Adding Software

1. Create an app config file

   mb_armada/app_configs/software.json

2. Create an app path resolver

   mb_utils/path_resolver/resolver_templates/armada/apps/software/software_template.py

3. Create a launch hook

   mb_armada/hooks/launchers/software_hook.py 3a. Optional: Create pythonpath directories to launch other software or plugins at startup

   mb_armada/hooks/launchers/apps/software/scripts mb_armada/hooks/launchers/apps/software/plugins

4. Add app icon to resources

Configs

• An app config file should be placed in Armada’s app_configs directory and should be named like this: software.json.

• JSON file data

  {

  “working_dir”: “dir_name”,

  “extension”: “ext”

  }

• working_dir: The folder name of the directory that the software typically saves to

  • Example: Maya’s working_dir is called “scenes”

• “extension”: Some programs can save in multiple file formats (binary, ascii). For these programs it’s useful to restrict users to a single extension.

  • Example: Maya has binary and ascii formats for its save files.

  • Ascii is good for working files because things can become corrupt and having the ability to read and edit the file by hand will allow you to recover documents

    • Binary isn’t editable, but the file size is smaller. This makes it a good format for asset exporting.

Resolver Templates

• A template file in mb_util’s resolver templates path that contains all the extra directories required for a software

  • Example: Maya’s working directory, scenes, has many sibling directories such as images, assets, renderData, etc.

  • With these templates you can add your own custom directories on top of the defaults.

Launch Hooks

• A launch hook runs the software and sets all the necessary environment variables from within the hook

  • Some software will allow you to add paths to

    • If so add a software folder to hook/app and add any necessary folders such as “scripts” or “plugins”

• You can create your own environment variables here