◊ The Custom Launcher is a simple launching utility that can be easily modified with ResEdit to incorporate your own settings, graphics and sounds. It can be customized to launch applications, open documents and folders, or handle URLs - all with a single click or keystroke. You can build your own cool interface to frequently used items and share it with your friends, create a custom version to use as the main entry point for a commercial CD-ROM, or modify the basic interface to do whatever else you feel like doing.
• Authoring license: $50
◊ This program is distributed as shareware: if you want to create your own custom version and distribute it to an unlimited number of end users please honor the shareware system by paying $50 U.S. to Kagi through the provided Register utility.
• End user license: free
◊ The Custom Launcher is free for end users who receive it from someone who paid the above fee. Both clean and custom versions can be freely distributed through any of the usual channels (internet, online services, CD-ROMs, floppies, etc...).
• Using Register
◊ To get your authoring license, please launch the Register utility that came with the Custom Launcher. Enter your name, your email address (if available), and the number of licenses you wish to purchase. Save, copy or print the data from the Register application and send it to Kagi along with your payment. Kagi will process your registration and forward your payment to me. If you’re on the Internet, an online registration site is also available at the above URL.
◊ If you don’t want to pay through Kagi, you can send your payment in cash directly to my Italian address. Please provide your name, your address, your email, and the name and version of the software you’re registering.
◊ You may want to get a copy of the complete ALM Share and ALM Free packages, which contain most of my shareware and freeware programs and can be registered at a very low price. The packages are available as two large compressed archives and can be downloaded from my web and ftp sites.
◊ Please register: your support is the only way for me to keep working on cool shareware programs.
• Kagi registrations
◊ Payments sent via email and through the online registration site are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when your registration is done. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days. You will also be notified by email if you provide a correct internet email address. Payments sent via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
◊ If you pay with a credit card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is <sales@kagi.com> and their fax number is +1-510-652-6589. You can either copy the data from Register and paste it into the body of an email message, or you can save the data to a file and attach the file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it’s already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just print the data to the Kagi fax number.
◊ You can also pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries, or with a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies. In both cases you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-67
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
U.S.A.
◊ If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You may want to highlight the line that reminds them to include a copy of the form with their payment.
◊ Kagi cannot invoice your company. If you need an invoice, you must act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
◊ Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate cash, check or invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.
• Customizing the Launcher
◊ To modify the Custom Launcher, open a copy of the application with ResEdit and modify the 'APPS' resource using the provided template. Here's a description of the various fields:
◊ Start sound and Back sound: resource IDs of the 'snd ' resources to be played when the Custom Launcher is opened and when the user clicks on the background picture. Set these fields to 0 if you don't want to play sounds. If you use large sounds, you'll have to increase the Custom Launcher memory partition in Finder's Get Info window.
◊ Back pict: resource ID of the PICT resource to be used as the window's background. The window is automatically resized according to the size of the background picture. If you use a large picture, you may have to increase the Custom Launcher memory partition in the Finder's Get Info window.
◊ Back alert: resource ID of the ALRT resource to be displayed when the user clicks on the background picture. Use 0 if you don't want to display anything.
◊ Items: you can insert any number of buttons in the window. Click the "*****" marker and type Command-K in ResEdit to create a new button, then change the fields described below to modify the button's appearance and behavior.
◊ Signature: if you insert an application signature here, the launcher looks it up on all available disks and launches it wherever it is stored. To use a full or partial pathname instead, insert '????' in this field.
