2004.07_Desktopia-Xap-Launching Applications with a Different Approach.pdf

LINUX USER

deskTOPia

the traditional approaches to

launching programs on a GUI-

based desktop. However, none of these

solutions made the developer of Xap (X

application panel), a.k.a Rasca, really

happy. He didn’t feel like navigating

menu hierarchies, or filling his desktop

with icons. His Xap [1] utility takes a dif-

ferent approach. It organizes buttons for

launching his favorite programs in win-

dows on the desktop to save space – you

can even use tabs. The tool comes com-

plete with its own file manager.

Button Bar

Mix and Build

You will need to compile the source code

for the tool. The usual three card trick of

./configure ; make ; su -c make install

won’t get you far this time. The configure

script , which is supposed to discover the

location of the developer files, returns

incorrect results, and adds the wrong

paths for the gtk and glib header files to

the makefile. To prevent this, you need to

tell the configure script exactly where the

include files are. Users of Suse Linux 9.0

can type the following to do so:

A program launcher doesn’t always have to be a menu or a desktop icon. Xap

CFLAGS="-I/opt/gnome/include U

/gtk-1.2 -I/opt/gnome U

/include/glib-1.2" ./configure

takes an unconventional approach to this task and thus makes users rethink.

BY ANDREA MÜLLER

Redhat 9.0, Suse 8.2, and Mandrake

Linux 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, and 10.0 users will

find the developer files for gtk and glib

below /usr . You need to enter:

cutable, xap , to /usr/local . You can

ignore the error message at the end. Xap

includes links for the KDE 2 menu and is

unable to copy them.

The tools tab will be empty at this

stage. Xap checks its config directory,

~/.xap , to discover the applications it is

expected to manage. Each folder below

that directory represents a Xap tab. The

contents of the ~/.xap/tools directory

are displayed as programs in a tab called

tools . To add a program, use the ln com-

mand to create a link to the executable

within a directory. For xterm we need:

CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/gtk-1.2 U

-I/usr/include/glib-1.2" U

./configure

Nicely Set Up

The following command

-I means that the directory that follows,

for example, /opt/gnome/include/gtk-1.2 ,

has the I nclude files needed by the com-

piler. The syntax above adds the paths to

the makefile . You can then go on to run

make , which should execute without any

errors now. As an administrative user,

type make install to copy the binary exe-

xap &

launches the new tool. The first time you

start the program, it will create its own

configuration directory, ~/.xap , and

populate the directory with links to its

own tools. The program launches in a

window that you can move around your

desktop as required. The window has

two tabs called apps and tools . apps is

populated with quick start icons for the

programs included with the Xap distribu-

tion: the xwf file manager, the xfi search

tool, a front-end for GnuPG, and privi-

lege management tool (see Figure 1).

GLOSSARY

gtk : Short for the Gimp Toolkit, a graphics

library that contains elements required to

draw menus and dialog boxes. Many applica-

tions, including the latest version of Gimp,

already use gtk-2.

Header : These are files that typically have a

.h suffix and contain library interface defini-

tions. If a program needs library functions,

you need to include the header files for the

library. Header files are normally located in

packages with the same stem name as the

library plus a dev or devel suffix.

Desktopia

Only you can decide how your desktop

looks. With deskTOPia we regularly take you

with us on a journey into the land of win-

dow managers and desktop environments,

presenting the useful and the colorful view-

ers and pretty toys.

July 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

Xap

P anels, desktop icons, or menus are

deskTOPia

LINUX USER

ln -s /usr/bin/xterm ~/.xap U

/tools/xterm

How do you go about defining an icon

to launch top ? You won’t get far with a

link, as top needs to run in a terminal

window as a “container”. Luckily, the

developer put some thought into this.

The following command

You need to relaunch Xap to tell the tool

to apply the changes.

You can add new tabs by selecting

New Page in the xap pull-

down menu (see Figure 2).

