Re: Elliot - any ideas?

[Elliot Lee <sopwith redhat com>]

[sent to gnome-list in the hopes that this will serve as an excuse for
documenting "the new applet API" and goad ID's and all :-]f

OK, explanation:

Now applets have these "goad_ids", which are strings that uniquely
identify the applet. For programs that only implement one applet, the
program name (e.g. fish_applet) should work just fine. This is the
argument that you pass to applet_widget_new()

Next you need to make a .gnorba file for the applet. If you look in CVS,
gnome-core/applets/asclock/asclock_applet.gnorba is probably a good
example. The format for the file:

[<your_applets_goad_id>]
type=exe
repo_id=IDL:GNOME/Applet:1.0
description=My program does many wonderful things
location_info=<the_programs_name_as_it_would_be_typed_on_the_command_line>

Then you need to put the relevant stuff into the Makefile.am to install
the .gnorba file. The asclock Makefile.am has a good example of this.

Finally you have to put the right command line into the .desktop file so
that the panel can figure out the goad ID of the applet from looking at
the given command line (goad ID's are used to identify particular
implementations of CORBA objects - in this case, particular applets).
Editing the gaim.desktop file, the format of the Exec= line would be:

Exec=<the_programs_name_on_command_line> --activate-goad-server=<your applet's goad ID>

Again, the asclock_applet.desktop file serves as a good example.

Hope this helps,
-- Elliot
"In film you will find four basic story lines. Man versus man, man
 versus nature, nature versus nature, and dog versus vampire."
    - Steven Spielberg