Customizing the MIE

[ProfessorZen]

Preamble
I make no warranty as to the fitness or lawfulness of anything that follows.

This document describes a manual ONLY methodology of customizing the MIE. If you want to do it programmatically see http://www.freedesktop.org.

All files not located in your home directory must be edited as root. I prefer to do things graphically when I can so I type Alt-F2, kdesu konqueror, and enter my password when prompted. From there on I can do everything graphically as a root user. I don't sudo nautilus because I can't. On my system, at least, nautilus generates a page fault error and crashes if I try.

It would behoove you to backup applications.menu located in /etc/xdg/menus before you do anything else.


How to Create a Tab
To add a tab you need to create a directory configuration file (NAME.directory) and save it to /usr/share/desktop-directories. Then you need to reference it in a menu entry in applications.menu located in /etc/xdg/menus. I'll use the tab Creative Writing as my example.

Step 1/5: Create a directory configuration file called Writing.directory. The file name is not the name of your tab; that is specified by the internal argument 'Name='.

Step 2/5: Insert the following code and save:

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Creative Writing
Icon=applications-office
Type=Directory
Encoding=UTF-8
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-menus

Step 3/5: Open applications.menu and insert the following:

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<Menu>
    <Name>Creative Writing</Name>
    <Directory>Writing.directory</Directory>
    <Include>
      <And>
        <Category>Writing</Category>
      </And>
    </Include>
    <Layout>
      <Filename>ooo-writer.desktop</Filename>
      <Filename>lyx.desktop</Filename>
      <Filename>celtx.desktop</Filename>
      <Filename>dramatica.desktop</Filename>
      <Filename>basket.desktop</Filename>
      <Merge type="all"/>
    </Layout>
</Menu>


You can reorder your applications by changing how they're listed between the layout tags. The tab's layout doesn't have to be specified unless you want the order to be non alphabetical.

Step 4/5: Towards the bottom of the document between the final layout tags, in the order in which you would like your tab to appear, insert the following:

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<Menuname>Creative Writing</Menuname>

Step 5/5: Save.


How to Add an Application to a Tab
To add an application to a tab you need to create a desktop configuration file (NAME.desktop) and save it to /usr/share/applications. I'll use the program Celtx as my example.

Step 1/3: Create a desktop configuration file called celtx.desktop. The file name is not the name of your application; that is specified by the internal argument 'Name='.

Step 2/3: For Celtx, the contents would be something similar to the following:

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[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Celtx
GenericName=Media Pre-production
Exec=/home/yourname/.celtx/celtx
Terminal=false
Icon=/home/yourname/.celtx/icons/mozicon128.png
Categories=Writing
StartupNotify=false

Step 3/3: Save.


Changing Icons of Applications that Automatically Install to a Tab
To change just the icon of an application that loads itself into a tab you can always just swap out the icon of coarse. There almost always located in /usr/share/pixmaps. Sometimes, however, they install to somewhere in /usr/share/icons/.


Changing Theme Icons
To change theme icons go to /usr/share/icons/GlassyBleu and /usr/share/icons/Human. For emblems, after you've changed them you'll still need to update the icon cache with gtk-update-icon-cache [path].

[tehdely]

Preamble
I make no warranty as to the fitness or lawfulness of anything that follows.

The idea that it's unlawful to customize your interface is absurd. Remember that MIE is by-and-large free software, none of whose licenses place any restrictions on the user's ability to actually use the software (and which actually grant rights to do quite a bit more with it).

Anyhow, these suggestions are great. I spent some time hacking at MIE yesterday and so I've got some tips to share as well, specifically about getting stuff on the bottom panel.

Dicking around with the panel

Preview: (click for full-size)


This tutorial presupposes basic terminal knowledge. To bring up a gnome-terminal in MIE, simply Alt-F2 and enter gnome-terminal as the name of the command to run.

1. Back up the configuration!
   Just in case we muck things up, let's back up the panel's configuration so we can restore it to its pristine state later.
   

