Re: Menu Editing in Gnome2

[Glynn Foster <glynn foster sun com>]

Hey there,

> Best I can do:
> 
>     http://www.gnome.org/start/2.0/menuediting.html
>     http://www.redtux.demon.co.uk/docs/gnome_menu_edit_doc.20_6.html
>     http://www.gnome.org/start/2.0/errors.html#id2830737
>     http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=73770
>     (This bug is a bit impenentrable, but I am assured it's the
>     right one. The phrase "fixed in CVS" springs to mind.)

Here's something I wrote up the other day - Man, I can't understand how
I seem to end up writing more documents about menu editing than anything
else :/

			See ya,
				Glynn ;)

Introduction -
==============

Menu editing in the GNOME 2 desktop has been designed to use the 'gnome-vfs'
technology, the file abstraction library, which gives more flexibility
for system administrators. On top of this layer, lies 'vFolder' technology - 
an advanced way of organizing your Panel menus.

The menus in GNOME are based on a collection of '.desktop' files which are
ordered using the 'vFolder' technology. a 'vFolder' is an XML based 
description. For example -

<VFolderInfo>
  <WriteDir>~/.gnome2/vfolders/applications</WriteDir>

  <Folder>
    <Name>Root</Name>
    <Parent>applications-all-users:///</Parent>

    <!-- Settings -->
    <Folder>
      <Name>Preferences</Name>
      <ParentLink>preferences:///</ParentLink>
    </Folder>

  </Folder>
</VFolderInfo>

Each submenu item is sorted according to a number of categories as defined in
the '.desktop' file. An example of a suitable '.desktop' file -

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Calculator
Comment=Perform simple calculations
Exec=gnome-calculator
Icon=gnome-calc3.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-GNOME-DocPath=gnome-calculator/gnome-calculator.xml
Categories=GNOME;Application;Utility;

The important line is the 'Categories' entry - this decides where a given
application should be stored within the menu heirarchy.

The actual submenu is defined in a '.directory' file. This is similar to
the '.desktop' entry without the specifics like 'Exec', 'Terminal', 
'Categories' etc.

User Editing -
==============

Unless you really want to delve into the depths of hand editing files, it is 
suggested that you use a combination of both the Panel and Nautilus UI.

To edit a menu item perform the following steps:

1) Right-click on the menu item to open the menu item popup menu
2) Choose Properties. Use the Launcher Properties dialog to modify 
   the properties as required. 
3) Click Close to apply the changes and close the dialog. If you make a
   mistake you can click Revert.

To edit a submenu item perform the following steps:

1) Right-click on any menu item to open the menu item popup menu
2) Choose Entire menu > Properties. Use the Launcher Properties dialog
   to modify the properties as required.
3) Click Close to apply the changes and close the dialog. If you make a 
   mistake you can click Revert.

To add a new menu item perform the following steps:

1) Open up the Nautilus file manager
2) Type applications:/// into the Location text entry
3) Browse to the menu location that you wish to insert a new item
4) Drag and drop [or Copy and Paste] a '.desktop' launcher into the view

To remove a menu item perform the following steps:

1) Right-click on the menu item to open the menu item popup menu
2) Choose Remove this item

System Editing -
================

Menu editing for system administrators is similar to the user case as 
detailed above. The system administrators need to be aware of the following
file manager views

	applications:///		User defined Applications
	preferences:///			User defined Desktop Preferences
	applications-all-users:///	System wide defined Applications
	preferences-all-users:///	System wide defined Desktop Preferences

Locations -
===========

User specific locations -

$HOME/.gnome2/vfolders/applications
Location of local cached application:/// '.desktop' files

$HOME/.gnome2/vfolders/applications.vfolder-info
Location of local cached application:/// vFolder

$HOME/.gnome2/vfolders/preferences
Location of local cached preferences:/// '.desktop' file

$HOME/.gnome2/vfolders/preferences.vfolder-info
Location of local cache preferences:/// vFolder


System wide locations -

/usr/gnome/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/applications-all-users
Location of system wide application:/// '.desktop' files

/usr/gnome/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/applications-all-users.vfolder-info
Location of system wide application:/// vFolder

/usr/gnome/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/applications.vfolder-info-default
Location of per user application:/// vFolder

/usr/gnome/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/preferences-all-users
Location of system wide preferences:/// '.desktop' files

/usr/gnome/etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/preferences-all-users.vfolder-info
Location of system wide preferences:/// vFolder

/usr/gnome/share/applications
Default location for all application '.desktop' files

/usr/gnome/share/gnome/vfolders
Default location for all '.directory' files


Notes -
=======
It is very likely that there is still a few bugs that make editing menus
within GNOME very frustrating. If you do not see an instant update you 
make need to re-start your panel and/or file manager. 

At the moment, it is not possible to lock down menus at a system 
administration level.