idesktool is a point'n'click configuration tool for idesk to make new icons, modify existing ones, delete them or refresh the desktop. It will also simplify setting up idesk by writing an ideskrc file and making the idesktop folder for you. While it was designed to be used with the idesk-extras package - and I highly recommend idesk-extras as the easiest way to get idesk running - it will work without it too.
idesktool is just a shell script (with an Xdialog front-end) so it's easy to modify or customise. You can get Xdialog here if you don't already have it. Idesktool is released under the GPL.
Download the script from
here, copy it to /usr/bin or somewhere else in
your path and then make it executable.
You can run it from the
command line, and by default any icons you set up with it will run
idesktool from a right-click.
Please note that I haven't tried idesktool with versions of idesk later than 0.56, and don't
know whether it will work with these later versions or not.
Translators - The idesktool script was originally written in english, but I know that there are at least a couple of other-than-english versions out there. If you've translated idesktool or you'd like to do so (it should be fairly trivial) please let me know so I can make those versions available here too.
Thanks to those who sent me feedback, it's appreciated! I'd especially like to hear from anyone who finds/fixes bugs - my email address is in the image at the very bottom of this page (the image is a feeble attempt at avoiding spam).
Changes:
15thAug2004, version 1.2 fixed bug with handling spaces in the caption and filename and
changed the name to idesktool to avoid confusion with the existing idesktool.pl and
added a check that the icon image-file exists
18thAug2004, version 1.2-Fixed bug with handling difficult characters ($,/,&,*,?'), so now can use captions
like /home/john/ or $money for example.
19thAug2004, version 1.21 - added check for Xdialog
20thAug2004, v1.22 - added check for .ideskrc file and a function to write the file if missing. Also line
to make the .idesktop dir if necessary
21st Aug 2004, v1.23 - added option to edit .ideskrc file
22nd Aug 2004, v1,24 - fixed an incredibly dumb bug introduced in 1.2 that crippled the cancel and close
buttons in the caption inputbox.
23rd Aug 2004, v1.25 - make sure idesk is available
26th Aug 2004, v1.26 - fixed a bug in some functions (cancel and close buttons not connected to anything!)
29th Aug 2004, v1.27 - reworked the icon validation, general tidy up
29th Aug 2004, v1.28 - made it possible to use icons with no caption
30th Aug 2004, v1.29 - reworked the "modify" function to make it tolerant of .lnk files having "nonstandard"
formatting
3rd Sept 2004, v1.30 - made more wizard-like with "Previous" and "Next" buttons in most widgets
5th Sept 2004, v1.31 - fixed bug that made "new" entries inherit the init values from an aborted "modify"
7th Oct 2004, v1.32 - fixed some sloppy quoting in square brackets that caused problems for some
8th Oct 2004, v1.33 - replaced some if/then/elses with case/esacs, removed some dodgy whitespace
9th Oct 2004, v1.34 - inserted some missing spaces after ">" redirectors
10th Oct 2004, v1.35 - changed temp dir to one in ~/ and tidied up, moved changes from script to CHANGELOG
file
Here are some screenshots (ignore the old "ideskconf" title on some of these):
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If idesk is yet to be configured, idesktool detects this and offers to write a plain vanilla ideskrc file for you. And if you ever badly mess up this file you can just delete it and let idesktool rewrite it. |
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This one is pretty self-explanatory |
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Selecting "Configure:" from the opening window brings up this editbox where you can modify the ~/.ideskrc file. I might make this process a bit more wizard-like in the future. Or maybe not... |
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| If an icon is manually configured with an incorrect icon image file type, it can prevent idesk from running. Idesktool checks that the file exists and is a png, and if necessary will take the user back to the icon selection window instead of taking idesk down. |  |
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A more-or-less complete listing of the Linux-related stuff that I've written can be found at my homepage.
Last modified Jan 28, 2005
Comments, corrections and suggestions are welcome. Send them to:
