Re: Installing themes from art.gnome.org via gnome-theme-manager

[Thomas Wood <thos thos me uk>]

OK, I never realised the theme manager could install themes from urls.
That's pretty neat! Not sure how feasable your suggestion is though, as
art.gnome.org is on the same server as gnome.org, and they don't really
like messing about with it. However it is a good (and possibly much
easier) idea and I'll see who I can ask about it.

On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 07:01, Francis Whittle wrote:
> I think I may have a good idea and it is very simple.
> 
> art.themes.org could have a DAV area that exports the themes in .tar.gz 
> and .tar.bz2 format as a particular mime-type, say
> application/x-gnome-theme that is handled by the theme manager (that 
> can already download and install themes that are dragged onto it from 
> the web browser).
> 
> The DAV export could be list each theme type its own virtual directory.
> 
> What's nice and simple about this is it only requires a download-only 
> DAV area to be added to art.gnome.org that had nautilus metafile 
> information set up (I think the webdav handler in nautilus will load 
> precached thumbnails) and it's all good ;)
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> On 2003.06.25 20:59, Julien Olivier wrote:
> > What about the opposite ? I mean, why not integrate a.g.o. into
> > GNOME's
> > theme manager ? For example, when launching GNOME's theme manager, it
> > should fetch available themes' descriptions and screenshots from
> > a.g.o.
> > and display them as downloadable themes. Then, clicking on one of them
> > would automatically download it from a.g.o, install it and set it up
> > as
> > the current theme.
> > 
> > And if you're not connected to internet, there should be a button in
> > GNOME's theme manager allowing you to connect and download available
> > themes' descriptions.
> > 
> > Wouldn't that be possible ?
> > 
> > Le mar 24/06/2003 à 19:59, Thomas Wood a écrit :
> > > In the efforts to make GNOME theming easier, especially in regards
> > to
> > > those from art.gnome.org so as to make a.g.o the definitive source
> > of
> > > GNOME themes, we have decided it would be to our advantage to
> > > incorporate better installation of themes so as to be able to
> > integrate
> > > easy install of themes directly from a.g.o. Currently, installing
> > themes
> > > from art.gnome.org is a two step (or more) process that requires
> > first
> > > downloading the theme, then installing it, then switching to that
> > theme
> > > and as a result of bugs in system tar, or in the theme manager
> > itself,
> > > even this is not a hiccup free process. To overcome this, at least
> > in
> > > part , a lot of modern programs (such as winamp, mozilla and others)
> > > allow the user to download, install and even switch to themes from a
> > > website in a single step process by a common extension which the
> > program
> > > is associated with. I propose we make it easier for people to
> > install
> > > themes by doing this to GNOME themes, by changing the usual .tar.gz
> > > extension to a special extension and having the theme manager
> > associated
> > > with these files so that it can "open" and install them. I believe
> > this
> > > would be the simplest solution. So for instance with a proposed new
> > > layout on a.g.o, the user would go to the Details->Controls section,
> > > click on "Install" of a theme they would like, and the theme-
> > manager
> > > would auto-download the file, properly extract to the valid
> > locations;
> > > and then prompt the user as to if they would like to apply the said
> > > theme now.
> > >
> > > 1. Extension
> > > This could be something like .theme or perhaps .gtheme, or anything
> > else we all agree is appropriate.
> > >
> > > 2. Naming convention
> > > At art.gnome.org we currently prefix all themes with their theme
> > type. For example, GDM themes are prefixed with "GDM-" and Metacity
> > with "MCity-". We feel this brings some consistency to the file names
> > and helps separate them. This could be included in some specification
> > if necessary. So as to allow the theme manager to know by the file
> > name where to extract said theme.
> > >
> > > 3. Internals
> > > This can either be left much as it is done in the theme tarballs
> > now, or could be changed, although i don't see much need. Basically
> > the structure is:
> > >
> > > theme_name
> > >   |- index.theme
> > >   |- <gtk>
> > >   |- <gtk-2.0>
> > >   |- <metacity-1>
> > >   |- <scalable>
> > >   |- <48x48> ... and other icon theme related directories
> > >
> > > 4 Implementation
> > > Essentially the theme manager would be associated with this type of
> > file, and would install it in much the same as it does currently. What
> > type of compression to use is an issue (gz or bz2) and how this would
> > work on for instance a solaris machines would also have to be adressed
> > (apparently solaris tar is different from gnu tar). And we should as
> > stated, also have some sort of message dialog asking the user if they
> > would like to apply now etc..
> > >
> > >
> > > Comments?
> > >
> > >
> > > ps. Please throw insults at ajgenius as to the lengthy-ness of some
> > sentances in this proposal, as they where his idea.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gnome-themes-list mailing list
> > > gnome-themes-list gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-themes-list
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnome-themes-list mailing list
> > gnome-themes-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-themes-list
> > 
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