Ideas for 4.2: global configuration

[K Raghu Prasad]

Hi!

> I think all configuration should have a system config
> file. This will allow system administrators to create
> a custom default for all their users. This should
> include settings manager plugins.
Perfect for my setup :-)

> Related to this is to allow locking down of the
> configuration. I tried using the
> XFCE_DISABLE_USER_CONFIG variable for this, but
> currently the panel crashes when you set it
> (related to icon themes).
Oh.. I thought it was just with me as I was using
4.0rc2. So this avenue too is closed for me :-(
Now as I am getting ready to change the panel code
to remove "add launcher", is there something which
I should follow which would make my changes useful
for others too?

> Perhaps this could better be done using a system
> config file or  simply the existence of a file
> ${sysconfdir}/xfce4/disable_user_config.
> It would be nice to support this I think. Allowing
> specific things to be locked down would require
> quite a bit of work but an initial all-or-nothing
> approach should not be too hard (don't popup the
> settings dialog, disable related menu items and
> only read system config files).
What about writing a function as declared below:

boolean is_user_config_allowed(gchar* property);

It may take the name of the property against which
user configuration option is tested. Properties are
something like Font, Launcher, Theme etc. A separate
xml file can list all those properties along with
"true" or "false" values. Before creating each widget
related to settings, this function can be called.
Any opinions?

cheers
krp