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GNOME is removing the tray icon

Open rugk opened this issue 6 years ago • 16 comments

From version 3.26 the Gnome Project decided to get rid of the system tray as they felt it not useful anymore. https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2017/08/31/status-icons-and-gnome/

The [current] Fedora and Ubuntu Releases […] already contain this Gnome version.

More resources:

  • https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2017/08/31/status-icons-and-gnome/
  • https://developer.gnome.org/SearchProvider/
  • https://developer.gnome.org/gio/stable/GNotification.html
  • https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/StatusIconMigration/Guidelines
  • https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qsystemtrayicon.html#isSystemTrayAvailable

(copied from https://github.com/Nitrokey/nitrokey-app/issues/274)

rugk avatar Jun 27 '18 08:06 rugk

So, what is the replacement?

abitrolly avatar Jun 27 '18 09:06 abitrolly

See the docs I've linked. E.g. cloud services could use some special APIs for them (which are integrated into Nautilus). Or, generally, the urge to use specific APIs for the use case. In this case, here, Nautilus integration would maybe be useful…(?)

rugk avatar Jun 27 '18 11:06 rugk

So this is not actionable?

abitrolly avatar Jun 27 '18 14:06 abitrolly

What do you mean by that?

Of course Nautilus integration is actionable, but don't ask me for the details. Or any other API or whatever way you'll come up with avoiding the tray icon.

rugk avatar Jun 28 '18 12:06 rugk

Without details there is nothing could be done. No action is possible.

abitrolly avatar Jun 28 '18 13:06 abitrolly

Boah… come on. I am just a user of this application. I have no idea how to fullfill it and I am not a dev in this area. I just wanted to make you aware of the problem, and offer some ideas/tips on what you can do. I have provided you links to how other services did it, and some links to documentation about the whole thing. There is nothing more I can provide. Some developers/other community members may jump in and develop/discuss ideas or do something…

rugk avatar Jun 28 '18 13:06 rugk

Thanks for the links, of course, but being dev doesn't mean one has more time to understand how to deal with GNOME notifications area. Pasting simple example that compiles and demonstrates the concept may help someone to integrate it with Nitroshare.

abitrolly avatar Jun 28 '18 13:06 abitrolly

So what? The example I can give is: grafik

These (tray) icons are depreciated and only shown, because I have the topicons plus extension installed. So you basically cannot use them. You may not use any such icons, it is not intended to be used by an application running on GNOME, because they have less value and proper APIs should be used.

Alternatives:

  • desktop notificationsn
  • file manager (Nautilus) integration; example: right-click -> Send file
  • more????

Example from NextCloud: https://blog.juliushaertl.de/index.php/2017/08/28/gsoc-final-report/

rugk avatar Jun 28 '18 13:06 rugk

Okay. Let's go with Desktop Notifications first. How to make Nitroshare report there that it is running?

abitrolly avatar Jun 29 '18 05:06 abitrolly

GNOME principle: Don't. E.g. music players can still be running when closed, they just use the API so they can be controlled from the user via some ways or another. It's totally unnecessary to constantly show an icon for any application that is running in the background. I guess that's a principle one has inherited from Windows, but it is actually not useful when you think about it. You only need to control or quit the application…

rugk avatar Jun 29 '18 07:06 rugk

Note: NitroShare has an HTTP API accessible to local applications running under the user's account that can be used for status and controlling the application in case that helps.

nathan-osman avatar Jun 29 '18 13:06 nathan-osman

With receiving files it is not a problem to leave Nitroshare running in background, but how to find Nitroshare in GNOME when user needs to send something?

abitrolly avatar Jun 30 '18 00:06 abitrolly

Right click on a file -> Share with Nitrokey or similar is the UI flow I'd suggest and have already mentioned earlier.

rugk avatar Jun 30 '18 09:06 rugk

With receiving files it is not a problem to leave Nitroshare running in background, but how to find Nitroshare in GNOME when user needs to send something?

In addition to what @rugk says, you can open the application directly and select the device to send the file to. I think that here you can follow the example of how Teleport works.

haevalencia avatar Jul 07 '18 21:07 haevalencia

What is discussed here can be useful. Maybe @csoriano1618 can help with his advice.

haevalencia avatar Jul 07 '18 21:07 haevalencia

Thanks for bringing this up @haevalencia. I think the advice in https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/3830 could be applied here too.

Let me know if I can be of any help!

csoriano1618 avatar Jul 12 '18 20:07 csoriano1618