[launcher] can't add java programs as favorites

[Christian Schendel]

 By starting a java program like freemind, the "Keep in Launcher" option is missing

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

Thanks for the bug report Christian!

@Olivier: this is another example of bamf not able to find the desktop file.

[Alex Launi (alexlauni)]

I just very successfully added a java app to the unity launcher

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

Thanks for the confirmation Alex. Just so that I can reproduce it here, what Java app was it?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

So I can confirm that freemind cannot be kept in the launcher. This is because bamf is unable to find the matching desktop file.

I also tested in unity, and found an interesting behaviour, confirmed by reading the code: every tile in the launcher can be "kept", regardless of whether the launcher knows the corresponding desktop file. But when the desktop file is unknown, the application is not actually added to the favorites (can be checked with `gsettings list-recursively com.canonical.Unity.Launcher`). I also guess the "favorite" won’t be persistent across sessions. Moreover, if the application is exited, it cannot be re-launched from the icon in the launcher (no desktop file associated…), which renders the functionality rather useless.

In short: the issue is with bamf, and there doesn’t seem to be a real discrepancy between unity-2d and unity.

[Christian Göbel (christiangoebel)]

Same problem with Jedit - a powerful editor written in Java. I can open Jedit, however I cannot (right-click) add it to my favourites. So I guess this is just a duplicate?
Did I understand that to fix the bug on has to fix bamf? Or should I report a bug upstream for the desktop file?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

@Christian: this is indeed the same issue you are observing, no need for another bug report.

[mporten (mathias-porten)]

I can confirm this bug, with JabRef 2.6 and for unity-2d, for unity, it seems to work (on my other computer).

[Florian Boucault (fboucault)]

Mathias, can you check again in Unity: the option "keep in launcher" is probably there but if you select it and then log out and back in again the application might be gone from the launcher.

[mporten (mathias-porten)]

Florian, no option "keep in launcher" is there, so I cannot select it.

[Jorge Moraleda (jorge-moraleda)]

This is a problem in gnome-shell as well: I just tested using Ubuntu 11.10 and jEdit does not show "Add to Favorites" like other apps do.

[Valeriy (tverdohleb)]

Same with Netbeans, eclipse, etc. Tested in gnome shell (3.2 — 3.3.90)
It's annoying :(

[PS Jenkins bot (ps-jenkins)]

Fix committed into lp:unity at revision 3458, scheduled for release in unity, milestone 7.1.1

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.1.0+13.10.20130812.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.1.0+13.10.20130812.1-0ubuntu1) saucy; urgency=low

  [ Brandon Schaefer ]
  * Add ibus.py to the tests/autopilot/unity/emulators from
    lp:autopilot. (LP: #1210661)
  * Don't make the ScopeView/DashView/ScrollView Visible on start up
    (bool wise, causing things to think its ok to render). (LP:
    #1201631)
  * Adds the ability to use the mouse in the switcher. (LP: #824965)

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * Add edge barriers to unity::panel::PanelView. (LP: #931384)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * ApplicationLauncherIcon: Create a local desktop file when sticking
    an app that has not Also make icon sticky only if both the icon
    itself and the inner app is sticky as well. (LP: #1209320, #753305,
    #765466, #754334, #704046)

  [ Ubuntu daily release ]
  * Automatic snapshot from revision 3462
 -- Ubuntu daily release <email address hidden> Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:49:01 +0000

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Fix Released in Bamf BAMF 0.5.0.

[Stephen M. Webb (bregma)]

Fix Released in Nux Unity 7.1.1.

[Bastien Ho (bastienho)]

Sorry, but the bug seems to be still here in unity 7.3.2

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

Could you please give us some information on how you reproduced in unity 7.3.2? Thank you!

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Also, please let me know if you get any information when doing:
 - xprop | grep PID