[Code] The Project Reality Launcher

[addaco]

Having approval from R-DEV Fuzzhead ( Fuzzy) development for the PR Launcher is in full swing.

This thread will be to update the community on developments, beta versions (testing ) and also ideas. Also I will be keeping a sort of "diary", so updates can be kept track of.
For those of you who do not know about the launcher, please see this thread, as I cant be asked to explain it all again : http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f18-...-launcher.html

And if anybody has skills that would benefit the team, PM me

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Diary 1: The core stable. Thanks to Jonny for the work on it so far
Diary 2: Attempting to make the GUI Im getting many errors

[Jonny]

The core is NOT built, there is simply a usable definition of the basic data structures. Its still missing a lot of functionality and housekeeping stuff.

[addaco]

Originally Posted by Jonny

The core is NOT built, there is simply a usable definition of the basic data structures. Its still missing a lot of functionality and housekeeping stuff.

Ok, waht I ment was stable , editing post to correct the current progress

[MCI]

I'm not a programmer or a coder but if you need any photoshop support PM me

[Jonny]

I appear to have almost all of the basic functionality coded now, still need to clean up some things and add much better error handling.

Still not too late to volunteer to code a GUI, if anyone is interested...

[[R-DEV]Tonnie]

this will be so helpful hurry up and get it done or i will kill all of you.... just kidding but really

[Jonny]

Finally got a beta version finished!

Most of the planned features are now in place, apparently working, and (AFAIK) its stable.

The few things left to do are to sort out the background to be a more 'PR' grey, get the command line options working properly, and make a proper installer for it. There are probably a few more things to add yet to make it as useful as possible, but I need testers to find out what they are.

How to change the buttons:

Some applications can be added and removed in the options menu, its pretty straightforward to use it so I'll let you figure it out on your own. Not all can be removed by that method though. This is to make sure you dont accidentally remove the button to launch PR from the XML data file.

The data file is split into 3 main parts:

1: The 'Apps' part, containing the applications launched by pressing one of the big long button(s) at the top and the buttons with checkboxes beside them. Its important their order is not changed.

2: The 'Groups' part, containing some references to what those big long button(s) will launch every time they are pressed. The references are stored as an id which is used to access the appropriate app via a subscript, hence its important they remain in the same order. 99% of the time a group will reference just one application, but it is possible to reference many.

3: The 'MiscApps' part, containing the data for the buttons below the big long ones at the top and above the ones with checkboxes. Only the W flag has any effect here, the rest do not apply.

Both apps and miscapps have a 'flags' field. It is populated with single character flags which dictate the behaviour of the application. The flags currently available, and what they do, are:
H - wait until this app has finished executing before starting the next in the list.
W - the path argument is interpreted as a URL. The 'file:' prefix can be used like the 'http:' prefix, but specifies the path refers to a local file on your HD to be opened with the appropriate registered program.
C - the application appears checked if it appears with a checkbox next to it in the main GUI. It has no effect if I is set.
I - The application is not visible in the main GUI, but it can still be started by reference from a group. Apps with this flag should appear at the top of the list so their references are not invalidated if a visible app is removed (you have been warned).

Download Link

The download should include all the files you need to run it, please post if it doesn't so that I can add anything thats missing and fix the above link. Simply place them all in the same folder somewhere (C:\Program Files\PRLauncher, for instance) and then edit the data file with any text editor of your choice. The sample data file included with it is to give you some examples so that you dont need to write the XML code out in full when you start to add more stuff to it.

You might need to change the path to PR.exe, if you installed in a different directory to the one I have, but the Forum and PR Spy links should work fine.

If you find something is lacking (I'm sure someone will, I dont think I can write a perfect application on my first attempt...), post about it. Otherwise I cant do anything about it.

I have been using it for a while now, and I find it VERY useful. It allows me to have 11 fewer things on my desktop. Here is a screenshot to show you how much stuff I have on it:

It can handle much, much more than that. But it might not fit on the screen if you put too much on it.







I assume this needs a licence, so:
This software is provided 'as is', with no warranty or guarantee it will work as intended or expected. You use it at your own risk and I cannot be held personally responsible for any loss or damage to any hardware or software. Use of this software implies agreement with this licence.

You may re-distribute/reverse-engineer/modify it in any manner you wish, provided you credit myself as the original author.








Due to this being primarily aimed at launching PR and also in a beta stage, I assume it OK to use the PR dogtags as the application icon. If not, just let me know.

[Wilkinson]

Excellent work Jonny. Really Ace stuff

[[R-DEV]Matrox]

Really good job man, I'm going to try it out!

[[R-CON]Tomato-Rifle]

What's PR spy?