[sugar] Activities can't be "hidden" any more

[Bert Freudenberg]

Am 09.10.2008 um 11:20 schrieb Tomeu Vizoso:

> On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Morgan Collett
> <morgan.collett at gmail.com> wrote:
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#.info_File_Format still  
>> says:
>>
>> ----- quote -----
>> show_launcher = yes
>>
>> This key is optional. If not present, or if present with a value of
>> "yes", the activity is shown with its icon in the Sugar panel  
>> launcher
>> and a valid 'icon' key/value pair is required. If specified with a
>> value of "no", the activity is not shown in the Sugar panel launcher,
>> and the 'icon' key is not required.
>> ----- end quote -----
>>
>> However, as seen with Read, since the Home View redesign this no
>> longer has affect. If Read is starred, it is displayed on the
>> favourites view, not respecting the show_launcher field.
>>
>> Mikus and I have been discussing the implications of this for
>> activities which don't generate content and are only useful if
>> launched from the Journal with content (or joined in a collaborative
>> session which provides content).
>>
>> Can somebody confirm that this field is no longer of effect, so we  
>> can
>> update the wiki page and expectations, or if this was an oversight,
>> can we discuss what we really want?
>
> I don't really know what's the expected behavior after the home view  
> redesign.
>
> Taking it out from the favorites view is pretty easy, but the activity
> can still be launched form the activity list view and the journal
> which has the same problems. I guess the activity needs to be visible
> in those places because are the way of managing the bundle.


I have an idea :)

When you click the icon of an activity marked as no-launch, the shell/ 
journal could bring up the object chooser pre-filtered by the  
activity's supported mime-types. Then the user could choose which  
object to read or view, and the activity would be started with that  
object.

This could actually be an entry in the palette for all activities that  
have a non-empty list of mime-types (labeled "Start with ...",  
inserted just below the current "Start"). If that was the case, then  
the only difference between a regular and a "no-launch" activity would  
be the default action invoked when clicking the icon, regular  
activities would invoke "Start", the others "Start with ...".

Of course, we might deprecate the "show_launcher" option and rename it  
to something else to better convey its intention ("requires-document"?).

The shell (and bundle builder) should generate a warning when  
installing an activity that is marked as no-launch but has an empty  
mime-type list.

- Bert -