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rayandrews

Member

From: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Registered: 2011-12-30

Posts: 213

[Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

All,

I use dual monitors with each as a separate session.  Each screen has its own panel.  Is there a simple way of coping a launcher from one panel to the other?  I can't drag them.  I'm thinking of some sort of copy done at the command line.  I've tried to figure this out looking at the files in '~/.config/xfce4/panel' but I can't figure it out, there seem to be many strange duplications.  Of course if that can be done in the GUI, that's fine too.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,494

Re: [Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

There is no automatic way of doing using. You can move but not copy. Might be a good feature request to ask for.

There is a way of doing it via the command line:

1. Determine the name of the launcher that you want to copy. Its going to be a .desktop file of some sort. If you know which app it is and you know the .desktop file name from /usr/share/applications (or ~/.local/share/applications), then its easy. Otherwise:

fgrep -ri cot ~/.config/xfce4/panel

...will search and report back on the .desktop name of the launcher in the panel. In my example, I'm searching for the launcher called "CoT Connector" (using "cot" as the search term). It replies with:

/home/toz/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-28/14036914009.desktop:Name=CoT Connector
/home/toz/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-28/14036914009.desktop:Exec=/home/toz/bin/CoT

2. Copy (or in this case, you are really adding another of the same) to a panel:

xfce4-panel --add=launcher ~/.config/xfce4/panel/launcher-28/14036914009.desktop 

...you will be prompted with which panel to add it to (if you have more than 1 panel).

If its simply a launcher to an app and you already know its desktop name (e.g. /usr/share/applications/mousepad.desktop), then simply:

xfce4-panel --add=launcher /usr/share/applications/mousepad.desktop

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ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,494

Re: [Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

A further note, if you want to copy/add a plugin (not a launcher), then use the command:

xfce4-panel --add=INTERNAL_PLUGIN_NAME

...where INTERNAL_PLUGIN_NAME is the name you see when hovering your mouse over the plugin in the Items tab. Some examples are:

- Actions Buttons = actions
- Applications Menu = applicationsmenu
- Audio Mixer = mixer
- Battery Indicator Plugin = xfce4-battery-plugin
- Battery Monitor = battery
- Clipman = xfce4-clipman-plugin
- Clock = clock
- CPU Frequency Monitor = cpufreq
- CPU Graph = cpugraph
- DateTime = datetime
- Dictionary = xfce4-dict-plugin
- Directory Menu = directorymenu
...etc

Just keep in mind that some plugins can only be added to one panel.

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rayandrews

Member

From: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Registered: 2011-12-30

Posts: 213

Re: [Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

Thanks ToZ, line #2 above worked perfectly. I'm a bit confused by what's going on in there, each 'launcher-  ' directory can have several or just one '  .desktop' file, and there is quite a bit of duplication. One of my launchers is reffered to by at least two identical '  .desktop' files, and I'm sure there's more--the number of ' .desktop' files is much greater than the number of items I have on my panels.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,494

Re: [Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

One of my directories has two entries. One entry is from the first launcher app (I changed it recently to point to another app). I guess its not deleting the associated .desktop file when I delete the item.

You can also have more than one app in any given launcher. In that case, you will have multiple desktop files.

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rayandrews

Member

From: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Registered: 2011-12-30

Posts: 213

Re: [Solved] is there an easy way to copy launchers from one panel to another?

Well I ain't going to mess with it, but there does seem to be a failure to delete older versions, or something like that.