Basic Integration Features

Basic application integration provides these features for end users:

• A graphical way to locate and start your application on the desktop.

  Your application will provide a desktop registration package, and your installation script will automatically register your application.

  Registration creates an application group at the top level of Application Manager. The application group contains an icon the user double-clicks to start the application.

• The ability to recognize and manipulate your application's data files.

  Your application will provide data types for its data files.

  Data typing configures data files to use a unique icon in File Manager to help users identify them. The data files also have meaningful desktop behavior. Two examples are:

  • The user can start your application by double-clicking a data file.

  • Dropping a data file on a desktop printer drop zone prints the file using the appropriate print command.

• Easy font and color selection using Style Manager.

  Your application will change interface fonts and background, foreground, and shadow colors dynamically.

  The desktop defines general interface font and color resources that are used if no corresponding application-specific resources exist.

Basic integration provides these advantages to system administrators:

• Easy installation and registration.

  Upon installation, the application is automatically registered. The system administrator has little or no additional work to do.

• Easy ongoing administration.

  All the desktop's configuration files are gathered in one location. Furthermore, the application can easily be unregistered if, for example, the system administrator wants to update it or to move it to a different application server.