Launcher omission ?

Electroguard · 2020-12-21 02:22:57

Hi, I feel like a fish out of water here mentioning this, and I don't know if it's going to be significant or stupid.

Different workspaces are to facilitate different work flows, so it seems strange that MX 19.3 xfce (and Mint xfce) desktop Launcher doesn't offer a [] "Apply to all workspaces" checkbox for restricting created icons to a specific workspace.

Consequently, all icons created on the desktop are visible in all workspaces, so therefore are not workflow specific.
The workspace mechanism obviously does work (wallpaper etc), so I suspect it may simply be an accidental Launcher oversight.
But if that is the case, and it hasn't already been caught and fixed by now, then maybe it has also slid unnoticed into the new version as well.

So, firstly: is there an alternative Launcher available for the Xfce 4.14.2 desktop which could offer ability for icons to be workspace specific ?

Or, secondly: is there a desktop file configuration setting which could manually specify a selected workspace for the desktop files ?
(I was unable to find a list of valid desktop file configuration options).

Thanks.

ToZ · 2020-12-21 02:58:34

Hello and welcome.

Unfortunately, as you've noticed, this functionality does not exist. If you are okay with running a script to mimic this functionality, have a read through this post. I presented a script that would perform this and it was updated by a few other members. See Post #59 for the final revision.

Although the functionality is not built in, Xfce is modular and extensible enough that we can mimic some missing functionality with scripts.

Electroguard · 2020-12-21 12:29:24

Thanks ToZ for the quick welcoming reply.
I read that thread from beginning to end, and was pleased I'm not the only person asking for workspace-specific icons, and was impressed by your script help for those guys BTW... but I'm embarrassed to say that I don't understand why such a script is actually needed.

Different workspaces enable different workflows to co-exist separately with each other, and the Xfce desktop does allow different workspace wallpapers, plus offers the default capability for menu-launched programs like browsers and Thunar to be specific to the workspace they were launched in... so the workspace-specific feature evidently does already exist.
Several apps such as Conky and Viber already have a settings configuration option which allows them to either be specific to a workspace, or available to all.
In all those App and Panel launcher cases, the user does not need to use scripting to make it happen, therefore presumably either the apps (and Panel launcher) do any required scripting automatically in the background - or - they must make use of some underlying workspace flag mechanism.

Either way, from a laymans point of view, why wouldn't the desktop Launcher do similar to create workspace-specific desktop icons transparently like the Panel can do ... which could include a settings checkbox option for making them available in all workspaces if wished, like other apps can already do.

Being a layman I don't know what technical reasons might be preventing such an obvious useful feature, but if the few who've bothered to inquire are only the tip of the iceberg of people wanting such a feature (as glimpsed by the other threads comments about unhappy KDE users abandoning KDE after finding out that the feature had been dropped), then perhaps it might be a worthwhile feature to try to implement if it could be practically feasible.

Might it be worth mentioning as a feature request, or would it probably not be worth it ?

Thanks again

ToZ · 2020-12-21 12:35:20

Electroguard wrote:

Might it be worth mentioning as a feature request, or would it probably not be worth it ?

You are always welcome to create a feature/enhancement request. See if a developer picks it up or not.

Electroguard · 2020-12-21 14:50:40

I've looked, but can't find how or where to create such a feature request (naively I had assumed that posting on this forum would reach relevant ears).

I felt someone needed to highlight the potential opportunity for what might be a relatively simple but useful enhancement for better exploiting the benefits of different workspaces - but to be honest, if busy volunteer developers have not considered a workspace-specific Launcher to be worthwhile before now, then I doubt I'll make any difference anyway... but at least I tried.

ToZ · 2020-12-21 15:58:23

The place to create feature requests is https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues.

There is an old related request there already - panels/workspace. See: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues/2.

Electroguard · 2020-12-21 19:10:43

Thanks for your time and patience ToZ.
I prepared the 'Raise an Issue/Feature Request post, but when I went to post it I discovered I needed to register again - with GitLab - and even then I would not be able to post the New Issue until approved by an admin for forking projects or merging requests. But I'm not an Xfce guru, and am already too far out of my depth, so am just gonna leave things here in case anyone else with higher access chooses to pass it up to developers ears:

Desktop Launcher needs 'Apply to all workspaces' settings option.

A problem exists where items created by the desktop Launcher appear in all workspaces, ignoring the most obvious use for different workspaces which would be ability for different work flows using different workspace icons.
The feature must be feasible, because apps like Conky and Viber and workspace wallpapers already have similar functionality.

Alternatively, items created by the desktop Launcher should only be available in the workspace they were created in, consistent with the way that panel-launched apps like Thunar and browsers etc are only available in the workspace they were launched in.
They could easily be copied to other workspaces if needed - whereas currently, deleting an icon from any workspace deletes it from all workspaces.

Even just the ability to edit a desktop items config settings manually to specify a workspace would be a big improvement on the usability of different workspaces.

The mechanism for workspace-specific items evidently already exists in the panel launcher and some apps, but unfortunately the feature seems to have been missed out in the desktop and desktop launcher where it could have been of most use.
I suspect this may have been due to original production pressures causing the more involved desktop workspace items positional problems to be temporarily 'slid aside' for later attention, but it has never been revisited since.

There have been workarounds, I think by assigning alias folders for holding separate sets of items which are substituted by continuously-running scripts in the background... which is obviously not ideal, but does show that the need exists.

Unfortunately this problem appears to have been present for so long (feedback to developers from laymen is made very difficult), that it is now considered 'normal' behaviour... so if the non-working workspace-specific desktop situation is ever to be improved, perhaps it is now time for someone to re-evaluate it.

Last edited by Electroguard (2020-12-22 11:52:42)

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#1 2020-12-21 02:22:57

Launcher omission ?

#2 2020-12-21 02:58:34

Re: Launcher omission ?

#3 2020-12-21 12:29:24

Re: Launcher omission ?

#4 2020-12-21 12:35:20

Re: Launcher omission ?

#5 2020-12-21 14:50:40

Re: Launcher omission ?

#6 2020-12-21 15:58:23

Re: Launcher omission ?

#7 2020-12-21 19:10:43

Re: Launcher omission ?

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