Making ROX more fun: changing file associations
Making ROX more fun: changing file associations
Hi,
I've been a bit busy lately but have identified something that can make puppy more fun.
The idea is an application that you barely notice, which makes things work much better.
The problem I saw: in a rox window, clicking on a x.txt file opens it in leafpad, clicking on playlist.asx (a gxine playlist) opens the playlist in leafpad, thats useful... and I could not find a way to tell ROX to think of them differently.
The really clever solution IMHO, is to replace the file /root/Choices/MIME-types/text_plain
with the attached file.
It lets you choose which app you want to open the file with, by a simple menu list, which looks like part of the ROX application.
This is just a hack at the application to get peoples opinion if this is something that puppy needs. If this is met with good feedback, I can quite easilly add in a 'database' for all the app types, and an option to add in new file types that the user comes across.
Is this a good idea or not? did I just not find the right way to configure things?
Jesse
I've been a bit busy lately but have identified something that can make puppy more fun.
The idea is an application that you barely notice, which makes things work much better.
The problem I saw: in a rox window, clicking on a x.txt file opens it in leafpad, clicking on playlist.asx (a gxine playlist) opens the playlist in leafpad, thats useful... and I could not find a way to tell ROX to think of them differently.
The really clever solution IMHO, is to replace the file /root/Choices/MIME-types/text_plain
with the attached file.
It lets you choose which app you want to open the file with, by a simple menu list, which looks like part of the ROX application.
This is just a hack at the application to get peoples opinion if this is something that puppy needs. If this is met with good feedback, I can quite easilly add in a 'database' for all the app types, and an option to add in new file types that the user comes across.
Is this a good idea or not? did I just not find the right way to configure things?
Jesse
- Attachments
-
- text_plain.tar.gz
- tar.gz file contains one file "text_plain"
extract and copy this file to /root/Choices/MIME-types/text_plain overwrite it, and make sure that it keeps the execute permission. - (796 Bytes) Downloaded 875 times
- Bancobusto
- Posts: 168
- Joined: Mon 13 Jun 2005, 20:52
- Location: Vancouver Island
- Bancobusto
- Posts: 168
- Joined: Mon 13 Jun 2005, 20:52
- Location: Vancouver Island
Hi GuestToo,
yep, you can certainly edit those files by hand if you like, but you have to rely on the "file" application returning the correct MIME-type for the file.
Also you have to be up with the play on what mime types are and where those files are stored, and how to write shell scripts... But it doesn't exactly give you option to open a file in a particular application on-the-spot
But "file" is not always perfect, for example it identifies a gxine playlist *.asx (XML) as text_plain and that isn't quite desireable
The app that I posted above would idealy be called for all of the mime types, and match against the MIME-type as well as the file extension, and have an option like "configure type..." so that you can set another application or an application for an unregistered type through a window like M$ "open with..." dialouge. i.e. a GUI option instead of a command line one.
Comments? thoughts?
Jesse
yep, you can certainly edit those files by hand if you like, but you have to rely on the "file" application returning the correct MIME-type for the file.
Also you have to be up with the play on what mime types are and where those files are stored, and how to write shell scripts... But it doesn't exactly give you option to open a file in a particular application on-the-spot
But "file" is not always perfect, for example it identifies a gxine playlist *.asx (XML) as text_plain and that isn't quite desireable
The app that I posted above would idealy be called for all of the mime types, and match against the MIME-type as well as the file extension, and have an option like "configure type..." so that you can set another application or an application for an unregistered type through a window like M$ "open with..." dialouge. i.e. a GUI option instead of a command line one.
Comments? thoughts?
Jesse
- BarryK
- Puppy Master
- Posts: 9392
- Joined: Mon 09 May 2005, 09:23
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Jesse,
I haven't tried your program yet, so hope my comment is relevant.
yes, i want to keep the current open menu, but sometimes i want something different, like want to open a .gif with xpaint instead of mtpaint for example.
So, something like Microsoft's "Open as..." would be great.
Do you know we already have something like that in the Uxplor file manager?
Right-click on a file and you get quite a nice menu of choices -- it doesn't have any file associations, just a fixed menu.
The menu used in Uxplor is actually a separate little Xlib program.
I haven't tried your program yet, so hope my comment is relevant.
yes, i want to keep the current open menu, but sometimes i want something different, like want to open a .gif with xpaint instead of mtpaint for example.
So, something like Microsoft's "Open as..." would be great.
Do you know we already have something like that in the Uxplor file manager?
Right-click on a file and you get quite a nice menu of choices -- it doesn't have any file associations, just a fixed menu.
The menu used in Uxplor is actually a separate little Xlib program.
- Bancobusto
- Posts: 168
- Joined: Mon 13 Jun 2005, 20:52
- Location: Vancouver Island
Ok, so heres a screen shot of how it would work...
