Tutorials

Setting up Bench means downloading and extracting the Bench system files, initializing the configuration, and setting up the required apps for Bench. The setup process is supported by a graphical initialization wizard.

Apps are defined in one of the loaded app libraries or in your custom app library. An app definition contains an ID, a download URL or the identifier of a managed package, and some additional information for Bench. If you want to use an app in the Bench environment, it must be activated and installed. You can activate and install an app via the Bench Dashboard, by editing a text file, or running a command at the shell.

Most apps, included in the default app library, are defined with a specific version number. These apps can be upgraded when the app library was updated. But some apps are defined without a version number, and can be upgraded at any time. And then there are managed packages like NPM or PIP packages. The app definitions for these can define a range of versions and allow upgrading the package in the given version interval too, without retrieving a new app library. And last but not least, you can override the version number of an app in the user app library, if the app library is outdated.

If you do not need an app anymore installed in your Bench environment, you can just deselect and remove it. You can do this with the Bench Dashboard or you can edit the configuration files yourself and call a command on the shell to deinstall the app.

There are two different kinds of apps: Apps with a graphical user interface, which have a launcher, and command line tools, which are registered on the PATH to be run in a shell. Some apps have a graphical user interface and come with a launcher but are available as a command line tool too. Launcher for Apps with Graphical UI Apps with a graphical user interface come with a launcher.

When working on a project inside of the Bench environment, the most important thing is, to go through the Launchers, when opening an IDE or calling a compiler. Only then all the required command line tools are on the PATH.