2. Launchers

2.1. Purpose

2.1.1. About author

I am Sergey A. Belous and this is my home page.

2.1.2. About Proxy32 software

In my free time I develop Windows software called Proxy32 (64-bit GUI executable written in C++). It helps me to organize and perform rather generic and routine computer tasks at work and at home. It is beneficial to have all kind of routine computer tasks neatly organized and always one click away for execution. Examples of routine computer tasks: start programs, open files, fill in the web forms (login/etc) or type complex parametric commands via remote desktop window or via console of virtual machine, especially, when copy/paste does not work. Please, see Table 1.1.1.

Note

Proxy32 functionality evolution.

Over the years (since 2001) functionality of Proxy32.exe software was evolving in different directions. It has started from original focus on development of custom-made automated terminal software that is well integrated with CYGWIN and overcomes many limitations of existing terminals. More recent development focus is on controlling external RemoteDesktop/VM_Console and WebBrowser windows in a manner similar to what can be achieved via AHK. Latest Proxy32 functionality is subset of functionality that one can achieve using AHK, but AHK requires learning the whole new programing language while Proxy32 is trying to employ more of GUI-driven approach for the subset of AHK functionality available.

2.2. Launchers and LauncherTree

Starting from 2001 after switching from HP UNIX workstation to Dell Windows laptop at work power of UNIX was missing and there was a desire to automate in Windows all routine operations like starting terminal and automatically connect it to remote host (like router or Linux server) or sending pre-defined sequence of command to such terminal or even opening internal documentation page for such command sequence without regards to what kind of bookmarks are stored (or not stored) in any particular browser. Those operation were eventually presented as nodes on the tree to make them easily accessible. The tree itself is located in the floating application window positioned over or next to terminal window and browser window. When user double-clicks on such tree node routine operation will be executed based on configuration stored inside of such tree node. Such tree nodes can be configured by user in advance and they can be made more universal (applicable to wider ranges of curcumstances) by using substitution parameters (substitution strings) instead of port and hostname for terminal connection or by using substitution parameters for disk or card name in sequence of commands or using substitution parameters in predefined internal URL to switch directly to desired document or topic.

Such tree nodes later got to be called Launchers in Proxy32 lingo and the tree window inside of Proxy32 application goes by the name LauncherTree window.

Each Launcher is always created by user with the fixed type assigned. There are dozens of Launcher types available for use in Proxy32. Each type can perform very specific operation and it is up to user to choose which type will better suit for the task at hand.

In the rest of this chapter I will make an attempt to describe all Launcher types and explain what purpose was in mind when each type was introduced. Some minimal examples will be given to illustrate the use.

