app_manager

A package for making launch file an application

Installation

Run sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-app-manager

Usage

The app_manager node loads information of available application from .installed files. .installed file is a yaml file that defines installed applications in a package like below:

# package_root/apps/app.installed
apps:
- app: pkg_name/app_name1
  display: sample app
- app: pkg_name/app_name2
  display: another sample app

Once .installed file is defined, you have to notify the location of the files to app_manager by either of two ways:

1. Give the locations as arguments

One way to notify the location is to add --applist argument with rosrun.

rosrun app_manager app_manager --applist `rospack find package_root`/apps

This is useful for testing one small .installed file or a demonstration.

1. Register as export attributes

Another way to notify the location is to define them in <export> tag in package.xml.

<!-- package_root/package.xml -->
<package>
  ...
  <run_depend>app_manager</run_depend>
  ...
  <export>
    <app_manager app_dir="${prefix}/apps"/>
  </export>
</package>

And launch app_manager without any argument:

rosrun app_manager app_manager

app_manager node automatically searches all .installed files and register as available applications.

Applications can be filtered by platform defined in each .app file. If you set the parameter /robot/type to pr2, then apps for platform pr2 will be available.

rosparam set /robot/type pr2

APIs

All topics/services are advertised under the namespace specified by the parameter /robot/name.

Publishing Topics

• app_list: List available/running applications
• application/app_status: Current status of app manager

Services

• list_apps: List available/running applications
• start_app: Start an available application
• stop_app: Stop a runniing application
• reload_app_list: Reload installed applications from *.installed) file.

Examples

Start default roscore

$ roscore

and start another roscore for app_manager from another Terminal

$ roscore -p 11312

Start app_manager

```

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Changelog for package app_manager

1.3.0 (2021-11-08)

• update setuptools to follow noetic migration guide (#36)
• app_manager cannot start app after failing app #42 (#42)
  • set current_app None when start failed
  • add test_start_fail.test
  • need catch error on _stop_current()
  • add test_start_fail.test test to check #42, app_manager cannot start app after failing app
• add test to check if we forget catkin_install_python (#44)
  • call app_manager/appA with python2/python3 with ROS_PYTHON_VERSION
  • use catkin_install_python for noetic
  • add test to check if we forget to use catkin_install_python
• add_rostest(test/test_plugin.test) (#45)
  • run rosdep install in devel_create_tasks.Dockerfile
  • update to format3 and install python-rosdep
  • use port 11313 for app_manager in test_plugin.test
  • add_rostest(test/test_plugin.test)
• add more test code (#41
  • show more error messages
  • default return value of plugin_order must be list
  • plugins: 'launch_args', 'plugin_args', 'start_plugin_args', 'stop_plugin_args' must be dict, not list
  • test_plugin: add test to check plugins
  • use list(self.subs.items()) instead of self.subs.items()
  • Error processing request: '>' not supported between instances of 'NoneType' and 'int'
  • python3: AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'iteritems'
  • add test for list_apps/stop_app, add test_stop_app.py
  • python3: AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'iterkeys'
  • add 2to3 in CHECK_PYTHON3_COMPILE
  • add test/test_app.test
  • test/resources/example-moin.launch: use arg launch_prefox to select if we use xterm or not
• add arguments in StartAppRequest (#27)
  • use req.args for launch args in app_manager.py
  • add args in StartApp srv
• do not run stop_app when _stopping is true (#38)
• fix travis build (#39)
  • fix typo in .travis.yml
  • run with full path
  • add CHECK_PYTHON2_COMPILE and CHECK_PYTHON3_COMPILE tests
• use plugins as instance / use normal method in app_manager_plugin (#37)
• set stopped true in app timeout (#31)
• use system python to check python3 compileall (#34)
• Contributors: Kei Okada, Shingo Kitagawa

1.2.0 (2021-03-03)

• Merge pull request #29 from knorth55/add-stopped

• Merge pull request #28 from knorth55/add-timeout

• Merge pull request #30 from knorth55/add-all-availables add available_apps in all platform apps

• add available_apps in all platform apps

• add stopped context in app_manager plugin

• add timeout field in app file

• add enable_app_replacement param in app_manager (#26) This allows for both behaviors (replace currently running app or error out) and let's users choose without changing code...

• add noetic test and also checks python 2/3 compatibility (#24)

  • add noetic test and also checks python 2/3 compatibility
  • fix to support both python 2/3

  * use rospy.log** instead of print Co-authored-by: Shingo Kitagawa <<shingogo@hotmail.co.jp>>

• Add app manager plugin

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