The menu pops up to select the application when you click to open the file, in this case when clicking on the file text_file_demo.txt
The menu pops up to select the application when you click to open the file, in this case when clicking on the file text_file_demo.txt
- Attachments
-
- app_select.png
- (14.01 KiB) Downloaded 3281 times
Hi,
So yeah heres a screenshot of the "select application dialouge box"...
the window that appears when you click on "Select..."
all working except for the "Accept ALL" button, which should be done in a day or so.
http://tinypic.com/a9s40y.png
So does this look intuitive? could it be better somehow?
go on tell me now, you'll be using it in the next puppy* )
Jesse
* maybe
So yeah heres a screenshot of the "select application dialouge box"...
the window that appears when you click on "Select..."
all working except for the "Accept ALL" button, which should be done in a day or so.
http://tinypic.com/a9s40y.png
So does this look intuitive? could it be better somehow?
go on tell me now, you'll be using it in the next puppy* )
Jesse
* maybe
- Lobster
- Official Crustacean
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- Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
- Location: Paradox Realm
- Contact:
work hard - stay frisky
Looks fine (and useful) to me
Was it done in Tcl?
Is Mut 0.0.6 on the horizon - boy is that a useful program . . .
Just for you Jesse . . .
a potential Pup launcher (written in XUL)
http://www.georgenava.com/applauncher.php
somewhere to store your files, bookmarks, emails etc (online)
https://axentra.net/homebase/registration
. . . and something for the Peter Pan in you
http://thepiratebay.org
Was it done in Tcl?
Is Mut 0.0.6 on the horizon - boy is that a useful program . . .
Just for you Jesse . . .
a potential Pup launcher (written in XUL)
http://www.georgenava.com/applauncher.php
somewhere to store your files, bookmarks, emails etc (online)
https://axentra.net/homebase/registration
. . . and something for the Peter Pan in you
http://thepiratebay.org
User's paradise
a definite addition to userland, where there is a sign on every path. thanks!
BTW, in other threads, there was this mention of certain scripts executing only when ending in .com. how is this handled here?
BTW, in other threads, there was this mention of certain scripts executing only when ending in .com. how is this handled here?
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].
Hi,
Yep, it is written in Tk/Tcl, and fairly small, about 10K including its currently minimal database of file associations (1K).
Yes I think I need to figure out a good way of handling executable files, as they don't usually have an extension... a .com file is easy to handle as it is.
I think I'll do a "how to" for Tk/Tcl widgets as they are very confusing but simple, but quite powerful for a scripting language once you get your head around them.
MUT is very useful as is, and yes there is room for improvement... I'm thinking that getting these file associations working would be better than a few MUT cosmetic changes, for the moment, and there are a few other tk/tcl projects that look very tempting...
There are two quirks in MUT that I'm likely to change quite soon, so yes there will be a 0.0.6 MUT but probably not as much of an advance as what you might be hopeing for.
Jesse
Yep, it is written in Tk/Tcl, and fairly small, about 10K including its currently minimal database of file associations (1K).
Yes I think I need to figure out a good way of handling executable files, as they don't usually have an extension... a .com file is easy to handle as it is.
I think I'll do a "how to" for Tk/Tcl widgets as they are very confusing but simple, but quite powerful for a scripting language once you get your head around them.
MUT is very useful as is, and yes there is room for improvement... I'm thinking that getting these file associations working would be better than a few MUT cosmetic changes, for the moment, and there are a few other tk/tcl projects that look very tempting...
There are two quirks in MUT that I'm likely to change quite soon, so yes there will be a 0.0.6 MUT but probably not as much of an advance as what you might be hopeing for.
Jesse
An "open with" dot pup would be great! I have just spent half a day trying to figure out why I couldn't open any text or abi files and it looks lihe it is all from associating .asf with mplayer. Never knew that it would change all the files with a text icon.
What are the chances of seperating extensions so they could be associated individually? Open .abw with abiword and ,txt with beaver etc.
What are the chances of seperating extensions so they could be associated individually? Open .abw with abiword and ,txt with beaver etc.
Puppy Linux...
It just works!
It just works!
- Bancobusto
- Posts: 168
- Joined: Mon 13 Jun 2005, 20:52
- Location: Vancouver Island
it's easy ... just add something like this to /root/Choices/MIME-info/Standard (or /usr/local/share/Choices/MIME-info/Standard)peppyy wrote:What are the chances of separating extensions so they could be associated individually? Open .abw with abiword and .txt with beaver etc.
Code: Select all
text/abiword
ext: abw ABW
- Attachments
-
- abi-assoc.pup
- setup an Abiword file association
- (4.54 KiB) Downloaded 398 times