Feature: Add a project launcher

[omeryusufyagci]

This will manage the platform specific configuration/installation of dependencies. It should automatically update config.json file so that we can avoid adding a separate field for each platform and dependency that the user has to verify and maintain.

This will also introduce more flexibility in how to start our applications built on top of MediaProcessor.
The launcher should not assume the current web-based application will be the only use case. In the future we might provide a desktop GUI, and potentially other standalone applications.

The goal is to achieve a cross-platform seamless user experience.

[nikhiljangra264]

Could you please elaborate it more

[omeryusufyagci]

Hey @nikhiljangra264, thanks for the question!

What we're aiming for here is to :

• Provide a better first-time experience by finding/installing dependencies,
• Transform the config.json into a dynamic config file that will be updated wrt platform,
• Ensure to keep the current ease of use while being easily extensible in the future for other applications.

I was thinking of a script (or a few small scripts) that would try to locate the dependencies and install missing ones, update the config.json file accordingly and provide means to start applications built on top of MediaProcessor. Currently we only have the Web app, but it should be extensible; it could just take args, e.g. --web or --gui, for now and that would be OK.

We should of course handle C++ specific dependencies within the existing CMake files as much as we can, and we could introduce other tools where they make sense, but I hope this gives a better view of what I'm looking for here.

Does this help? Please let me know in case of any questions/feedback!

[nikhiljangra264]

we could add two scripts like .sh for linux and mac and .bat for windows

[nikhiljangra264]

I will do this.
Please assign me.

[omeryusufyagci]

we could add two scripts like .sh for linux and mac and .bat for windows

Or we could go with python, it's already a project dependency. So, it's not like it'd cost us anything.

Please assign me.

All yours ! : ))