ACES Equipment Builder

WebCTRL is a trademark of Automated Logic Corporation. Any other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

NOTE - this repository is currently unlicensed (may change in the future).

Overview

This program is a desktop application that interfaces with WebCTRL to generate EIKON scripts using custom .logicsymbol libraries. ACES EB is also capable of maintaining a shared set of favorite .logicsymbol and .logic-script files. ACES EB was developed for Windows and has not been tested on Mac or Linux operating systems.

The primary .logicsymbol library should be stored on a shared network drive. ACES EB maintains a local copy of the shared library to ensure the application can be used when offline. Synchronization occurs when the application is launched, if the shared library is accessible.

For editing .logicsymbol library configuration files, it is recommended to use Visual Studio Code with the ACES EB extension. The following documentation is relevant for software developers only. General-use documentation may be found at docs/README.md.

Compilation

1. Clone this repository to your local machine.

2. Install JDK 16 or later.

3. Install Launch4j 3.14 or later.

4. Edit Utility.bat to set the locations of the JDK bin and Launch4j executable.

5. Launch Utility.bat and use the following commands:

   • make
     • Compiles source code and packs .class files into .jar archive.
     • Takes an optional parameter to recompile only a specific file (omitting the .java extension) or subfolder of src. For example, make ACESEquipmentBuilder compiles only the main class.
   • jre
     • Uses jdeps and jlink to create a runtime image for the .jar archive.
   • wrap
     • Uses Launch4j to create an executable wrapper for the .jar archive.
   • exec
     • Launches the .jar archive using the executable wrapper and custom runtime image.

Packaging and Installation

Standard

The standard installation method requires that your clone of this repository is located on a shared network drive. People with access to the shared drive should run Installer.bat to install ACES EB on their computer. It is recommended that install/config.txt contain RemoteDirectoryPath, SupportMessage, and EmailTo entries (refer to settings).

Custom

After compiling the source code, zip the contents of your install folder. Distribute your .zip archive to other people. To install ACES EB from the .zip archive, unzip and place the contents anywhere. The recommended installation location is "%LocalAppData%/Programs/ACES Equipment Builder". To launch ACES EB, run the executable "ACES Equipment Builder.exe". Feel free to create a desktop shortcut for the executable. If you compile ACES EB with a 64bit JDK, then it will run only on 64bit platforms. The following files should be included in your .zip archive.

• ACES Equipment Builder.exe
• ACES Equipment Builder.jar
• README.txt
• LICENSE.txt
• jre/**

If you want the install to include a .logicsymbol library, you should also include the lib folder. If you want to specify configuration defaults, you should include config.txt. Note that lib and config.txt will be generated in your install folder when the application is launched using the exec command.

Automated Updates

This section describes how to push ACES EB application updates to all users synchronized to a shared library. Library synchronization occurs automatically; this section is only relevant if you want to push out updates to core application files. When a remote directory is selected, ACES EB will generate config.txt inside the chosen directory. This configuration file contains two entries which may be used to push out source code updates.

• Version - The version of ACES EB as specified at the top of src/ACESEquipmentBuilder.java.
• UpdateScript - The update script to launch. May be resolved absolutely or relatively to location of the remote directory.

When an instance of ACES EB attempts to synchronize with the remote directory, it checks the configuration file before doing anything else. If the internal version of ACES EB is less than the version listed in the configuration file, the application launches the update script and terminates itself. The update script will be passed a parameter specifying the installation location of ACES EB on the local machine.

If you are using the standard installation method, then it is recommended to set Installer.bat as the update script. It is generally expected for the update script to relaunch an instance of ACES EB when updates are complete. If UpdateScript is unspecified or cannot be resolved, then the application will instead open up the remote directory using Windows File Explorer.

If the Version string ends with -dev, then updates will only occur when the user is in developer mode. An optional tag may be included, like 1.0.0-tag or 1.0.0-tag-dev. The application stores the current tag in a local configuration entry: VersionTag. If the tag specified in the Version string does not match the local VersionTag, then the update script is invoked.

Miscellaneous Information

• icon.ico is used by Launch4j to set the icon for the executable wrapper, "install/ACES Equipment Builder.exe".
• All files in resources are included in the .jar archive, "install/ACES Equipment Builder.jar".

Changes Under Consideration

• Move this section into CHANGELOG.md
• Add comments to the source code.
• Refactor code to improve readability and elegance.
• Make parsing logic more robust (e.g, basic arithmetic).
• Use java.nio for all I/O operations.
• Replace custom dynamic array logic with ArrayList.
• Replace 𝒪(n) search algorithms and structures with 𝒪(log n).
• Use subscription-update model wherever possible (in particular, overhaul processing mechanisms for If-Then statements and display names).
• Implement read_lock and write_lock files for controlling access to the remote directory.
• Separate the contents of ACESEquipmentBuilder.java into many classes.
• Add configuration option to toggle dark mode (requires duplicating the icons in resources).
• Compress PNG images in docs to save space.
• Add Else section to If-Then statements.
• Add wildcard selection at the end of reference paths in Then blocks.