Application: Appetizer (Formerly known as MiniLaunchBar)
Category: Dock application
Description: Appetizer is an application launcher for PortableApps applications. Rather than organizing the apps as a list like the Windows Start menu, they are organized in a dock a bit similar to the Mac OSX dock bar.
Release notes: This release is mainly to fix the Windows 2000 crash. Also updated the German translation and added Spanish one.
Features:
- Resizable dock, which allows displaying the icons both horizontally or vertically.
- Support for multiple skins
- Three sizes of icons: Small and large
- Organize the icons by drag & dropping them
- 'Multi-launch' functionality
- Regroup multiple shortcuts within one menu
- Support for multiple languages
- Minimize to tray icon functionality
Known bugs
- On Vista, some icons may appear with a red border in the popup menu
- 2-bits icons don't show up at 16x16 pixels
Change log:
Version 1.1.2.26 (2008-11-22):
- Fixed: Windows 2000 crash ("The ordinal 737 could not be located in the dynamic link library Shell32.dll")
- Updated German translation (wk)
- Added Spanish translation (Manuel Gutierrez Borras)
Version 1.1.1.23 (2008-11-20):
- Fixed: Made ImportWizardDialog localizable
- Fixed: Added a few strings that were missing from .po files
- Changed: Changed logic of hot key (show and bring to front if not visible, hide otherwise)
- Changed: 32x32 icon size is now the default
- Updated German help file and locale (WT)
- Updated English help file
Version 1.1.0.7 (2008-11-18):
- New: "run multi-Launch group on startup" option
- New: hot key support to hide / show the dock
- New: Added support for extra-large (48x48) icons
- New: Added "Don't show this message again" option in some dialog boxes
- New: Special items (My Computer, Explorer, Show Desktop, etc.). All of them are 100% portable and should work on any computer.
- New: Support for custom icons for shortcuts and groups
- New: "Wizard" to import icons from PortableApps drive, Windows "Start menu" and/or Windows "Quick Launch" bar.
- New: "Install autorun.inf" functionality in config dialog
- New: Import exclusion list in config dialog. All the files in this list will be ignored from import operations.
- Improved: better default icons for common types (.bat, .txt, .ini, etc.)
- Improved: better icon detection for documents.
- Improved: There's now only one dialog to add both a file or a folder
- Improved: Optimized executable file size
- Improved: Document icons are now cached, which should make icon extraction much faster in some instances
- Improved: Optimized dock startup operations, especially when many icons are on the dock
- Fixed: some strings weren't localizable
- Fixed: error retrieving icon of a drive
- Many other small fixes and improvements
Version 1.0.0.35 (2008-11-12):
- Some minor fixes regarding translations (some strings weren't localizable)
- A few minor changes to make the app compatible with PAF
Version 1.0.0.8 (Beta) (2008-11-10):
- Added support for groups of shorcuts (see help file)
- New skin: Blue Glass
- Support for parameters in shortcut editor dialog
- Auto-hide feature
- "Always on top" feature
- Implemented snapping
- Confirmation dialog when ejecting drive
- Added "Get support" link in help popup menu
- Added "One application instance only" option
- When launching an app, the current directory is now set to the app directory
- Icon panel is now rotated too in vertical mode
- Added "Configuration" and "Eject" items in tray icon menu
- Some skin files are now optional. They will default to the "Default" skin if missing, which should make it simpler to make new skins.
- It's now possible to set the color of the button icons in Skin.xml
- The help file will now be launched by SumatraPDF if it's present among the dock icons
- Switched localization to .po files.
- Help files are now .chm files and are built using .po files too
- Added metadata to Skin.xml ("compatibleVersion", "name" and "author")
- Fixed: memory leaks when launching a document
- Fixed: the main window was setting itself to (0, 0) when option panel was empty
- Fixed: memory leak in ImageButton. Icons weren't deleted properly
- Fixed memory leak: user object wasn't being deleted on close
- Fixed: dock will now get and display document icons in a more reliable way
Awesome release
No bugs to report so far, but a suggestion:
For the default skin, try giving it a name, followed by (Default) "Black Glass (Default)" I've seen many programs use this method, rather than just saying "Default", and IMHO, it looks better.