2.3. Quick overview of Launcher types

Launcher Type	Purpose	Configuration parameters
SUBTREE	To group other launchers under common root tree node. It will collapse (hiding child launchers) or expand (showing child launchers) on user’s double-click. This is the only node type that can have children nodes on the LauncherTree. SUBTREE is equivalent to folder for tree-representation of the directory and file hierarchy.	Name of the SUBTREE
COM-PORT-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific COMPORT with specific communication parameters set	COM-PORT name and set of communication parameter to configure the port
TELNET-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific TELNET or TELNET/TLS server	Hostname or IPv4 of TELNET server, TCP port and TLS parameters in case TLS is being used
SHELL-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific Windows or CYGWIN shell or communication shell (which in turn may be connected to remote server)	Command line to start local child windows process. Terminal communicates with child process via STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR. Local process can be Windows cmd.exe or it can be (included with Proxy32) CYGWIN backend called ‘proxycygterm.exe’ (based on old ‘cygterm’ code) or it can be (included with Proxy32) SSH backend called ‘proxyplink.exe’ (based on PuTTY Plink code). ‘proxycygterm.exe’ provides terminal interface with CYGWIN bash or with CYGWIN communication shells and termial multiplexers such as SSH/SFTP/TELNET/FTP/SCREEN. ‘proxyplink.exe’ allows to leave all details of SSH coding and all the options to developers of PuTTY.
COMMAND	Sends text of the command to active built-in terminal by injecting it into byte stream towards the remote host or sends text of the command to the active window of external process by injecting the text into keyboard driver queue	Text of the command to be sent.
SCRIPT	Sends text line by line from attached text file to the remote host of active built-in terminal. Next line is sent automatically only after output of remote host is paused (was not active) for specified number of seconds. or Sends one text line from attached text file to the active window of external process by injecting the text into keyboard driver queue. Next line is sent when user double-clicks on the same launcher again.	Path to the text file with lines/commands to be sent.
I-SCRIPT	Sends text line by line from attached text file to the remote host of active built-in terminal. Next line is sent automatically only after output of remote host contains match for given regular expression. If output of the command is paused for given number of seconds and regular expession is not yet matched, the next line will not be sent and execution of the launcher will be stopped. I-SCRIPT can be invoked automatically by connect event of associated built-in terminal window. In such case it can be used to finish automatic terminal login sequence.	Path to the text file with lines/commands to be sent. Each line contains three parts: text of command to be sent regular expression to be matched by command output in order to continue to execute next line. timeout value to indicate maximum pause in the output of command when regular expression is not yet matched the output
PLUGIN	Creates child process to control interaction of built-in terminal with remote host. On creation STDOUT of the child process is connected to write bytes towards remote host, STDIN of the child process is connected to read bytes from remote host, and STDERR of the child process is connected to write bytes to the screen of the built-in terminal. Keyboard of terminal user is temporarily disconnected. When child process exits built-in terminal detects it and automatically reconnects remote host I/O to terminal screen and keyboard. User can kill stuck child process by clicking “Kill” button in terminal window. PLUGIN can be invoked automatically by connect event of associated built-in terminal window. In such case it can be used to finish automatic terminal login sequence.	Command line to create child process. PLUGIN can be written in any language. Examples will be provided of PLUGINs written in PERL, PYTHON, EXPECT, LUA
I-PLUGIN	Creates child process to control interaction of built-in terminal with remote host. On creation STDOUT of the child process is connected to write bytes towards remote host, STDIN of the child process is connected to read bytes from remote host, and STDERR of the child process is connected to write bytes to the screen of the built-in terminal. Keyboard of terminal user is writing to temporary file. Name of temporary file is passed/appended as a last parameter on command line of I-PLUGIN child process. I-PLUGIN child process can open temporary file and read user keystrokes from it. When child process exits built-in terminal detects it and automatically reconnects remote host I/O to terminal screen and keyboard. User can kill stuck child process by clicking “Kill” button in terminal window. In any case temporary file with user keystrokes is deleted when child process exited or terminated by user of terminal.	Command line to create child process. I-PLUGIN can be written in any language. Examples will be provided of PLUGINs written in PERL, PYTHON, EXPECT, LUA
LAUNCH	Start Windows Process based on configured command line. Capture Process Window into Proxy32 workspace if needed. Process can be started elevated. This is similar to Windows Shortcut.	Command line for the process to start. Regex pattern for window class and title to capture the window into Proxy32 list of managed windows
VIEWER	Opens file/web-page with configured application based on user-configured “ViewerDefinions” table. “ViewerDefinions” table is an ordered list of user-configured regular expressions. Each regular expression in the list is associated with certain windows application. Regular expressions in the list are sequentially applied to file/webpage URL configured in VIEWER. When first regular expression matches the URL, file or webpage is opened in the Windows application that is associated with matched regular expression. This is similar to associating Windows applications with file extensions.	url of file/web-page to open - in launcher global mapping table of url regex patterns to viewer application to be used when given regex matches - in the “ViewerDefinions” table.
CSVPARMS	Imports content of associated CSV file into Proxy32 substitution parameters list	Path to CSV file to be imported
YAMLPARMS	Imports content of associated JSON/YML file into Proxy32 substitution parameters list	Path to JSON/YML file to be imported
AHK-SCRIPT	Saves text to temporary file an passes this file for the execution to external AHK interpreter that is installed with Proxy32. After execution temporary file is deleted.	Text of AHK script to be executed
LUA-SCRIPT	Passes text for execution to built-in LUA interpreter	Text of LUA script to be executed
PYTHON-SCRIPT	Passes text for execution to built-in PYTHON interpreter	Text of PYTHON script to be executed

