Menu update

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Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Menu update

#1 Post by Zeh »

Using IceWM I've customized de menu by editing the files 'menu' and 'applications-menu' in the user home/.icewm directory. However, clicking in the Menu update button in the menu reverted back my customization :confused:
Two questions:
1. Is it supposed for the Menu update button to revert back user customizations?
2. Will the next incoming system upgrades mess with menu customizations?

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dolphin_oracle
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Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:17 pm

Re: Menu update

#2 Post by dolphin_oracle »

Zeh wrote:Using IceWM I've customized de menu by editing the files 'menu' and 'applications-menu' in the user home/.icewm directory. However, clicking in the Menu update button in the menu reverted back my customization :confused:
Two questions:
1. Is it supposed for the Menu update button to revert back user customizations?
2. Will the next incoming system upgrades mess with menu customizations?
In regards to the applications-menu, yes, they will revert. The top-level menu should not though.

unlike some other window manager operating systems, the antiX menu auto updates via the freedesktop standard by pulling information for the menu from the application's *.desktop files. So if you want to add or hide things from the menu, check out our Menu Manager application. I did a video here: https://youtu.be/wwuTtjF6zS0


the other way to customize the menu would be to manually create the .desktop entries you want in either /usr/share/applications or in $HOME/.local/share/applications. Those will be picked up as well.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Re: Menu update

#3 Post by Zeh »

dolphin_oracle wrote:In regards to the applications-menu, yes, they will revert. The top-level menu should not though.
Yes, I meant only the applications-menu. The top-level menu did keep my customization.
So if you want to add or hide things from the menu, check out our Menu Manager application.
I've used the Menu Manager as well. The changes I've made stood, of course.
the other way to customize the menu would be to manually create the .desktop entries you want in either /usr/share/applications or in $HOME/.local/share/applications. Those will be picked up as well.
This is more advanced stuff (at least for me, anyway). I've looked into those directories and haven't understood what I should do to manually create the entries since I didn't find any sort of 'menu' file where to do it - noob problem, most likely...
Is there any help documentation where I could learn how to make standing customizations to the applications menu? I mean things like adding info to the apps names (i.e. GParted Partition Manager, just like Synaptic Package Manager), namely translated info (in my localized system) so that I can lower the chances that a newcomer to Linux finds the system unfriendly.

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: Menu update

#4 Post by dolphin_oracle »

the easiest way is to copy an existing .desktop file from /usr/share/applications into $HOME/.local/share/applications and modify the copied file (they are just text files). Then when you run "Update Menu", the new new .desktop files will be parsed and new menu entries created.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Re: Menu update

#5 Post by Zeh »

dolphin_oracle wrote:the easiest way is to copy an existing .desktop file from /usr/share/applications into $HOME/.local/share/applications and modify the copied file (they are just text files). Then when you run "Update Menu", the new new .desktop files will be parsed and new menu entries created.
I've copied the 'leafpad.desktop' file from /usr/share/applications and pasted it into /home/zehAX/.local/share/applications, then changed the name to 'applications-menu.desktop' and copied the content of a previously customized applications-menu file (customized copy of the original file) into it.
No idea how or why an applications-menu.desktop.save file came along.
No change in the menu.
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Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Re: Menu update

#6 Post by Zeh »

I meant: no change in the menu after running "Update Menu".

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: Menu update

#7 Post by dolphin_oracle »

you need a .desktop file for each app. you can't just dump a menu file in there.

so if you want a customized leafpad, you need a new leafpad.desktop file. It can have a different filename, but each desktop file contains the information for 1 app.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Re: Menu update

#8 Post by Zeh »

OK, didn't get that initially.
Thanks d_o.

Zeh
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:13 pm

Re: Menu update

#9 Post by Zeh »

Well, I had a "problem" so I needed a solution.
Thanks to the information and the hint I was given I arrived to a solution that suits me even better than my initial expectations. I just added a second 'Applications' button the the top-level menu (couldn't be the exact same name, though) where I've copied the entries for the applications from the applications-menu file (I had to devise the programming procedures, which wasn't difficult).
As the top level menu file keeps the customizations I just needed to change the names to show to the ones I want to be shown. Of course, I'll have to manually change these entries if there are some applications added or remove), since the 'Update Menu' button doesn't act on this new 'Applications menu'. Anyway,it won't be that difficult and I won't miss anything, since the menu updating will update the standard 'Applications menu', which remains there.
To have my customized menu in any other installation I just need to replace the installation's 'menu' file in $HOME/.icewm (and/or .fluxbox or .jwm) with my customized 'menu' file.
And this way I can make antiX a little bit more to my liking and a little bit more friendly maybe (by not being confronted with strange, meaningless names, at least at the beginning) to any newcomer to Linux that has a limited resources machine.

Anyway, I came back to the thread just because I've got a last question on this menu thing. All the files in Transifex are translated into my language (PT), but there are still some pieces in the installed system that come in English. One of them is the lower part of the top-level menu (Run..., Focus, Themes and Log out). Where can I find these entries, so that I could translate them?

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