Re: Preferred Applications applet roadmap

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo novell com>]

On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 22:32 +0200, Luca Cavalli wrote:
> Hi,
> first of all I have to apologize for not being able to go on with the
> development of Preferred Applications applet during the 2.16 development
> cycle. I really hope I will have some free time for GNOME 2.18 :)
> I have thinked a bit at current preferred apps implementation. We have a
> 'generic' preferred app widget (well at this moment it is not yet a
> widget) composed by an applications combobox, a custom command entry and
> a run in terminal check button. The text entry and the check button are
> linked to two gconf entries. This generic widget is used only by "Mail
> Reader". In addition "Web Browser" has three radio buttons and several
> gconf entries, "Terminal Emulator" an execute flag entry with its gconf
> entry.
> My idea is to write a generic preferred application real widget with a
> combobox, a command entry and a run in terminal check button. The
> command entry and the check button are linked to two gconf entries lists
> (eventually of just one element). The possibility to add an extra option
> entry (linked to its gconf entries list too). This should cover all our
> needs. All this has a very small impact on user interface, since it will
> be the same as it is now, without the web browser radio buttons (more on
> that a few lines below).
> 
>   +--------------------------------------+
>   | [=] GNOME Terminal                 |v|
>   +--------------------------------------+
>            +---------+
>   Command: |gnome-ter| [X] Run in terminal
>            +---------+\      \
>            +---------+ \      '-----> gconf entries list
>   Option   |-x       |  '-----------> gconf entries list
>            +---------+\
>                        '------------> gconf entries list
> 
> The widget is filled by a list of .desktop files (as suggested in some
> comments from bug #171872[1]). We can extract all relevant .desktop
> files using the "Categories" key (we have WebBrowser, Email and
> TerminalEmulator categories defined by the specs[2] from
> freedesktop.org). Custom commands can be used creating a .desktop file
> on the fly, hidden from GNOME menu, in the appropriate $XDG_DATA_HOME
> directory.
> Plus, using .desktop files will let us easily set a default handler for
> html/xhtml files as requested in bug #169670[3] for a long time.
> We still have a problem with web broweser radio buttons. This can be
> solved using a feature described in the specs, Desktop Actions, but not
> yet implemented in GNOME, at least as far as I know (it will be present
> in the upcoming XFCE 4.4/Thunar[4]). As we can see in annex A[5] of the
> specs, a .desktop file can describe more ways to open a programm, other
> than the main one, like open a site in a new tab or open a site in a new
> window. So, the combo box will have an entry for every Desktop Action.
> We just have to add support to Desktop Actions in GNOME (but it is not
> strictly necessary, if we don't want to directly call .desktop files, as
> suggested in bug #171872[1], so it can be done in future), modify
> our .dekstop files (Epiphany, Galeon...), which is easy, and modify
> external applications .desktop files (Firefox, Opera...), maybe not that
> easy.
> What do you think about this further change at the light of the future
> applets merging? This should let us extend the applet easily (just
> create a new widget instance, filling it with some .desktop files and a
> couple of gconf entries lists). We will also be able to handle new apps
> without any effort, given that they will provide an appropriate .desktop
> file.
> 
it sounds good to me. It sounds even better if we took advantage of this
to implement the DesktopActions thing you talk about. Would that be
hard, or is it, if I've understood it correctly, just about adding the
appropriate stuff to firefox/epiphany/etc .desktop files, right?
-- 
Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo novell com>