Desktop files and Gnome

[Colin Law]

On 28 April 2017 at 14:23, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 28 April 2017 at 14:13, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 27 April 2017 at 16:39, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Since I am going to have to wean myself of Unity I decided to give Gnome a go.
>>>
>>> I have a number of home spun .desktop files which I have added to the
>>> Unity launcher which allow alternative actions on right click. For
>>> example I have one that by default gives me a terminal, but by right
>>> clicking I can ssh into a long list of servers. I have tried adding
>>> the opening the application using the desktop file and then adding it
>>> to Favourites in the panel, but the right click does not give me the
>>> options. Is there a way to achieve something similar in Gnome?
>>
>> I believe I have found the solution. This feature is implemented
>> natively in gnome but one has to add the application to the favourites
>> in the right way. I had done this by running the .desktop file from
>> the Dash and had then selected Add to Favourites from the launcher
>> panel. The correct way is to find the .desktop file in the Dash and
>> right click it there and Add to Favourites.  Then right click on it in
>> the launcher shows the actions quicklist. It is not perfect as when I
>> open it another terminal icon is added to the launcher, but I can live
>> with that.
>
> Hmm, seems I spoke too soon. Another desktop file with a quicklist
> still does not work from the launcher. I will have to try to work out
> what the difference is.

OK, for anyone else who falls over this, for .desktop files added to
the launcher panel in Gnome, for quicklists the old syntax (at least I
think it is the old syntax) using
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=name1;name2
and
[name1 Shortcut Group]
..
[name2 Shortcut Group]
does not work. One has to use the syntax
Actions=name1;name2
and
[Desktop action name1]
etc.
Confusingly the old syntax does work when right clicking in the Dash,
just not when added to the launcher.

Colin

>
> Colin
>
>>
>> Colin