This tells Xap to create a

new folder below ~/.xap

where you can add links to

programs.

ln -s /usr/bin/top U

~/.xap/tools/top

Figure 1: Xap automati-

cally creates icons for

its own collection of

tools.

creates a link and pops up a

configuration dialog. In the

Options for the link, select

Start in Terminal Window and

save your changes by clicking

on OK . Under the hood, xap

converts the link to a definition file. The

file includes details of the icon that xap

will display, the tooltip text to display on

mouse over, and the command that xap

executes when a user clicks the icon.

Figure 4: Xpg is graphical front-end for the gpg

encryption tool.

Pretty Desktop

Xap creates an icon for the

xterm entry we just created,

as it knows the application. It is not so

friendly to unknown apps, however.

They have to make do with a sad looking

gray box. To brighten up the buttons,

simply copy an XPM formatted graphic

to the ~/.xap/.icons directory. To tell the

program launcher which button the

graphic belongs to, add a name using the

following conventions: mini-name_of_

link.xpm . For example, if you have a link

for sylpheed , mini-sylpheed.xpm would

be the right name for the image. There is

an even easier way of adding an icon to

the launcher. Right-click the launcher

and select Options to pop up the configu-

ration dialog (see Figure 2). Enter the

path to the icon to Icon (XPM) – with

some luck you might find a suitable icon

in the collection of some 100 that xap

copies to /usr/local/share/icons during

the installation phase.

Double-clicking a file pops up a dialog

where you can associate a program with

the file. The file manager will launch

executables. If you need to edit a script,

avoid double-clicking and select Open

with in the context menu.

To create a permanent file association

between PNG images and Gimp, select

file. In the dialog box type gimp to auto-

matically launch the image manipulation

program whenever you double-click a

file with the .png extension.

File Organizer

After creating your quick start icons, it’s

time to investigate the xap tools in the

apps tab. The most important tool is the

one hiding behind the button on the left,

the xwf file manager (see Figure 3). The

file manager allows access the other

three programs, xfi , a find front-end, xat ,

for displaying and editing file permis-

sions, and xpg , a GnuPG front-end.

As the file manager has a single win-

dow view, it makes sense to launch two

instances. This allows you to copy and

move files using drag & drop. Xwf will

copy by default. If you use the center

button on your mouse for the file copy,

the file manager pops up a menu when

you release the button in the target direc-

tory. You can then decide whether you

want to Copy or Move the files, or create

a Link . There is also Copy (preserve) that

allows you to keep the permissions and

time stamp for the file while copying.

Search and Encrypt

You can launch a search operation by

first selecting a folder and then Find in

the context menu. Enter the search Pat-

tern , and in the Type check boxes,

specify what you want to find: Plain file ,

Directory , or All . Click on find to launch

the search, and display the matches in

the lower part of the window. If you

want to avoid using the context menu,

you can simply drag & drop the folder

onto the xfi icon (the magnifying glass)

in the Xap window.

To encrypt a file, either select Encrypt

in the context menu, or or drop it onto

the xpg icon. The program displays all

the public keys in your keyring in the top

panel (see Figure 4). Select the key for

the user you want to send an encrypted

file. Click on Encrypt to finish off the job.

Xap’s drag & drop capabilities and the

tools included with the distribution

make a powerful team. Xap is extremely

flexible and gives users the opportunity

to take a customized environment with

them no matter what kind of machine

they are working on.

Fine Tuning

The pull-down menu for each tab has a

few more features. Select Rename Page to

rename a tab, or pop up a quick launch

window by selecting Execute . The Start

application in a terminal item is useful

for applications that need a console,

such as the system monitor, top .

■

INFO

Figure 2: Use the button options to select an icon

and define the executable.

Figure 3: Xwf provides file management facilities

for users.

[1] Xap: http://mpx.freeshell.net/

www.linux-magazine.com

July 2004

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