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authorMarius Vlad <marius.vlad@collabora.com>2023-02-22 11:56:16 +0200
committerJan-Simon Moeller <jsmoeller@linuxfoundation.org>2023-03-22 15:06:26 +0000
commit537b1f6318a841133e87d6cbb919ff9c6963bc97 (patch)
tree97cfd6df5eb3bb7508e1ea60f50a0aa0a70de18c /docs/04_Developer_Guides/01_Application_Framework/04_Creating_a_New_Application.md
parentac9ff647708f2165a468f341932dc73c5cf02ef7 (diff)
01_Application_Framework: Migrate new service and new application creation
This moves out 03_Creating_a_New_Service and 04_Creating_a_New_Application under Application Framework folder, as they don't really make sense being outside of it, when in fact they are referring quite a lot to the Application Framework, being dependent on the D-Bus IPC. Bug-AGL: SPEC-4700 Signed-off-by: Marius Vlad <marius.vlad@collabora.com> Change-Id: I08819725efa89afe0b44ff7e3146906c43ff40d0 (cherry picked from commit a6598a4a7f4e494108997340dbbc7095be514c7e) Reviewed-on: https://gerrit.automotivelinux.org/gerrit/c/AGL/documentation/+/28538 Reviewed-by: Jan-Simon Moeller <jsmoeller@linuxfoundation.org> Tested-by: Jan-Simon Moeller <jsmoeller@linuxfoundation.org>
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+---
+title: Creating a New Application
+---
+
+Applications are:
+
+- Software designed to perform a specific task during a limited amount of time.
+- Graphical interface allowing user to interact with.
+
+Applications are executed by `applaunchd`, the AGL
+[application launcher service](../01_Application_Framework/02_Application_Startup/).
+
+# Basic requirements
+
+In order to be enumerated by `applaunchd`, applications must provide the a `.desktop` file, as
+defined by the [Desktop Entry specification](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html).
+
+The desktop entry file should be installed to `/usr/share/applications` (or the `applications`
+sub-directory of any entry present in the `XDG_DATA_DIRS` environment variable) and have a
+meaningful name. It is considered good practice to use reverse-DNS notation for the desktop
+entry file name, following the recommendations of the [D-Bus specification](https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html#message-protocol-names):
+- this avoids potential name collisions with other desktop entry files
+- it makes it easier to enable [D-Bus activation](#d-bus-activation) during the application
+ development cycle if needed
+- for [graphical applications](#graphical-applications), it ensures the chosen Wayland `app-id`
+ will be unique
+
+Such a file must contain at least the following keys:
+- `Type`: desktop entry type, must be set to `Application`
+- `Name`: application name, as it should be displayed in menus and application launchers
+- `Exec`: full path to the main executable
+
+Below is an example of a minimal desktop entry file:
+
+```
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Name=Example Application
+Exec=/usr/bin/example-app
+```
+
+Graphical applications must also provide an `Icon` entry pointing to the application icon.
+The value for this entry must either be the full path to the icon's file or, for icons part
+of an existing [icon theme](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-spec/icon-theme-spec-latest.html),
+the name of an element of this theme.
+
+In addition, a number of optional fields can be used to change how `applaunchd` will consider the
+application:
+- `Version`: version of the Desktop Entry Specification the file conforms to, must be `1.5`
+- `Hidden`: boolean value, if `true` the application is always ignored by `applaunchd` and
+ won't be listed nor executed
+- `Terminal`: boolean value, if `true` the application is excluded when requesting the list of
+ graphical applications from `applaunchd`
+- `DBusActivatable`: boolean value, must be `true` for [D-Bus activated applications](#d-bus-activation)
+- `Implements`: list of D-Bus interfaces the application implements, only used for D-Bus activated
+ applications.
+
+Finally, graphical applications may also define the `StartupWMClass` key in some cases. Please
+refer to the [graphical applications](#graphical-applications) section for more information.
+
+# D-Bus activation
+
+Similarly to [services](../02_Creating_a_New_Service/#d-bus-activation), applications can
+also be activated through D-Bus.
+
+Such applications must name their `.desktop` file after the D-Bus name they register. In addition,
+this file must contain the following entries:
+
+```
+DBusActivatable=true
+Implements=IFACE1;IFACE2;...
+```
+
+Where `IFACEn` are the names of the D-Bus interfaces the application implements.
+
+In addition, they must provide a D-Bus service file named `NAME.service` and installed
+to `/usr/share/dbus-1/services`.
+
+The contents of the D-Bus service file must be the following:
+
+```
+[D-BUS Service]
+Name=NAME
+Exec=/path/to/executable
+```
+
+For example, an application registering the `org.automotivelinux.Example` D-Bus name
+and implementing the `org.automotivelinux.Example.Search1` and `org.automotivelinux.Example.Execute1`
+interfaces would provide the following files:
+
+* Desktop entry (`/usr/share/applications/org.automotivelinux.Example.desktop`):
+
+```
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Version=1.5
+Name=Example Application
+Exec=/usr/bin/example-app
+Icon=example-icon
+Terminal=false
+DBusActivatable=true
+Implements=org.automotivelinux.Example.Search1;org.automotivelinux.Example.Execute1
+```
+
+* D-Bus service file (`/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.automotivelinux.Example.service`):
+
+```
+[D-BUS Service]
+Name=org.automotivelinux.Example
+Exec=/usr/bin/example-app
+```
+
+*Note: in addition to their own D-Bus interface, D-Bus activated applications must also
+implement the `org.freedesktop.Application` interface as defined in the
+[Desktop Entry specification](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/1.1/ar01s07.html).*
+
+# Graphical applications
+
+In addition, graphical applications need to comply with a few more requirements:
+
+1\. Each application must set a Wayland application ID appropriately as soon as its main window
+is created.
+
+2\. The `app-id` must be specified in the desktop entry file by adding the following line:
+
+```
+StartupWMClass=APP_ID
+```
+
+3\. The desktop entry file must be named `APP_ID.desktop`.
+
+Doing so will ensure other software can associate the actual `app-id` to the proper application.
+
+*Note: application ID's are set using the [XDG toplevel](https://wayland-book.com/xdg-shell-basics/xdg-toplevel.html)
+Wayland interface.*