Ubuntu – Hide shortcuts in Dash Home on Unity

shortcutsunityunity-dash

In Unity 2d you can hide the Shortcuts section of the Dash Home

However in Unity I cannot hide this.. I do see a 'minimize' icon in the top corner after I open Dash Home

Shortcuts

_{Clicking on Shortcuts does nothing.}

I do notice clicking on the minimize icon repeatedly does make it appear darker (the white is whiter :P) however the button does not serve a function.

minimize first view

_{Click once}

minimize first click

_{Click twice}

minimize second click

_{Click three times}

minimize third click

_{Keep going and it gets a bit whiter}

Is this button supposed to control this action? or is this a separate bug?

Update: I realize the minimize button does not control this action, with that said. Is there a way to hide the 'shortcuts' section of the Dash Home and just display the 'search' (+results once a search term is entered)?

Best Answer

I would support your "bug" theory.

However, according to Ayantana Design, the minimise/maximise buttons now work as expected:

Desired solution:
- When the Dash in windowed:
--- 'Close' window decoration closes the Dash
--- 'Minimise' window decoration is inactive (does nothing)
--- 'Maximise' window decoration makes the Dash full screen

- When the Dash in full screen:
--- 'Close' window decoration closes the Dash
--- 'Minimise' window decoration is inactive (does nothing)
--- 'Restore' window decoration returns the Dash to windowed state

As to the "increasing brightness" issue - if you take the above as the expected result - your observation could be classified as a bug - albeit relatively cosmetic.

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Simple solution would be to just right-click on the dash itself and select the specific category you want to search - Dash will be cleared automatically for that.

I've noticed that the re-opened Dash, has the previous text highlighted. Hitting backspace key allows for clearing and carrying out new searches without issues. If only we could automate doing that . . . Well, we can with application called xdotool and a bit of scripting magic.

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#!/usr/bin/env python
import dbus,time,subprocess,os

def run_cmd(cmdlist):
    """ utility: reusable function for running external commands """
    new_env = dict(os.environ)
    new_env['LC_ALL'] = 'C'
    try:
        stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist, env=new_env)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        pass
    else:
        if stdout:
            return stdout


def get_dbus(bus_type, obj, path, interface, method, arg):
    """ utility: executes dbus method on specific interface"""
    if bus_type == "session":
        bus = dbus.SessionBus()
    if bus_type == "system":
        bus = dbus.SystemBus()
    proxy = bus.get_object(obj, path)
    method = proxy.get_dbus_method(method, interface)
    try:
        if arg:
            return method(arg)
        else:
            return method()
    except dbus.exceptions.DBusException:
        return None

def active_is_dash():
    base = ['session','org.ayatana.bamf']
    dbus_call = base + ['/org/ayatana/bamf/matcher', 'org.ayatana.bamf.matcher','ActiveWindow',None]
    active_window = str(get_dbus(*dbus_call))
    dbus_call =  base + [active_window,'org.ayatana.bamf.view','Name',None] 
    active_name = str(get_dbus(*dbus_call))
    if active_name == 'unity-dash': return True


command = 'xdotool key BackSpace'.split()
flag = None
while True:
    time.sleep(0.25)
    if active_is_dash():
        time.sleep(0.25)
        if not flag: run_cmd(command)
        flag = True
    else: flag = False

Best Answer

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