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Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide

Running Applications Using Application Manager

Application Manager is a container for the applications and other tools available on your system. Most of the applications and tools in Application Manager were placed there by your system administrator or are built into the desktop.

Although configuring Application Manager is primarily a system administration task, you can also make personal customizations to Application Manager.

To open application manager:

Figure 6-1 Application Manager control

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Application Manager Window

The Application Manager window is a special File Manager view of a special folder on your system. It looks very much like a File Manager window, except that the iconic and text path are not shown.

The top level of Application Manager is special because other folders and files are never created directly in it. Instead, folders in other locations are gathered into this location automatically when you log in.

Contents of Application Manager

The top level of Application Manager contains a set of application groups.

Figure 6-2 Top level of Application Manager

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Each application group is a folder containing one or more icons that you use to start applications.

An icon that starts an application is called an action icon or application icon.

Figure 6-3 Action (application) icons in the Desktop_Apps application group

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Some application groups contain other useful application files such as sample data files, templates, and ``read me'' files.

The application groups in your Application Manager are either built in or registered by your system administrator. Application registration is a process by which an application lets the desktop know of its presence.

The application groups in Application Manager are gathered together each time you log in. The application groups may be located on your system or on other systems throughout the network.

Built-In Application Groups

The desktop provides these built-in application groups that are containers for various tools and utilities available on your system:

Desktop_Apps-Desktop applications such as File Manager, Style Manager, and Calculator

Desktop_Tools-Desktop administration and operating system tools such as User Registration, Reload Application, vi text editor, and Check Spelling

Information-Icons representing frequently used help topics

System_Admin-Tools used by system administrators

Application Manager Menus and Commands

Since Application Manager is closely related to the File Manager window, it uses most of the same menus, commands, and other features.

For more information about using the Application Manager menus and dialog boxes, see Chapter 5, Managing Files with File Manager .

Solaris User Registration

With this version of Solaris, system administrators and users can now register with Sun Microsystems, establishing themselves as users of Solaris. Registering enables users to receive information about new Sun products and services.

The registration process can be invoked from the CDE desktop by running the User Registration application located in the Application Manager's desktop tools folder. The following procedure describes how to run an application from Application Manager.

To Run an Application from Application Manager

  1. Open Application Manager.

  2. Double-click the application group's icon to display its contents.

  3. Double-click the application's action icon.

    Figure 6-4 Opening an application window from Application Manager

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To Get Help on an Application Icon

From the Icon's Pop-up Menu

  1. Point to the icon and press mouse button 3 to display its pop-up menu.

  2. Choose Help from the pop-up menu.

From the Help Menu

  1. Choose On Item from the Help menu.

  2. Click the icon on which you want help.

To Put an Application Icon in the Front Panel

  1. Display the application's icon in Application Manager.

  2. Display the subpanel to which you want to add the application.

  3. Drag the action icon from Application Manager to the Install Icon control in the subpanel.

    Figure 6-5 Installing an application (action icon) in the Front Panel

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To Put an Application Icon on the Workspace Backdrop

This procedure copies an application icon from Application Manager to the workspace (backdrop). This makes the icon available when you don't have an Application Manager window open.

  1. Open the application group containing the application you want to add.

  2. Drag the application from Application Manager to the workspace backdrop.

To Update Application Manager

The contents of your Application Manager are built each time you log in. Each time it is built, it searches certain system and network locations for applications.

If your system administrator adds an application to your system or to an application server while you are in a session, you must update your Application Manager if you want the new application to be registered immediately.

There are two ways to update Application Manager:

To Create a Personal Application Group

A personal application group is an application group that you can alter, since you have write permission to it.

  1. From your home folder, change to the .dt/appmanager subfolder.

  2. Create a new folder.

    The folder name will become the name of the new application group.

  3. Double-click Reload Applications in the Desktop_Apps application group.

    Your new application group will become registered at the top level of Application Manager.

To Add Applications to a Personal Application Group

Advanced Application Manager Concepts

This section describes several advanced Application Manager concepts:

File Names in Application Manager

In File Manager and Application Manager, files and folders are represented as icons, and these icons are usually labeled with the file name. Action icons are sometimes an exception to this rule.

In most cases you see the action icon's label instead of the action file name. Normally, you do not need to know the action file name. However, there are situations where you may see the file name.

For example, if you use the Copy File dialog box to copy the icon (by selecting the file and choosing Copy to from the Selected menu), the dialog box will display the file name.

Folder Location of Application Manager

Application Manager behaves very much like File Manager. This is because Application Manager is a File Manager view of a special folder on your system used to gather registered applications. Ordinarily, you do not need to know the location of this special folder. However, its location may be useful to you if you are trying to troubleshoot problems.

Login Manager creates the Application Manager folder each time you log in. Its location is:

/var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/special_folder_name

where special_folder_name is a name assigned by the system that is unique for your system and login name.

Caution - Caution -

You should never attempt to directly modify the special_folder_name folder from a command line.

Creating Personal Actions and Data Types

The desktop provides a tool that helps you create icons for running scripts, applications, and other commands. You may want to use this tool if you have a personal application your system administrator has not configured for you.

For example, suppose you have your own favorite spreadsheet application that you usually start by typing a command into a terminal emulator window:

FavoriteSpreadSheet -file data_file

You can create an icon that runs this command so that you won't have to continue manually typing it. To do this, you must create a special desktop ``macro'' called an action. You can also create a data type for the data_files if you like.

The desktop includes a tool called Create Action that makes it easy to create actions and data types. To open the Create Action window, double-click the Create Action icon in the Desktop_Tools application group.

Figure 6-6 Create Action window

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To see online instructions for using the window:

  1. Choose Tasks from the Create Action window's Help menu.

  2. Click the hyperlink ``To Create an Action With Create Action.''

    Create Action:

    • Creates an action for your application

    • Places an action icon in your home folder.

    You can move or copy that icon to other locations--for example, to a personal application group that you've created.

Registering Applications

When an application is registered in Application Manager, it has its own application group. This application group is available to all users on the system.

Registering applications is an advanced task, since it requires you to be the root user. For instructions, see the Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide.