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Apps:

All these apps are simple .desktop-files. These are very small files that call a script. There are some fancy and tricky things about these app.desktop-files a developer should know.

What is an app.desktop-file?

A file with the extension .desktop and i.e. the following contents: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Version=1.0 Type = Application Comment = "Add freeDMS Folders" Terminal = false Name = 1 ADD FOLDERS HERE Icon = /usr/share/icons/Humanity/actions/48/add.svg Exec = __Add_All_Folders -f %k

Where from does the app call the script?

To tell the script, where the app-file is located inside the directory-tree the recent path to the .desktop-file is added to the call as parameter: i.e. execute addDMSfolders -f %k. -f is an option and %k is the current path including the filename. i.e. "/home/username/projects/subproject/ADD FOLDERS HERE.desktop" This path sometimes might be different for the same principal functionality. (i.e. REMOVE EMPTY FOLDERS) To distinguish these cases, different options are used. -f if called from inside a folder. -a if called from _tools inside the _admin folder. -p if the path directly shall be used. (typically by a direct call from the terminal) i.e. to find the way to the according freeDMS-project path: -f /home/username/projects/subproject/_finance/ADD FOLDERS HERE.desktop ... the last 2 entries need to be removed to get: /home/username/projects/subproject -a /home/username/projects/subproject/_admin/_tools/REMOVE EMPTY FOLDERS.desktop ... the last 3 entries must be removed. -p /home/username/projects/subproject ... nothing needs to be removed.

How to turn an ordinary file into an .desktop-file?

  1. Check and doublecheck if all the properties are set as you want them.
  2. Change the filename to something.desktop
  3. Give it executable-rights.

The name of an app is NOT the name of the .desktop-file! This is most confusing during development. You may call your file 'myApp.desktop'. But the app has an name-property that will be shown as name of the app in the filebrowser. So if you set the name-property to 'XXX' then your app will be shown as 'XXX' to copy or delet the app-file you must use the original filename 'myApp.desktop'.

Not all properties are easy to change once the file has been turned into a .desktop-file.

Some properties can be changed for a .desktop-file by using right mouseclick - properties.

  • Icon
  • Name
  • Ecec
  • Description
  • Comment can be changed. But i.e. the 'Terminal' property can't be changed. For this there are the "Master" and "Debug" files to create apps with terminal and without terminal.