For resizing, the cursor should change to the sizing arrows instead of the hand if at all possible
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Thanks, glad it's working without any bugs!
For the default skin, try giving it a name, followed by (Default) "Black Glass (Default)"
Right, I'll add that to my todo list
For resizing, the cursor should change to the sizing arrows instead of the hand if at all possible
Should be - I need to check which cursors are available.
So, this isn't so much a bug, but if you launch Appetizer (another process) from withing Appetizer, the 'New Group...' label on the second instance is displayed as IconPanel.PopupMenu.NewGroup. Again, not really a bug, but I'm sure it can be fixed.
This is an amazing utility. I'd suggest doing a .paf.exe installer now that you're at 1.0. I'm sure this would be a great addition here.
label on the second instance is displayed as IconPanel.PopupMenu.NewGroup
That's strange, as I don't think this string still exists. Could it be that the second instance you are launching is an old version of Appetizer?
I'd suggest doing a .paf.exe installer now that you're at 1.0.
I've never done a paf installer but will take a look at it. In the meantime, if somebody's motivated enough to do it, I could host it on Sourceforge. As an icon for the splash screen, we can use ZachHudock 256x256 icon: http://patrickpatience.com/nascent-project/zachhudock/images/images/my_i...
Hotkey control to Show/Hide the window
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
That'd be great.
=> in the todo list
The ability to change icons for all shortcuts, not just for groups
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
That shouldn't be difficult to do, but I don't think that will be a priority for the next version. Just out of curiosity, how would you use this feature? Do you use some icon packs or something? If so maybe we could try to integrate them in some way to Appetizer. Just wondering.
I don't use any icon packs specifically, but some applications (python or java based) are launched through a batch file or the jar file directly, and therefore do not have an icon. Deluge is an example of this
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I made Poedit Portable which could be quite useful in helping Appetizer translators
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Silly Chris, not reading his threads.
Silly Patrick, not realising that Chris knew about that, but that he put this comment in for the benefit of translators, not for Laurent!
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Patrick isn't silly, he's just an idiot. But in all fairness, it was quite easy for me to be confused.
when appetizer runs for me, i get a blank item in the taskbar. anyone else get this?
EDIT: tried it again, and it didn't happen (but I did a screenshot the first time).
http://cubegames.net/taneth/uploads/appetizer_bug.JPG
EDIT2: repeated it by clicking the X in the upper right corner. also produces strange box seen above Filezilla icon.
http://cubegames.net/taneth/uploads/appetizer_bug2.JPG
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Weird, it should only do that in debug mode. Does it do it as soon as you start Appetizer? Which settings are you using? Could you post the contents of your Settings.xml file here?
here's my settings.xml:
note: i added spaces in between
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Well that looks normal. I'd need to try the app on Vista to see if I can replicate the issue. Does it do with the PA launcher too?
oops, forgot to mention its running on my XP SP2 limited. strangly enough, it doesn't happen on an extremely locked down XP SP3.
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
I just gave it a try on Vista today (Aero disabled) and I didn't get that bug. This is just really strange why it would show this tiny window. Does it do it all the time?
Actually what happens if you launch Appetizer directly, without using the launcher? i.e. go in PortableApps\AppetizerPortable\App\Appetizer and launch appetizer.exe directly. Does the bug still happen in this case?
note, i dont have vista, just XP with the zune theme. also, i wasn't using the PAF version, i was just using the standalone download (as i cant download exe's through school internet :|).
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Oh right, from the screenshots I assumed it was Vista, I should have looked more closely Well the app seems to have some troubles with zune and other theme managers. I'll see if I can install it on my machine and do some tests.
the default icon is shown to me too instead the BATCH files icons, but when updated to 1.0.0.8B1
You mean the ".bat" files are shown with the default icon?
Edit: in the next version, the dock will display better default icons for common types (.txt, .bat, .com, .ini, etc.)
ooooops, bad expressed. Wanted to say that BAT files are shown with the icon at \data\skin\default\defaulticon32.ico
Ok this will be fixed in the next version. As I mentioned above, it will display better default for common files, including BAT files.
translating German locale has been finished, send you the German file this evening -> some small bugs,yet.
