make wingpanel compatible with other desktop environments

[Ash]

It would be really good if we could use wingpanel in other desktop environments. I tried with some other desktops and it either didn't launch at all or had a poor performance.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

OP, can you provide more information? Which environments did you try to run wingpanel in? When running from Terminal was there any output on environments where it did not launch? What do you mean by "poor performance"? What exactly performed poorly?

[Ash (ash1991)]

I retested wingpanel under GNOME3 and Cinnamon desktop environments and they run but these are the issues I encountered.

1. About the poor performance:
Just open an indicator pop up and move between different indicators. There seems to be a slight delay between each indicator getting closed and the other one getting opened. Compare with gnome-shell panel or cinnamon desktop panel and see how smooth the menus switched once you hover between different indicators/applets.

2. About the compatibility issue:
There are 3 critical issues, and one minor issue, IMO. I try to explain them respectively:
2.1. The keyboard indicator doesn't work at all. It neither shows the layout change (after using keyboard shortcut to change layout) nor is able to change layout by choosing the option for each layout

2.2 Ayatana indicators do not show at all. They are crucial as many important background apps are controlled through them(download managers, cloud apps, dictionary apps, etc)

2.3 Slingshot launcher shortcut doesn't work most of the times. I set a shortcut to run "wingpanel --toggle-indicator=app-launcher" every time I press the keys but it doesn't work after first or second use of the shortcut. I compared the wingpanel log I got in other desktop environments and what I got under pantheon and it seems the difference was just they had issue remembering focused window:

[15:26:40.265683 Warning] BackgroundManager.vala:81: Remembering focused window failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.pantheon.gala.WingpanelInterface was not provided by any .service files

I tested focusing the window I was working at by clicking on it and the shortcut started to work again

2.4 indicator options to open system settings(e.g. "Network Settings..." under network indicator or "Keyboard Settings..." under keyboard indicator menu) do not work. This seems to be because of calling switchboard directly. Many of them worked after linking switchboard to appropriate setting binary(e.g. gnome-control-center).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Wingpanel because there has been no activity for 60 days.]