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elementary
Add XDG dirs as .desktop actions
Problem
I find myself hitting Super+Space and starting to type "Downloads" to open the downloads folder, which obviously doesn't do anything today.
Proposal
We could add the standard XDG directories to the .desktop actions to have these in a quicklist and in search in the Applications Menu.
A potential disconnect I see is that these would not mirror the user's added bookmarks in the sidebar, as it would be static. However, I think making it quicker to open the standard XDG dirs would still be a net benefit.
Prior Art (Optional)
I believe we used to add bookmarks to the dynamic quicklist (e.g. using the Unity API), but that only worked when the app was open.
I wonder if building a bookmarks provider plugin to synapse would be worth it?
The bookmark file format is really simple, just a list of File URIs, and it's not in a Files specific config directory.
@jhaygood86 that could be possible, but adding to the .desktop actions also gets us a quicklist in the dock which seems handy (and more closely matches what we used to have with the Unity API).
They likely aren't mutually exclusive either. The bookmark search would just have to be aware of the desktop actions.
@jhaygood86 that's fair. :smile: It might be a little weird to not get your added bookmarks in the dock quicklist while getting them in the Applications Menu, but it's no worse than what we have today.
We'll also want to keep in mind how we want to handle quicklists like .desktop actions when we rewrite the dock, as that's something we'll have to do for Wayland. I do want to continue leaning on the desktop actions spec since it's an open XDG standard, and I also think a dynamic shortcut API (like exists on Android and I believe iOS) is something other desktops will want---but that's probably longer-term thinking.
@cassidyjames Look at https://github.com/elementary/applications-menu/pull/514 for the bookmarks in applications menu
The advantages of @jhaygood86 's approach is that it should work with other filemanagers and does not unnecessarily clutter the dock menu.
@jeremypw I don't think having quick access to common folders is unnecessary clutter; I have been using this all the time since prototyping it. 😅 If @jhaygood86’s branch works in tandem with #1889 I am not opposed, though.
@cassidyjames My argument is that it is the same number of clicks (and both of them primary) to just open files and then click on the sidebar. Also, if you use a location a lot and leave it open, then Files will restore it so only one click required.
Pretty much the only reason I have to secondary-click on the dock icon is to open a window as Administrator and this PR moves that option further from the mouse.
Commented on the PR but wanted to comment here too. I think the applications menu plugin is the way to go and Jeremy makes a good point about it not actually being any faster than opening files and clicking the sidebar.
I think I agree that this kind of clutters up the menu where there are actual unique actions and it seems to me that unless we do some kind of workaround in apps menu to hide these actions, it would create duplicate entries there with a bookmarks plugin
So overall I'm kinda more and more -1 and feel like this is probably out of scope
Gonna close this since there hasn't been any more conversation in about a year and it seems like the bookmarks plugin solved this case for the applications menu