ANNOUNCE: xfce4-panel 4.7.0 released

[Nick Schermer]

xfce4-panel 4.7.0 is now available for download from
  
  http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2
  http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2.md5
  http://archive.xfce.org/src/xfce/xfce4-panel/4.7/xfce4-panel-4.7.0.tar.bz2.sha1

  SHA1 checksum: 64e89d8c276a96806e52c7a90af7e91a7e952626
   MD5 checksum: 4b6a6fa4a37d9bfe713151c1bc9bec97


What is xfce4-panel?
====================

Xfce's panel.

Website: 
  http://www.xfce.org/projects/xfce4-panel


Release notes for 4.7.0
=======================

This is the first development release of xfce4-panel for Xfce 4.8. It is
basically a complete rewrite of the 4.6 panel, so it needs a lot of
testing. Below an overview of the biggest changes. If you're going to
check it out: don't forget the recompile panel plugins else they won't
work.
Please report all the regressions and bugs you find at bugzilla.xfce.org
(and don't forget the set the version to 4.7.0).

Have fun testing!


General
-------
- Almost a complete rewite of the code. Everything is now written
  in GObjects. This makes each individual part easier to understand.
- All plugins are ported to GObject-based plugins and use Xfconf for
  storing their information (apart from desktop-files of launcher).
- Interfaces are all created by GtkBuilder.
- Ported to new Libxfce4ui (4.7.1) and Garcon (0.1.1) libraries.
  Other dependencies include Gtk+ 2.14, Glib 2.18, Xfconf 4.7.2,
  Exo 0.5.1, DBus-Glib 0.73 and Libwnck 2.22.
- Documentation (will be) written in Mallard.
- On first startup a dialog will appear to migrate old panel config,
  start with the default setup or one empty panel.

Panel
-----
- Panels can be dragged around the screen and snapped to every panel
  edge. Each panel also has a setting to control the window length (%).
- Possibility to lock panels. This will fix the position and hides the
  handles of the window.
- Alpha backgrounds.
- Item (plugin) editor in the preferences dialog, so you can easily
  add, move, delete and edit plugins that are sometimes hard to reach.
- Using Xfconf for storing the panel settings. Panels also watches the
  Xfconf channel for changes, except for adding and removing panels.
- New code for monitor/screen positioning. This should work a lot
  better with randr.
- DND of desktop-files on the panel to create new launchers.
- Possibility to add new plugins from the command line, including
  startup arguments.
- External plugins are automatically restarted if they have not
  crashed in the last 60 seconds. If they crash more then once in
  this time window, the user is asked what to do (restart or remove).
- Gtk style properties for popup/popdown delay.
- Hidden option to disable struts for windows on a screen edge, so
  the space is used by the window manager for other windows.

Plugin Framework
----------------
- Plugin API should still be the same, however the ABI changed so
  you need to recompile plugins against this version of the panel.
- New way to run plugins compiled as modules externally. Whether a
  plugin runs internal or external is controlled by a boolean in the
  desktop-file of the plugin. This does not affect the 'old' external
  plugins that are compiled as binaries, it is however recommended to
  port plugins to this new framework (only Makefile and macro change)
  since it is more flexible.
- Communication between the panel and wrapper (that embeds plugins to
  run external) is handled through D-Bus.
- XfcePanelPlugin is now a single object (not an interface for 2 other
  objects). This drops a lot of code.
- Some new API and a couple of deprecations. Some of the new
  functionality is only available in the new plugin framework.
- New way to build plugins as GObjects with XfcePanelPlugin as parent
  type. This gives all advantages of GObject like type checking.

Actions Plugin
--------------
- New settings dialog that allows one or two actions in the plugin
  in each order you want.

Applications Menu Plugin (new)
------------------------------
- Plugin similar what Xfdesktop provided, but using Garcon.
- Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
- Script to popup the menu, optionally under the cursor.

Clock Plugin
------------
- New fuzzy clock mode.
- Improved vertical orientation.

Directory Menu Plugin (new)
---------------------------
- Menu that provides a directory tree in a menu. It allows to quickly
  open a Terminal or File Manager for some directory.
- Possible to set a file filter for files that should also be
  visible in the menu. Files are opened by the default application
  that provides the mime-type reported by GIO.
- Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
- Script to popup the menu, optionally under the cursor.

Launcher Plugin
---------------
- Support to create a launcher from the command line with a number of
  desktop files as argument.
- New dialogs, with an application finder like interface to add new
  applications and using the Exo item editor for modifying launchers.
- The desktop files are stored in the .config/xfce4/panel/launcher-$id
  folder and monitored for changes.
- Possibility to use desktop-id in the default configuration which are
  read from a GarconItemsPool on first startup. This is a very useful
  feature for distributions providing a custom default config.
- Gtk icons size property to control the menu icon size.
- Option to show labels instead of icons.

Pager Plugin
------------
- Button to quickly access the Xfwm4 workspace settings.

Separator Plugin
----------------
- Same drawing modes as previous panel, but a check button for expand
  instead of a mode.

Notification Area Plugin
------------------------
- Support for transparent tray icons (required at least Gtk 2.16).

Window Buttons (tasklist) Plugin
--------------------------------
- Option to only show icons. This drops the icon box plugin.
- Complete rewrite, not entirely finished yet (group buttons are not
  working yet + some other less noticeable features).
- If the list becomes too crowded windows will show up in an overflow
  menu, similar to what a menu bar does.
- Option to set the sort mode of the tasklist.
- Draw wireframe of the window on mouse hover, similar to the Alt+Tab
  wireframe in Xfwm4.
- A lot of style properties to tune the behavior of the plugin.
- Vertically orientated buttons for vertical panels.

Window Menu Plugin
------------------
- Gtk icons size property to control the menu icons size and minimized
  icon translucency.