"Defaults" button in every settings screen

[Jannis Pohlmann]

On Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:45:15 +0900
Andrzej <ndrwrdck at googlemail.com> wrote:

> On 12/09/2011 03:41 AM, Stephan Arts wrote:
> >
> >>> http://wiki.xfce.org/design/profile-manager - there were mockups
> >>> but they are gone now, but this is a related idea.
> >>
> >>
> >> Interesting.
> >>
> >> I imagine this would be done per xfconf channel, wouldn't it. I
> >> wonder if that's not too coarse approach, and if so, what would be
> >> the right chunk of configuration to save/restore.
> >
> > Well, per channel would be possible for an 'advanced' configuration.
> > But the primary goal is making it easier for end-users, with
> > property-groups (app or function-based) and 'friendly-names'.
> 
>  From the user's perspective that's actually better.
> 
> There are some issues of such fine-grained partitioning we need to be 
> aware of:

No, there are not really any issues with this.

> - who decides the boundaries of these partitions and how do we
> implement them?

The creator of the profiles decides which options to include and what
values to set them to. For predefined profiles the developer of the
profile manager decides.

> Do we just automatically follow the structure of the xfconf property
> tree?

That's irrelevant. The idea is to have a collection of high-level
profiles that make sense. It does not matter how the properties are
organized under the hood.

> The link between the dialog box and the xfconf sub-tree isn't always 
> that obvious. For example if we wanted to change settings of a single 
> launcher in the panel, we'd first have to know its ID (which may
> change) and then save/restore properties matching the pattern:

Panel plugins are special. They are not basic configuration options.
Each plugin has some, yes, but the profile manager does not have to go
as far as to specify which plugins to add and remove from the panel.
That's too error-prone anyway, just leave plugins out and concentrate
on all the always-present configuration options.

> - What if there are cross-dependencies or conflicts? (some options 
> depending on the compositing being enabled etc.)

Then the profile needs to include the dependencies as well.
 
> - How do we integrate this mechanism in the GUI? (are the mockups
> still around?).

Not sure. Stephan, where have the mockups gone? ;)

  - Jannis