xdgmenumaker/README

=====
ABOUT
=====

xdgmenumaker is a command line tool, written in python, that generates
application menus using xdg information, by scanning *.desktop files
in /usr/share/applications and ~/.local/share/applications. All
applications are sorted according to the main categories as specified by
freedesktop.org at:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html

The menu entries that are generated by xdgmenumaker are localised
according to the running user locale settings.

xdgmenumaker currently supports generating menus for fluxbox and
windowmaker. In-menu icons are not supported for now, maybe in the
future.

pyxdg is required by xdgmenumaker, in addition to python 2.

=======
Fluxbox
=======

To generate an application menu for fluxbox, run xdgmenumaker like this:

$ xdgmenumaker -f fluxbox > ~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu

and then change your main fluxbox menu to include this file as a
submenu. For example, add this somewhere in your ~/.fluxbox/menu file:

  [include] (~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu)

You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if
you want to update it, without having to run the command manually again:

  [exec] (Update Fluxbox Menu) (xdgmenumaker -f fluxbox > ~/.fluxbox/xdg_menu)

============
Window Maker
============

There are two ways to have an xdg menu in windowmaker. The first one,
auto-updates the menu, every time the menu is called. The second one,
updates the menu only when the user wants to.

xdgmenumaker uses utf8 encoding and localised strings by default and has
been tested only with wmaker-crm>=0.95.1. No idea if utf8 works properly
with older Window Maker versions.

Method 1
--------

Open the WindowMaker preferences tool. In the Application Menu
Definition section, add a Generated Submenu in your menu, by dragging it
in. Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the preferences
window, in Command, add:

xsgmenumaker -f windowmaker

Save and close the preferences window.

That command will be run every time you access that submenu, so the
application list in there will be always up to date. The downside is
that it will be run every time you access that submenu, so especially if
you are on a very old PC, it might slow things down a bit, although
probably not anything considerable.

Method 2
--------

Run

$ xdgmenumaker -f windowmaker > ~/GNUstep/Defaults/xdg_menu

Then open the WindowMaker preferences tool and in the Application Menu
Definition section, add an External Submenu by dragging it in your menu.
Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the preferences
window, in Path for Menu, add the location of the menu file you just
created:

  ~/GNUstep/Defaults/xdg_menu


You can add the xdgmenumaker command as another item in your menu, if
you want to update it, without having to run the command manually again.
In the Application Menu Definition section in the WindowMaker
preferences window, add a Run Program item in your menu by dragging it
your menu. Click on the menu item you just dragged in and in the
preferences window, in Program to Run, add the xdgmenumaker command as
mentioned above.

The downside of this method, is that the menu contents will not be
updated when you install a new application or remove one. You will need
to run the xfgmenumaker command every time you want the menu to be
updated. The upside is that the menu will not be generated every time
you access the menu. This might be a better choice for (really) older
hardware.