}" DESTINATION ".")

    install(
      FILES "${Slicer_SOURCE_DIR}/Applications/SlicerQT/Resources/Images/SlicerSplashScreen.png" 
      DESTINATION ${Slicer_INSTALL_BIN_DIR}
      )

    install(
      FILES "${Slicer_BINARY_DIR}/SlicerLauncherSettingsToInstall.ini" 
      DESTINATION ${Slicer_INSTALL_BIN_DIR}
      RENAME SlicerLauncherSettings.ini
      )

Links for Developers

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Links for Dashboard Maintainers

Dashboard setup

Known issues

• Windows: Timeout option doesn't work properly

TODO

• Develop a small tools (ie CTKResEdit) that could be used to change the icon embedded in a window pre-build binary.