installing zipped apllication on risc os

Greetings,
I am new to risc os. I am familiar with linux and windows and I am impressed with a speedy boot of risc os on raspberry pi. For learning experience I download WebJames application (a webserver) in zip format into a public directory.
How do I unzip it and install the application? (an example of any application will do)
How do I run it? (for those who already played with webjames)
Regards,
Adam

I’ve never used WebJames, so it might have special requirements, but the general installation procedure for a RISC OS application is:

- double click the zip file, a new Filer directory window will open
- drag application to wherever you want it on your hard disc/SD card

That’s it! You could even run it from within the zip file, but for a web server that probably won’t perform very well.

De-installation procedure
- delete it :-)

Hence the big debate you will find on this site about whether package managers are particularly useful on RISC OS.

Thanks for reply Bryan.
I did opened the zip file and dragged the application file to application folder of the RISC OS. Unfortunately it does not run. I even do not know how to make it run.Double clicking did not help as well as middle click since it has not option to open it.
I have another question for those familiar with risc OS 5.19 .
1) Keyboard setting is British. How to switch to U.S.?
2) Does Risc OS at run time saves anything on hard drive either temporarily or permanently? If yes, is it necessary and how do I disable it?
3) Does it activates processes that require hard drive?
4) How do I automate activation of application software during the boot time? In my case, a webserver called webjames.

I hope it was not too much.
Regards,
Adam

Just so we can be pedantically sure of what is happening here, Adam, can you tell us the exact name of the application you downloaded, both the name used by the zip file and the app within it? I’m guessing the app will be !WebJames or similar.

What Bryan wrote is really about it for most applications. Open the zip file, drag the application called !Thingamujig to some where on your main drive, let it copy, double-click with left mouse button on the copied application icon and it should start up. Middle-mouse button should open a menu that amongst other things ought to have an entry labelled ‘help’.

To switch your keyboard, d-click on the !configure icon on the left side of the desktop. That will open up the equivalent of the ‘control panel’ and you’ll see a grid of icons including ‘keyboard’ – click on that and the next panel has a pull-down menu item right at the top. I’m using USA myself since I have a compact USA configured keyboard on my Pi. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Set’ button at bottom-right, or you’ll get fooled into thinking you’ve made the change without having really done so.

RISC OS doesn’t save much to disc unless you explicitly cause it to; you can have assorted logging done but you’d need to install an app to do that. Once RISC OS has booted you can usually remove the SD card and it will be happy. I’m not going to guarantee absolutely no writing but I’ve never yet noticed any.

To make an app start up at boot time we go back to the !configure app and click on !Boot. Click on ‘Run’ and drag the application to the list that opens up – click ‘Set’ in that panel, ‘Set’ in the main panel labelled ‘Boot sequence’, and you’re done. Assuming you’ve done any needed configuration of the app you should be golden.

There’s a load of RISC OS Pi videos on youtube that might be worth spending some time perusing.

If we are considering !WebJames in particular, remember

1. WebJames does not install an icon on the iconbar, you will need to check in the task manager (click left mouse button on the raspberry at far right of iconbar to see list of active tasks) to ensure it is running.

2. The attributes file (!WebJames.attributes – to open the application as a folder hold down the left mouse button when you double click on the application icon in the filer) needs to be set up manually to point to the dir containing the web site you wish to serve.

To All:
I fixed the problem with WebJames. I opened the zipped file properly however I did not save the files correctly. I just dragged the application file !WebJames to the Applications Folder and double clicked from it. That is incorrect. I did see WebJames on task manager however I could not open the http://localhost/ site to confirm that WebJames is running correctly. To correct it, I created a WebJames folder and dragged all the files/folders found inside the zip archive into the WebJames folder. Then I double clicked that application file inside the webjames folder. It got listed in task manager and also most importantly I am able to verify by typing http://localhost/ in the browser and see the web page saying that webJames is working.
I managed to switch keyboard setting from U.K. to U.S. and disable auto on number lock. I don’t have configuration icon on desktop but I can get it from raspberry icon on bottom right (task bar) by middle click on it.
Thanks for tip on auto running WebJames on boot time. It is very neat and easy to implement. I verified it and it works nicely.
I am trying to create internal web server for home use. So I can access it from any computer at home. Since I created a web server on pi, now I will try to figure out how to access it from my second computer and create a proper local web address for it. I noticed that WebJames Help is not very intuitive. No examples in implementations.
Thank you all.
Regards,
Adam

Since I created a web server on pi, now I will try to figure out how to access it from my second computer and create a proper local web address for it.

The simplest way is simply to use the local IP address of the pi, eg if it is 192.168.1.7 then use http://192.168.1.7/ to access the site. I sometimes use WebJames to serve some ’local’pages from the Iyonix, and it is accessible to the BB, Raspberry-Pi, and an old eePC (linux).