AppWave Studio Complex/Integrated Aplications
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Contents
With AppWave you can master complex applications (for example, Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, Autodesk Design Suites, Adobe CS5, etc.).
Suites, or larger product "bundles", require a deeper level of integration with the operating environment.
Once mastered, common components are leveraged and are exposed within the Windows UI as a collection of executables, right-click menu extensions, and file associations.
Mastering complex applications involves four areas:
File Associations / Shell Integration:
- With file association, you have the ability to launch AppWave applications using the file format typically associated with that application.
You can also access the functionality typically made available within the right-click menu of a file type.
It also covers the proximity and visual presence of the AppWave Browser when launching an app directly via file association, license checking, etc.
File associations and shell integration are performed automatically by AppWave Studio.
Multiple Entry Points:
- With Multiple Entry Points you have the ability to:
- Create an application template that includes entry points for multiple applications in a suite/product bundle.
- Present multiple application entries via the AppWave Browser from a single App. This may be required for tweaking the branding for an application.
Custom Scripting:
- Custom Scripting allows you to define actions/processes to be executed before/after certain types of events, for example, setup network connection to a particular network drive before launching an App, or do automatic archiving of certain files on exiting an application.
Admin Elevation:
- This is the ability to run Apps that require administrative privileges but those privileges are not available. This behavior is behind the scenes and does not require any action on your part.
Mastering a Complex App
As an Author, you have the ability to define custom actions at key points during the life of an App. For example:
- before/after an app is added to a machine,
- before/after an app is loaded,
- before/after running an App, etc.
- after exiting the app
For each of the seven known "Trigger Points", you can define the following:
- Trigger name
- Frequency
- Script to execute
- Event
You can enable/disable the defined triggers as well as edit parameters for already created triggers. This functionality is general and affects all entry points created in the app file.
It shall be available on the "3. App" section on a new Custom Scripts tab in the Studio Wizard.
Mastering a Suite Application
The following steps walk you through mastering a suite application such as Microsoft Office: Multiple Entry:
- After the initial Installation Recording process, advance to the Launch and Brand step to select from a list of multiple launch (entry) points discovered during the install process.
Depending on the application being mastered, this list can be quite large and some knowledge of the application may be required in order to select the right launch executable. The list of launch points is made available from a drop-down. - Once a launch point has been identified, the rest of the page containing the branding (metadata) information for that launch (entry) point fill in the remaining fields.
- Upon Save, the page refreshes and the top of the page expands to include the defined launch point in a list. Author can continue to section 3. app or Add New launch point until all required launch points have been defined.
- The definition of these individual launch points will be exposed in the AppWave Browser as if they were all individual app files with their own separate metadata. They appear in the Catalog exactly the same way as other Apps.
Running a Complex App
- This section covers the launch of an app from an icon or Start menu using the File Association / Right-click menu options.
- When an app is run within AppWave for the first time, your created files become associated with the app. This is similar to how file associations are established for locally installed software.
- The Program Group and entry points for the app populate the Start menu.
- The app also integrates and exposes additional commands into the right-click menu, such as Print, Show, Preview, Send To, etc.
- Once the initial file association occurs, you can double-click a document file type and the associated app launches. For example when you double-click a doc/docx file, Microsoft Word launches.
- Similarly, if you right-click the doc/docx file, you are presented with options relevant to that file, such as Print, which will open Word and then directly open the Print dialog.
- When you exit the App, which has established file associations, the file associations persist.
- If you exit AppWave Browser, the file associations are removed.
- When an app is launched from a user-created document directly or using the right-click menu options (outside the AppWave Browser), the app does a required license check.
If a license is not available (trial has expired or license has otherwise been revoked), the AppWave Browser informs you about the lack of the license. - If a .DOC file is clicked before Word has been run in the AppWave Browser, nothing happens because the associations are not created yet.
- If an app is removed from your local cache or the cache is cleared, all File Associations, all Program entries, and Right-click menu options are removed/cleared.
- It is possible to run Integrated/Complex Apps without Admin privileges. The recommended install for the AppWave Browser is "Turbo On" mode, but you can execute all apps without Admin privileges.
Where this is not possible, during the mastering process the author can specify that the user’s rights should be elevated to administrator while running the app. The admin elevation occurs automatically for the user at app launch time.
Discovery of Apps in the Catalog
- An Integrated/Complex app exposes its entry points in the AppWave Browser as if they were just regular single apps.
For example, for Microsoft Office, the entry points in the Catalog would be Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, with their respective icons, metadata descriptions, screenshots, etc. - The individual items of a "suite product" are searchable and can be listed/tiled like any other app in the catalog. No special/automatic grouping of these apps are required.
- The metadata content is created in such a way that if you do search for Microsoft Office, all related apps are displayed.
- You can create an app desktop shortcut even though the app is already created in the Start menu’s All Program group.
- You can "pin an app" (Windows 7) to the taskbar (where the app allows it).
- Ratings and Reviews are available for each individual app defined by a launch point in the app file.