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   gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel > ~/panel-backup.xml

   
   If we ever need to restore it later, we can do this:
   

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   gconftool-2 --load ~/panel-backup.xml
killall gnome-panel

   
   and you should be left with the pristine panel again.
2. Unlock the panel
   
   1. Open the tool gconf-editor
   2. Open up the domain /apps/panel/global from the tree on the left
   3. In the right-side list of keys, where you see the name locked_down, uncheck to toggle its value to 'false'
   4. Restart the panel from a terminal:
      

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      killall gnome-panel

   Your panel is now "unlocked". This means you can right-click on any standard elements (except the HP task switcher and home button... more about those in a second) and move them, or access preferences (for example, take a look at what you can do with the clock... quite a bit!).
   More importantly, you can now add launchers to it. Want a launcher down there for a terminal? Perhaps you want to start your web browser from the panel instead of having to go to the home screen? The possibilities are endless.
3. Add a launcher
   Launchers can be dragged onto the panel from Nautilus (the file browser). You can run Nautilus by clicking Files on the home screen or running it from Alt-F2.
   
   1. Go -> Location
   2. Enter /usr/share/applications
   3. Drag launchers you want onto the panel.
4. Move things around
   Most of the panel elements can be moved just by right-clicking on them and selecting "move". This is the easier, softer way, as Gnome does a nice job of reordering things when you drag them around this way. Some of the pre-installed elements will be "locked"... simply right-clicking and unchecking "Lock to Panel" will make it possible to move them.
   Note: When moving the notification area (which includes the battery status, wireless, bluetooth, etc) you must right-click on an empty area to the left or right of the actual notification icons in order to access the preferences for the notification area as a whole. Clicking on an individual icon will just let you access the preferences for that particular notifier.
   So, we've run into a problem... the durned HP switcher and Home icons won't budge. In fact, right-clicking on them does nothing. This is probably because HP just assumed nobody would unlock their panel. Thankfully, we can change their location in a much more manual fashion:
   
   1. Open gconf-editor again
   2. Open up the domain /apps/panel/applets/applet_0 from the tree on the left (this is the "Home" button with the HP logo)
   3. In the list of keys to the right, double-click on "position" in order to change its horizontal position (this is simply a pixel value from the left to right of your screen, starting at 0 and going to 1024)
   4. Open up the domain /apps/panel/applets/applet_2 (this is the task switcher button)
   5. Adjust its position value similarly
   6. To test any of these changes (they will not happen live), you must restart the panel:
      

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      killall gnome-panel

What's missing?
I haven't been able to enable right-click on the panel itself, which would allow you to add arbitrary applets, create new panels, etc. HP seems to have disabled this in some inventive way I haven't found a way to work around yet. I'll update more when I figure it out.

[ProfessorZen]

The idea that it's unlawful to customize your interface is absurd.

I want to clarify a few things. My disclaimer was a bit brief and for that I apologize.

I believe with 100% certainty that everything in my original post works and is legal but I've been wrong before. I also reserve the right to edit said post at some future date to include ideas that may damage your machine if poorly implemented or accidentally violate some law. And there is always the possibility that I may forget to add a disclaimer then. Ergo, the prudent thing for me to do would be to cover my butt now while I still remember.

Additionally, this topic is about customizing the MIE—all of it. This presupposes the potential modification of non-free software so I'd like to briefly touch on the issue of software ownership. It is quite likely that absolutely no one who reads this topic owns a single application on ANY of their computers or that they ever will. Most consumers don't own 'the product'; they own 'a license'. 'A student license' of Microsoft Office Professional, for example, is $119.98. 'The product' known as Microsoft Office Professional is worth millions.

Normally the consumer pays for the privilege of use and little else. Even if an application can be modified easily, it is totally unethical to do so if the license forbids it because you don't own the software, the manufacturer does and they have every right to dictate what you do with their property no matter how “absurd” it may seem.