2.4. TERMINAL Launchers

Proxy32 application has its own built-in terminal with the features that were desired at the time. That includes connectivity to modem (COMPORT) and telnet and telnet/TLS and direct interprocesss connectivity to dos cmd shell and to various CYGWIN shells. It also includes unlimited scroll buffer with regex search and bookmarking and autobookmarking capabilities. Another external terminal (possibly on remote machine) can connect via TELNET (possibly with TLS) or via COMPORT (possibly with BLUETOOTH) to Proxy32 built-in terminal and type commands into existing terminal session and see the responses coming to both local built-in terminal and to remote external terminal connected to local built-in terminal. That feature was named terminal session sharing and was widely popular at the time when Webex and needed network bandwith were not available for modern-style GUI screen sharing. Also at the time screen sharing over third party web-server probably would not play well from secirity standpoint.

Of course, the primary need to develop proprietary built-in terminal in Proxy32 was because such terminal has to be designed from ground up to be controlled via Launchers and via Proxy32 GUI. There are several types of Launchers (COMMAND, SCRIPT, I-SCRIPT, PLUGIN, I-PLUGIN, SHELL-TERMINAL, TELNET-TERMINAL, COMPORT-TERMINAL) that dedicate full or part of their functionality specifically to control Proxy32 built-in terminal.

In this chapter we will mention functionality of above Launchers while functionality of built-in terminal will be covered in general in the next chapter.

It is hard to develop terminal as good and compatible as

• free terminal PuTTY,

• Xterm and PuTTY clone MinTTY under CYGWIN,

• other commercially available Windows terminals like SecureCRT, to name a few.

Therefore, for the situations when there is no compelling need to use built-in Proxy32 terminal, one can use PuTTY, Xterm and MinTTY. I have included those 3 terminals for convinience into Proxy32 self-installing executable. For example, such terminals can be started and connected via LAUNCH launcher (via command line) and then later COMMAND/SCRIPT launchers can be used to send sequences of parametrized commands to the windows of such terminals. As Proxy32 terminal has support for somewhat less terminal control sequences comparing to well established terminal emulators, there could be rare situations when in-terminal full screen application like VI/EMACS/SCREEN or something very proprietary may work better with well established terminal emulators.

There are three types of launchers to start and connect Proxy32 built-in terminal:

• COM-PORT-TERMINAL

• TELNET-TERMINAL

• SHELL-TERMINAL

Launcher Type	Purpose	Configuration parameters
COM-PORT-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific COMPORT with specific communication parameters set	COM-PORT name and set of communication parameter to configure the port
TELNET-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific TELNET or TELNET/TLS server	Hostname or IPv4 of TELNET server, TCP port and TLS parameters in case TLS is being used
SHELL-TERMINAL	To create window of Proxy32 built-in terminal and connect it to specific Windows or CYGWIN shell or communication shell (which in turn may be connected to remote server)	Command line to start local child windows process. Terminal communicates with child process via STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR. Local process can be Windows cmd.exe or it can be (included with Proxy32) CYGWIN backend called ‘proxycygterm.exe’ (based on old ‘cygterm’ code) or it can be (included with Proxy32) SSH backend called ‘proxyplink.exe’ (based on PuTTY Plink code). ‘proxycygterm.exe’ provides terminal interface with CYGWIN bash or with CYGWIN communication shells and termial multiplexers such as SSH/SFTP/TELNET/FTP/SCREEN. ‘proxyplink.exe’ allows to leave all details of SSH coding and all the options to developers of PuTTY.

Note

All Proxy32 Launchers have ToolTip text field.

ToolTip field is used to show user-provided tooltips when mouse pointer is hovering over the launcher node on the LauncherTree. In case of SHELL-TERMINAL, TELNET-TERMINAL, COMPORT-TERMINAL tooltip field contains title for newly created window of built-in terminal.