Re: Ideas for Integrating The Document-Oriented Web into GNOME

[Alex Jones <alex weej com>]

On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 02:53 +0200, Steve Frécinaux wrote:
> Alex Jones wrote:
> > Try disabling the http URI handler for GNOME.
> > <gconf:///desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled>
> > 
> > [...] preferred application with that URI.
> 
> I didn't know that this behaviour existed right now. Thank you for the
> hint ;-)

It's almost usable, but applications that call gnome_vfs_show_url on a
URI for a file hosted on a slow web server will hang until the file info
is retrieved. Obviously, this is just a sync issue and can be solved
easily.

There is also a bug <http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347717>
in GNOME-VFS which I fixed today, whereby the HTTP method was sending
#fragment-identifiers to the server as part of the request. This
unconditionally causes 404's.

Not all apps are 100% cool with URIs. EOG seems to be quite hit and miss
right now. It's nice when it works, though. Not had the chance to debug
it, yet.

Other than that, it does work surprisingly well!

> 
> >      2. A simple web page viewer, sans-location entry. Something that
> >         embeds Mozilla and calls gnome_vfs_show_url on any
> >         click-throughs.
> 
> Might just be your current epiphany navigator with hidden location bar.
> You can do it right now (just edit the toolbar and remove the location
> bar), but I don't think you can open every link in a new window (does
> not sound desirable anyway, given how often you click on a link in a
> browsing session).

It's not quite just "opening every link in a new window", but rather
calling gnome-open on every clicked URI. I'm not sure if this is
possible with GtkMozEmbed, yet. HTTP POSTs need to be thought about,
too. As far as I can tell, they don't quite fit the GNOME-VFS abstract
model.

As for desirability, I think it /could/ be desirable if we had a clever
way of keeping on top of windows, somehow. I tend to think that tabs are
a cop-out. (*finds flame-retardant suit*)

Regardless, if you prefer traditional "browser" behaviour, you just have
to make sure that your default application for text/html types and
sub-types is Epiphany. (Or Firefox if you insist! :P)

> 
> >      3. A favourites system, allowing you to bookmark favourite web
> >         pages, pictures, sound files, spreadsheets, documents, web
> >         folders (dav/ftp), etc. all *by URI*. One click should invoke
> >         the file-open process.
> 
> I've heard of plans for epiphany to use tracker as an optional backend
> (maybe as a plug-in) to store bookmarks. This way, it would make them
> available for the whole desktop.

I've not heard of tracker, but I will look into it. Thanks.

> 
> > So, if you read this far, you are obviously very bored or very
> > interested. Please let me know what you think.
> 
> Some of your thoughts are interesting. I can't say much more right now.
> 
> BTW did you file bugs for, say, the totem save menu ? ;-)

No, not yet. I'd hazard a guess that nobody would be interested, as it
is currently very difficult for a user to open non-local files in Totem.
I realise that we have "Open Location", but it doesn't get touched in
normal circumstances.

It is on my mental TODO, though! :)

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Thanks!
-- 
Alex Jones <alex weej com>