Integration of default apps with Unity

Registered by Bilal Akhtar

The new libunity API allows applications to display progress bars, counts, quicklists, etc on their launcher icons. The trouble is, very few pre-installed applications make use of this API.

In the Oneiric cycle we should make almost all default installed applications to make use of the launcher API for consistency.

Blueprint information

Status:
Complete
Approver:
Martin Pitt
Priority:
Undefined
Drafter:
Didier Roche-Tolomelli
Direction:
Approved
Assignee:
Bilal Akhtar
Definition:
Obsolete
Series goal:
Accepted for oneiric
Implementation:
Good progress
Milestone target:
milestone icon oneiric-alpha-3
Started by
Bilal Akhtar
Completed by
Martin Pitt

Whiteboard

Work items for oneiric-alpha-1:
[johnlea] write some guidelines between appindicator and quicklist/progress/count: DONE

Work items for ubuntu-11.10-beta-1:
[didrocks] Nautilus integration: dynamic quicklists (or file places) for gtk-bookmarks + connect the server: BLOCKED
[ken-vandine] add count on gwibber: DONE

Work items:
[bilalakhtar] Terminal: new window quicklist: DONE
[bilalakhtar] Brasero: progress bar: DONE
[bilalakhtar] Update-Manager: progress bar + (what's already implemented): DONE
[jassmith] wmclass matching in desktop files for getting quicklists even if you don't pin the right one: TODO
[laney] banshee needs download progress and sources quicklists: POSTPONED
[3v1n0] Nautilus copy progress: DONE
[kklimonda] Transmission integration: POSTPONED
[bilalakhtar] Software center integration: POSTPONED
[bilalakhtar] add new window/new document to gedit: DONE
[chrisccoulson] add a privacy mode entry quicklist in firefox: POSTPONED
[chrisccoulson] download progress in firefox: DROPPED
[manishsinha] Create libunity-sharp for wrapping around libunity library: POSTPONED
[didrocks] check the zg integration (optional) for some default applications (gedit, totem…): DONE
[jml] Check what can be done for applications not using gettext with translations: TODO
[jorge] Add a tag to bugs to see what's the community need and on what applications they worked on: DONE
[jorge] promote upstream all this awesome work from our contributors: DONE
[njpatel] being able to introspect and change the current locale if two applications tries to update the same one (zg needs it): POSTPONED
[njpatel] C# bindings for unity: POSTPONED
[njpatel] libunity should have a way to describe what's is a count, what is a progress (a11y): POSTPONED
[jorge] call from the community and document the process to get that upstream (template from didrocks at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/LauncherAPI): DONE

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Notes from the session:

The new libunity API allows applications to display progress bars, counts, quicklists, etc on their launcher icons. The trouble is, very few pre-installed applications make use of this API.
In the Oneiric cycle we should make almost all default installed applications to make use of the launcher API for consistency.
In Natty only these apps had Unity launcher integration:
* Empathy
* Evolution
* Firefox (only a static quicklist, see bug #741046 )
* GNOME screenshot
* Deja Dup (\o/)
* Inkscape
(add more apps if I'm wrong)
That's a very small number of applications. These default applications could benefit from launcher integration (add more apps if they can also benefit from launcher integration):
1) Gwibber (could benefit from counts and quicklists)
2) Update-Manager (counts, progress bars and quicklists)
3) Banshee (quicklists, and should we add progress bars?)
4) Nautilus (quicklist containing a list of favourite folders like Documents, Downloads, Photos, etc, and we could also add progress bars that would come up when something gets copied)
5) Tomboy (dynamic quicklists?)
-> we don't have a good story for tomboy, no submenu support
6) Transmission (quicklists for start/pause/stop)
7) Terminal (quicklists for open a new tab/open a new window).
8) Brasero (progress bars , and should we add quicklists
9) Software Center (Progress Bar)
10) Totem (Quicklist, and maybe bar)
-> no good story for it?
12) Gedit? (quicklist, New document, new window...)
13) [satchitb] file-roller or Archive Manager should have progress bar support while extracting.

Also:
1) Firefox should also have 'Open a New Tab' in its quicklist as discussed on bug #741046)
-> which window will be affected? How is is less a burden than accessing it from within the app
2) Empathy should have 'Contact List' in its quicklist (status change too?).
-> that's a lens
These non-default apps could benefit from integration:
1) GIMP (New image in quicklist)
(add more if you think some of them can also benefit from quicklists)
2) Thunderbird

--
nautilus launcher integration is blocked on dx refreshing the appmenu patch as the bookmarks will be exported from it.

(?)

Work Items