Re: Improving GNOME Volume Manager

[Sri Ramkrishna <sri aracnet com>]

Why not put these in the "Preferred Applications" applet and add a new
tab for media?  That way, we can just pick up sane defaults that way?
When the mime system is stable perhaps then something like you mentioned
will work better.

I can't comment on your mime spec.  It sounds reasonable.

sri

On Sun, 2004-11-07 at 09:18 +0100, Luca Ferretti wrote:
> The most annoying issue of GNOME volume manager is that you have to
> manually write the command line to manage the inserted media.
> 
> I like to open (or comment if it yet exist) a bug against it, but I like
> to know if my proposed solution is implementable.
> 
> ------
> 1. Define MIME types
> 
> To handle something, we need a descriptor, so first of all we have to
> define MIME types for
> 	* blank CD/DVD   (media/blank-cd/dvd ?)
> 	* audio CD	 (media/audio-cd ?)
> 	* video DVD	 (media/video-dvd ?)
> 	* camera	 (media/camera ?)
> 
> Of course those are 'fake' MIME definition, just to implement point 2. I
> don't think we need to put them in shared-mime-info package, but maybe
> this could helpful for desktop interoperability.
> 
> ------
> 2. Use the new MIME system
> 
> Now that MIMEs are available, applications can notify to desktop their
> ability to manage them using .deskop files. For example nautilus-cd-
> burner can notify that it's an application to manage media/blank-cd and
> media/blank-dvd adding a file just like
> 
> 	[Desktop Entry]
> 	Encoding=UTF-8
> 	Name=Open CD/DVD creator
> 	Comment=Copy files that you want to write on blank disc in a special
> folder.
> 	NoDisplay=true
> 	TryExec=nautilus-cd-burner
> 	Exec=nautilus burn://
> 	Terminal=false
> 	Type=Application
> 	Categories=GNOME;Application;System;
> 	MimeType=media/blank-cd;media/blank-dvd
> 
> Of course those desktop entries should not appear under Application
> menu, but only in gnome-volume-manager preferences dialog. The Name
> option should contain a short description of an action.
> 
> 
> Notes:
>         <quote>NoDisplay means "this application exists, but don't
>         display it in the menus". This can be useful to e.g. associate
>         this application with MIME types, so that it gets launched from
>         a file manager (or other apps), without having a menu entry for
>         it</quote> - This is exactly what n-v-m needs
> 
>         <quote>TryExec: File name of a binary on disk used to determine
>         if the program is actually installed. If not, entry may not show
>         in menus, etc.</quote> - This explain why Exec and TryExec
>         arguments are different
> 
> ------
> 3. Use those new stuff in capplet
> 
> Every fake mime has a section in g-v-m capplet, as follow
> 
> 	<b>Blank CD/DVD Disks</b>
> 	
> 	    [x] Perform action when inserting a blank CD/DVD disk
> 	    Available actions: [Open CD/DVD creator             v]
> 	    Action details:    Copy files thay you want to write
> 		               on blank disc in a special folder.
> 	    Custom command:    |_________________________________|
> 
> The "Available actions" dropdown selection lists all available desktop
> entry for related MIME, plus a "Run custom command" entry to external
> apps.
> 
> Of course Custom command entry is insensitive if not selected in action
> list, but could be used to show the command line of selected action.
> 
> -------------------
> 
> Open Questions
> 
>       * Do you think it's a reasonable proposal?
>       * Where implement MIME definition? (shared-mime, gnome-vfs, gnome-
>         mime-data, gnome-volume-manager?) And _how_ ??
>       * Do g-v-m have to provide one .desktop file for each mime to act
>         like default action? Note that if the linked application is not
>         installed, then the TryExec option helps us to hide the action
>         from the list.
>       * How can users simply add new actions for (old, legacy)
>         applications that don't follow this spec? No, manually edit a
>         new desktop file is not simple. What about something like drag
>         the related menu entry from application menu to action list and
>         ask for a name and a comment? This is very MacOS IMHO :-) Of
>         course g-v-m have to extract relevant info and create a new
>         desktop file.
>       * Do ve have to add a media/photo-cd (and similar) to manage
>         CD/DVD containing photos too?
>       * Other ?
>