Re: 3rd party application integration guidelines - how to be a good shell citizen?

[Johannes Schmid <jhs jsschmid de>]

Hi!

(Probably best to discuss that with the gnome-shell developers on
#gnome-shell but I try to give some feedback here):

> 1. Be gently notified of incomming messages, and access the new messages

As you say this is what notifications are for and that is also done by
Evolution.

> 2. Make it easy to get the application out of the user's sight without
>    ending it, so that it can continue to fetch mail in the background

Well, just switch to another application. As gnome-shell doesn't have a
task bar there is no reason something would be "in-the-way".

> 3. Quickly and easily access the "hidden" application to start writing a
>    message or read up on older messages

Traditionally you would use either the overview or Alt-Tab to switch to
the applications. In case of a notification for a new message, clicking
that notification will bring the application up.
You could use a "persistant" notification to have the icon there as long
as there are unread messages so the user can quickly access mail then.

> 4. Have some visual feedback to see if the application is running in the
>    background (and thus incomming mail would be announced), or not

Does there need to be visual feedback? I hope a user is aware if he
launched the mail client or not. If he is unsure he can switch to the
application using the various ways provided (or launch it).

So overall, double-check the guidelines on persistant notification and
you should be able to integrate your application well. You can also use
Evolution as a (maybe not so shiny) example.

Regards,
Johannes