Revision as of 10:26, 7 October 2010

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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

Download: Linux, windows, MacOSX

How does CTK Application Launcher works ?

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.

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 with my existing projects

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_APPLICATION 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
      )