CrunchBang Linux

hakimaki

New Member

From: Newark, NJ

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 2

Auto update menu?

How do I go about getting an auto updated menu in openbox?

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

    <!-- system menu files on Debian systems 
    <file>/var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml</file>
    <file>debian-menu.xml</file> -->

ggordon

#! Member

From: Benbrook, TX

Registered: 2008-11-26

Posts: 69

Re: Auto update menu?

I d/l'ed and installed Thunderbird, as I prefer it over other email clients...was an easy thing to go to 'Preference', 'Openbox Config', 'Edit menu.xml' and change 'Claws' to 'Thunderbird'...straight-forward way of changing the menu....then 'Reconfigure' and your done.

ggordon

Master One

Member

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 31

Re: Auto update menu?

I think, hakimaki meant an autoupdating application menu, like it is in Xfce, which looks for all the *.desktop files, each time it is accessed. In Xfce, each time you install or uninstall an app, it automatically appears (or vanishes, if not present any more) in the right category in the menu, which is quite nice and comfortable, because you do not need to manually edit the menu, if you fiddle around with new programs.

Is that kind of autoupdating menu possible with Openbox?

That functionality is pretty common, I remember having it as well, when playing around with FVWM.

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

Hi, I knew this could sounds like spam, but it isn't.

Right now I'm writting a small app that do this. I'm writting it in the D programming language. The app it's in its 0.2alpha version, but is absolutelly usable (the alpha part is because I just re-written it in a Object Oriented fashion). In fact it's what I'm using (and 2 or 3 of my closest friends) each day of my life at both work and home desktops.
The features are:
- Generates a full menu using the information present in *.desktop files (with static content or dinamically generated).
- No dependencies (it is statically compiled in a 367K binary)
- In a relative modest machine with ~200 *.desktop files it generates the full menu in ~90ms. In mine's it takes 14-19ms. This feature allows to call it in a way that generates the menu dinamically each time without any notable time penalization. (***This is the key function to this thread***)
- Very configurable and simple to use.
- Support to exclude menu items throught a really simple (but confortable and powerfull enough) regular expressions subset.
- Support to exclude menu items based on the directive OnlyShowIn present in *.desktop files.
- Easy access to edit OpenBox and obmenugen configuration files througth a submenu.

I called the program obmenugen and here are some calling examples:

To generate (and overwrite any existing) menu.xml with static content.

$ obmenugen

To generate (and overwrite any existing) menu.xml with instructions to generate dinamically the menu content each time you ask for him (for the menu, right-clicking on desktop or via a keybind).

$ obmenugen -p

By now it's not hosted anywhere, anyone interested, please contact me for a copy. I promess I'll be registering a project at sf.net or dsource.org ASAP.

See you

PS: I don't use ubuntu or debian, I use ArchLinux, but I'm in this forums 'cause I really love OpenBox.
PS2: I don't really speak english, so, sorry about my mistakes.

Last edited by NeOnsKuLL (2008-11-27 15:55:12)

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

Hi NeOnsKuLL Your app sounds very interesting. I would definitely be interested in testing it.

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

Hi corenominal, just give me some hours to change a thing I just noticed would be different and I'll be sending you a copy.

By the way, I'll be recomending this (yours?) distro probably to my parents, 'cause Arch has a higher difficulty level to they.

See you and thanks for the interest.

Last edited by NeOnsKuLL (2008-11-27 16:47:40)

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

Last edited by NeOnsKuLL (2008-11-27 21:05:57)

hakimaki

New Member

From: Newark, NJ

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 2

Re: Auto update menu?

Thanks corenominal, the debian menu worked out great!

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

fabsh

#1 Linux Outlaw

From: Bonn, Germany

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 118

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

Just out of curiosity, why is the Debian menu off by default?

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

fabsh

#1 Linux Outlaw

From: Bonn, Germany

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 118

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

I guess I just like an auto-updating menu. But maybe when I get more into Openbox and used to the config files that will change.

Maybe you could put a script in the menu for easily enabling the debian menu or something (like you did with the compositing). Mind you, I have no idea how hard that would be to actually implement...

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

jobester

#! CrunchBanger

Registered: 2008-11-29

Posts: 151

Re: Auto update menu?

When I selected the menu panel applet it gave me the debian menu

omns

#! wanderer

From: ~/

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 5,131

Re: Auto update menu?

kestrel

Species: F. sparverius

From: Moscow, Idaho

Registered: 2008-11-29

Posts: 170

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

Thanks for suggesting the menu applet. Now I have the best of both worlds, a simple easy menu under the right mouse button and the Debian menu on the left of the panel. I can try them both out and see for myself.

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

@corenominal
Have you tried obmenugen yet? Did you received my email?

Last edited by NeOnsKuLL (2008-12-02 17:01:48)

corenominal

WRONG

From: Lincoln, UK

Registered: 2008-11-20

Posts: 5,131

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

NeOnsKuLL

New Member

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 9

Re: Auto update menu?

OK, really thanks. I'll be awaiting your email.

arpbook

The Mac Magician

From: montpellier,france

Registered: 2008-11-27

Posts: 177

Website

Re: Auto update menu?

@NeOnxKuLL
hi,
just install obmenugen and it works fine. i think it's very usefull for base to work with: i explain:
i don't use thunar , so the entry "file manager" doesn't work. but using obmenugen give me a really good menu to work with obmenu. i just have to install whatever .deb i want and run obmenugen, then, i customize with obmenu.
really useful, thanks a lot

omns

#! wanderer

From: ~/

Registered: 2008-11-25

Posts: 5,131

Re: Auto update menu?