With all that said, I'm really looking forward to opening up harbour-launcher and stuffing its belly full of delicious Cadbury eggs. So I hope there's nothing wrong with that.

What I'm actually referring to is adding things like RSS feeds, a Kontact plugin, a Mac-like stack, and some other cool things.

[jaydon34]

Can you post a screen of your customizations. I'm a mac user and its killing me having xp on this machine. I've been debating going to MIE as all I really do is basic stuff.

[ProfessorZen]

As far as screen shots of what I have already done to my mini are concerned, I've add the tabs 'Creative Writing' and 'Development'. I've also themed Nautilus a little by changing its background, changing the icons for folders and various mime types, replacing the standard embalms with ones that are actually attractive, and by replacing the computer icon in Nautilus itself with an actual picture of the mini.

THUMBNAILS (Click to Enlarge)


As far as what I intend to do with my mini, I'll be happy to post screen shots, instructions, and source code when I'm done. Unfortunately, since I work full-time and go to school full-time, it will likely be a while before I can do that.

At any rate, what follows is what I'd like to see on my mini. I'd be delighted if someone where to beat me to the punch on some of these and share what they have with the rest of us.


LEFT COLUMN
Kontact Plugin: In its most basic form this will simply allow KMail to interface with harbour-launcher in the same manner that Thunderbird does. This seems like a waste to me though. A truly interactive plugin would be better and a full fledged Kontact plugin would be best.

A true Kontact plugin would allow access to ALL of Kontact's components. You would actually be able to interact with the components directly without having to open Kontact. Each component would have its own tab. Hit the RSS tab and read your feeds, hit To-do and organize your task list,etc. It could be a fully functional PIM dashboard and a fantastic productivity tool. Just think, a home screen that actually does something useful.

This would obviously be a lot of work and I've never written a plugin for Kontact before so I don't know how practical this is. What I do know is that this would be fun for me and I would be helping others at the same time.


MIDDLE COLUMN
Omni Search Tool: This will be a modification to the existing search area. It will make a variety of additional search engines available simply by clicking on a drop down list (including gnome-search-tool). It will also add the ability to launch Nautilus if a path, and not a URL, is entered into the search bar.

Places: The will replace the Bookmarks drop down menu with a Places drop down list.

Favorite Websites: This is the one item of the original interface that will remain untouched. Since I peruse three newspapers and a tech blog every day with my afternoon latte, this is perfect for me just the way it is.


RIGHT COLUMN
Recent Documents: This will add a Recent Documents drop down list to the top of the right column.

Local Favorites: This will be a list of all documents and folders marked as favorite and will function similarly to the OSX stack. To make a document or folder a local favorite a user would right click it in Nautilus and select 'Mark Local Favorite' from the context menu. The emblem named Favorite will be added to the file or folder in Nautilus and the file or folder will immediately become accessible through the Local Favorites pane in Harbour-launcher. In terms of overall look, it will be similar to what the Mail column looks like now only the document or folder icon will be visible to the left of the name. At some later time I may want to add the ability to group selections of favorites by tab.

[tom_m]

I'm really interested in this...any more info?

I ran a search for harbour...both on my computer and the internet.
It was/is a openedhand product?? The same company aquired by Intel now connected with / working on Moblin??
Gives me hope for Moblin.

If only Moblin was more developed and HP equipped their netbooks with that. 5 second boot time, awesome interface...

At any rate. I'm a web developer/designer and LOVE to make nice looking / functional things. Be it a web site or my computer's interface.

Nice that I found out Thunderbird is using an extension (in js, something I understand) for harbour. So I'm going to see if I can find a work around to pull in mail from Gmail IMAP. Either I set it up weird, or it currently doesn't work...Hey, 16GB SSD...TONS of e-mail from work that a. I dont' want and b. don't have the space for...Why the heck can't that home screen show me my IMAP e-mail?

