IDesk - Usage

Idesk configuration

Ideskrc file

To use Idesk, you must first setup your config file. Put something like this into into .ideskrc in your home directory:

table Config
  FontName: tahoma
  FontSize: 8
  FontColor: #ffffff
  ToolTip.FontSize: 9
  ToolTip.FontName: gothic
  ToolTip.ForeColor: #0000FF
  ToolTip.BackColor: #FFFFFF
  ToolTip.CaptionOnHover: true
  ToolTip.CaptionPlacement: right
  Locked: false
  Transparency: 100
  Shadow: true
  ShadowColor: #000000
  ShadowX: 1
  ShadowY: 2
  Bold: false
  ClickDelay: 300
  IconSnap: true
  SnapWidth: 55
  SnapHeight: 100
  SnapOrigin: BottomRight
  SnapShadow: true
  SnapShadowTrans: 200
  CaptionOnHover: false
  CaptionPlacement: bottom
  FillStyle: FillHLine
  Background.File: image.jpg
  Background.Delay: 1
  Background.Source: ~/.idesktop/icons
  Background.Mode: Mirror
  Background.Color: #C2CCFF
end

table Actions
  Lock: control right doubleClk
  Reload: middle doubleClk
  Drag: left hold
  EndDrag: left singleClk
  Execute[0]: left doubleClk
  Execute[1]: right doubleClk
end

"FontName" is the name Font. Default is Arial.
"FontSize" is the size Font. Default is 16.
"ForeColor" is the Foreground color. Default is #FFFFFF (white).
"ToolTip.FontName" new is the name Font for tooltip. Default is Arial.
"ToolTip.FontSize" new is the size Font for the tooltip. Default is 10.
"ToolTip.ForeColor" new is the Foreground color for the tooltip window. Default is #000000 (black).
"ToolTip.BackColor" new is the Background color for the tooltip window. Default is #FFFACD.
"ToolTip.CaptionOnHover" new is a boolean (true/false) value. Setting it to true will make the icon's tip text appear when the mouse hovers over an icon. False is the default behavior.
"ToolTip.CaptionPlacement" new defines the position for Image ToolTip Text. Valid values are: Top, Bottom, Left, Right.
"Locked" is boolean (true/false). Setting it to true disables the dragging movement.
"Transparency" is between 0 (no glow effect) and 255 (invisible without a mouseover).
"HighContrast" will draw a border around the text in the opposite colour if it is true. It will draw it in an arbitary colour if it "#aa00aa", for example. And it will not draw anything at all if it is set to "false".
"Shadow" is boolean (true/false). Turning this on will draw a drop shadow of color ShadowColor behind the text. The shadow will be ShadowX pixels right and ShadowY pixels down (negative values will work). Both ShadowX and ShadowY default to 1.
"Bold" is a boolean (true/false). Setting it to true will make your font bold.
"Click Delay" is the number of milliseconds that represents a double-click.
"SingleClick" is a boolean (true/false). Setting it to true makes a single-click execute the command associated with the icon. This also means that it is impossible to drag the icon either.
"IconSnap" is a boolean (true/false). Setting it to true makes the icons snap to a grid defined by "SnapWidth" and "SnapHeight". The icon will snap to the middle of the rectangle defined by "SnapWidth" and "SnapHeight". So if "SnapWidth" = "SnapHeight" = 100, the center of the icon will by in multiples of 50: (50,50), or (50, 100), or (100, 100), or (250, 350)... You will want to make "SnapWidth" and "SnapHeight" greater than or equal to the size of the picture.
"SnapWidth" is a positive integer, see description in "IconSnap".
"SnapHeight" is a positive integer, see description in "IconSnap".
"SnapOrigin" defines where the snap grip starts from. Valid values are:
"SnapShadow" is a boolean (true/false) value. Setting it to true will make a shadow of the icon appear where the icon will snap if the drag was released there. Turn "IconSnap" on and check this out, pretty cool effect.
"SnapShadowTrans" is a integer between 0 (opaque) and 255 (invisible). It represents the transparency of the SnapShadow
"CaptionPlacement" new defines the position for Image Caption. Valid values are: Top, Bottom, Left, Right.
"CaptionOnHover" is a boolean (true/false) value. Setting it to true will make the icon's caption only appear when the mouse hovers over an icon. False is the default behavior.
- "FillStyle" new defines the icon appearance when the user gives click him. The icon back to normal form when the user release the mouse button. Valid values are: FillInvert, FillHLine, FillVLine and None. None is the default behavior.
- "Background.File" newdefine one background image for wallpaper. If the path is wrong or the image has a bad format then doesn't put nothing. This image remains although idesk program ins't running. (Default: None).
- "Background.Delay" new Set the image change time in minutes format. (Default: 0 min, inactive). Max 526000 min.
- "Background.Source" new Let you can define the folder where there are some images. If in the folder there aren't images or the folder didn't exist, then idesk looking for Background.File option. (Default: None).
- "Background.Mode" new Is the display mode for the images, the possible values are: Stretch, Scale, Center, Fit o Mirror). (Default: Stretch).
- "Background.Color" new Let you define the color for borders on Fit and Center options for Background.mode. If you don't define a Background.Color value then the Background is transparent and it get the background from the original Desktop background. (Default: None).