In Configuration: Language is displayed as "Deutch", it should be Deutsch
When selecting a group, there´s an untranslated string:
"Icon" ->"Symbol"
"select a different icon", the button label -> should be added as "anderes Symbol auswählen"
and, there´s no icon to choose..
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Thanks, I'll add these two strings. I've also corrected "Deutch" to "Deutsch".
po and mo are going to be sent this evening, perhaps also the ones for the helpfile
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
In this latest version, none of my shortcuts successfully launch
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Oops, I commented out the lines to launch a shortcut to do some testing and forgot to uncomment them. That was dumb... I'm going to fix that right now.
Ok that should be working now.
Thanks, that works much better
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
both portable and zip version seem to work. Still "skins" on "appearance" tab a line to high. Sent you the updated de locale some minutes ago (helpfile yesterday), check your email.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
I didn't receive your emails - did you send them to here?
perhaps, I´ll try once again
Done..
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Thanks I've just realized that they were all going to my spam folder, sorry about that.
Actually it's strange, it looks like Deutsche Telekom is on Spamhaus black list: http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/query/PBL038778
as .zip attachment the last few weeks, at least in Germany....
I´ll try .rar packages ,next time...
Ok, glad you got them, thanx for your answer ;)..
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
nice I like that obfuscation.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
i was unable to find any bugs, but the main window could be improved by making it easier to hide (p.s. i found the right-click hide easily), for example, add a hide button next to eject drive.
Great work.
[EDIT: the multilaunch button has no function, is it meant to?]
- Thanks, Compgeek
Actually the "x" button is the hide button - when you press it the app is minimized to the system tray. To use the multilaunch button, have a look at the help file in "Launching several application simultaneously". Thanks for testing!
works nice on vista, pretty fast compared to the original alpha and beta releases.
I'm going to try to make some themes of my own, so I'll take requests too.
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
I'm going to try to make some themes of my own, so I'll take requests too.
That's great, let me know if you come accross any problem. As you've probably already noticed the main files to change are:
ArrowButtonUp.png |
ArrowButtonOver.png | The three states of the arrow button
ArrowButtonDown.png |
BarBackground.png - The main window background
BarInnerPanel.png - The panel where the icon are
OptionPanel.png - The panel where the option buttons are
OptionButtonUp.png |
OptionButtonOver.png | The small option buttons
OptionButtonDown.png |
All the button states except for the "up" state are actually optional, so if you don't need them, delete them.
You can also fine tune the skin using Skin.xml but that's optional too. You may want to fill the "author" and "name" fields though.
I didn't want to complicate myself very much & have done 2 themes through the Carbon theme:
Carbon Yellow(Although it looks more green)
Carbon Red
There are simply colorized by the gimp, so may not have many use.
I think the problem when you use the colorize function on a black skin is that you lose the shadows and highlights, so it doesn't look quite right.
Maybe I should provide a gray skin as a template - that should be easier to tweak that the carbon skin.
Here's my First theme, More to come
A Brushed metal Theme
Cold Metal
Upzip to \Appetizer_{version}\Data\Skin
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
another
Royale Blue theme, based off the Rocketdock Luna Royale skin.
Royale Blue
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
any chance you could post previews?
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
yep, there ya go
Cold Metal
http://api.photoshop.com/home_0d0e91e429994ce69ddde08e068fefbf/adobe-px-...
Roayle Blue
http://api.photoshop.com/home_0d0e91e429994ce69ddde08e068fefbf/adobe-px-...
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
Nice themes! Just a suggestion: several of the skin files are optional, so if you don't need them you can simply delete them from the package. They will then default to the Carbon skin.
That would make the skin much lighter, and also that way you would automatically benefit from improvements to the default skin. Have a look at the BlueGlass skin for the list of required files.
Actually here it is as of version 1.1:
cold Metal looks very nice, but the blue theme... I don't like as much.
yea, it didn't come out as planned, expect a updated better version later tonight
Thanks for that list Laurent22300
I'll be sure to update both of them tonight
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
The black internal border is missing in the area of the minimize and eject buttons.
support moved over here
https://portableapps.com/node/16790
I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I'll look and try to fix it asap
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
There's not a whole lot of bad things to comment on; I was kinda clutching at straws there.
