ConceptBase.cc - Associate Mime Type and Setting Program Icons

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Associate Mime Type and Setting Program Icons

The ConceptBase.cc clients (CBIva, CBGraph, CBShell) can be integrated into your desktop to allow starting them with a double-click. Further, the graph files (file type '*.gel') can be associated to the CBGraph client such that double-clicking on a graph file will start up the CBGraph client. Finally, CBGraph can be configured as the application to be started whenever a graph file is clicked in your web browser. We provide here instructions for Windows and for Ubuntu (should also work for Gnome). We assume Firefox as Web browser but other web browsers should also work. Please check into which directory you have installed ConceptBase.cc. Under Windows, this should be c:\conceptbase. Under Linux and Mac-OS, this is usually $HOME/conceptbase.

[All platforms] Associate CBGraph to graph files in your Web browser

A graph file (a.k.a. GEL file) stores a graph displaying some Telos model. The Telos models are included in the graph file as well and will be passed to the ConceptBase server (CBserver) when you open the GEL file with CBGraph.

Use your Web browser (e.g. Firefox) to click on the link telos.gel. The browser shall ask you whether to download the file or associate an application. Choose to associate an application. Then, browse to the installation directory of ConceptBase.cc. Type for Windows "cbgraph.bat" and for other platforms "cbgraph" in the filename field and press OK. Afterwards, a click on a link to a graph file shall directly start CBGraph. Our web servers of ConceptBase use as Mime type for graph files application/cbgraphfile or application/x-cbgraphfile. The latter is preferred.

The subsequent instructions are for integrating ConceptBase.cc into your desktop. This integration is not required to use the tools but makes their use more comfortable.

Configuring ConceptBase.cc for Windows

The instructions below are for Windows 7. Other versions might differ slightly in the configuration.

[Windows] Associate CBGraph to graph files on your Windows desktop

Save telos.gel to your computer's desktop by right-clicking on the link. Go to the desktop and right-click on saved telos.gel and select "Open with...". Then, browse in the new window to the installation directory of ConceptBase.cc and select cbgraph.bat. Tick "Always use the selected program..." and exit with "OK". As a result, cbgraph shall be called whenever you double-click on a graph file (file type '*.gel') in your local file system.

[Windows] Set-up Shortcuts for CBIva and CBGraph on your Windows desktop

Switch your Windows Explorer to the ConceptBase.cc installation directory.
Right-click on the file cbiva.bat ("Windows batch file") and select "Create shortcut".
Right-click on the shortcut for cbiva.bat and select "Properties". Be sure to select the Batch file cbiva.bat, not the Linux script file 'cbiva'. Then click "Change Icon" and select the icon "cbiva-logo.ico" from the installation directory.
Move the Shortcut to your Windows Desktop. It then will directly start CBIva when double-clicking it.

You can do the analogous steps with the file cbgraph.bat. Choose "cbgraph-logo.ico" as icon for the CBGraph shortcut.

[Windows] Set a dedicated icon for graph files on your Windows desktop

The following step is optional. It shall associate a dedicated icon to graph files on your Windows desktop and in the Windows Explorer.

Download/extract/run the Defaults Program Editor (third party tool; use at your own risk), and associate the icon "cbgraph-logo.ico" to the file type .gel (GEL file)

Configuring ConceptBase.cc for Ubuntu

The instructions below should also work for the Gnome desktop.

[Ubuntu] Set-up Shortcuts for CBIva and CBGraph for the Unity desktop

Switch in a command window to installation directory (usually $HOME/conceptbase):
```
 cd $HOME/conceptbase
```

Replace the prefix "/home/jeusfeld/CBPOOL/conceptbase" in the paths in cbgraph.desktop by your installation directory and save the file:

 mv cbiva.desktop cbiva-desktop.tmp
 mv cbgraph.desktop cbgraph-desktop.tmp
 sed -e "s~/home/jeusfeld/CBPOOL/conceptbase~$HOME/conceptbase~g" cbiva-desktop.tmp > cbiva.desktop
 sed -e "s~/home/jeusfeld/CBPOOL/conceptbase~$HOME/conceptbase~g" cbgraph-desktop.tmp > cbgraph.desktop

Execute the following commands in your command window. If the commands are unknown, you need to to install them via appropriate packages.
```
 xdg-mime install --novendor cbgraph-mime.xml
 xdg-desktop-menu install --novendor cbgraph.desktop
 mimeopen -d .gel
```
The last command will offer you options for associating a program file with the GEL file type. If "ConceptBase.cc GraphEditor" is listed as possible option, then select it. Otherwise, select "Other" and enter absolute path to cbgraph, e.g. /home/cb/conceptbase/cbgraph

Then, execute the following commands:

sudo cp application-x-cbgraphfile.svg  /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/mimetypes
sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/gnome/ -f

With more recent Ubuntu versions, the last command may have to be changed to

sudo gtk-update-icon-cache-3.0 /usr/share/icons/gnome/ -f

Open the ConceptBase.cc installation directory in a file explorer (nautilus). Rightclick on the file 'cbiva.desktop'. Select 'Properties', then 'Permissions' and activate the tick box for the 'Allow executing file as program' flag. Do the same with 'cbgraph.desktop' You can then use these files to start 'cbiva' or 'cbgraph' by a double-click. You can also move these two files into the Ubuntu Unity starter dash, or to a suitable tab of the Lubuntu starter button, or to your desktop. Afterwards, log out and log in again to make the associations effective. The desktop files use the Gnome format. Hence, they should also work on other desktops based on Gnome.

We have no specific instructions for configuring the desktop of Mac OS-X for ConceptBase.cc. Note, that you can run all the tools also from the command line by switching to the installation directory and then calling the tool name (cbiva, cbgraph, cbshell). We provided no instructions to specify desktop icons for CBShell since CBShell should anyway be called from the command line.

[Ubuntu/Unix] Filetype completion for bash

If you are using bash as you main Linux/Unix shell, then you can tell it to auto-complete the '*.gel' file extension for the CBGraph program:

echo "#autocomplete for GEL filename extension" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "complete -f -X '!*.gel' cbgraph" >> ~/.bashrc

http://conceptbase.cc -- Contact: M. Jeusfeld, University of Skövde, Sweden
2016-04-19/M.Jeusfeld