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authorlanius <lanius>2003-07-09 14:21:53 +0000
committerlanius <lanius>2003-07-09 14:21:53 +0000
commitc8475bef1d1f84afcc89c710b6b5b214f11a670f (patch)
tree36b2646795ef447b7c507150eae8e172fe0ed295 /menu
parent4f78e6cdc2263594b6c185b7d86e95c7d518ca70 (diff)
downloadxdg-specs-c8475bef1d1f84afcc89c710b6b5b214f11a670f.tar.xz
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+<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
+ "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
+ ]>
+<article id="index">
+ <artheader>
+ <title>Desktop Menu Specification</title>
+ <releaseinfo>Version 0.4</releaseinfo>
+ <date>31 May 2003</date>
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Waldo</firstname>
+ <surname>Bastian</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>waldo@kde.org</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Francois</firstname>
+ <surname>Gouget</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>fgouget@codeweavers.com</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Alex</firstname>
+ <surname>Graveley</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>alex@ximian.com</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>George</firstname>
+ <surname>Lebl</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>jirka@5z.com</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Havoc</firstname>
+ <surname>Pennington</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>hp@pobox.com</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+ </artheader>
+
+ <sect1 id="introduction">
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+ <para>
+ This DRAFT document defines how to construct a user-visible hierarchy of
+ applications, typically displayed as a menu. It allows third-party
+ software to add menu items that work for all desktops, and allows system
+ administrators to edit menus in a way that affects all desktops.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The basic scheme is very simple. Information about each application (menu
+ item) is stored in a desktop entry (see <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec.html">Desktop
+ Entry Standard</ulink>). Then an XML configuration file defines the
+ hierarchical arrangement (layout) of menu items, and which menu items are
+ actually displayed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Things are complicated somewhat by the need to support legacy desktop
+ entry hierarchies, and the need to allow third parties to extend the menu
+ layout. Both of these issues are addressed by the idea of
+ <firstterm>merging</firstterm> two menu layouts.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="paths">
+ <title>File locations</title>
+ <para>
+ Files involved in this specification are located according to the "desktop
+ base directory specification" which can be found on <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/">www.freedesktop.org</ulink>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Here are the files defined by this specification:
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname>/menus/applications.menu</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This file contains the XML definition of the main application menu
+ layout. The first file found in the search path should be used;
+ other files are ignored. This implies that if the user has
+ their own applications.menu, it replaces the systemwide one.
+ (Though the user's menu may explicitly merge the systemwide one.)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Other menu files may exist, but are not specified in this
+ document.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname>/menus/<replaceable>menu-file-basename</replaceable>-merged/</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ One of the default merge directories included in the
+ &lt;DefaultMergeDirs&gt; element. By convention, third parties
+ may add new &lt;Menu&gt; files in this
+ location. <replaceable>menu-file-basename</replaceable> means the
+ "applications" from "applications.menu" for example. So the merge
+ directory would be "applications-merged".
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname>/applications/</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This directory contains a .desktop file for each possible menu
+ item. Each directory in the <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname>
+ search path should be used (i.e. desktop entries are collected
+ from all of them, not just the first one that exists). When two
+ desktop entries have the same name, the one appearing earlier in
+ the path is used.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;DefaultAppDirs&gt; element in a menu file indicates that
+ this default list of desktop entry locations should be scanned at
+ that point. If a menu file does not contain
+ &lt;DefaultAppDirs&gt;, then these locations are not scanned.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname>/desktop-directories/</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This directory contains directory entries which may be associated
+ with folders in the menu layout. Each directory
+ in the search path should be used. Only files ending in
+ .directory are used; other files are ignored.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;DefaultDirectoryDirs&gt; element in a menu file indicates that
+ this default list of directory entry locations should be scanned at
+ that point. If a menu file does not contain
+ &lt;DefaultDirectoryDirs&gt;, then these locations are not scanned.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="desktop-entry-extensions">
+ <title>Extensions to the desktop entry format</title>
+ <para>
+ This specification adds two new fields to <ulink
+url="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec.html">desktop
+entries</ulink>: <varname>Categories</varname> and
+ <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The <varname>Categories</varname> field is a list of strings used to
+ classify menu items. For example, applications in the
+ <literal>AudioVideo</literal> category might end up in the "Sound &amp;
+ Video" submenu. <xref linkend="category-registry"/> enumerates the
+ standard categories. Categories not in this document must be prefixed
+ by the string "X-" indicating that they are extensions. Categories
+ are case-sensitive.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Desktop entries should list all categories that clearly apply. They should
+ not list categories that only vaguely or possibly apply, because the user
+ will end up seeing the same desktop entry in a half-dozen places. But
+ it's typical that several categories will apply to a given desktop entry.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname> field is a list of strings identifying
+ the environments that should display a given menu item. If an
+ <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname> field is present, a given environment should
+ only display the menu item if the string identifying that environment is
+ present. The strings are case-sensitive. <xref
+ linkend="onlyshowin-registry"/> enumerates the strings to use for
+ some common environments.
