Create Launcher for Aptana Studio 3 in Ubuntu 13.10 with menus fixed for Unity

Sep 23, 2013 systems

Create Launcher for Aptana Studio 3 in Ubuntu 13.10 with menus fixed for Unity

I followed the steps in this video “Install Aptana Studio 3 on Ubuntu” on YouTube (link no longer available) which explains how to set up a launcher in Ubuntu with an icon so that you can start Aptana from the dock launcher or search for the application. Unfortunately there is a known bug in Ubuntu currently for Aptana 3’s menus that seems to have been around for awhile.

The fix that has been posted works but it isn’t convenient. I don’t want to have to open a terminal window to launch Aptana and then have to keep that window open and unusable.

~~What I did was to edit the .destkop file for Aptana that was created in the video linked above.~~

Follow the instructions here to create the aptana.desktop file using these commands…

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/aptana.desktop

And copy this code into the aptana.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
StartupNotify=True
Name=Aptana
Comment=Aptana Studio 3
Icon=/opt/Aptana_Studio_3/icon.xpm &lt;- replace this whit the ABSOLUTE path in which you unpacked aptana
Exec=/opt/Aptana_Studio_3/AptanaStudio3 &lt;- the same applies here, replace with the ABSOLUTE path
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;IDE;

Except I changed/added these lines.

Exec=/usr/bin/runaptana %F
TryExec=/usr/bin/runaptana

And then I created the bash script, that was explained in the second set of links above

sudo nano /usr/bin/runaptana

I added these lines to the script

#!/bin/bash
export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0
AptanaStudio3

And made a symbolic link from /usr/bin/AptanaStudio3 to the application

ln -s /opt/Aptana_Studio_3/AptanaStudio3 /usr/bin/AptanaStudio3

You can rename it to a .sh file if you want but you will need to change the path in the .desktop file as well. Make sure that the runaptana file is given executable rights

sudo chmod u+x /usr/bin/runaptana

Now when I search in the Unity launcher, the Aptana Studio 3 icon shows up AND when I run it the application has functioning menus.