Make changeable indicator dots color

[Ivan]

Yes, I know that the color of the indicator dots (plus the anchor icon) is taken from the theme, but:

- There isn't red in my theme (a dark theme, view shot for gnome theme option)

- Indicator dots are not well visible (see image)

in my opinion there should be (even in gconf) a place where to put the hex code for the color...

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Thoughts, bunny?

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

hehe, yes this a known bug. I think we need to fix the color change logic to account for themes with a selected color that has 0 saturation. But I think your big problem with visibility is coming from that (third party *cough*) theme with the big line right through the indicators.

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

The reason Mac OS X/iPhone OS has red badges is simple: The badges should attract attention to the application. This is not equivalent to the 'selected item' background/foreground colour pair found in GTK+ themes.

I can see three ways to improve the current situation:

1. in the short term an option for setting the background colour could be added so that a user could --- through gconftool or gconf-editor --- change the colour of the badge. A sane default (e.g. a highly saturated red/orange) could be preset.

2. Alternatively, in the mid-term you could take the GTK theme colour for 'selected items' as a starting point, and modify the Saturation and Brightness values so that the badge is clearly visible.

3. While not related to Docky, in the longer term, a revamped theme spec might include 'warning' field background and foreground colours which could be used for Docky's badges.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

@cosmix: thank you for input, but we are discussing indicators not badges.

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

@Robert: Apologies, I obviously didn't read the description or earlier comments carefully before posting.

[Julien-Charles Lévesque (jclevesque)]

Yeah, for me this pretty much renders the 3D panel unusable, since the dot indicator is often easily confusable with the icon's reflexions.

[Timo Reimerdes (timorei)]

One Idea that came to me on this problem (I have turned off 3D mode just because of this) was:

How about turning off reflections for items that are showing an indicator?

I must admit, not to have looked at the way the single items get painted or if this is even a reasonable idea regarding the amount of work. But in general, I think this might work rather well.

[Tyler R (trowe)]

The problem is not just with the 3D. My background just happens to be almost white where docky is, and I use the Air theme. My selected items color is light blue. Being able to select my dot color is important to me.

[Abdusamed Ahmed (sir508)]

I need to change color although a prcoess here exist

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/09/5-docky-tips-for-docky-diehards/

   1. Press ALt + F2
   2. Type ‘gconf-editor’ (sans the apostrophes)
   3. Navigate to: /apps/docky-2/Docky/DockController
   4. Experiment with finding a colour that suits you by changing the UrgentHue value to a number between -180 to 180. The
       default is 150.

Although for some reason, I don't have 'Urgent Hue' which is a shame.

My version on Ubuntu Lucid

Docky version: 2.1.0 bzr docky r1659 ppa
Kernel version: 2.6.32.25
CLR version: 2.0.50727.1433

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

The key was changed. The key you want is '/apps/docky-2/Docky/Services/ThemeService/UrgentHue'.

[Abdusamed Ahmed (sir508)]

Wow...thanks.. w00t.. now I can see it pulsating with a different color. But I don't understand the the correlation between number and color.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Its a hue shift. So we take your (gtk theme based) color for urgent and shift its hue by that value.

[Matthew Markell (markellmtthw)]

Has anybody implemented a gconf setting for changing the open application indicator color?

[Zwulf (zwulf)]

I have the same problem like Tyler R. Why not let the user choose easily if he wanted the theme color or another? That would be really useful. With some wallpapers and fitting theme docky indicators become totally invisible and I have to guess, whether a prog is open or not. The only solutions are changing Docky's theme to a dark one (looks really ugly with everything bright, but Docky) or changing to AWN as long as the wallpaper isn't changed.

I think it would be a better solution to implement that graphically than let users use gconf-editor for this. One single button and possibility to choose between theme color and own one would be enough.

I made a Mockup how it might look -> see attachment. Font is too large and the dialog is German (sorry), but you could see what I mean.

[Zwulf (zwulf)]

Better one --> attachment

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

This WILL NOT be exposed in the settings dialog. We are actively working to remove things from that dialog and nothing will be added to it. This is not open for discussion, this is the design philosophy of Docky.

As stated earlier, it is configurable via GConf. If you want to change it, that is how you can do it.

[Tyler R (trowe)]

If I recall correctly, it's not even configurable in GConf. Only the urgent hue is.

[Zwulf (zwulf)]

Stay cool, this was just an IDEA to make it easier. If you don't like it, that's ok.

[Robert Dyer (psybers)]

Its configurable in the (linked) themes branch. I don't know what more you people want from me. :-(

[Zwulf (zwulf)]

Hey, still Docky is my favorite dock by far, even if I'd like to have more options. But I think I get what you want to create.. something that just works and which you don't even have to configure. I see, that also relies on Compiz and Gnome code, but I didn't know before.
Good work, that you've done yet... the most important thing, that has nothing to do with personal preferences, is, that it works. And it does - like a charme. :)