Ubuntu – How to let an icon in the launcher wiggle

application-developmentcpythonunity

Trying to let my python application inform the user by wiggling or shaking its icon
in the launcher, I found:

Wiggling seems to be the "urgent animation":
How can I change the wiggle time of 'urgent animation' in Unity Launcher?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/LauncherAPI
describes an API with a function to set an urgent flag on a LaucherEntry.
But the vala example doesn't use it and the python example doesn't show any visual effect on my Ubuntu 11.10 for setting (or clearing) the "urgent" property (progress and count are working). The example python code does not use the API-C function unity_launcher_entry_set_urgent, but writes to the property directly, which maybe is the problem (and means not using the API in an API documentation example …)

So, I am looking for a working python "wiggle" example. Or a working C example.
Or some hints, why this is not working.

Best Answer

Check out the Python example in the Unity developer documentation, and try hello-unity (only compatible with Ubuntu 12.04). These are good places to start.

Here's some bit of Python code that will make your app's icon wiggle in the launcher. It's for Ubuntu 12.04, but looking at the API documentation, it should also work for 11.10.

from gi.repository import Unity

self.launcher = Unity.LauncherEntry.get_for_desktop_id("myapp.desktop")
self.launcher.set_property("urgent", True)

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the wiggle time of ‘urgent animation’ in Unity Launcher

I don't think this is a configurable option in Unity, but you can edit the source code to change the duration. If you've not downloaded source and compiled your own packages before, you can do so as follows. From your home directory in a terminal window:

mkdir src
cd src
apt-get source unity
cd unity-<version number>
gedit ./plugins/unityshell/src/Launcher.cpp

Look for the line which says:

Launcher.cpp:const int Launcher::Launcher::ANIM_DURATION_SHORT = 125;

and maybe double the duration. If you've never built a package from source before you're going to need a few tools. So do:

sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts

Then to get the dependencies neccessary for unity to build properly:

sudo apt-get build-dep unity

Finally create the package and install:

debuild -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i unity*.deb

If you're having problems with dependencies let me know, and I'll try to help you figure out what you're missing.

Ubuntu – How to make the launcher progress bar work with the application

The .desktop file has to be installed in the location where the bamf library knows about it.

You should be able to test by copying the built .desktop file (which should be created from the .desktop.in), into your ~/.local/share/applications folder, and running update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications, though running this command may not be needed if your application does not handle any MIME types.

The difference between the .desktop and .desktop.in is that the .desktop.in is set up for being translated, and is processed by intltool during build, to have the translations inserted, creating the .desktop file from the .desktop.in file.

Also I just noticed a typo in your code:

self.launcher = Unity.LauncherEntry.get_for_desktop_id("test.destkop")

Notice the "destkop" vs. "desktop" that it should be. Perhaps this is it, if it's not a re-typing error. Assuming your code is actually being run, this is a problem. If it isn't run, then that's the problem. You can add a print('Integrating with launcher') to the add_launcher_integration function to see. It should appear on the terminal when run.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the wiggle time of ‘urgent animation’ in Unity Launcher

Ubuntu – How to make the launcher progress bar work with the application

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