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Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide

Chapter 4 Registering an Application

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Table of Contents

Overview of Application Registration

Features Provided by Application Registration
The Purpose of Application Registration

General Steps for Registering an Application

Step 1: Modifying Font and Color Resources

Modifying Font Resources
Modifying Color Resources

Step 2: Creating the Desktop Application Root

Step 3: Creating the Registration Package Directories

Registration Package Contents

Step 4: Creating the Actions and Data Types for the Application

Actions and Data Types Required by an Application
Location for Action and Data Type Definition Configuration Files
Ways to Create Actions and Data Types
To Create Actions and Data Types Using Create Action
To Create Actions and Data Types Manually

Step 5: Putting the Help Files in the Registration Package

Step 6: Creating Icons for the Application

Icons Required for the Desktop

Step 7: Creating the Application Group

Creating the Application Group Directory
Application Group Name
Configuring the Application Group To Use a Unique Icon
Creating the Contents of the Application Group

Step 8: Registering the Application Using dtappintegrate

To Register an Application with dtappintegrate
How dtappintegrate Integrates Applications

Example of Creating a Registration Package

Information You Need to Know About "BestTextEditor"

This chapter describes how to create a registration package for an application and how to register the application onto the desktop.

“Overview of Application Registration”

“General Steps for Registering an Application”

“Step 1: Modifying Font and Color Resources”

“Step 2: Creating the Desktop Application Root”

“Step 3: Creating the Registration Package Directories”

“Step 4: Creating the Actions and Data Types for the Application”

“Step 5: Putting the Help Files in the Registration Package”

“Step 6: Creating Icons for the Application”

“Step 7: Creating the Application Group”

“Step 8: Registering the Application Using dtappintegrate”

“Example of Creating a Registration Package”

When an application is fully registered onto the desktop, it has:

Its own application group at the top level of the Application Manager
An action that starts the application. The action is represented by an icon in the application group
Optionally, data types for its data files

Application registration is a non-invasive operation to the application:

It does not involve modification of the application executable itself. Therefore, you can register existing applications on a system.
It does not require that any of the application's delivered files (such as the executable and app-defaults) be moved to other file locations.
It can be undone easily. The dtappintegrate tool, which is used to register applications, provides a command-line option for reversing the process.

You will want to create a registration package if you are:

A system administrator who wants to register an existing application onto the desktop
A software programmer who wants to create an installation package for a desktop-smart application

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