"CursorOver" new defines the mouse cursor type when the mouse hovers over an icon. Valid values are:

     num_glyphs
     X_cursor
     arrow
     based_arrow_down
     based_arrow_up
     boat
     bogosity
     bottom_left_corner
     bottom_right_corner
     bottom_side
     bottom_tee
     box_spiral
     center_ptr
     circle
     clock
     coffee_mug
     cross
     cross_reverse
     crosshair
     diamond_cross
     dot
     dotbox
     double_arrow
     draft_large
     draft_small
     draped_box
     exchange
     fleur
     gobbler
     gumby
     hand1
     hand2
     heart
     icon
     iron_cross
     left_ptr
     left_side
     left_tee
     leftbutton
     ll_angle
     lr_angle
     man
     middlebutton
     mouse
     pencil
     pirate
     plus
     question_arrow
     right_ptr
     right_side
     right_tee
     rightbutton
     rtl_logo
     sailboat
     sb_down_arrow
     sb_h_double_arrow
     sb_left_arrow
     sb_right_arrow
     sb_up_arrow
     sb_v_double_arrow
     shuttle
     sizing
     spider
     spraycan
     star
     target
     tcross
     top_left_arrow
     top_left_corner
     top_right_corner
     top_side
     top_tee
     trek
     ul_angle
     umbrella
     ur_angle
     watch
     xterm

Further Snapping Description

               .          .          .
               .          .          .
               |__________|__________|_______ . . .
               |          |          |
               |          |          |
           y   |          |          |
               |          |          |
               |          |          |
         [>    |__________|__________|________ . . .
         |           x
         |           
         |

This is the bottom left of the desktop (SnapOrigin: BottomLeft)

X represents the snap width Y represents the snap height Snap origin only describes which corner of the screen

So basically set snap width to the width of the "box" you want the icon contained in and set snap height to the height of the "box" you want the icon contained in.

The icon will snap to the middle of that box specified by snap width and snap height. You will typically want the width and heihgt to be a bit larger than the width and height of the icons (make the height bigger if you use a caption).

Action Configuration

In the Action table 5 different actions can be configured.

Lock:: Disables icon dragging to prevent accidental movement.
Reload:: Reloads all of the config options and gets a new background.
Drag:: Puts the icon in drag mode. Icon follows cursor.
EndDrag:: End the drag mode, icon will be positioned at the cursor.
Execute[i]:: Executes the ith icon command. So the Execute[0] action is the default action and run Command[0] (in the icon config file), Execute[1] runs Command[1] and so forth.

The options for each command are as follows:

<shift> <control> <alt> [Button] [ClickType]
  [Button] = left, middle, and/or right
  [ClickType] = singleClk, doubleClk, tripleClk, or hold

Some examples:

The default settings, should be self explanitory.

        Lock: right doubleClk
        Reload: middle doubleClk
        Drag: left hold
        EndDrag: left singleClk
        Execute[0]: left doubleClk

  Note: Drag starts when left button is pressed 
        and Drag ends when left button is released.

Left single click while holding shift on the keyboard Execute[0]: shift left singleClk Left double click while holding down the right mouse button. Execute[0]: left doubleClk right hold And for those with too many fingers, middle double click while holding down the left and right mouse buttons, and control, alt, and shift on the keyboard. Execute[0]: control shift alt left hold middle doubleClk right hold

Notes:

For the Drag action I reccomend only doing button holds and for the EndDrag I recommend using single clicks. This way the icon begins dragging as soon as you press the button and stops dragging as soon as you release the button. Using other actions should work as expected, but there are a few small bugs.

If two actions have the same key/button combinations they both will occur, unless one is the reload action. The reload action always only happens by itself.

Idesktop Directory

To add an icon, you need to first create a .idesktop directory in your home dir and inside that directory, create a file, for example, home.lnk and inside the file put something like this:

    table Icon
      Caption: Home
      ToolTip.Caption: My home
      Icon: /home/you/.idesktop/home.png
      Command[0]: nautilus /home/you
      Command[1]: nautilus /home/you/otherDir
    end

These are the options for icon file, they should mostly be self-explantory. The Icon option is the graphic file for the icon image (either a png file or a svg file). The Execute[i] action (in .ideskrc) runs the Command[i]. If the Caption field is blank or just one space, then no caption will be created for the icon.

    table Icon
      Caption: Tux
      ToolTip.Caption: Linux rocks   new
      Command: echo 'Linux rocks!'
      Icon: /home/you/icons/tux2.png
      Width: 600
      Height: 700
      X: 680
      Y: 174
    end

Important for SVG!

If you use a svg icon need to set Width and Height to your desired pixel size. Just make sure that the X value plus the width doesn't exceed your window diemensions, you get a segfault (same for Y value and height). It is best to set X and Y to zero to prevent this.