Are global panel contents possible?

[Heinrich Rebehn]

Jasper Huijsmans wrote:
> Erik Harrison wrote:
> 
>>On 5/14/05, Stephen Hurd <shurd at sasktel.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Unfortunately, I want some that are merged... for example, I would like
>>>to be able to have the web browser and email launchers as items that
>>>cannot be deleted/modified/etc, but allow them to customize the rest of
>>>the panel (ie: Add the weather thinger, add launchers for their own
>>>stuff etc).  Also, if I decide to switch from (say) Mozilla to Firefox
>>>as the web browser, I would like to be able to diddle one file and have
>>>it change the launcher for ALL users etc.
>>>
>>>Without any real thought on the matter, loading the users contents.xml,
>>>then loading the global config overwriting/adding vales would be ideal.
>>
>>
>>This isn't possible, and isn't planned, that I know of. You could try
>>dropping a request to extend the existing kiosk functionality to do
>>this, but it seems unlikely to be added to me.
>>
>>What you can do currently is:
>>
>>
>>#Modify the default panel, but users can add and remove any plugin
>>
>>#Set the panel up in kiosk mode and modifiy the default, but users
>>can't add or remove any plugins
>>
>>
>>
>>>Brett I. Holcomb wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>You might check the /etc/xfce4 directory.  I believe they are used if the
>>>>user doesn't have anything in his ~/.config directory.
>>>>
>>>>On Sat, 14 May 2005, Stephen Hurd wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I'm looking for a way to easily add a small set of required panel items
>>>>>to *all* XFce users on a system.  Ideally, it would just be a separate
>>>>>contents.xml that is merged with the users one (And, of course, items in
>>>>>it could not be removed/modified)
>>>>>
>>>>>Does such a thing already exist?  Is it vaguely possible?
> 
> 
> It is fundamentally different from the way the panel works now, but it 
> is not necessarily a bad idea.
> 
> I'd like to hear other people's opinion on it. Do you think this would 
> be useful to you?
> 

It would be very beneficial for large setups (student labs etc..).
This question also comes up regularly on the gnome mailing list (don't
know if kde can handle this). The fact that Windows does it (merging the
"All Users" directory with the current user's one) does not mean that it
is a bad thing. ;-)

> Currently the panel contents are created during the parsing of the 
> config file. Merging will fundamentally change that, so it's not an easy 
> change.

We will have to parse two config files, a global one and a users's one.
Conflicting panel positions must be resolved. The entries from the 
global config must me marked r/o, so the user cannot change or remove them.

Just my 2 cents.

--

Heinrich Rebehn

University of Bremen
Physics / Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Department of Telecommunications -

Phone : +49/421/218-4664
Fax   :            -3341