User Manual
Introduction to Application Catalog
The new Application Catalog is intended to replace the old wiki based catalog (http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog2006).
As with the old catalog we would like to continue working with our friends from the maemo community. Together we can keep the catalog up-to-date and make sure that everybody will find suitable applications and tools for Internet Tablets built on the maemo platform.
We have imported the applications from the wiki at the end of 2006, however some new entries might be missing. This document will hopefully help the new maintainers, developers to learn how to add, edit or remove applications. But you are at the right place if you are looking for information on how to use the new catalog in general. Examples below show how to browse, search and install applications.
Although we try our best we can not guarantee that there are no mistakes and problems in the new system as well as in this manual. We would highly appreciate if you could enter your feedbacks to our issue tracker or send them to the maemo2midgard-discussion mailing list.
Overview
The document provides detailed instructions with screenshots to perform the following operations in the Application Catalog:* browse applications
* search applications
* install applications with and without an "install" file
Browsing
Browsing the Application Catalog does not require special privileges. You can freely view all applications without logging in to the website.
After navigating to the Application Catalog your browser will display the front page. You can browse all the categories displayed on the left side of the page.
Once entering (clicking on) a category you will see a list of applications that belong to the category:
If you wish to see the details then please click on the title of the application.
Searching
There is a search box on the right side of the Application Catalog. This orange colored box is available on all Application Catalog pages.
Type in your desired search keyword as shown in the following image and click on the Fetch! button:
If there is no matching application(s) then you will get a response saying:
"There is no result matching the search criteria. Please try again."
Installing
Installation with install file
If you found an application and you wish to install it then first make sure that it matches the operating system version (IT OS) of your Internet Tablet.
Applications that have a so called "install file" in the catalog could be installed on the tablet by a "single click".
Applications that have a green arrow saying "Click to install!" are ready for the easy installation. Clicking on the icon will automatically launch the Application Manager on your tablet where you can proceed with the installation.
Applications that are placed in a proper "Debian style" repository can have "install files" and making the single click installation possible.
Please note that most of the applications in this catalog are provided by external (non maemo.org) organizations or persons. If you wish to contact the projects please navigate to their home page and search for contact information.
Installation without install file
A grey arrow marks those applications that have no "install file".
The application developer(s) or the application repository maintainers can provide the "install files". Some application may however reside in a simple web site making it impossible to have the "install file". Unfortunately this makes the single click installation impossible.
In this case the application must be installed manually. The Application Manager on the tablet supports such an operation. The first thing is to search for installation instructions on the project's homepage. The instruction should clearly explain the steps of the manual installation.
Most of the times it will be enough to find the application package and download it with the tablet. After clicking on such an application package the browser will ask whether to save or open the package. By choosing "open" the system will launch the Application Manager and then the application can be easily installed by following the instructions on the screen.
Let us take an example on how to look for an application package on a project's website: nethack (game)
NOTE!
This example was tested on the Nokia N800. However the principles are the same when using Nokia 770 tablets.
o While looking at the project in the application catalog we can see that there is no install file, so the install icon is grey.
o Let's go to the project's homepage and find out more about installing nethack.
o On the homepage we are searching for installation or download.
o There is a section on the right called "Download Nethack".
o Below we find three links. The one we need is called "ARMEL Binary", let's click it.
o After a while the "File download" dialog box will open on the tablet.
o Let's click on the "Open" button.
o The "Downloads" window displays the status of the download.
o The Application Manager will start as soon as the download is completed.
o Click "Install" after Application Manager started.
o Clicking OK on the "Notice" dialog will start the installation procedure.
o Next is to pick the location of nethack. We can safely click OK using the default "Extras" location.
o After a few seconds the game is installed. Let's go and test it by going to the Main Menu -> Extras -> Nethack.
In some rare cases after clicking the application package the tablet will not offer to open the package. The reason of this is that the package was sent with wrong MIME type by the web server. So, it is not a fault of the tablet. Well, it is too technical, so let's see how to overcome this situation:
o Click on saving the application.
o Once it is saved to the tablet then start the Application Manager.
o Install the application package manually by clicking on the Application -> Install from file... Application Manager's menu.
Although this procedure sounds a little complicated please do not worry. A little practice will be enough to master these steps.
There are also applications that require other applications to be installed in advance. Such dependencies are usually documented on the project's homepage. Installing those dependencies goes exactly the same way as the nethack installation went in our example above.
If there is insufficient information please contact the application's author(s).