Small New App: TopShelf

[kripkenstein]

This looks like a cool app, any chance you could make a RPM for it?

I'm sorry, I have no idea how to make RPMs... however, you can install it from source, this is very easy. Grab the .tar.gz from the releases directory here, then just run make install (as superuser). That should work, unless your distro manages directories much differently than Debian/Ubuntu.

If someone knows how to make RPMs 'correctly', I'd be grateful for the help.

You may want to look at the source code for the Stacks plugin for Avant Window Manager. It is very similar to what you are describing, and could maybe give you ideas on how to do some of the things that people are asking for. Hope this helps!

Thanks, I'll look at that.

also there is an existing panel applet called a drawer which as far as i can tell does basically the same stuff as your application except it only shows the filename etc as a tooltip which is rather useless for files but good for application launchers which and other applets which it can also handle.

Well, the drawer applet does something completely different then TopShelf. The drawer is basically an extension of a panel - you can add things to a drawer exactly as you add them to a panel; no difference. So you can add files to a drawer manually - as launchers - just as you can to a panel, but this is not very convenient IMO at least. It isn't what it is meant for. For example, you can't sort the launchers in a drawer by filename or other criteria, which TopShelf can in fact do.

Fading unavailable files would look nice and be better than a popup message IM

I already implemented this meanwhile Unavailable files now appear with their filename in red. Note that this change is only in the development version (which you can see if you get the source code using Bazaar), not the 0.1 release and the 0.1 .debs.

[urukrama]

Hmm, TopShelf is currently a gnome panel applet, so it would naturally depend on gnome-panel... But perhaps it doesn't need to be... I guess it could have the ability to run 'standalone' as an always-on-top window, without any connection to a panel. Is that what you would like?

Btw, what desktop are you using?

I am using Openbox and Xfce. TopShelf looks like something that would be very useful to me. I would run it as a stand-alone app that I could launch with a menu entry in Openbox, or on the xfce-panel.

If this is unfeasible or is not at all the direction you want to go with this app, that is fine with me.

[kripkenstein]

I am using Openbox and Xfce. TopShelf looks like something that would be very useful to me. I would run it as a stand-alone app that I could launch with a menu entry in Openbox, or on the xfce-panel.

If this is unfeasible or is not at all the direction you want to go with this app, that is fine with me.

I think this is feasible, in fact, I already run it in a standalone window for debugging purposes. So I believe it should be possible to arrange this, I added it to my TODO list. (However, making it run in the Xfce panel would mean a lot more work, so I think I won't try to do that, but perhaps sometime later).

[urukrama]

To run it on the xfce panel should be doable with this. I don't think you need to do much there.

But my main interest is the option to run it as a stand-alone app. Thank you for considering it.

[diskotek]

looks really nice, thank you. i'll try it.

[kripkenstein]

To run it on the xfce panel should be doable with this. I don't think you need to do much there.

But my main interest is the option to run it as a stand-alone app. Thank you for considering it.

Interesting, that link shows how to run any GNOME applet in an Xfce panel. Nice I added a mention of this to the README so Xfce users will know about it (if they don't already).

Meanwhile I finished coding the standalone version, wasn't hard. It'll be functional in 0.2.

[urukrama]

Wonderful!

[init1]

I'm sorry, I have no idea how to make RPMs... however, you can install it from source, this is very easy. Grab the .tar.gz from the releases directory here, then just run make install (as superuser). That should work, unless your distro manages directories much differently than Debian/Ubuntu.

If someone knows how to make RPMs 'correctly', I'd be grateful for the help.

Thanks, it works great . Currently, I'm using Blag (Fedora based) and although the make file didn't work (/usr/lib/gnome-panel/ does not exist) I was able to figure out how to install it. I'll try to make an RPM for it.
Edit:
I hadn't realized how difficult making an RPM was. I may or may not complete one. I suppose installing it from source isn't very hard though.

[kripkenstein]

Thanks, it works great . Currently, I'm using Blag (Fedora based) and although the make file didn't work (/usr/lib/gnome-panel/ does not exist) I was able to figure out how to install it. I'll try to make an RPM for it.
Edit:
I hadn't realized how difficult making an RPM was. I may or may not complete one. I suppose installing it from source isn't very hard though.

Can you tell me what you needed to change for it to install (so I can add it to the documentation)?

[init1]

Can you tell me what you needed to change for it to install (so I can add it to the documentation)?

The only thing that was needed was to add the directory /usr/lib/gnome-panel/ and then the make script worked.