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.

2. 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

$ rosrun app_manager app_manager --applist `rospack find app_manager`/test/applist1 _interface_master:=http://localhost:11312

Make sure that it founds the apps

[INFO] [1575604033.724035]: 1 apps found in /home/user/catkin_ws/src/app_manager/test/applist1/apps1.installed

Use service calls to list and start apps.

$ rosservice call robot/list_apps
running_apps: []
available_apps:
  -
    name: "app_manager/appA"
    display_name: "Android Joystick"
    icon:
      format: ''
      data: []
    client_apps: []

$ rosservice call /robot/start_app "name: 'app_manager/appA'
args:
- key: 'foo'
  value: 'bar'"

started: True
error_code: 0
message: "app [app_manager/appA] started"
namespace: "/robot/application"

Plugins

You can define app_manager plugins as below in app file such as test.app.

# app definitions
display: Test app
platform: all
launch: test_app_manager/test_app.xml
interface: test_app_manager/test_app.interface
# plugin definitions
plugins:
  - name: mail_notifier_plugin  # name to identify this plugin
    type: app_notifier/mail_notifier_plugin  # plugin type
    launch_args:  # arguments for plugin launch file
      foo: hello
    launch_arg_yaml: /etc/mail_notifier_launch_arg.yaml  # argument yaml file for plugin launch file
    # in this case, these arguments will be passed.
    # {"hoge": 100, "fuga": 30, "bar": 10} will be passed to start plugin
    # {"hoge": 50, "fuga": 30} will be passed to stop plugin
    plugin_args:  # arguments for plugin function
      hoge: 10
      fuga: 30
    start_plugin_args:  # arguments for start plugin function
      hoge: 100  # arguments for start plugin function arguments (it overwrites plugin_args hoge: 10 -> 100)
      bar: 10
    stop_plugin_args:  # arguments for stop plugin function
      hoge: 50  # arguments for stop plugin function arguments (it overwrites plugin_args hoge: 10 -> 50)
    plugin_arg_yaml: /etc/mail_notifier_plugin_arg.yaml  # argument yaml file for plugin function arguments
  - name: rosbag_recorder_plugin  # another plugin
    type app_recorder/rosbag_recorder_plugin
    launch_args:
      rosbag_path: /tmp
      rosbag_title: test.bag
      compress: true
      rosbag_topic_names:
        - /rosout
        - /tf
        - /tf_static
plugin_order: # plugin running orders. if you don't set field, plugin will be run in order in plugins field
  start_plugin_order:  # start plugin running order
    - rosbag_recorder_plugin  # 1st plugin name
    - mail_notifier_plugin  #2nd plugin name
  stop_plugin_order:  # start plugin running order
    - rosbag_recorder_plugin
    - mail_notifier_plugin

Sample plugin repository is knorth55/app_manager_utils.

For more detailed information, please read #25.

Maintainer

Yuki Furuta <furushchev@jsk.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp>