Pre-Installed Applications

The Experience Agent supports the launch and process management of pre-installed applications not delivered or managed by the Agent. This is useful for applications such as VLC Player where the application is installed using the standard OS installer and then configured to launch via the Experience Manager.

This document steps through adding a Pre-installed Application to the Experience Manager.

Overview

Lauching a pre-installed application is a two-step process where you must first create the Application and then creating a Node Template with the applications specific launch configuration. You will repeat these steps for each supported operating system/architecture.

For this example, we'll use VLC Player.

Install Application

To get started, download and/or install VLC Player on your Node.

Take note of the installations location, this will be needed later to configure the application. Common locations include:

• Debian Linux: /usr/bin/vlc or /usr/bin/cvlc (Chromeless)
• macOS: /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC
• Windows: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe

Add Application

Once installed, you Application will be added to the Experience Manager as a Pre-installed application.

1. Navigate to Applications/Applications in your Experience Manager
2. Select Add Application

Enter your applications details:

• Application Type: Pre-installed
• OS: Select appropriate OS and architecture
• NS: Enter application namespace, typically reverse namespace (i.e. org.videolan.vlc)
• Name: Enter application name (i.e. VLC Player)
• Status: Enter status, typically Release

Scroll to Launch Configuration:

• Working Directory: This is typically not required, but if your application needs to be run for a specific location, enter the absolute part to the working directory.
• Executable: Enter the absolute path to the applications executable. For VLC see common executable locations above.

INFO

When adding macOS .app applications, .app is not the executable, but a package containing the executable. You will typically find the executable within the Contents/MacOS/ folder within the bundle and the executable will typically have the same name as the .app. For example: /Applications/VLC.app's executable location is: /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC. You can always right-click on the .app and select Show Package Contents to confirm the path.

Enter other application information such as Command Line Arguments, Environment Variables, Shortcuts and other application information as needed.

Select Save to finish the Application entry.

Add Node Template

Applications cannot be used by themselves, the are applied to a Node as a Node Template which tells the Experience Agent how to launch this specific application (specific command line arguments, environment variables).

To add a new Node Template

1. Navigate to Applications/Node Templates in your Experience Manager
2. Select Add Node Template

Add the Applications details:

• Name: Enter Application or Application Configuration name (i.e. My Looping Video)
• OS: Select the operating system/architecture (this MUST match the application you added above)

Scroll down to Template Applications and +/Add a new Application:

• Application: Enter the name of the application to begin searching for the application to add
• Version: As a pre-installed application, Version will always be ignored
• Arguments: Enter the command line arguments (i.e. --in) to launch the application with
• Layer Method: Select what to do with the application window when the application launches, typically Bring to Front
• Autolaunch: Do you want this application to launch automatically?

For example, let's launch VLC Player with the API for Control Gateway integration:

• Application: VLC Player
• Version: n/a
• Arguments: Enter: -f -L --no-video-title-show --extraintf http --http-host 0.0.0.0 --http-port 9090 --http-password yourpassword /path/to/video.mp4
• Layer Method: Bring to Front
• Autolaunch: Yes

Select Save.

Assign Node Template

Once your Node Template is complete, assign it to the Node where you installed VLC and restart the Experience Agent.