3D
3D Photo Gallery (Part 1)
3D Photo Gallery (Part 2)

Audio
Poor Man's MIDI
Make A Metronome
iPod Tricks (Part 1)
iPod Tricks (Part 2)
iPod Tricks (Part 3)
Laugh Track Machine
Audio Player with Reverb
Shepard Melody
RB Phone Home
Build a Drum Machine

Custom Controls and Windows
Double Click Listbox
Draggable Metal Window
Double Click Canvas
Custom Buttons
Custom Buttons Part II
iTunes-style Listboxes
Custom Controls


General RB
Scrolling Windows
Using Mesage Dialogs
Case-Sensitive Word Finder
Introduction to Stacks
Wiggle Window
JPEG in PDF
Listbox Checkboxes
Background Applications
Listbox Auto-Find
Virtual Volumes
Time Tracker
Software Distribution (Part 1)
Software Distribution (Part 2)
Software Distribution (Part 3)
Software Distribution (Part 4)
Exceptions
Tips and Tricks
Text Clippings Made Easy

Graphics
Drawing a Simple Gradient
The SpriteSurface: Space Game
Image Spinner
Cropping Graphics (Part 1)
Cropping Graphics (Part 2)
Cropping Graphics (Part 3)
Cropping Graphics (Part 4)
Shimmer Graphics
Lissajous Figures
Simple Screen Capture
Vector Graphics
Kaleidoscope Images
Stegonography
Spirals!
Image Table
RB Magnifying Lens
Screen Capture
Color Picker Tutorial

Hacks
Ghost Grab
Speedy Mouse Extension
iTunes Plugins
iTunes Skinner

Mac OS X
Global Hot Key Event (Carbon Events)
Login Welcomer (Carbon Events)
Add/Remove Buttons
Resizable Sheets
Mac OS X Preferences Window
Using Sheets in REALbasic
Build a Bundle (Part 1)
Build a Bundle (Part 2)
Dock Your Passwords
Mac OS X Debugging
REALbasic Mac OS X Icon Tutorial
Animate Your Dock
RB and the Command Line

Menus
Window Menu
Templates Menu
Listbox Menu

Novelty
Guessing Game
Calendar Trivia
Tile Mixer
Zip Code Finder
Happy Valentine's Day
Merlin Simulator (Part 1)
Merlin Simulator (Part 2)
Merlin Simulator (Part 3)
Buzzword Machine
AppleSoft BASIC

Printing
Print to PDF

Registration
Registration Code Validation
Network Registration Codes

Resources
Picture Extractor (Part 1)
Picture Extractor (Part 2)

Serial
Caller ID (Part 1)
Caller ID (Part 2)
Caller ID (Part 3)

Speech
Speech Recognition

Socket Communication
Easy Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
MacPAD Version Checking
Display Web Image In Canvas
HTML IMG Tags
Version Tracking
Even Smarter Instant Messaging
Web Tiler
JavaScript and REALbasic
Stock Ticker (Part I)
Stock Ticker (Part 2)
AIM Mate

XML Manipulation
Simple XML Introduction

Video
Big Brother Video Capture

Note: All articles without a byline were written by Erick Tejkowski. When cleaning the site I removed them because the code differed from page to page, and I have yet to put them back in.

REALbasic for Dummies
by Erick Tejkowski

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Build a Bundle Part I 08-22-02

In recent REALbasic news on ResExcellence, we posted a link to an informative page about creating application bundles. In this week's REALbasic tutorial, we'll build a simple utility to help you create application bundles in a snap. You could do much of this by hand, but its repetitive nature just screams for us to automate it.

Build the Interface

The interface this week is simple to create. Launch REALbasic and open Window1. To this window, add a PushButton.

That's it for the interface!

Source Code

You only have to add code to one location for this week's tutorial. Double-click PushButton1 to open the Code Editor. To its Action event, add the following code:

  
  Dim dlgApp as OpenDialog
  Dim f,ff as FolderItem 
  dim contents,destApp,destMacOS as folderItem 
  dim infoplist, pkgInfo as textoutputStream
  dim r as resourcefork
  dim s,stringToFind,appLocation as string 
  
  //select or create a new folder
  //to use as the base for our bundle
  f=selectfolder
  If f <> Nil and f.exists then 
    
    //select a Carbon application
    //that we will add to the bundle
    dlgApp=New OpenDialog
    dlgApp.InitialDirectory=DesktopFolder
    dlgApp.Title="Select a REALbasic-made Carbon application."
    dlgApp.Filter="application"
    ff=dlgApp.ShowModal()
    if ff<>nil and ff.exists then
      
      // Create folder named "Contents" in it.
      contents = f.child("Contents")
      if contents<>nil then
        contents.createAsFolder
        
        // Create PkgInfo file (which contains type and creator)
        pkgInfo = contents.child("PkgInfo").createtextFile
        if pkginfo<>nil then
          pkgInfo.write ff.MacType+ff.MacCreator 
          pkgInfo.close
        end if
        
        // Create Info.plist file using 'plist' resource from the built application.
        r=ff.openresourceFork
        infoplist = contents.child("Info.plist").createtextFile
        if infoplist<>nil then
          s = r.getResource("plst",0)
          
          //add an entry to the plist file, before we create it
          //this points to the Carbon executable in the MacOS folder
          stringToFind = "</dict>"+chr(13)+"</plist>"
          appLocation = appLocation+"<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>"+chr(13)
          appLocation = appLocation+"<string>"+ff.name+"</string>"
          appLocation = appLocation+stringToFind
          s=replace(s,stringToFind,appLocation)
          
          //create the .plist file
          infoplist.write s 
          infoplist.close
        end if
        
        //create a folder to store the carbon app
        destMacOS = contents.child("MacOS")
        if destMacOS<>nil then
          destMacOS.createAsFolder
          // Copy the application into the app folder (MacOS)
          ff.copyFileTo destMacOS.child(ff.name)
        end if
        
        // Set folder name + ".app" extension
        // (works in place of setting the bundle bit)
        f.name = f.name+".app"
        
        MsgBox "Bundle is complete!"
      end if
      
    else
      MsgBox "No application chosen. Unable to create bundle."
    end if
  Else
    MsgBox "No folder chosen. Unable to create bundle."
  End if
  
  
  

To complete the project, create a new file type. Select Edit-File Type and add a new file type called "application":

• Mac Creator: ????
• Mac Type: APPL

Conclusion

To test the project, select the Debug-Run menu. Click the button to select or create a folder. Then, you will be prompted for an application. Make sure that it's a Carbon application. When you're finished, the project displays a Msgbox and the new bundle will be in the location of the folder you chose/created. This demo doesn't account for Classic applications in the bundle, nor does it help you pull the resources from the resource fork and stick them in their own files. We'll cover these topics next week.

You can download the completed version if you prefer not to type all of the above code. See you next week!

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