Do You Need to Port?

First you should decide whether you really have to port your application. As mentioned in "Running Existing Applications on the Solaris CDE Desktop" , OPEN LOOK and Motif applications run "as is" on the Solaris CDE desktop. So you do not need to port your existing applications to Motif or CDE to have them run on the Solaris CDE desktop.

This provides you with flexibility about when and under what circumstances you decide to port your application. For example, you may decide to wait until a major release of your product before porting your application to the Solaris CDE desktop.

Basic Integration

Basic application integration is a set of highly recommended tasks you should perform to integrate your application into the Solaris CDE desktop. These tasks do not require modification of the source code for your application. (Some types of print integration--enabling printing in your application--require slight code modification, but these are optional to basic integration.)

Basic integration does not involve extensive use of the desktop application program interface (API). Therefore, it does not provide other interaction with the desktop, such as drag-and-drop capabilities.

A lot can be done to integrate your application into the Solaris CDE desktop without modifying any code. You can:

• Define actions for your application

• Write a help volume and have it available from the top level of the Help Manager

• Integrate your application with the Front Panel and Application Manager

• Enable printing

The Solaris CDE desktop provides interoperability between your application and other desktop applications. You can add new services (see "Recommended Integration" and "Optional Integration") if you want to use them and are willing to modify your code.

See Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Guide for details on how to enable printing in your application, and for a list of the steps that comprise basic integration. See the "Registering an Application" chapter of Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide for detailed instructions on how to implement the basic integration steps.