Adding and Administering Applications

Application Manager is the desktop container for applications available to the user.

• "Structure of Application Manager"

• "Adding Applications to Application Manager"

• "Creating and Administering General Application Groups"

• "Modifying the Search Path Used To Locate Applications"

• "General Application Manager Administration"

• "Changing the Text Editor and Terminal Emulator"

Structure of Application Manager

The top level of Application Manager generally contains directories. Each of these directories, and its contents, is called an application group.

Figure 4-1 Application groups in Application Manager

The application groups and their contents are gathered from multiple locations locally and throughout the network.

Directory Location of Application Manager

In the file system, Application Manager is the directory /var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/login-hostname-display. The directory is created dynamically each time the user logs in.

For example, if user ronv logs in from display wxyz:0, the Application Manager directory /var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/ronv-wxyz-0 is created.

How Application Manager Finds and Gathers Applications

Application Manager is built by gathering local and remote application groups. The application groups are gathered from directories located along the application search path.

The default application search path consists of the locations shown in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1 Default Application Search Path Locations

To create the top level of Application Manager, links are created at login time from the application groups (directories) located in directories on the application search path to the Application Manager directory /var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/login-hostname-display. The gathering operation is done by the desktop utility dtappgather, which is automatically run by Login Manager after the user has successfully logged in.

For example, the desktop provides the built-in application group:

/usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager/language/Desktop_Tools

At login time, a symbolic link is created to:

/var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/login-hostname-display/Desktop_Tools

The application search path can include remote directories. This provides a way to gather application groups from systems located throughout the network. For more information, see "Adding an Application Server to the Application Search Path".

Precedence Rules in Gathering Applications

Where duplicates exist along the search path, personal application groups have precedence over system-wide groups, and system-wide groups have precedence over built-in groups. For example, if both /usr/dt/appconfig/appmanager/C/Desktop_Tools and /etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/C/Desktop_Tools exist, the application group under /etc will be the one used.

Application Groups Provided with the Default Desktop

The uncustomized desktop provides four application groups.

• Desktop_Apps

• Desktop_Tools

• Desktop_Controls

• Information

• System_Admin

Example of How Application Groups Are Gathered

Figure 4-2 shows an Application Manager window containing a variety of application groups. Table 4-2 shows the directories from which the application groups were gathered.

Figure 4-2 A Typical Application Manager Window

Table 4-2 Source of Application Groups for a Typical Application Manager Window

If the Information or System_Admin application groups have been customized, they will be gathered from /etc/dt/appconfig/appmanager/C instead.

The CAD_App group is gathered because a system named ApServA has been added to the application search path (see "Adding an Application Server to the Application Search Path"). MySpreadSheet is a personal application group, available only to user anna.

Adding Applications to Application Manager

When an application has been added to Application Manager, there is an icon in an application group that starts that application.

Many applications provide an application group. The application group is a directory at the top level of Application Manager that contains the application icon and other files related to the application.

Some applications may not have their own application group. Instead, the icon to start the application is located in a general application group. For example, you could create an empty application group named "Games" that you use as a container for all the games you install on the system.

Ways to Add Applications to Application Manager

There are two ways to add an application to Application Manager:

• Registering the application

• Adding an application icon without registering the application