Click package

Every click application package must embed at least 3 files:

manifest.json file

Contains application declarations such as application name, description, author, framework sdk target, and version.

Example manifest.json file:

{
    "name": "myapp.author",
    "title": "App Title",
    "version": "0.1"
    "description": "Description of the app",
    "framework": "ubuntu-sdk-16.04",
    "maintainer": "xxxx <xxx@xxxx>",
    "hooks": {
        "myapp": {
            "apparmor": "apparmor.json",
            "desktop": "app.desktop"
        }
    }
}
AppArmor profile policy file

Contains which policy the app needs to work properly. See Security and app isolation below for more information on this file.

.desktop file

The launcher file will tell UT how to launch the app, which name and icon to display on the home screen, and some other properties.

Example of app.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Application title
Exec=qmlscene qml/Main.qml
Icon=assets/logo.svg
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-Ubuntu-Touch=true

Non exhaustive list of properties:

  • Name: Application title has shown in the dash

  • Exec: Path to the executable file

  • Icon: Path to the icon to display

  • Terminal: false if will not run in terminal window

  • Type: Specifies the type of the launcher file. The type can be Application, Link or Directory.

  • X-Ubuntu-Touch: true to make the app visible

  • X-Ubuntu-XMir-Enable: true if your app is built for X

  • X-Ubuntu-Supported-Orientations: landscape or portrait to force your app start in landscape mode and portrait mode respectively.

Security and app isolation

All Ubuntu apps are confined respecting AppArmor access control mechanism (see Application Confinement) , meaning they only have access to their own resources and are isolated from other apps and parts of the system. The developer must declare which policy groups are needed for the app or scope to function properly with an apparmor .json file.

Example apparmor.json file:

{
    "policy_version": 16.04,
    "policy_groups": [
        "networking",
        "webview",
        "content_exchange"
    ]

}

For a full list of available policy groups, see AppArmor Policy Groups.