GRandRock

Bug #522152
Comment #16

Comment 16 for bug 522152

Revision history for this message

Seppe Stas (seppestas) wrote on 2016-07-29:

#16

According to the Freedesktop StatusNotifierItem specification, each StatusNotifierItem object must provide the following methods:
- ContextMenu
- Activate
- SecondaryActivate
- Scroll

Currently, libappindicator only seem to listen for the `Scroll` method, which it exposes through the `scroll-event` signal, and the `SecondaryActivate`, which it does not expose.

Also, the unity-panel-service does not seem to send a `ContextMenu`, `Activate` or `SecondaryActivate` method call to the StatusNotifierItem registered by libappindicator. It does however send the Scroll method call correctly.

There are a bunch of other ways in which libappindicator and the unity-panel-service do not follow the StatusNotifierItem specifications. It looks like the unity-panel-service and libappindicator are specifically built to fit the needs of Unity, not to comply with the Freedesktop StatusNotifier spec.

To fix this bug properly, firstly the unity-panel-service should send all required method calls to the registered StatusNotifierItem objects. Secondly, libappindicator should listen for these method calls and use this to send signals when the menu is shown/hidden.

Note however that the Ubuntu status menu design guidelines explicitly say not to use application indicators when "You just want the program to take up a small space in the panel when minimized".

IMO, by making application icons behave more "consistently" inside of Unity, they have become inconsistent with other desktop environments, including the ones from OSX and Windows.

I am capable and willing to fix this bug, but I'm afraid doing so allows libappindicator to be used in ways that do not fit the Ubuntu status menu design guidelines. I do not know a lot about the politics in Ubuntu, but this seems to be a touchy subject[3], so my guess is their is no incentive to have it fixed. Could someone set this bug to Won't Fix if this is the case, or tell me where the implementation could be further discussed?

Anyhow, I'll be implementing the workaround described above by dlech for my use-case. It seems to work, but might break when the behavior of unity-panel-service changes (however since this bug is already 6 years old, I don't think this will happen soon).

[1] https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/StatusNotifierItem/StatusNotifierItem/
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CustomStatusMenuDesignGuidelines
[3] http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/654

According to the Freedesktop StatusNotifierItem specification, each StatusNotifierItem object must provide the following methods:
- ContextMenu
- Activate
- SecondaryActivate
- Scroll

Currently, libappindicator only seem to listen for the `Scroll` method, which it exposes through the `scroll-event` signal, and the `SecondaryActivate`, which it does not expose.

Note however that the Ubuntu status menu design guidelines explicitly say not to use application indicators when "You just want the program to take up a small space in the panel when minimized".

IMO, by making application icons behave more "consistently" inside of Unity, they have become inconsistent with other desktop environments, including the ones from OSX and Windows.