Actions extensions in File Manager

[Pierre Wieser]

----- "David Faure" <faure at kde.org> wrote:
> 
> Why not use "Desktop Action", even if it's not in the spec anymore?

Well, this was my first thought also. But I do worry about the
reasons behind the removal:
- if authors (hey, are you here ?) believed this group won't be
used, it could make sense to not overload a spec with it ; and
it makes sense today to reintroduce it
- if there was another reason, it seems to me that it could be
important to know it before taking a different decision

Does this imply that :
- we have an 'Actions' key in 'Desktop Entry' group, which
defines an ordered list of actions as
    Actions=action1;action2;
- and a 'Desktop Action <action>' which describes the action
itself,
- where actions not referenced in the 'Actions' list are just
ignored ?

However, at least Nautilus-Actions extension defines that an
action may have several profiles. Each profile is supposed to
apply to different conditions, so that a same action may 
behave differently depending of the current environment.

This is why I need also something as:
- in 'Desktop Action' group, a 'Profiles' key which defines
an ordered list of profiles
- a 'Desktop Profile <action_profile>' group which describes
the profiles itself,
- where profiles not referenced in the 'Profiles' list are just
ignored.

> This would make the format somewhat compatible with KDE servicemenus,
> although 
> we have to agree on where to install them and how to flag them as
> servicemenus
> (the answers to these two questions are currently kde-specific for 
> servicemenus).
> 

In my first alpha code, I'm searching for desktop files in
XDG_DATA_DIRS/file-manager-actions/, though I'm conscious this is
not the path used by Konqueror Service Menus according to [1]

It would not be difficult to have a list of search paths in
addition to XDG_DATA_DIRS "standards" (usages ?).

Regards
Pierre

[1] http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/dot/servicemenus.html