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#1 2019-01-02 21:24:46

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

How to make launcher on the panel

i tried to make a launcher on the panel by adding the plugin then setting its properties.  but that gives me a little menu box with tabs of "General" and "Advanced".  "General" was mostly empty and "Advanced" had just a couple options to click on.  there seemed to be no place to set what was to be run, name, or icon.

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#2 2019-01-03 00:20:25

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 10,948

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

Click the + (plus) or Right-click > Add an Application, to add an application to the launcher. Note: multiple applications can be added to one launcher that will result in the launcher "dropping down" a list of applications to select from.


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#3 2019-01-03 01:48:09

mint4all
Member
From: off the map
Registered: 2018-08-21
Posts: 263

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

Skaperen wrote:

i tried to make a launcher on the panel by adding the plugin then setting its properties.  but that gives me a little menu box with tabs of "General" and "Advanced".  "General" was mostly empty and "Advanced" had just a couple options to click on.  there seemed to be no place to set what was to be run, name, or icon.

Greetings!

An even easier way to add a new "Launcher" exists within the whisker-menu: simply right-click on any app shown in the whisker-menu's app-lists and on whisker's context-menu chose the {left-click} the "Add to panel" option -- voil'a -- launcher-button now added to the END of the panel. Then just right-click on that button, and chose the "Move" option: a red line appears indicating the button's current location, and either via your mouse (click-n-drag) or your keyboard's arrow keys, move the button wherever you want it, then left-click when you're done moving the button.

Cheers, m4a

PS: ToZ' instructions (to tweak that newly-added launcher-button) still apply, either to add more apps to that button (a launcher's sub-menu of sorts) or to tweak the button's appearance/behavior.


Linux Mint 21.2 -- xfce 4.18 ... Apple iMAC -- Dell & HP Desktops and Laptops -- Family & Community Support

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#4 2019-01-03 04:08:03

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

mint4all wrote:

simply right-click on any app shown in the whisker-menu's app-lists

i am wanting to make a launcher of a command not in an app list, such as my own script.  one of the first ones i want to make will be to run the command "dm-tool switch-to-user forums" which will not even open a window.

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#5 2019-01-03 04:09:07

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

ToZ wrote:

Click the + (plus) or Right-click > Add an Application, to add an application to the launcher. Note: multiple applications can be added to one launcher that will result in the launcher "dropping down" a list of applications to select from.

everything is grayed-out.  or maybe you mean to start these steps from a different point than in the launcher plugin properties?

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#6 2019-01-03 04:16:41

mint4all
Member
From: off the map
Registered: 2018-08-21
Posts: 263

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

Skaperen wrote:
mint4all wrote:

simply right-click on any app shown in the whisker-menu's app-lists

i am wanting to make a launcher of a command not in an app list, such as my own script.  one of the first ones i want to make will be to run the command "dm-tool switch-to-user forums" which will not even open a window.

Thanks for explaining. As i have created a few one-off launchers of my own, for me to help you, please insert your complete command-line (as you would want it to be "launched" by xfce) in your next reply. It would help to know what the "dm-tool" (i presume program or script) refers to, and what the "switch-to-user forums" (i presume command-line argument) needs to perform, or tries to accomplish.

Thanx, m4a


Linux Mint 21.2 -- xfce 4.18 ... Apple iMAC -- Dell & HP Desktops and Laptops -- Family & Community Support

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#7 2019-01-03 04:47:09

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

here is what i got.  and this

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#8 2019-01-03 05:12:01

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

mint4all wrote:
Skaperen wrote:
mint4all wrote:

simply right-click on any app shown in the whisker-menu's app-lists

i am wanting to make a launcher of a command not in an app list, such as my own script.  one of the first ones i want to make will be to run the command "dm-tool switch-to-user forums" which will not even open a window.

Thanks for explaining. As i have created a few one-off launchers of my own, for me to help you, please insert your complete command-line (as you would want it to be "launched" by xfce) in your next reply. It would help to know what the "dm-tool" (i presume program or script) refers to, and what the "switch-to-user forums" (i presume command-line argument) needs to perform, or tries to accomplish.

Thanx, m4a

"dm-tool" is a utility command that works with lightdm, the display manager on ubuntu and many other linux distros. "switch-to-user" is an argument to dm-tool, and is a subcommand that mean to switch the display to a different user (if not logged in, the password prompt happens).  "forums" is one of many users i have logged in on my computer, the one designated for reading variousonline forums, including www.reddit.com (a couple dozen subreddits), forum.xfce.org, and many others.

i have almost a dozen users that i regularly use.  under unity, i used a menu that listed then, which would do the switch when i selected the desired use.  xfce has no such feature so i am trying to make something suitable.  once i can put these on all user to enable switching to most other users, that lowers yet another show stopper for me to move everything to xfce.  i think this is the last one.

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#9 2019-01-03 11:50:18

ToZ
Administrator
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-06-02
Posts: 10,948

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

Skaperen wrote:

here is what i got.  and this

Click on the Plus (+) button in the sidebar on the right to add an existing program or the button below it to create a custom entry.


Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

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#10 2019-01-03 16:42:44

Skaperen
Member
From: right by Jesus, our Saviour
Registered: 2013-06-15
Posts: 812

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

oh.  hmm.  they look grayed-out but they work.  someone needs to re-do their color strategy.  after doing some changes, now some buttons have much contrast.  the initial colors need to be re-done.

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#11 2019-01-04 01:01:03

mint4all
Member
From: off the map
Registered: 2018-08-21
Posts: 263

Re: How to make launcher on the panel

Skaperen wrote:

here is what i got.  and this

Just an observation: that popup shows a launcher-edit's "Advanced"-tab instead of the "General"-tab that's used to edit a launcher's info.

So here's what i did ... I upgraded my laptop's Mint-19 to 19.1 (xfce4, 32-bit) to get as close to xubuntu 18.10 as possiblr, then created a new, alternate user account, and tested dm-tool via the terminal -- no problem.

Next, i added a new launcher on the panel, right-clicked to open its context menu, left-clicked the "properties" option, brought up the launcher's properties-popup ("General" tab; basically, an empty window), cleft-licked its 4th button ("Add a new empty item") to bring up the item's "Create Launcher"-popup, then populated the popup's fields as follows:

Name:  Switch to {newuser}
Comment: Switch to {newuser}
Command: dm-tool switch-to-user {newuser}
(Note: replace {newuser} with your alternate user-id; no quotes, brackets or parenths needed)

Then i clicked the "Create" button thereby saving the launcher's settings. Then i tested it, and it worked without a problem. In my alternate id's panel, i created a similar button to switch back to my primary id. Again -- no problem. Caution: if the alternate userid is mis-spelled (yes, i did) then the launcher will do nothing.

Cheers, m4a


Linux Mint 21.2 -- xfce 4.18 ... Apple iMAC -- Dell & HP Desktops and Laptops -- Family & Community Support

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