+ </para>
+ <sect2 id="desktop-entry-extensions-examples">
+ <title>Examples of using <varname>Categories</varname> and <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname></title>
+ <para>
+ A desktop entry for a Qt-based image viewer might contain
+ this <varname>Categories</varname> line:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ Categories=Qt;Graphics;RasterGraphics;Viewer;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ A desktop entry for Octave, a command-line mathematics program (which
+ would also have the field <literal>Terminal=true</literal>), might have:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ Categories=ConsoleOnly;Math;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ A desktop entry for a GNOME-specific calculator program
+ that should only appear in GNOME might have:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ Categories=GNOME;Utility;
+ OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ Note that the <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname> field is a
+ <emphasis>list</emphasis> and thus ends in a semicolon.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="menu-file-format">
+ <title>Format of menu files</title>
+ <para>
+ Menu files must be well-formed XML files, conform to the menu file DTD,
+ and end in the extension ".menu". DTD conformance implies that
+ implementation-specific extensions to the file format are not allowed;
+ implementations are expected to stop processing if they encounter XML
+ elements or attributes that are not specified in this document.
+ </para>
+ <sect2 id="menu-file-doctype">
+ <title>Doctype Declaration</title>
+ <para>
+ Menu files for this version of the specification must use the following
+ namespace, public and system identifiers:
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Namespace</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu</literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Public Identifier for 1.0</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"</literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>System Identifier for 1.0</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal>http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd</literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ Here is a sample doctype declaration:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ &lt;!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"
+ "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd"&gt;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+
+ All menu files MUST include the doctype declaration, so that
+ implementations can adapt to different versions of this specification
+ (and so implementations can validate the menu file against
+ the DTD).
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="menu-file-elements">
+ <title>Elements</title>
+ <para>
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Menu&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The root element is &lt;Menu&gt;. Each &lt;Menu&gt; element may
+ contain any number of nested &lt;Menu&gt; elements, indicating submenus.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;AppDir&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The
+ content of this element is a directory name. Desktop entries
+ in this directory are scanned and added to the pool of entries
+ which can be included in this &lt;Menu&gt; and its submenus.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Desktop entries in the pool of available entries are identified
+ by their <firstterm>relative path</firstterm> (see <xref
+ linkend="term-relative-path"/>).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ &lt;AppDir&gt; elements appearing later in the menu file have
+ priority in case of collisions between relative paths.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the filename given as an &lt;AppDir&gt; is not an absolute
+ path, it should be located relative to the location of the menu
+ file being parsed. An &lt;AppDir&gt; should be recursively
+ scanned, finding all desktop entries below the given directory.
+ Only files ending in ".desktop" should be used, other files are
+ ignored.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt; elements (that specify the same
+ directory) should be ignored, but the <emphasis>last</emphasis>
+ duplicate in the file should be used when establishing the order
+ in which to scan the directories. This is important when merging
+ (see <xref linkend="merge-algorithm"/>). The order of
+ &lt;AppDir&gt; elements with respect to &lt;Include&gt; and
+ &lt;Exclude&gt; elements is not relevant, also to facilitate
+ merging.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;DefaultAppDirs&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The element has
+ no content. The element should be treated as if it were a list
+ of &lt;AppDir&gt; elements containing the default app dir
+ locations
+ (<replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/applications/ etc.). When expanding
+ &lt;DefaultAppDirs&gt; to a list of &lt;AppDir&gt;, the default
+ locations that are earlier in the search path go later in the
+ &lt;Menu&gt; so that they have priority.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;DirectoryDir&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The content of
+ this element is a directory name. Each directory listed in a
+ &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; element will be searched for directory
+ entries to be used when resolving the &lt;Directory&gt; element
+ for this menu and its submenus.
