I'm new to developing Mac OSX apps via Delphi (Berlin) and don't know where to put resource files. In Windows I can write ImageControl1.LoadFromFile('aFile.png'); and know that's referencing the directory where my executable is located. Or I can do something like make and reference the path to a separate directory where I'm putting resources.
But I don't know where to put resources or how their paths work when developing on a Windows machine for an app that'll be compiled and run on a Mac. I tried putting an image file in the Delphi project's OSX subdirectory as well as entering a complete path, i.e., LoadFromFile('path/goes/here'). I also tried using forward and backward slashes in the path name expression. In each case I got an error (when compiling for Mac, not Windows). I'm sort of thinking the files should live on the Mac somewhere...but I'm lost.
I'm hoping someone could tell me where to put these kinds of resource files, or how to properly reference them, when developing Mac apps on a Windows machine (or, alternatively, a good reference or two that'll explain it to me ... I looked online but couldn't find an answer).
There's some info about the structure of macOS app bundles, here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/BundleTypes/BundleTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000123i-CH101-SW19
In the Delphi Deployment Manager, resources can be deployed to a remote path of:
Contents\Resources\
And subfolders thereof. The following code should return the root of the .app package:
NSStrToStr(TNSBundle.Wrap(TNSBundle.OCClass.mainBundle).bundlePath)
Add /Contents/Resources (and applicable subfolders) to that path, and you can load the deployed files from there
Related
I am not a Mac owner and am putting myself through a crash course to get up to speed (e.g., reading "Switching to the Mac"), to give you an indication of my current level of understanding. The access I have to a physical Mac is limited, so I am trying to connect as many dots as possible before my next session with my friend's computer.
I have: a file folder containing all resources needed for a self-contained application written with Java (OpenJDK 11, JavaFX 11). The JLINK tool was successfully used to create this file folder, and it holds all necessary Java libraries as well as the code I wrote for the application. The executable resides in a subfolder: /bin. The program runs perfectly well on the Mac when the executable is run.
I want: something that is easy to download, install and run.
I'm unclear about what needs to be done to get this. The road map seems to have two main steps:
the file folder needs to be converted into something that responds as if it were an application (e.g., a Bundle? or an .app?)
the resulting folder-as-executable can be shipped via either .dmg or .pkg
For the second part, I've researched and found tools such as Packages or create-dmg. It seems to me these tools are pretty straightforward and shouldn't be too difficult to learn to use. (Just have to pick one or the other or something similar.)
For the first part, I'm on shaky conceptual ground. I've found info about Bundles, but no tutorials, walk-throughs or examples. It looks like a key step is understanding how to make a proper Info.plist file, but doing this properly looks tricky. Also, I'm not clear on how the resulting Bundle will become an .app file or if it needs to, or if there is another, more direct way to make my file folder be viewed by the OS as an application.
Some hand-holding or references to tutorials or even assurance that I am on the right track (if that is the case) would be much appreciated. Thanks!
The Java Deployment guide from Oracle relies heavily on ANT, but doesn't cover the case of a self-contained, customized JVM via JLINK well enough for me to decipher. So, I've taken the approach of trying to learn/understand the necessary steps using command-line commands.
While creating a Bundle is certainly an option, there is an easier way.
Step one is to make an .app manually. An answer to this question: "How to make a Mac OS X .app with a shell script?" goes over the basic steps. The Java file system that results from jlinking has a folder /bin in which there is a bash file that runs the program. This file should be moved to the outermost folder, and it should be named the desired name of the application. The bash file itself will have to be edited and "/bin" added to the address in last command so that the executable will be found. In addition, the folder itself will have to be renamed to be the same as the bash file, but with .app added as an extension.
The next thing I wanted to have was a custom icon. The question "Include icon in manually created app bundle" shows how to do this.
For the next step I made use of the program "Packages". I'm a bit confused about where I downloaded this from (there seem to be multiple sites), but here is a link to the manual. This tool allowed me to create a .pkg file that, when executed, installs my .app in the Applications folder. Then I compressing the .pkg file (to .zip) and made it available at a URL for downloading.
I've had a friend do a test download and install, and the program works!
This isn't meant to be a complete tutorial, and there are a few steps more that I want to figure out pertaining to sandboxing and sealing, but I believe this is a reasonable roadmap that can be used for simpler jlinked Java applications for Mac distribution.
On every other platform but Mac OSX, when I build and install a native package, the default working directory is "." to the JAR file. Even on OSX, if I delve inside the .app folder and manually run the JAR, the working directory is correct. However, if I run the application by simply clicking on the .app launcher, the working path ends up as "/Users/[username]
". Does anyone know how to configure the JavaFX native installer (perhaps info.plist?) to prevent this from occurring?
