Configuring Dependent Applications With Application Link; Application Link Pathname Formats - VMware THINAPP 4.6 Manual

Examples
If you have an application on a USB drive, you can modify the WorkingDirectory value from the default USB
location to the My Documents directory on the desktop.
[<app>.exe]
WorkingDirectory=%Personal%
The location of the My Documents directory depends on the isolation mode setting. To map the working
directory to the My Documents directory on the physical system, use the Merged isolation mode setting. To
map the working directory to the sandbox on the local machine, use the WriteCopy or Full isolation mode
setting.

Configuring Dependent Applications with Application Link

The Application Link utility keeps shared components or dependent applications in separate packages. In the
Package.ini file, you can use the OptionalAppLinks and RequiredAppLinks entries to dynamically
combine ThinApp packages at runtime on end‐user computers. This process enables you to package, deploy,
and update component pieces separately and keep the benefits of application virtualization.
ThinApp can link up to 250 packages at a time. Each package can be any size. The links must point to the
primary data container of a package.
Sandbox changes from linked packages are not visible to the base package. For example, you can install
Acrobat Reader as a standalone virtual package and as a linked package to the base Firefox application. When
you start Acrobat Reader as a standalone application by running the virtual package and you change the
preferences, ThinApp stores the changes in the sandbox for Acrobat Reader. When you start Firefox, Firefox
cannot detect those changes because Firefox has its own sandbox. Opening a .pdf file with Firefox does not
reflect the preference changes that exist in the standalone Acrobat Reader application.
For more information about the Application Link utility, see "Application Link Updates" on page 56,
"OptionalAppLinks" on page 93, and "RequiredAppLinks" on page 92.

Application Link Pathname Formats

The Application Link utility supports the following pathname formats:

Path names can be relative to the base executable file. For example,
RequiredAppLinks=..\SomeDirectory results in C:\MyDir\SomeDirectory when you deploy the
base executable file to c:\MyDir\SubDir\ Dependency.exe.

Path names can be absolute path names. An example is RequiredAppLinks=C:\SomeDirectory.

Path names can use a network share or a UNC path. An example is
RequiredAppLinks=\\share\somedir\Dependency.exe.

Path names can contain environment variables and dynamically expand to any of the preceding path
names. An example is RequiredAppLinks=%MyEnvironmentVariable%\Package.dat.
The risk of using environment variables is that a user might change the values before starting the
application and create an Application Link dependency other than the one that the administrator set up.

Path names can contain ThinApp folder macros. An example is
RequiredAppLinks=%SystemSystem%\Package.dat.

Path names can specify multiple links or dependencies with a semicolon that separates individual
filenames. An example is RequiredAppLinks=Dependency1.exe; Dependency2.exe;.

Path names can contain asterisk and query wildcard characters (* and ?) in filenames and path locations.
For example, RequiredAppLinks=WildPath*\WildFilename*.dat.
If a path containing a wildcard character matches more than one directory in the file system, each
matching directory name will be returned, to enable additional path or filename matching.
VMware, Inc.
Chapter 5 Configuring Package Parameters
91