Xfce Forum

Fernest

Member

Registered: 2013-05-04

Posts: 4

Suggestion: Drag & Drop Panel Items

I love using clickable shortcuts for everything:
- running scripts
- checking repositories
- open files, books, playlists
- open bookmarks
- doing everything

And I hate navigating via filemanager, terminal, etc. cause ~/dev/metaproject/project/src/blablabla/subfoo takes longer to type then clicking a shortcut.

In Win I used to have several panels, which I would hide according to the task I do and one being an "ad-hoc panel" where I would Drag&Drop stuff into, which I currently need fast access to.
Right-Drag&Drop the item onto panel, select "Create Shortcut". thats it.

In xfce I have to:
1) Right click panel.
2) Add new Item
3) Select "Launcher"
4) Click Add
5) Right click new Item
6) Add a new Item
7) Enter Name
8) Enter Command to launch the thingy I want.
9) Enter Working directory (mostoften for scripts this is the same)
10) select icon
11) Create

As said: In Win it is more efficient:
1) Right Drag & Drop item onto panel
2) Select "Create Shortcut"
(This selects the right name, the right directory, the right icon and launches the default application for this MIME-type. Automagically... as it should)

Implementing this would be really great. (And I assume this is a rather easy task. Maybe in the form of "Drag&Drop on panels create symbolic links"? Dunno.)
Bonus points
- if you get the same right-click functionallity as in Thunar / on the desktop.

Edit:
If Drag & Drop was possible with stuff. It could be used for additional stuff.
How about "Dragn & Drop a text into the panel." then "Drag & Drop the new item into a program to invoke the default Drag & Drop for strings".
This would add a very cool graphical multi-clipboard functionality to the panel.
Bonuspoints for "Created clipboard-items have right click functionality (edit, delete)"
Bonuspoints for showing the beginning of the clipboard if you hoover on them.

Last edited by Fernest (2013-05-04 18:04:12)

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: Suggestion: Drag & Drop Panel Items

If I'm not mistaken, you can "drag and drop" apps to one of your panels.

Hit Alt-F2, press your down-arrow, and you'll see your applications. Drag one of them (the usual, click your left mouse button when your mouse cursor is hovering over it and hold that left mouse button down, release the button when the icon is where you want it) to the panel, and a dialog box will appear which asks you if you wish to create a shortcut.

Obviously, the above involves pressing some buttons on the keyboard. I am not sure if it can be accomplished using only the mouse and its buttons or not. I probably avoid using the mouse as much as you avoid using the keyboard, lol, so I've never tried to find out. But perhaps it'll still be of some use to you?

I'm not sure if there is an easy way to add other items to a panel or not. I suppose that such a feature would be useful, so it's possible - but by no means a given, of course - that someone has already created a widget, gadget, whatever it would be called. If they have, maybe it is already "in" one of the various package managers that the different distros use. Unfortunately, with ~40,000 different items in there, such a tool could be buried and I wouldn't really know what to type in to narrow the list down to just a few dozen.

Hope you find an add-on to do what you want,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

Fernest

Member

Registered: 2013-05-04

Posts: 4

Re: Suggestion: Drag & Drop Panel Items

"you can "drag and drop" apps Hit Alt-F2, press your down-arrow [many more steps]"
The many steps this solution needs defeat the whole point of drag and drop.

"I probably avoid using the mouse as much as you avoid using the keyboard"
1. Linux+Mouse sucks.
2. Therefore everyone prefers keyboard.
3. Therefore _basic_ Linux+Mouse functionality is never implemented.
4. Therefore 1. (repeat ad infinitum)
My suggestion could be one small step to end this doom loop. At least in xfce.

The lack of Drag and Drop is everywhere in XFCE.
Yes, you can Drag and Drop from the application finder to a panel, but you can't Drag&Drop application inside of it (e.g. to change the categories. Which would be awesome, since "New Items", created in "Main Menu" are ALWAYS put in the "other" category... and "application finder" has not even the commands to Add or Delete applications... wtf?).
You can't drag&drop files/scripts/applications/anything into it (to create application-entries. Preferably in the right category.).
Yes, you can Drag&Drop applications in the panel to change their order... wait... no, you can't.

Windows 95 (!) had Drag&Drop of general items (not only applications) into/from/inside the start menu and panels.
Android's Cyanogen Mod uses Drag&Drop for cool stuff like "Drag and Drop an application onto another. BAM! You get a subfolder containing both applications." Magic...
By now this kind of convenience should be "the basics".

"widget, gadget, whatever"
maybe something like extensions.gnome.org would be cool for XFCE... one-click-to-try-out-platform. Which by itself sparks widget-creation, -sharing and trying.
In the default repositories there are not many xfce widgets.
On the other hand it should not be a widget, since drag and drop is one of the basics.