APPX Desktop Client Installation - Mac OS/X

Requirements

IMPORTANT: The APPX Desktop Client only runs on Intel based Macs with OS/X 10.5 Update 1, or higher. Older Intel based Macs might be able to use a third party Java runtime but this has not been tested. Power PC based Macs will not be able to run the APPX Desktop Client at all, since Apple does not provide Java SE 6 for this platform.

The APPX Desktop Client does not run on newer Mac laptops with a touchbar on on Mac O/S 10.15 (Catalina) or higher. For those systems, use the HTML client instead.

In Release 5.4.4 the engine uses new SSL certificates. These are not compatible with clients prior to 5.4.4. You must either set the SSL option to 'disabled' or upgrade the client.

If you have upgraded your Intel based Mac from an earlier version of OS/X, you must make sure the Java SE 6 is the preferred runtime for Java based applications. This setting can be found in the Java Preferences application (under Applications/Utilities):

Make sure that Java JE 6 is the preferred tool for Java Applets and Java Applications. It doesn't matter if you choose the 32 or 64 bit version.

In newer versions of Mac O/S, the legacy Java runtime is not installed by default. Follow the prompts to install it.

Release 5.4.1 and earlier

First, log on to your Mac desktop system using a user name that has administrative privileges.

Then, download the Macintosh installer from the APPX web site. Up to Release 5.3.1 the Mac client is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions, make sure you download the correct version for your desktop. From Release 5.3.3 and up the client is only available in 64 bit. This will be downloaded as a disk image file (.dmg) and will be automatically mounted on your desktop. If necessary, double click the java_osx disk image to open it. The APPX Desktop Client installer will be displayed in the Finder:

Double click the Appx Installer to start the installation. If presented with a warning, click the 'Open' button.

If you are running OS/X 10.7 or greater, it may refuse to run the installer with the following error:

If you get this message, go to 'Settings', 'Security & Privacy' and click 'Open Anyway':

You can disable this security check permanently by clicking the lock icon to unlock the settings, then choosing the 'Anywhere' option.

After a few moments, the APPX Setup Wizard will display the Welcome screen. Click on the "Next" button to continue.

Specify the Destination Directory into which the client is to be installed. As a matter of convention, the APPX Desktop Client is usually installed into /Applications/AppxDesktopClient but may be installed into the directory of your choice.

The client will then be installed into the specified destination directory.

Next, you may specify whether or not you want the APPX Setup Wizard to create a shortcut on your desktop. After specifying the appropriate option, click on the "Finish" button to end the setup wizard. You can then connect to an APPX server by double clicking the desktop shortcut, or running the APPX Desktop Client from the Applications folder.

Release 5.4.2 and later

First, log on to your Mac desktop system using a user name that has administrative privileges.

Then, download the Macintosh installer from the APPX web site. This will be downloaded as a disk image file (.dmg) and will be automatically mounted on your desktop. If necessary, double click the java_osx disk image to open it.

After opening the disk image you can simply drag the client icon & drop it on the Applications folder:

Note

In order for the Mac to open files and URL's from within the Appx application, you should set '-shell=open' on the startup parameters for the client. This can be done by changing the /Applications/AppxDesktopClient/AppxDesktopClient.app/Contents/Info.plist. Look for the line <key>Arguments. Just below that line you can add a line:

<string>-shell=open</string>

Alternatively, when you log on, you can click the 'Options' tab, then the 'Advanced' button. In the '[Startup]' section, change the commandShell to 'open'. This setting will be remembered from now on.

Additional Information

When you click the APPX Desktop Client icon, OS/X will either start the program (if it is not running), or take you to the running program (if it is already running). Sometimes you might prefer to open additional sessions to your APPX server. In that case, create an Apple Script with the following lines:

on run

do shell script "open -n /Applications/AppxDesktopClient/AppxDesktopClient.app --args -host=<hostname> -user=yyyyy -password=xxxxxx -port=8060 -shell=open -title='APPX:$(host):$(port):$(pid)'"

end run

Save this as an Application on your desktop, and every time you double click it, it will create a new session. You can pass arguments to the ADC by appending them after the '--args' parameter. Note that if you are going to use macros ($(..)), enclose them in single quotes as per the 'title' parameter example above.

To change the default icon to the Appx logo (or any other graphic), follow this procedure:

• Look in /Applications/AppxDesktopClient.app/Client and load one of the icons you see there into Preview (just double click it). You can load a different graphic if you want to use something other than the APPX logo.
• In Preview, do a 'Save As', and save the file as a format ICNS graphic
• Copy this file to the /Applications/AppxDesktopClient.app/Contents/Resources as 'app.icns', replacing the file that is already there.

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-- JeanNeron - 2009-11-19