Other than that, it all looks good and it looks like a great application. Great work.
(Also, I'm running Vista SP1 and it works fine.)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
# There's no real need to call it "AppetizerPortable", just call it "Appetizer" (e.g. follow Toucan's lead)
I don't like much the "portable" appended to the name of all the app either but I think I'm going to leave it to keep the PAF more "standard compliant". Anyway, I think the simplest way to use Appetizer is to get the zip file and drop its contents at the root of the drive
# You're missing a help.html and associated graphics. You might want to fix that
Thanks! I will add that.
Adding "Portable" is good for programs that have been made portable, that have non-portable equivalents. Since your program does not, I also think you can go with just "Appetizer".
I've made the change - from the next version the app will now only be called "Appetizer" everywhere, without the "Portable" part.
A new version (1.1.0.7) is available in the main post. As with the previous release, it comes in three files:
- A zip package (probably the simplest way to install Appetizer)
- A PortableApps installer
- A normal installer
Icon size "small" and the whole "Import shortcuts" window , I´ll send you the de translation, so check your spam folder Done. Sent you an updated update for locale and an update for helpfile.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Thanks, got your spam
I sent you the new locale and help.So, tidy up your spam folder ;). Still the translation of the icon size "small" doesn´t show up in the GUI.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
I am not a fan of the supermax icons that are the default, I think "large" icons are large enough.
Any chance you can exclude the portable apps menu application by default?
I wish I could exit the program without having to kill it or without ejecting the flash drive.
The new configuration menu is great, good work!
I am not a fan of the supermax icons that are the default, I think "large" icons are large enough.
Yes I guess I was just glad to get the 48x48 icons working so I made it the default I'll change that to 32x32 in the next release because it's true that it probably won't be used much (except for people with very large screens).
Any chance you can exclude the portable apps menu application by default?
I don't really want to exclude any bapplication y default, since otherwise some users will think that the dock doesn't work and is not importing some apps. Also it's really up to the user to decide which applications should be excluded and which ones shouldn't. Once you remove the PAM app, it will automatically go to the exclusion list anyway.
I wish I could exit the program without having to kill it or without ejecting the flash drive.
Well you can right-click on the tray icon and select "Close" However I agree it's not so obvious. I think I'll add an option to decide what should happen when clicking on the "x" button: whether minimizing the dock or closing it. By default it would be "closing", that way it would more closely match what most users will except.
Don't exclude Apps by default. Its better to have all of them.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
This is a replacement for the standard portable apps launcher, therefore that does not need to show up on the launcher.
I guess I'm mostly unhappy that it and the other two programs - backup and restore - always show up first; if they could be made to be the last icons I wouldn't care if they were there or not.
Its not intended as a replacement to PAM, it's an alternative. It should show everything the user tells it to show.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Another great update. No bugs encountered so far.
1 suggestion on the hotkey. Make it toggle visibility, rather than automatically show the window. (if Appetizer is the active window, then hide it.....if Appetizer window is on desktop but covered by another window, or if Appetizer is hidden, bring to front or show the window)
Edit: 1 more suggestion, make Large the default icon size. I think setting the icon size to Extra Large could be overwhelming to some users. Or rename the icon sizes to Small, Medium (Default), Large
Edit 2: lol 1 more. Add the Desktop as a place to import icons from
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
1 suggestion on the hotkey. Make it toggle visibility, rather than automatically show the window. (if Appetizer is the active window, then hide it.....if Appetizer window is on desktop but covered by another window, or if Appetizer is hidden, bring to front or show the window)
I actually thought that's how it was working. I'll check that to see if there is bug somewhere.
Add the Desktop as a place to import icons from
Thanks, I'll add that. I'm also thinking of having an option to import a user-specified folder, but that's slighlty more complex.
For hotkey.....it doesnt hide if visible, but the bring to front or show works
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
This is just a fix release to integrate the changes discussed here since Tuesday. Once again thanks for the useful feedback!
Next version will include encryption (will depend if I find an encryption lib lightweight enough) and killing the apps opened by the dock.
nickname is wk instead of WT...