◊ Folder: if you don't specify a signature, you can look for the application by full or partial pathname. This field specifies the starting point for a partial pathname, with the following allowed values:
appl folder of the Launcher application
disk root folder of the Launcher disk
root root folder of the startup disk
macs System folder
desk Desktop folder
amnu Apple Menu Items folder
ctrl Control Panels folder
extn Extensions folder
strt Startup Items folder
shdf Shutdown Items folder
font Fonts folder
pref Preferences folder
???? ignore (=don't launch anything unless a full path is specified)
◊ Path: full or partial pathname of the application to launch, or URL of a resource to open through Internet Config. A full pathname overrides any folder setting and looks like this:
Disk name:Folder name:Folder name:Application name
A partial pathname starts the search at the location specified by the Folder setting, and looks like one of these examples:
:Folder name:Folder name:Application name
:::Folder name:Application name
Application name
(one ":" character is needed before any folder name, and two ":" characters make the path go back one level).
An URL is the location of some Internet resource and looks like one of these:
http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~alm
ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini
mailto:alm@torino.alpcom.it
(note that Internet Config doesn't work with 68000-based machines such as the Mac Plus, SE, Portable and PowerBook 100).
◊ Quit: if this flag is set, the Launcher quits after launching the specified application.
◊ Pict ID: resource ID of the PICT resource to use to draw the button in non-pressed state. The pressed state uses the PICT resource whose resource ID is Pict ID + 1. Note that the two PICTs must share the same size. If you use large pictures, you may have to increase the Custom Launcher memory partition in the Finder's Get Info window. You can use non-rectangular PICTs with a transparent background if you wish; use my Transparentify PICTs utility to remove the background from existing PICTs.
◊ Pict H pos and V pos: position of the top left corner of the button's PICT inside the window. Both values are in pixels.
◊ Key: a key equivalent for the button, or "#" for none. Typing the specified key equivalent (without the Command key) is the same as pressing the button.
◊ Sound ID: resource ID of the 'snd ' resource to be played when the user launches the specified item. Set this field to 0 if you don't want to play a sound. If you use large sounds, you'll have to increase the Custom Launcher memory partition in Finder's Get Info window.
◊ Alert ID: resource ID of the ALRT resource to be displayed when the user clicks this button. Set to 0 if you don't need to display any message when the button is pressed.
• Modifying other resources
◊ You may modify all the resources in the Custom Launcher except for the 'CODE', 'DATA', 'TMPL' and 'vers' 2 resources. The data fork should not be modified either. You’ll want to change the PICTs for graphics, the WIND to change the window title and appearance, the ALRT and DITL to provide your own about box, and the STRs to change the preferences file name. You could also change the 'vers' 1 resource to provide specific Finder information, and the BNDL and icons to give your own Launcher a different icon.
◊ If you want to make the Custom Launcher file smaller, use my PowerPCheck utility to remove the PowerPC code from the application.
• Troubleshooting
◊ If the About box causes problems or the sounds refuse to play, try to increase the Custom Launcher memory partition in the Finder's Get Info window. You should always do that if you use large pictures or large sounds in your customized launchers.
◊ If an application that was specified by its signature won't launch, try to rebuild your desktop by holding down the Command and Option keys at startup while the Finder is being loaded.
◊ If Internet Config refuses to launch an URL, make sure that you have the latest version properly installed and configured for that kind of URL. If it still doesn't work, try to rebuild your desktop as described above.
◊ If the Custom Launcher can't successfully open non-application files and folders, make sure you're running System 7.1 or later with the Finder Scripting Extension installed and running.
◊ All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
◊ All non-profit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
◊ All magazines may publish it on floppy disk or CD-ROM without asking me first, as long as I get a copy of the issue containing my software.
◊ All CD-ROM shareware collections and CD-ROM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD-ROM or an offer to buy the CD-ROM at a discounted price.
◊ All redistribution companies such as Pacific HiTech, AMUG, Celestin or Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalog of the company’s offerings (where applicable).
◊ The latest versions of my stuff are on http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~alm or ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini. The ALM Share and ALM Free packages, which contain most of my stuff and can be registered at a very low price, are also available there.
• Disclaimer
◊ This software should never cause any damage, but you’re using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can make no warranties whatsoever on it.
• Have fun!
◊ And don’t forget to register your shareware, so that more cool inexpensive utilities can see the light in the future.
