Adapters

The application adapters are extensions of the configuration systems supported by the Desktop Manager. The adapters allow the various applications to take the central configuration data into account, depending on configuration systems. The supported configuration systems are:

• GConf: Gnome configuration system, used by the desktop and most Gnome applications, such as Evolution

• StarOfficeRegistry: configuration system used by StarOffice and OpenOffice.org

• Mozilla Preferences: configuration system used by Mozilla

• Java Preferences: configuration API offered to Java applications

A desktop definition adapter is also provided, which adds desktop launchers, menu items, and startup programs to the user desktop.

GConf Adapter

The GConf adapter is part of the SUNWapoc-adapter-gconf package for Solaris. When you install the adapter from the corresponding packageAdapter, the GConf data sources path in /etc/gconf/2/path is updated to include the Desktop Manager sources. The two data sources that are provided by the adapter are:

• "apoc:readonly:": provides access to non-protected settings from the policies. Insert this data source after the user settings and before the local defaults.

• "apoc:readonly:mandatory@": provides access to protected settings from the policies. Insert this data source after the local mandatory settings and before the user settings.

GConf Adapter Configuration

The GConf adapter is configured as part of its installation, however its operation is dependent on the presence in the GConf path file (/etc/GConf/2/path) of two data sources representing the mandatory central settings and the default settings. While this path file contains the proper information for GConf to take the central settings into account as expected after the installation of the system, administrators should ensure, that the data sources prefixed with "apoc" are still present in the file, should they need to modify that path to include additional custom data sources. You should also ensure that the data sources are located between local mandatory settings and user settings for the data source representing the mandatory central settings, and between the user settings and local default settings for the data source representing the default central settings.

Java Preferences Adapter

The Java Preferences adapter is part of the SUNWapcj package for Solaris.

Java Preferences Adapter Configuration

The Java Preferences adapter is provided as an implementation of the Preferences API that must be used as a wrapper to another existing implementation (such as the default file based system provided with the JRE). To enable the use of central configuration in a Java application that makes use of the Preferences API, a startup script for that application must be written, using the /usr/lib/apoc/apocjlaunch script as a helper. This script needs to define a few environment variables and then include the apocjlaunch script at its end (which starts the Java application with the necessary environment). The environment variables that must be set are:

• JAVA: contains the path to the Java runtime executable

• APPLICATION: contains the trailing part of the regular Java runtime invocation for that applications. For example,classname [arguments] for a single class startup, or -jar jarname [arguments] for a jar archive startup.

The optional additional environment variables that can be set are:

• CLASSPATH: colon-separated list of jars or class files that need to be part of the application class path

• DEFINES: string containing the define statements that need to be part of the application startup

• PREFFACTORY: class name of the factory in the underlying Preferences API implementation that the application needs to use

Mozilla Adapter

The Mozilla adapter is part of the SUNWmozapoc-adapter package on Solaris.

Mozilla Adapter Configuration

The Mozilla adapter is setup as part of the installation of this product, and does not need any additional configuration.

StarOffice Adapter

The StarOffice adapter is included in a standard StarOffice installation and allows you to access the profile configuration data without any special modifications.

StarOffice Adapter Configuration

The StarOffice adapter is setup as part of the installation of this product, and does not need any additional configuration.

Desktop Definition Adapter

The Desktop Definition adapter consists of the following packages:

These packages are installed when the Desktop Manager client components are installed, and do not require any additional setup.

Desktop Definition Adapter Configuration

The Desktop Definition adapter is configured by the setup process to be used whenever a user logs in, and does not require any additional setup.

Removing Adapters

The Mozilla and StarOffice adapters are removed when these products are removed. The GConf, Java Preferences and Desktop Definition adapters can be removed using the appropriate package management system tools by removing the packages mentioned in the Installation section.

Upon removing the Java Preferences adapter, the startup scripts written for the purpose of launching Java applications using the Preferences API should not be used anymore. The Java invocation in them fails, since some needed classes will no longer be available.

Adapter Troubleshooting

Most of the problems that can result in not seeing the central configuration data in the corresponding applications are likely to come from the Configuration Agent, since it is the common mechanism used by all adapters to retrieve the data.

If a central configuration change does not seem to take effect for a given setting (or group thereof), a possible explanation is that the user has explicitly set a value for that setting in the application (usually by using the Options or Preferences dialogs of the product). In that case, unless the central settings are defined as protected, which means that value is forced by the administrator and the user is not allowed to modify it, the user preference will take precedence over the values set using the Desktop Manager.