Re: Permissions in an app bundle

FROM : Sherm Pendley
DATE : Wed Jul 05 19:15:06 2006

On Jul 5, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Nir Soffer wrote:

> Quoting Tage Borg <<email_removed>>:
>

>> Let me just ask, in case you haven't considered this alternative:
>> Have you thought about letting your application copy the template
>> directory to an application support folder on first execution? This
>> way you can have drag and drop installation and also have (1) the
>> templates outside the bundle and (2) code already in place for
>> handling drag and drop installation of more templates. Drag and drop
>> uninstallation won't be there, of course, but still...

>
> I considered this, and I see several problems:
> 1. If the user delete the template, the app will not work.


Why not? If the app is set up to recognize a missing template and 
install it if needed, it could just as easily do that on the 
hundredth run as the first. Deleting the template would then be an 
easy way of resetting it to the default.

> 2. A user may not have permissions to copy to /Library, I will have 
> to handle
> this by authorization or fallback to the user Library, then search 
> for templates
> on both directories, handle the case where there are multiple 
> copies etc.


That's what users expect, that's what Apple's guidelines suggest, and 
it's not as difficult to do as you imagine it might be. It's just 
looping over a set of directories and checking each one in turn.

> 3. I leave junk on /Library or user Library folders when uninstalling


If that's a major concern, you could place your templates in a ~/
Documents/Stationery/MyApp/ directory - Most Mac users would 
immediately recognize what stationery is.

> The best solution seems to be to keep the template in the app 
> bundle. The
> template is not visible to the user, and I don't need to support 
> more templates
> installed by the user.


But you do need to support an editable template - and allowing users 
to "reset" to a default template when (not if) their changes go awry 
would be a Very Good Idea.

> The simplest thing - no code required - is to make the template 
> writable in the
> bundle.


Have you asked your users whether they agree it's simple? They'd have 
to right-click on your .app bundle, choose "Show Package Contents", 
and navigate an unfamiliar (to them) directory structure to find 
Resources. Most non-geeky users are very reluctant to poke around 
inside .app bundles.

Making something simpler for the programmer is *never* a good reason 
to make it more difficult for end users.

sherm--

Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org