+ If the filename given as a &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; is not an absolute path,
+ it should be located relative to the location
+ of the menu file being parsed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Directory entries in the pool of available entries are identified
+ by their <firstterm>relative path</firstterm> (see <xref
+ linkend="term-relative-path"/>).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If two directory entries have duplicate relative paths, the one from
+ the last (furthest down) element in the menu file must be used.
+ Only files ending in the extension ".directory" should be
+ loaded, other files should be ignored.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; elements (that specify the same
+ directory) are handled as with duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt;
+ elements (the last duplicate is used).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;DefaultDirectoryDirs&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The element has
+ no content. The element should be treated as if it were a list
+ of &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; elements containing the default desktop dir
+ locations
+ (<replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/desktop-directories/ etc.). The default
+ locations that are earlier in the search path go later in the
+ &lt;Menu&gt; so that they have priority.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Name&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Each &lt;Menu&gt; element must have a single &lt;Name&gt;
+ element. The content of the &lt;Name&gt; element is a name to
+ be used when referring to the given menu. Each submenu of a
+ given &lt;Menu&gt; must have a unique name. &lt;Menu&gt;
+ elements can thus be referenced by a menu path, for example
+ "Applications/Graphics." The &lt;Name&gt; field must not contain
+ the slash character ("/"); implementations should discard
+ any name containing a slash. See also <xref linkend="term-menu-path"/>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Directory&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Each &lt;Menu&gt; element has any number of &lt;Directory&gt;
+ elements. The content of the &lt;Directory&gt; element
+ is the relative path of a directory entry containing metainformation
+ about the &lt;Menu&gt;, such as its icon and localized name.
+ If no &lt;Directory&gt; is specified for a &lt;Menu&gt;,
+ its &lt;Name&gt; field should be used as the user-visible
+ name of the menu.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;Directory&gt; elements are allowed in order
+ to simplify menu merging, and allow user menus to override
+ system menus. The last &lt;Directory&gt; element to appear
+ in the menu file "wins" and other elements are ignored,
+ unless the last element points to a nonexistent directory
+ entry, in which case the previous element should be tried instead,
+ and so on.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;OnlyUnallocated&gt; and &lt;NotOnlyUnallocated&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Each &lt;Menu&gt; may contain any number of
+ &lt;OnlyUnallocated&gt; and &lt;NotOnlyUnallocated&gt;
+ elements. Only the last such element to appear is relevant, as
+ it determines whether the &lt;Menu&gt; can contain any desktop
+ entries, or only those desktop entries that do not match other
+ menus. If neither &lt;OnlyUnallocated&gt; nor
+ &lt;NotOnlyUnallocated&gt; elements are present, the default
+ is &lt;NotOnlyUnallocated&gt;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To handle &lt;OnlyUnallocated&gt;, the menu file must be
+ analyzed in two conceptual passes. The first pass processes
+ &lt;Menu&gt; elements that can match any desktop entry. During
+ this pass, each desktop entry is marked according to whether it
+ was included in some &lt;Menu&gt;. The second pass processes
+ only &lt;Menu&gt; elements that are restricted to unallocated
+ desktop entries. During the second pass, queries may only match
+ desktop entries that were not allocated to some menu during the
+ first pass. See <xref linkend="query-algorithm"/>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Deleted&gt; and &lt;NotDeleted&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Each &lt;Menu&gt; may contain any number of &lt;Deleted&gt; and
+ &lt;NotDeleted&gt; elements. Only the last such element to
+ appear is relevant, as it determines whether the &lt;Menu&gt;
+ has been deleted. If neither &lt;Deleted&gt; nor
+ &lt;NotDeleted&gt; elements are present, the default is
+ &lt;NotDeleted&gt;. The purpose of this element is to support
+ menu editing. If a menu contains a &lt;Deleted&gt; element
+ not followed by a &lt;NotDeleted&gt; element, that menu
+ should be ignored.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Include&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ An &lt;Include&gt; element is a set of rules attempting to match
+ some of the known desktop entries. The &lt;Include&gt; element
+ contains a list of any number of matching rules. Matching rules
+ are specified using the elements &lt;And&gt;, &lt;Or&gt;,
+ &lt;Not&gt;, &lt;All&gt;, &lt;Filename&gt;, and
+ &lt;Category&gt;. Each rule in a list of rules has a logical OR
+ relationship, that is, desktop entries which match any rule
+ are included in the menu.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ &lt;Include&gt; elements must appear immediately under
+ &lt;Menu&gt; elements. The desktop entries they match are
+ included in the menu. &lt;Include&gt; and &lt;Exclude&gt;
+ elements for a given &lt;Menu&gt; are processed in order,
+ with queries earlier in the file handled first. This has
+ implications for merging, see <xref linkend="merge-algorithm"/>.
+ See <xref linkend="query-algorithm"/> for full details on
+ how to process &lt;Include&gt; and &lt;Exclude&gt; elements.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Exclude&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Any number of &lt;Exclude&gt; elements may appear below a
+ &lt;Menu&gt; element. The content of an &lt;Exclude&gt; element
+ is a list of matching rules, just as with an
+ &lt;Include&gt;. However, the desktop entries matched are
+ removed from the list of desktop entries included so far. (Thus
+ an &lt;Exclude&gt; element that appears before any
+ &lt;Include&gt; elements will have no effect, for example, as no
+ desktop entries have been included yet.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Filename&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;Filename&gt; element is the most basic matching rule.
+ It matches a desktop entry if the desktop entry has the given
+ relative path. Absolute paths <emphasis>must not be used</emphasis>,
+ and relative paths must be the canonical form used to reference
+ a desktop entry in the pool of desktop entries (they can't
+ contain ".." or anything of that nature, and can't contain
+ extra "/" characters). See <xref linkend="term-relative-path"/>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Category&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;Category&gt; element is another basic matching
+ predicate. It matches a desktop entry if the desktop entry has
+ the given category in its <varname>Categories</varname> field.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;All&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;All&gt; element is a matching rule that matches
+ all desktop entries.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;And&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;And&gt; element contains a list of matching rules.
+ If each of the matching rules inside the &lt;And&gt;
+ element match a desktop entry, then the entire
+ &lt;And&gt; rule matches the desktop entry.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Or&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;Or&gt; element contains a list of matching rules.
+ If any of the matching rules inside the &lt;Or&gt;
+ element match a desktop entry, then the entire
+ &lt;Or&gt; rule matches the desktop entry.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Not&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;Not&gt; element contains a list of matching rules. If
+ any of the matching rules inside the &lt;Not&gt; element matches
+ a desktop entry, then the entire &lt;Not&gt; rule does
+ <emphasis>not</emphasis> match the desktop entry. That is,
+ matching rules below &lt;Not&gt; have a logical OR relationship.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;MergeFile&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Any number of &lt;MergeFile&gt; elements may be listed below a
+ &lt;Menu&gt; element, giving the name of another menu file to
+ be merged into this one. <xref linkend="merge-algorithm"/>
+ specifies how merging is done. The root &lt;Menu&gt; of the
+ merged file will be merged into the immediate parent of the
+ &lt;MergeFile&gt; element. The &lt;Name&gt; element of the
+ root &lt;Menu&gt; of the merged file are ignored. If the
+ filename given as a &lt;MergeFile&gt; is not an absolute path,
+ it should be located relative to the location of the menu file
+ being parsed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;MergeFile&gt; elements (that specify the same
+ file) are handled as with duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt;
+ elements (the last duplicate is used).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;MergeDir&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Any number of &lt;MergeDir&gt; elements may be listed below a
+ &lt;Menu&gt; element. A &lt;MergeDir&gt; contains the name of a
+ directory. Each file in the given directory which ends in the
+ ".menu" extension should be merged in the same way that a
+ &lt;MergeFile&gt; would be. If the filename given as a
+ &lt;MergeDir&gt; is not an absolute path, it should be located
+ relative to the location of the menu file being parsed.
+ The files inside the merged directory are not merged in any
+ specified order.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;MergeDir&gt; elements (that specify the same
+ directory) are handled as with duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt;
+ elements (the last duplicate is used).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;DefaultMergeDirs&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The element has
+ no content. The element should be treated as if it were a list
+ of &lt;MergeDir&gt; elements containing the default merge
+ directory locations. When expanding &lt;DefaultMergeDirs&gt; to a
+ list of &lt;MergeDir&gt;, the default locations that are earlier
+ in the search path go later in the &lt;Menu&gt; so that they
+ have priority.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;LegacyDir&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The text
+ content of this element is a directory name. Each directory
+ listed in a &lt;LegacyDir&gt; element will be an old-style
+ legacy hierarchy of desktop entries, see <xref
+ linkend="legacy-hierarchies"/> for how to load such a
+ hierarchy. Implementations must not load legacy hierarchies that
+ are not explicitly specified in the menu file (because for
+ example the menu file may not be the main menu). If the
+ filename given as a &lt;LegacyDir&gt; is not an absolute path,
+ it should be located relative to the location of the menu file
+ being parsed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;LegacyDir&gt; elements (that specify the same
+ directory) are handled as with duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt;
+ elements (the last duplicate is used).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The &lt;LegacyDir&gt; element may have one attribute,
+ <literal>prefix</literal>. Normally, given a &lt;LegacyDir&gt;
+ <filename>/foo/bar</filename> and desktop entry
+ <filename>/foo/bar/baz/Hello.desktop</filename> the desktop
+ entry would be included as
+ <filename>baz/Hello.desktop</filename>. Given a prefix of
+ <literal>boo-</literal>, it would instead be loaded as
+ <filename>boo-Hello.desktop</filename>. In other words, if a
+ prefix is present it replaces the relative path to the desktop
+ or directory entry. The prefix may contain path separator ('/')
+ characters.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;KDELegacyDirs&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The element has
+ no content. The element should be treated as if it were a list
+ of &lt;LegacyDir&gt; elements containing the traditional desktop
+ file locations supported by KDE. When expanding
+ &lt;KDELegacyDirs&gt; to a list of &lt;LegacyDir&gt;, the
+ locations that are earlier in the search path go later in the
+ &lt;Menu&gt; so that they have priority.
+ [FIXME what are the exact &lt;LegacyDir prefix="???"&gt; that
+ this expands to?]
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Move&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Menu&gt;. The
+ &lt;Move&gt; element contains pairs of &lt;Old&gt;/&lt;New&gt;
+ elements indicating how to rename a descendant of the current
+ &lt;Menu&gt;. If the destination path already exists, the moved
+ menu is merged with the destination menu (see <xref
+ linkend="merge-algorithm"/> for details).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ &lt;Move&gt; is used primarily to fix up legacy directories.
+ For example, say you are merging a &lt;LegacyDir&gt; with folder
+ names that don't match the current hierarchy; the legacy folder
+ names can be moved to the new names, where they will be merged
+ with the new folders.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ &lt;Move&gt; may or may not be useful for implementing menu
+ editing, see <xref linkend="menu-editing"/>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Duplicate &lt;Move&gt; elements are merged as specified in <xref
+ linkend="merge-algorithm"/>. Note that duplicates (two moves of
+ the same path) can be detected easily because of the following
+ rule: a move must reside at the lowest possible point.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In other words, all moves have exactly one permissible location
+ in the &lt;Menu&gt; hierarchy. Implementations can trivially
+ detect violations of this rule: the &lt;Old&gt; and &lt;New&gt;
+ paths may never share a common prefix. Moving "Foo/Bar" to
+ "Foo/Baz" must be done with a &lt;Move&gt; element that's a
+ child of the "Foo" &lt;Menu&gt;, i.e. by moving "Bar" to "Baz", not
+ by moving "Foo/Bar" to "Foo/Baz".
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;Old&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Move&gt;, and
+ must be followed by a &lt;New&gt; element. The content of both
+ &lt;Old&gt; and &lt;New&gt; should be a menu path
+ (slash-separated concatenation of &lt;Name&gt; fields, see
+ <xref linkend="term-menu-path"/>).
+ Paths are interpreted relative to the menu containing
+ the &lt;Move&gt; element.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&lt;New&gt;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This element may only appear below &lt;Move&gt;, and must
+ be preceded by an &lt;Old&gt; element. The &lt;New&gt; element
+ specifies the new path for the preceding &lt;Old&gt; element.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="merge-algorithm">
+ <title>Merging</title>
+ <para>
+ Sometimes two menu layouts need to be merged. This is done when folding in
+ legacy menu hierarchies (see <xref linkend="legacy-hierarchies"/>) and also
+ for files specified in &lt;MergeFile&gt; elements. A common case is that
+ per-user menu files might merge the system menu file. Merging is also used
+ to avoid cut-and-paste, for example to include a common submenu in
+ multiple menu files.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Merging involves a base &lt;Menu&gt; and a merged &lt;Menu&gt;. The base
+ is the "target" menu and the merged &lt;Menu&gt; is being added to it. The
+ result of the merge is termed the "combined menu."
