Creating an action in CDE

[ogis]

Most new CDE users struggle with running their own programs in a CDE environment. Of course, programs can also be run using the terminal (leaving them running in the background), but why not try running them from Personal Applications sub panel?

Lets get starting!

Yes, it is possible to add applications to the front panel. This can be done with the Create Action tool. The Create Action tool can be found in the Application Manager - Desktop Apps.

Double click Creation Action to begin. You can also type dtcreate in a terminal.

There are numerous options in Create Action. For this tutorial we'll keep it simple. We'll just create a icon we can add to the front panel that will launch Thunar. You can substitute "Thunar" for whatever application you want to create.

The first field is "Action Name (Icon Label)". This where you put the text you want to appear under the icon. It doesn't have to be "Thunar", it can be "File Manager" or "The Thing I Use To Surf The Files".

The second field is "Action Icons". These are just the icons for your icons, in various sizes that CDE needs to create a proper icon file for.

Icons can be found in one of three places:

Code Select Expand

$HOME/.dt/icons
/etc/dt/appconfig/icons/C
/usr/dt/appconfig/icons/C
I found a decent one here cde-icons.tar.xz

Just download it, extract it and put in $HOME/.dt/icons folder.

In the next field type the name of the executable. In my case I type "thunar". The help text is option is optional. Do not worry about any other fields. The action is complete. Next save your action, click ok and close "Create Action". Your action will appear in your home directory. Open your home folder and you'll see your action.

You can test to see if your created action works by double clicking on the icon. Your appliction should start up. You can keep this action where ever you want, including on the desktop. Here is how you add it to the front panel.

Keep dtfile open and drag and drop the application from dtfile to the Personal Applications sub panel, in the spot that says "Install Icon". Your icon will appear at the bottom of the panel.

Here my panel



More info here.