open file in directory action

[Hans de Goede]

Hi,

On 04/22/2013 09:15 PM, David Faure wrote:
> On Sunday 21 April 2013 23:22:39 Hans de Goede wrote:
>> That threads talks about a d-bus interface, which seems unnatural
>> to me, since for all other kind of open actions, we use mime-types ->
>> application logic.
>
> But only for the basic "open this file in an application that supports this
> type of file" action.

Which is exactly what we want here...

>
> For everything else, more is needed. And doing that multiplying the command-
> line hacks (I think anyone opening the code of xdg-open will agree with that
> assesment) doesn't sound right, nor is inventing special-case mimetypes.
>
> Instead, allowing DBus method calls in the newly-started or already-running
> app allows to extend the available functionality to infinity.
>
>> As discussed in that thread, the dbus interface
>> idea adds nothing that allows the user to specify which file-manager
>> he wants to use (similar to how the user can select a preferred browser
>> and a preferred mail client).
>
> The recently discussed (but not yet formalized) "Intents" spec will allow to
> do exactly that:
> 1) pick the preferred file manager from .desktop files
> (including the possibility for the user to change preference using a local
> file, similar to mimeapps.list)
> 2) start it if not already running (knowing for sure which DBus name it will
> register under)

This is inherently racy, and when we loose the race, depending on the filemanager
in question we may end up with 2 different windows. Also most filemanagers
will throw up a default window, and then one more for the dbus call, so if
the filemanager is not running you end up with 2 windows.

nautilus has --no-default-window to fix this, others may have something too,
but this is not exactly simplifying the problem. Really d-bus is an over-engineered
solution for this (and yes I do realize most filemanagers will use dbus
internally to talk to an already running instance).

> 3) make a dbus call to it, using a pre-agreed dbus interface, in this example
> "select these files".
> This is much more flexible, because whichever your next request will be, it
> can be added to that method call, or additional method can be added.

There is no next request nautilus --select or dolphin --select, or
konqueror --select does exactly what most apps want here, and is nice and
simple. All we need is for a desktop-neutral way to do call the user's
preferred file-manager with --select (or its equivalent).

Regards,

Hans