How to add a quick-launch icon in my Dock for a program I've downloaded?

Solution 1:

You can use AppleScript to make a .app file for this (That is the only file type that can go in the left side of the dock). It is in /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor and when you make a new file you can put in do shell script "/Applications/apache-jmeter-2.11/bin/jmeter". I do this all the time for shell scripts, so I can access them easily. Then you can save and choose "app" near the bottom of the Save sheet. This will create an app file that you can put in, say, the folder above bin which can be dragged into the Dock.

tell app "Terminal"
    activate
    do script "/Applications/apache-jmeter-2.11/bin/jmeter"
end

is what you will need if jmeter writes to the terminal.

Solution 2:

When you launch it does it show an icon in the dock? If not it may be a command line program that is running inside terminal. If that is the case there are ways to make an Applescript/Automator wrap-around that will launch command line applications that should give you a dock icon.

Having never done this myself, however, I am afraid you will have to do some googling, but hopefully this points you in the right direction.

Solution 3:

Somewhat copied from: Executing Shell Scripts from the OS X Dock

The following creates a running application that doesn't need to spawn the terminal to work. Do something like the following from the command line:

name='JMeter Launcher'
apppath='/Applications/apache-jmeter-2.11/bin/jmeter'
mkdir -p "/Applications/$name.app/Contents/MacOS"
cat > "/Applications/$name.app/Contents/MacOS/$name" <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
$apppath
EOF
chmod +x "/Applications/$name.app/Contents/MacOS/$name"

This will create a clickable application that when run will execute the shell script with the same name which will run your jmeter binary.

Notice that the JMeter Launcher name must match the .app top directory name and the script name down in MacOS directory precisely which is why this script stores it in a variable.

Also, if you want to change the icon, you can select the application in the Finder, get info about it, select the default icon at the top of the info window, and paste a 512×512 PNG image over it.

Solution 4:

Such binaries can't be added to the left side of the Dock where applications are stored.

Add it to the right side of the Dock instead

Right of the separator: