Suite neither installed nor used.
I wish to have launchers of all my portable apps
to be collected in one place on the pen-drive.
E.g. in a dedicated folder.
Windows shortcuts don't work, they need absolute paths.
How would be the procedure for creating these launchers?
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Thanks to your answers to my other forum thread
I realized that PortableApps Platform is not necessary
for running particular portable application.
All one need is the portable version of asked application,
if available at all.
Well, here the tree of my pen:
pen-root
winapps
portapp1
portapp2
portapp3
...
Now I wish to collect launch icons to all port. apps in one common directory. This directory should be placed at the same tree level as "winapps". These launchers don't have
to be launchers in terms of PortableApplications. They can
have also form of windows shortcuts to real launchers for example.
If accomplishing this goal by real PortApps launchers,
how is the procedure? Is it possible this way at all?
will probably tell this solution is somehow not practical for various reasons, but I assume you can just take the source of every launcher (they are included) and change the path jumps to the actual exe there and recompile it...
But as you can imagine, absolute jumps are not very nice here, portability is then not given and thus all this jumping by relative will be more complex I assume.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
pen-root +--winapps +--portapp1 +--portapp2 +--portapp3 +--launchersabove the wished tree structure
Well, I found instructions regarding compiling the installer.
But in this case all I have to do is the recompilation
of existing FirefoxPortable launcher. After required
path adaptations are carried out.
How different is launcher recompilation from installer compilation?
Does the "PortableApps.com Installer 0.13.3 (2009-04-23)" creates the launcher and makes it available as separate file?
I don't understand why it should be possible to compile with
relevant paths.
on the launchers, but you have to see it simplified like this: the launcher will look for the thing to be launched on defined place relative to its position. Absolute paths are not of big use since under windows a drive letter is assigned to the drive and this might be different every time you stick the usb flash somewhere.
For that there are mechanisms in the launcher to deal with the problem to jump some positions back and then again for in the tree giving exact place where the thing you want start is hiding, well it might be slightly more complex then the current solution.
But the installer is not creating the launcher, this is separate software in which all the tricks to run the app portable are done.
So unless some of the launcher authors here will give you exact way , you might just try.
Perhaps you could explain what is the aim of this very special and unusual setup and then the authors of the launcher might be able to guide you to the solution or give you some ideas for some workaround.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Use the suite or create your own.
a helpful comment, please refrain from them in the future. The poster may well have a good reason to want his apps in this layout.
of course, I tell you the reason of my aims.
In my opinion the platform is redundant element in the whole system. Keep in mind, the simpler the system the smaller the risk of issues - always and everywhere.
In this sense the available launchers are sufficient.
Furthermore I don't think the platform introduces added values in theirs real sense. Yes, one have document folder
and similar, but theirs placement determines the platform, not the user. One have the backup facility. But back-ups can be done in plenty of other ways. And so on.
The main reason is keeping the whole system as simple as possible, to reduce all superfluous components.
Important aspect; that with launchers, it should be common concept for all portable applications.
So, no way to rebuild the particular launcher for purposes of adaptation to own needs?
The link is on this site.
https://portableapps.com/suite
So if you want to create your own modified version of the launcher, DL the source code and give it a go!
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Do I have the correct understanding of installer and launcher usage/concepts?
Installer just to be able to populate the portable applications to removable media, to media they are not yet installed on. Is this correct?
Launcher - small application allowing the user to invoke a portable application. Launchers of all port apps have identical build. Is this correct?
Yes, the installers basically place the applications on the removable media.
Yes, the launcher allows the user to invoke the application.
No, not all launchers are identical, because they do more than just start the application.
Each application presents different challenges, depending on how the original app was made. Some applications try to write to the system folders, some to the registry, some to the user profile folders. When a developer "portablizes" an app, that person needs to consider all of these things, and to write the appropriate code into the launcher to deal with these challenges. So every launcher is customized to a particular app.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
So, for example FirefoxPortable.exe is a launcher.
In terms of my concept it would be sufficient to collect
all such launchers in one common folder (removable media). In a folder no other stuff is placed.
Why gave you me then a link to suite and referenced to its source?
In this case source of Firefox Portable would be appropriate, or not?
Sorry, I thought you were looking to make a custom version of the platform, not Firefox.
Most of the apps are distributed with the source code for their launchers.
While each launcher must be adapted to the particular app, they do tend to have a similar folder structure within their respective directories.
For instance, the directory structure for Portable Firefox is
\FirefoxPortable\ |-FirefoxPortable.exe (the launcher) |-\App\ |-\Firefox\ |-Firefox.exe (the base executable)There are, of course, other files in there, but the main point is that the FirefoxPortable.exe launcher is coded to start Firefox.exe from the \App\Firefox\ directory.
If you want to put all the launchers into one directory, you would need to do one of the following:
1. Mix all the App, Data, and Other folders from all your apps into one directory structure. That would be highly risky and would probably break at least one app or another. Also, updating apps would be a nightmare.
2. Recode all the launchers to exist all in one folder, but leave the other folders as they are. You would need to recode every launcher to look in an different path than the defaults that are released from here. If your objective is to decrease the amount of effort needed to launch apps, this is not going to do it for you. And upgrades might still be problematic.
3. Create special launchers that in turn, launch the launchers. This way, you could leave all the apps exactly as they are released from here, but you would still need to code a special launcher for each app.
I know you think your idea would be simpler, but there is a lot more complexity to creating portable apps than you think, and your concept wouldn't really be practical.
You really would be better off using some app to link to the launchers. If you don't like the Portable Apps Platform, there are others out there that can do the same thing, like 8Start and Cylog Toolbox.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Would be to install all the apps in a folder of your choice (say Applications) and then at the top level of Applications (the apps themselves should all be in subfolders), make batch files that call the launchers. So for FirefoxPortable.bat:
The CLS at the end, if you're curious, just ensures that the command prompt window closes when it's done.
CLS cleans the log of the window. The CMD window will close unless it's launched within DOS
Will updates be really problematic in case of solution #2?
Custom launchers are isolated, native application doesn't change often its interfaces to OS.
OK, I have found the introduction to development.
I saw instructions for building the installer.
I know, sources of all port apps have source of associated launcher included. I know where can the sources be pulled down from.
I know the launcher is written in NSIS language.
But how will be the launcher recompilation procedure? The NSIS wiki to be consulted for this purpose?
I do have still gaps in understanding how the portable application process looks.
Do the authors of port. application really adapt the native application and additionally create the launcher?
Or is the goal of portable development just to produce the launcher without interfering into the native application?
"Step 4: The Code
Next, you'll want to create a launcher or wrapper to make the necessary changes to the app when it is launched."
This statement means, the part of portable app creation is
adaptation of native application as well. Not only addition of some launcher.