• Caja-Actions Configuration Tool User's Manual

Caja-Actions Configuration Tool User's Manual

1. Introduction

Caja-Actions™ is a Caja™ extension whose principal function is to allow the user to add arbitrary actions to the file manager context menus. These actions may be organized in menus and submenus, exported and shared with other desktop environments.

The Caja-Actions Configuration Tool application is the user interface which lets you precisely configure how, where and when your actions should appear in Caja™ context menus, and how they will be executed.

Caja-Actions Configuration Tool provides the following features:

  • Define and configure actions from scratch.
  • Organize actions into menus, submenus and so on.
  • Import and export actions and menus from and to outside world.

Caja-Actions™ also comes with additional features such as:

  • A Caja™ plugin which exports in real time to D-Bus the currently selected files.

  • A command-line program which is able to run any action.

    Associated with the D-Bus interface, this program lets the user run any action from a keyboard shortcut, applying this action to the item(s) currently selected in the file manager.

  • A command-line program which is able to create a new action.

All these features are more thoroughly described in the global Caja-Actions™ documentation.

2. Getting Started

2.1. Starting Caja-Actions Configuration Tool

You can start Caja-Actions Configuration Tool in the following ways:

System menu

Choose Preferences ▸ Look and Feel ▸ Caja-Actions Configuration Tool.

Command line

To start Caja-Actions Configuration Tool from a command line, type the following command:

caja-actions-config-tool

then press Return.

To view available command line options, type:

caja-actions-config-tool --help-all

then press Return.

2.2. The first run

When you start Caja-Actions Configuration Tool, the following window is displayed.

Figure 1 Caja-Actions Configuration Tool Start Up Window

The empty Caja-Actions Configuration Tool main window

The Caja-Actions Configuration Tool main window contains the following elements:

Menubar.

The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands you need to use in Caja-Actions Configuration Tool.

Shortcuts are available for some commands:

Ctrl+N

Create a new action.

Ctrl+S

Save modified actions and menus.

Ctrl+Q

Quit the application.

Ctrl+X

Cut the current selection, keeping it in the clipboard.

Ctrl+C

Copy the current selection to the clipboard.

Ctrl+V

Insert the content of the clipboard before the current item.

Shift+Ctrl+V

Insert the content of the clipboard as subitem(s) of the current item.

Delete

Delete the current selection.

F5

Reload the actions and menus.

F1

Display the help.

Toolbar.

Several toolbars may be displayed below the menubar, depending of your choices in the View ▸ Toolbars submenu.

Items list.

The list on the left of the main window contains all items, whether they are actions or menus, currently available for edition in Caja-Actions Configuration Tool.

Items may be sorted in ascending or descending alphabetical order, or not sorted at all, being directly organized and managed by the user.

Invalid items are displayed in red color.

Modified items are displayed in italic characters.

Sort buttons

Three buttons allow you to toggle between sort modes.

Properties tabs.

The right part of the main window displays all is needed to define how, when and where actions and menus should be displayed.

Action/Menu

Define in which Caja™ menus the item should appear, and how it will be displayed.

Command

Specify which command to execute, and which parameters pass to it.

Execution

Specify how the command should be executed.

Basenames

Define the basename filters the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Mimetypes

Define the mimetype filters the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Folders

Define the folder filters the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Schemes

Define the scheme filters the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Capabilities

Define the capability filters the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Environment

Define some environment conditions the Caja™ selection must satisfy in order the action or menu be candidate for display.

Properties

Display item properties.

Statusbar.

The statusbar displays some status informations about the currently selected row in the items list.

When no relevant information is to be displayed, the statusbar displays the count of loaded menus, actions and profiles.

The « read-only » icon is displayed in the right of the statusbar when appropriate.

2.3. Creating your first action

In this example, we are going to create an action which displays some pretty informations about the current selection.

Checking for prerequisites

This action will require MateDialog™.

MateDialog™ is a program which will allow you to create a graphical user interface from a command-line.

You should check that this program is installed on your system, by example by typing the following command in a terminal:

matedialog

then press Return.

Creating the action

To create a new action, choose File ▸ New action ( Ctrl+N ).

A new action is inserted in the items list, and its properties are displayed in the tabs on the right pane.

The label of the currently edited action (this one) is added to the application name in the title bar.

Figure 2 Default properties of a new action

Default properties of a new action

In the Items list, the new action is displayed in italic characters.

Italics are used as a reminder that the item has not yet been saved.

As another reminder that there is some pending modifications, an asterisk (« * ») comes to prefix the application name in the title bar.

Qualifying your new action

It merely consists of choosing how your action will be displayed in the file manager context menu.

  • Enter My first action in the Context label entry box.

    The Context label entry box contains the label of the action as you want it to be displayed in the file manager context menu.

    The label is a mandatory property of your action. If it happens to be empty, then your action will be considered as invalid by Caja-Actions™: it will be displayed in red in Items list and will never be candidate to be displayed in the file manager context menus.

  • Enter This will execute an action with some parameters in the Tooltip entry box.

    The Tooltip entry box contains the text you want to be displayed as a short help to your action.

  • Select in the Icon drop-down list.

    The Icon selection defines the icon which will be associated with your action in file manager context menus and in the toolbar.

    You have two ways of choosing the icon associated to your action:

    • Click on the Icon drop-down list to select an icon.
    • Click on Browse to search for an image in the filesystem.
Specifying the command to be executed

When you will select your action in the file manager context menu, this command will be executed, with arguments of your choice.

Click on the Command tab to show the page which will permit you to enter the command.

Figure 3 Command page

Command page

  • Enter matedialog in the Path entry box.

    The Path entry box defines the command which will be executed when you will select your action in the file manager context menu.

    You have two ways of defining the command to be executed:

    • Enter it in the Path entry box.
    • Click on Browse to select the executable file on the filesystem.

    If the command you enter does not have an absolute path, then it will be searched for in the PATH variable at execution time.

  • Enter --info --text='%c selected item(s): %U' in the Parameters entry box.

    The Parameters contains the arguments which will be passed to your command when it will be executed. These arguments may embed parame