Also found what appears to be the background graphics: /usr/share/themes/GlassyBleu/gtk-2.0/harbour

So maybe this guy?
/usr/share/themes/GlassyBleu/gtk-2.0/harbour/yourHomeScreen_background.png

Anyway, aside from that I also like the thoughts here for changing up the interface. I use this netbook for work. Yes I program on it interestingly enough. So I don't really need to see photos and music on the desktop... I can play music if I want. I want more useful items there on the right. Or an expanded center area for more favorites...

[tom_m]

Must also use Glade interface....
So this file:
/usr/share/harbour-launcher/glade/harbour-launcher.glade

For example has some stuff in it that may be useful.
The Glade Interface Designer is not on the HP mini by default (always seemed to come with my Fedora installations) we'll see if the Synaptic package manager has it...but that glade file is basically xml so you can open it in gEdit let's say.... and you'll quickly see the "Files" "Settings" and "Logout" text buttons that are on the desktop in the top right...

So I assume more can be added / those can be changed.

[tom_m]

If you want to use Google as your search engine rather than Yahoo...

open /usr/share/applications
under there an application called Configuration Editor (the gconf-editor)

Under the tree:

/apps/harbour-launcher/

A key called:

search_url

The value will be something with Yahoo in it for the search... Here's Google's (for English)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=&q="%s"

Note the "%s" that's the query.
So if you want to use another search engine, go to that search engine in your web browser, run a search for "test" or something and then copy and paste the URL with the querystring and replace the word test with "%s" (including the quotes ... test won't be in quotes, if you searched with quotes they may be url encoded)

Anyway. Maybe there's an easier way to do this somewhere, but it's not real obvious. I found this not so painful, just wish you could easily switch from the desktop (like how you can switch out your favorites).

[directrix317]

Good tips, tom.

[tom_m]

after poking around with the glade file (had to set permissions so I could edit it as non-root user) I think...I could get it so that I could remove boxes.

ie. the photos or music.

I'm not sure if adding more will work because the harbour launcher program probably won't know what to do with these new items. It probably only has instruction for the set amount of items.

Can a widget or screenlet be run on top of the habrour launcher interface program?? Maybe then removing a box would be possible and replacing in the blank area, a widget/screenlet... That may be the best we can get without the source code for harbour.

I'm still disappointed with the mail on the left not supporting IMAP. That may be a plugin issue for Thunderbird though...and there may be some creative solutions there.

I'd also rather have application shortcuts or something on the right instead of the photos.
The music I'd also ditch and leave shortcuts or more internet favorites...UNLESS you can stick .pls files in there...Now when you go to replace those tracks there, it alludes to adding songs OR playlists, but I couldn't add a playlist I had. I wanted to add an internet stream on there. So that I could listen to Groove Salad or something. I mean seriously? Three icons? They expect that to be useful for music? The only possible use I would have would be for bookmarks of internet radio stations. Who listens to only three songs or three albums?

The photos is also pretty worthless for that matter.

[ProfessorZen]

Can a widget or screenlet be run on top of the habrour launcher interface program??

Yes, gDesklets for example.

Maybe then removing a box would be possible and replacing in the blank area, a widget/screenlet...

Removing the box seems like extra effort to me since a widget/screenlet can just 'cover' the thing. I'm lazy.

That may be the best we can get without the source code for harbour.

As a summer project, I think I might code an outright replacement for harbor launcher, one that's plugin based. If I do, though, it would have to be equally useful on netbooks, laptops, and desktops. I wouldn't mind having nautilus embedded into the desktop of my workstation with various launchers organized around it. I'm sure other people would prefer a very different organization so it would have to have some sort of built-in layout designer.

[tom_m]

i always wanted to embed webkit into the desktop so that i could make an interface using languages i'm familiar with... html, css, js...maybe php even (php-gtk was seemingly cool and i messed with it...though i also don't mind running tiny web server on my computer as part of the interface...that does sound silly but whatever) and then connect all of that to online services in some (probably many) cases, like for e-mail, facebook, etc.

that's actually all i want. i don't mind doing the work of making an interface. i just can't afford to learn a new language right now. i don't have the time.