Will come back later after testing..
a short glimpse: de locale isn´t the most recent, gonna send You the last update once again..
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
# Make it to be possible tohave kinda different quick launch group(user-defined)
That would make the use (and implementation) of the multilaunch functionality a lot more complicated, and I'd rather try to keep it simple. The way I see it, not many people would need more than one group anyway - normally you just launch appetizer, then start the multilaunch group once, and that's it.
# As i commented in the actual PNOTES beta, the installer don't dettects the app when running 8·P
Thanks, I actually didn't do any test on that. I'll have a look into it.
An alternative is always a replacement. Alternative means "something else", "instead of", "this or that". What would be the purpose of starting the official menu from this launcher? Therefore there is absolutely no need at all for Appetizer to waste space on the official launcher.
If Laurent wants to keep the PAM icon showing, that's fine, it's his program. I'm just posting ideas & comments.
I like having the icon cause Appetizer has a quickstart possibility and the Menu doesn't. So I can run Appetizer, start my quickstart group ( including the PortableApps.com Menu) and close Appetizer.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I just download and installed Appetizer_Portable_1.1.1.23.paf.exe
(clean install) - I just got a message:
The ordinal 727 could not be loacated in the dynamic link library SHELL32.dll
I'm using windows2000
after I close that window Appetizer does not run
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." - Edward R. Murrow
Thanks, I'll take a look at that. Are you using a special theme like "zune"?
theme? you mean on windows? no...just the basic windows 2000 look. (service pak 4)
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." - Edward R. Murrow
Ok I've gave it a try on Windows 2000 and it's indeed broken for this OS. I need to figure out what's causing this error.
Ok it should (hopefully) be fixed in the latest version 1.1.2.26.
yippy Skippy!!! you da man!
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." - Edward R. Murrow
Any chance the popup with the extra icons could be skinned as well?
It is obviously not important for the functioning of the application, could even be detrimental to performance, but it would look cool(er).
I did try to skin the popups too, but I never managed to get to work properly so went back to normal popups. I might give it another try some day.
Very nice, just two little aesthetically things I have to ask for:
ZAP
(sorry for my lousy English ...)
# Could U please change the apps icon back to former MLBs one (that prune-olive-lemon? or whatever is nearly invisible on darker/smaller task bars, ie. on my netbook).
The previous icon was just meant to be temporary. I actually prefer it because it's more visible, but it's too generic and the USB sign makes it look like it's only for USB keys, when it can also be used as a "normal" app. Well, if you or somebody else have some suggestions on how to make the olive icon more visible, I'm open to it
# These ugly yellow windows tool tips should be skinned again (like MLB)
I'll see if it can be done with wxWidgets.
I am finding the pop-up to organize groups VERY Slow and tedious. There is a several second delay between when you move one link and when you can move the next. Likely caused by writes to the USB. Is there a way to cache that and speed it up a little?
I prefer the way the PATCHED PAM handles groups. Right Click on the link and use a drop down menu to assign the group to put it in
Also, when you open the dialog to create a group it does not automatically give the focus the the group name. You have click on that field to type in it. Seems a little awkward.
Otherwise nice work,
Paul
I am finding the pop-up to organize groups VERY Slow and tedious. There is a several second delay between when you move one link and when you can move the next. Likely caused by writes to the USB. Is there a way to cache that and speed it up a little?
Ok, this is supposed to be optimized already. I'm going to check why it's not as fast as it should be.
I prefer the way the PATCHED PAM handles groups. Right Click on the link and use a drop down menu to assign the group to put it in
Good point, and that should be quite easy to add this feature.
Also, when you open the dialog to create a group it does not automatically give the focus the the group name. You have click on that field to type in it. Seems a little awkward.
Thanks, will check that.
Therefor I'm guilty for its quaint name I also have to create some skins, I think.
Here are the first ones:
Preview & Download
Greetings,
MrE
BTW: It IS a menu, if you're using Appetizer, you don't need a 2nd one.
Life is crunchy, anywhere
I also added a skin in PAM Classic style.
Preview & Download
Only horizontal using allowed.
Life is crunchy, anywhere
Pages