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Application launcher

Connect comes built in with an application launcher that allows you to launch DCCs and other applications from within Connect. The application launcher is driven by Actions through events, and is configured through launcher configuration files written in YAML.

note

Migration notice: If you have a custom launcher you will need to migrate this to the new YAML format.

See also:

Launching applications​

Connect comes with the built-in action launcher widget, which is used to render and drive discovered actions. This widget presents the applications discovered by the application launcher as actions.

As well as common actions, Application launchers can be bound to none, one or more Contexts.

Is therefore important to remember to select one in order to discover new applications and integrations.

note

If no applications are available, it is likely that the context is not set or that the integration is not loaded properly. Please check the logs for clues in those scenarios.the

The same goes for launching application from ftrack Studio, with the important additional check to be made ensuring the user logged in to Connect is the same as the one logged on to ftrack Studio.

Selecting integrations​

Each application can request one or more integrations to run, the name of the group will appear next to the version.

Launch configuration​

The launch configuration is a YAML file that aids Connect in locating the application executable and provide other information about the application such as launch arguments, environment variables and paths to framework extensions.application

note

If you are migrating from v2 to v3, please see Migrating from v2 to v3.

As an example, we will have a look at the configuration for the Nuke Studio DCC application:


type: launch_config
name: nuke-studio
context:
- Project
identifier: ftrack-connect-launch-nuke-studio
applicationIdentifier: nuke-studio_{variant}
label: Nuke Studio
icon: nuke_studio
variant: "{version}"
integrations:
  legacy:
  - ftrack-nuke-studio
search_path:
  linux:
    prefix:
    - "/"
    - usr
    - local
    - Nuke.*
    expression:
    - Nuke\d.+
    version_expression: Nuke(?P<version>.*)\/.+$
    launch_arguments:
    - "--studio"
  windows:
    prefix:
    - C:\
    - Program Files.*
    expression:
    - Nuke.*
    - Nuke\d.+.exe
    version_expression: "(?P<version>[\\d.]+[vabc]+[\\dvabc.]*)"
    launch_arguments:
    - "--studio"
  darwin:
    prefix:
    - "/"
    - Applications
    expression:
    - Nuke.*
    - NukeStudio\d[\w.]+.app
environment_variables:
  FOUNDRY_LICENSE_FILE: /Volumes/nas/licenses/floating/foundry/FLEXlm
  PYTHONPATH:
    - "/Volumes/nas/pipeline/dependencies"
    - "/Volumes/nas/home/sverker/ftrack/dependencies"
  • type: The type extension, must be set to 'launcher'.
  • name: The name of the launcher, this is used to identify the launcher in the application launcher.
  • context: The context that the launcher is available in.
  • identifier: The identifier of the launcher, this is used to identify the launcher in the application launcher.
  • applicationIdentifier: The identifier of the application, this is used to identify the application in the application launcher.
  • label: The label of the launcher, used by the UI.
  • icon: The icon of the launcher, used by the UI.
  • variant: The variant of the launchers.
  • integrations: The dependency integrations that are required for the launcher to work.
  • search_path: The search path for the application executable, on each available platform.
  • environment_variables: The environment variables that should be set when launching the application, each variable can either have single or multiple values (list).
  • extensions_path: (Framework based integrations) The paths where extensions can be found, can be either on relative or absolute paths.
note

See how to customise or create your own launcher at Customising a launcher.

Deprecation notes​

warning
  • The previous application launcher Connect plugin is deprecated, and so are the previous JSON configuration files.
  • The previous action launcher widget plugin for Connect 2 is deprecated.