Extending the Desktop Entry spec for static app actions

[Matthias Clasen]

On Mon, 2011-11-28 at 20:02 +0100, Giovanni Campagna wrote:

> 
> Adding "Shortcut Group" allows us to add other stuff in the future,
> without breaking desktop file that may exist at that time, with weird
> shortcut names.

I guess that is a valid point, after all. Might still be nice to
go for consistency, though

Shortcuts=A,B,C

[Shortcut A]
...

Looks better to me than

DesktopShortcuts=A,B,C

[Shortcut Group A]
...


> 
> My original mail was not meant to include all and only the new spec
> text, but I would go with this:
> <<<<
> Desktop entries of type Application can optionally include one or more
> shortcut groups [actions]. This represent additional ways to invoke the
> particular application; it is expected that application launchers will
> expose them in some way (for example, as a submenu) within the context
> of the application, to build so called "Quicklists" or "Jumplists".
> It is still perfectly legal for any consumer of this specification to
> ignore secondary actions, so the primary way to invoke the application
> should be through the main Exec line, as well as the primary Name and
> Icon. 
> Also, it is not expected that other desktop components showing app lists
> (such as, software installers or file type settings) will provide any UI
> for these actions, therefore applications should only include actions
> that make sense as general launchers.
> Finally, no provision is made to check that the application is actually
> running when these additional actions are invoked or shown.


Thanks, I think that is very reasonable.