Run configurations

Run configuration is a set of parameters, arguments, and settings that define how an application is launched.

Run configurations include:

• name of the run configuration,
• names of the associated 4gl program and project,
• launching arguments (optional),
• graphical client used for running the application (and URL parameters - in case of LyciaWeb),
• application server instance,
• deployment path,
• encoding, etc.

4gl programs do not have run configurations. Never-run applications do not have run configurations.

Run configurations are created:

• when you run the application for the first time, or
• in the Run Configurations window.

Run configurations are viewed, managed, and configured in the Run Configurations window.

Run Configurations window

Run Configurations window can be opened in many ways.

The most widely used ones are:

• from the LyciaStudio's menu bar - from the Run menu group:

  

• from the LyciaStudio's toolbar - from the Run toolbar group:

  

• from the program's context menu in the 4GL Project view:

  

• from the project's context menu in the project explorer:

  

Run Configurations window has two panes:

• Left pane - we'll conventionally call it Configurations explorer here - allows creating, viewing, and deleting different run configurations.
• Right pane - we'll conventionally call it Configurations parameters here - allows viewing and changing those parameters, arguments, and settings the form a run configuration.

Configurations explorer shows all the existing run configurations grouped by their type - 4GL Program, Eclipse Application, Eclipse Data Tools, Java Applet, Java Application, JUnit, Junit Plug-in Test, and OSGi Framework:

All the run configurations are listed alphabetically:

There are two ways to deal with the necessary run configuration:

• from the pane's toolbar:

  

• from its context menu:

  

As you can see above, toolbar options are mostly duplicated by the context menu:

New	creates a new run configuration
Duplicate	copies the selected run configuration and creates its duplicate
Delete	deletes the selected run configuration
Collapse all	collapses all expanded run configurations
Filter	allows configuring filter options and gives quick access to filtering preferences:

When you use New to create a new run configuration, this new run configuration gets most parameters and setting from the program that you used to open the Run Configurations window:

Configuration explorer allows multiple deletion: To delete several applications at once, you must first select them with the enabled Shift or Ctrl key.

Configurations parameters pane can have different contents depending on the type of the run configuration.

For run configurations of 4gl applications, Configurations parameters pane has 4 tabs - Main, Graphical Clients, Application Servers, and Common:

Main

In the Main tab, you specify the most basic parameters of a run configuration:

• name of the run configuration,
• associated program and project, and
• launching arguments, if necessary.

When a run configuration is created at first run of the application, it inherits all the parameters of this application - name, project, program, and arguments, if any (as in the screenshot above).

If you create a new run configuration in the Run Configurations window or edit the already existing run configuration, you can change these parameters yourself.

In the Name field, you can change the name of the run configuration:

In the Project field, you can change the associated program - by direct typing or in the Project Selection window:

In the Program field, you can change the associated program - by direct typing or in the Program Selection window:

In the Arguments field, you can specify extra run arguments (details about default and run arguments are here):

 

Graphical Clients

Graphical Client tab defines what graphical client - LyciaDesktop or LyciaWeb - is used to run the application:

If the selected graphical client is LyciaDesktop, then no further configuring is needed (see the screenshot above).

If the selected graphical client is LyciaWeb, you can additionally change the client's configurations like URI scheme, host name, port, and servlet root:

By default, run configurations use workspace settings specified in the Run/Debug page of 4GL preferences:

If necessary, you can uncheck the Use workspace settings check box and change URI scheme, host name, port, and servlet root according to your development needs.

Configure workspace settings... gives a quick access to the Run/Debug page of 4GL preferences:

In the Graphical Client tab, you can also preview the URL that will be generated than this run configuration is launched:

Compare:

Application Servers

In the Application Servers tab, you can configure the application server instance used to run the application and specify its deployment path:

By default, applications are launched via the application server instance called default.

This means that to run the applications, the same user is used with which WebServer is launched - SYSTEM user with and root with .

The default AppServer instance is specified in the project properties.

If necessary, you can change the AppServer instance in the run configuration - both for the associated project and for this very application:

To change the default application server instance for the whole project, you press Configure project Defaults... and you will get to the necessary page of the project's properties:

To change the default application server instance for the application, you must choose Other and then select one AppServer instance in the list of the available ones:

If you press Installed Servers..., you will get to the Application Servers preference page where you can view and update the AppServer instances:

By default, all the applications are deployed directly to the root folder of the application server:

If you use default installation directories, this root folder is here:

If necessary, you can use a subdirectory of this root folder to deploy the application:

You can enter the name of the subdirectory by direct typing or browsing:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Select subdirectory window allows creating new subdirectories in addition to searching for the available ones.

If necessary, you can tell Lycia to deploy (or not to deploy) all the applications before running by checking Deploy program to application server before launch:

Common

In the Common tabs, you specify how to save this run configuration, add it to run favorites, and set encoding for the application:

By default, run configurations are saved to LyciaStudio's metadata.

However, you can save the run configuration to separate file in the workspace (e.g., to be able to export it or commit to a repository).

To save the run configuration to separate file, you must choose Shared file and then specify the folder for saving this file by browsing or direct typing:

By default, LyciaStudio will suggest saving your run configuration file to the project folder.

Once saved, the run configuration file can be accessed in the project explorer:

In the Common tabs, you can add run configuration to debug and run favorites - checking the necessary check box:

Run configurations window can be used to specify the encoding for the application - from the default UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1, US-ASCII, UTF-16, UTF-16BE, or UTF-16LE: