Xfce Forum

gosand

Member

Registered: 2021-01-07

Posts: 2

Renaming Launchers?

I've been using XFCE since 2005, and as a testament to how great it is, I've never joined the forum until now.

But for quite a while, I've wanted to ask this question:

Is it possible to rename Launchers?  I've looked, and I haven't been able to find that answer.  How hard would it be to implement that?

The reason I ask is because I like using launchers, I have several with multiple items in each (one for browsers, one for games, etc).  Let's say I want to add a game to the game launcher.  When I look at the Panel Preferences > Items, I just see Launcher, Launcher, Launcher.  I either have to correlate them to where they are on the screen, or open them for editing until I find the right one.  It would be nice to be able to edit the name of the launcher (e.g. Games-Launcher, Browser-Launcher, ...)

It's not a long or difficult process, but it's just not as clean as it could be.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 10,998

Re: Renaming Launchers?

Hello and welcome long time user.

Unfortunately, the request from 8 years ago still remains. Feel free to comment in the report to bring some attention to it.

---

I can offer a potential workaround. You can quickly get the IDs & names of the launchers with this command:

for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done

Once you have this, you can display it permanently via a zenity window:

zenity --info --title="Launcher Info" --width=250 --text="$(for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done)"

...or transiently using a notification via:

notify-send -i gtk-info "Launcher Info" "$(for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done)"

Assign either of these commands to a keyboard shortcut and when viewing the Items tab hit the shortcut to get the info.
It's not the same, but might help in the absence of a solution in the code.

---

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 ---

gosand

Member

Registered: 2021-01-07

Posts: 2

Re: Renaming Launchers?

Hello and welcome long time user.

Unfortunately, the request from 8 years ago still remains. Feel free to comment in the report to bring some attention to it.

---

I can offer a potential workaround. You can quickly get the IDs & names of the launchers with this command:

for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done

Once you have this, you can display it permanently via a zenity window:

zenity --info --title="Launcher Info" --width=250 --text="$(for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done)"

...or transiently using a notification via:

notify-send -i gtk-info "Launcher Info" "$(for d in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-*; do for f in $d/*.desktop; do echo "$(basename $d): $(cat $f | grep ^Name | awk -F'=' '{print $2}')"; done; done)"

Assign either of these commands to a keyboard shortcut and when viewing the Items tab hit the shortcut to get the info.
It's not the same, but might help in the absence of a solution in the code.

Wow, thanks for that link.
Technically what I am suggesting is slightly different than that, but the same realm.  I don't care as much about the icon of the Launcher, I would like to change the name of the Launcher.  Actually, I think changing the name of the laucher should be simpler, because it is stores it as a directory. (e.g. launcher-21).  Even if you could rename that dir (in ~/.config/xfce4) then the Item name could still be Launcher, but the tool-tip would show the "friendly" name.  I did try manually changing the name of the dir, it doesn't work.    

Interesting side note: I did find out you can create an empty launcher in the panel and save it.  The tooltip will be the name of the directory to be created, but it won't actually create it until you add an item to the launcher and save it.