I think the launcher native executable sets this path. It is not plist configurable. The reasoning seemed to be in anticipation of OS X sandboxed applications and the limited file system access that they involve. So, basically there was no real good choice but they didn't want to encourage counting on access to the application bundle or it's parent directory.
This may sound like I'm just looking for a .exe file, but I'm not all that familiar with windows. I have been using pyinstaller to turn my apps into binaries. My app relies on a lot data directories and third party binaries that I package within the same directory as the executable binary. For Mac, this makes things easy because the user only has to click on MyApp.app inside the applications directory which is like a link to MyApp.app/Contents/MacOs/MyApp. This way MyApp never has to be touched and is all bundled together with the data directories (also loaded inside of MyApp.app/Contents/MacOs/).
However, I can't really find a windows equivalent. While Pyinstaller can create a directory with my data directories and executable inside of it, if the user ever moves the .exe file inside the directory, the app will never work (because it loses its relative location to the data directories). Is there such a thing that can package this directory like on MacOS so the user just has to click on a single .exe file that links to the .exe inside the directory packaged within it? That way we can just pass around one directory. Like a Mac.app?
Win32 apps store data within the executable file as resources, which allows the single file solution, but they can't be accessed using normal file APIs, there are a separate set of functions for resource handling. (This implies that resources aren't so useful for things that absolutely have to be files, like images of helper executables.)
Win32 also has alternate data streams, which are more similar to what you're used to with .app packages, separating a local identifier from the actual filename by $DATA:. But those only work on NTFS, get lost by many file management applications, never have been very popular, and are now effectively deprecated by Microsoft (by preventing access from Windows Store apps).
Google turns up nothing but very basic set up of web servers on the Mac. I've got that.
I build web projects locally on a Mac using PHP/MySQL. I store the sites in /Library/WebServer/Documents then access them via browsers with http://localhost.
This works fine.
What I would like to do is to be able to place symlinks or aliases of projects into the /WebServer/Documents folder and access sites on other (local) drives. I don't want to have to store everything in the Library folder. However, it seems that symlinks don't work. The only way a project functions is if all it's files are located in the /Library folder - no symlinks.
I realize I can change the root path for the web server in the http.conf file but I don't want to actually change the server path, I merely want to use symlinks if possible. I also realize I could use something like MAMP, but things run fine with my traditional set up (and I prefer to avoid MAMP since it's not always real-world). Main motivation here is that I don't want to store files on the boot volume, where there Library folder is located.
Can I use symlinks for directories with Mac OS10.6.8/Apache? if so how, please?
Thanks!
Solved via this article at Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21182?viewlocale=en_US
One must specifically create a symbolic link. Which, it appears, is not the same as an Alias on the Mac OS.
But this isn't feature of MAMP application, this is about web server. Make it through MAMP and go see what is new in apache config files (httpd.conf, vhost.conf).
you have to use symlinks instead of an alias... sad there is no ui for that!
you have to go into the Terminal and type:
ln -s /ORIGINALPATH /LINKEDPATH
the first PATH is the base path of the original file and the second is for the base path for the symlink of the file/folder etc
I have switched to Mac as my main development machine (coming from Fedora) and was just curious as to what people used as there development folder structure. For example in Fedora I always had ~/opt for user programs ~/src for source code I was working on and ~/bin for files I constantly executed. Is there a Mac de facto. What do you guys perfer?
Thanks,
Greg
I use the directory ~/Developer as the root of my development-related files. Inside that I have ~/Developer/Code for code snippets, tutorial code, test ideas, etc. I have a ~/Developer/Projects directory to hold in-development projects. This contains a few subdirectories, including Archives for projects I've abandoned, and Current for current development work. ~/Projects is also a symlink to ~/Developer/Projects/Current.
To add to #mipadi, after a recent fresh install of OSX 10.10.2 (Yosemite) I noticed that if you create a ~/Developer folder, that folder automatically receives a special folder icon (with a hammer on it). This property seems to be an artifact of older versions of Xcode, in which it would automatically create the folder for you.
I have 3 folders in home:
Sandbox - my source control checkouts
Dev - projects that are not in source control (tests, experiments, etc.)
3rdPartyDev - 3rd party code I've downloaded and want to keep around
I try to keep as much 3rd party code around as possible. With the Mac's Spotlight feature, you can instantly search all the code at once. If there's an API I need to see example code for, I just Spotlight for it and chances are some code in there is already using it.
I have a big messy folder called "code" full of Xcode projects.
In Mac, for all developer projects there is a specific folder inside the home directory called ~/Developer, which when you create automatically has a customised icon.
You can thus subdivide using this:
Experiments: things you just want mess around with.
Public: open source
Private: private projects
Learning: If you're on a learning path to track your progress and milestones.