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#1 2013-04-11 16:56:07

warrickguy
Member
Registered: 2013-02-08
Posts: 5

[Solved] Preferred Applications GUI

Debian testing/wheezy
xfce4 4.8.1
I've compiled and installed two additional file managers (caja from Mate and pcfileman).  They do work properly.  I would like to be able to switch between Thunar and the other two using the Preferred Applications program but haven't be able to get it to work.  Only Thunar and Other are listed under the pull down.  What needs to be done to get them to show up?  I believe it may have something to do with their .desktop files in the applications directory.  I added FileManager to the Categories line in their desktop files with no good result. Is there some program that needs to be run to cache/compile the desktop files similar to the update-desktop-database for mime types?

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#2 2013-04-11 18:39:54

Darktux
Member
From: Portugal
Registered: 2013-01-17
Posts: 57

Re: [Solved] Preferred Applications GUI

Hi,
When you choose "Other" you are able to select the 'executable' of the file manager you want.
Try under /usr/bin.

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#3 2013-04-12 14:06:02

warrickguy
Member
Registered: 2013-02-08
Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Preferred Applications GUI

Thanks Darktux.  I had tried that but felt it was a workaround rather than a solution.  But, after your suggestion and looking at that again I've discovered more. 
When I selected Other and entered "caja --no-desktop --browser" , a file named custom-FileManager.desktop was created in ~/.local/share/xfce4/helpers.

[Desktop Entry]
NoDisplay=true
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=X-XFCE-Helper
X-XFCE-Category=FileManager
X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=caja --no-desktop --browser "%s"
Icon=caja
Name=caja
X-XFCE-Commands=caja 

This almost works, but for some reason X-XFCE-Commands=caja is used to invoke the program instead of X-XFCE-CommandsWithParameter=caja --no-desktop --browser "%s".  I need the parameters so that caja doesn't take over the desktop.
I solved that by editing X-XFCE-Commands to include the necessary parameters.

Preferred Applications on my installation has three options for Terminal programs.  Where are they located? (rhetorical question)  Ah, /usr/share/xfce4/helpers is full of modifed .desktop files including ones for the terminal programs and as well as the one for Thunar.  It's this directory that Preferred Applications uses for system wide definitions. 

I modifed a caja.desktop file to look similar to the one for Thunar, put it in /usr/share/xfce4/helpers and deleted the file in  ~/.local/share/xfce4/helpers.  It works the way it's supposed to.

Is there documentation somewhere for this?  I checked out http://standards.freedesktop.org and this seems to be an XFCE extension of those standards.

Last edited by warrickguy (2013-04-12 14:08:05)

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#4 2013-04-12 19:31:28

Darktux
Member
From: Portugal
Registered: 2013-01-17
Posts: 57

Re: [Solved] Preferred Applications GUI

Thanks for sharing your discoveries.
About the documentation, I have no idea, sorry.

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