System values for panel plugins with Xfconf

[Graeme Gott]

>> Right now every Whisker Menu instance is separate. I had planned on 
>> making the Xfconf backend match in capabilities, but having only one 
>> custom channel like the clipman plugin is not a bad idea.
>>
> This would have to be tested but, as far as I know, there is nothing 
> preventing you from ignoring all the xfce4-panel's xfconf convenience 
> functions and use xfconf directly. These APIs are provided to make 
> managing multiple plugins with different configuration easier (think 
> launchers). Whisker menu plugin doesn't fall into this category - even 
> if multiple instances are present it is probably better if they share 
> the same setup.

True. Multiple instances would automatically stay in sync because when 
any one of them modifies a setting, there is a "property-changed" signal 
from the Xfconf channel that is sent and they would all respond to it 
and update accordingly.

In this case it would be easy for distributions to configure every new 
instance. They would just need to set the system values for the 
"/plugins/whiskermenu/*" properties.

> On the other hand, letting the panel manage each Whisker Menu instance 
> separately should be fine as well - they would have to be reconfigured 
> every time a new plugin is added but that could be considered an added 
> flexibility. Distributions should be OK with this solution as well, as 
> the plugin IDs are known ahead of time (panel and plugins configs are 
> created together).

So with this method, when a user adds a new Whisker Menu plugin it would 
not have the distribution defaults? Only when they add a panel with it?

Cheers,
Graeme