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ As a preparatory step, the goal is to resolve all files into
+ XML elements. To do so, traverse the entire menu tree. For each
+ &lt;MergeFile&gt;, &lt;MergeDir&gt;, or &lt;LegacyDir&gt; element, replace
+ the &lt;MergeFile&gt;, &lt;MergeDir&gt;, or &lt;LegacyDir&gt; element with
+ the child elements of the root &lt;Menu&gt; of the file(s) being
+ merged. As a special exception, remove the &lt;Name&gt; element from the
+ root element of each file being merged. To generate a
+ &lt;Menu&gt; based on a &lt;LegacyDir&gt;, see
+ <xref linkend="legacy-hierarchies"/>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Continue processing until no &lt;MergeFile&gt;, &lt;MergeDir&gt;, or
+ &lt;LegacyDir&gt; elements remain, taking care to avoid infinite loops
+ caused by files that reference one another.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Once all files have been loaded into a single tree, scan the tree
+ recursively performing these steps:
+ <orderedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Consolidate child menus. Each group of child &lt;Menu&gt;s with the same
+ name must be consolidated into a single child menu with that name.
+ Concatenate the child elements of all menus with the same name, in
+ the order that they appear, and insert those elements as the
+ children of the <emphasis>last</emphasis> menu with that name.
+ Delete all the newly empty &lt;Menu&gt; elements, keeping the
+ last one.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Expand &lt;DefaultAppDirs&gt; and &lt;DefaultDirectoryDirs&gt;
+ elements to &lt;AppDir&gt; and &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; elements.
+ Consolidate duplicate &lt;AppDir&gt;, &lt;DirectoryDir&gt;,
+ and &lt;Directory&gt; elements by keeping the last one.
+ For &lt;Directory&gt; elements that refer to distinct directory
+ entries, all of them should be kept - if the last one points
+ to a nonexistent file, the one before that can be used instead,
+ and so forth.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Recurse into each child &lt;Menu&gt;, performing this list of
+ steps for each child in order.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Resolve duplicate &lt;Move&gt; operations (with the same
+ origin path) by keeping the last one.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Execute &lt;Move&gt; operations in the order that they appear. If
+ the destination path does not exist, simply relocate the origin
+ &lt;Menu&gt; element, and change its &lt;Name&gt; field to match the
+ destination path. If the origin path does not exist, do nothing.
+ If both paths exist, take the origin &lt;Menu&gt; element, delete
+ its &lt;Name&gt; element, and prepend its remaining child elements
+ to the destination &lt;Menu&gt; element. Then, recursively re-run
+ the previous merge steps on the resulting combined &lt;Menu&gt; in order to
+ consolidate duplicates.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ For each &lt;Menu&gt; containing a &lt;Deleted&gt; element which is
+ not followed by a &lt;NotDeleted&gt; element, remove that menu.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Merged menu elements are kept in order because &lt;Include&gt; and
+ &lt;Exclude&gt; elements later in the file override &lt;Include&gt; and
+ &lt;Exclude&gt; elements earlier in the file. This means that if the user's
+ menu file merges the system menu file, the user can always override what
+ the system menu specifies by placing elements after the &lt;MergeFile&gt;
+ that incorporates the system file.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="query-algorithm">
+ <title>Generating the menus</title>
+ <para>
+ After merging the menus, the result should be a single menu layout
+ description. For each &lt;Menu&gt;, we have a list of directories where
+ desktop entries can be found, a list of directories where directory
+ entries can be found, and a series of &lt;Include&gt; and &lt;Exclude&gt;
+ directives.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For each &lt;Menu&gt; element, build a pool of desktop entries by
+ collecting entries found in each &lt;AppDir&gt; for the menu element. If
+ two entries have the same relative path, the entry for the earlier (closer
+ to the top of the file) &lt;AppDir&gt; must be discarded. Next, add to the
+ pool the entries for any &lt;AppDir&gt;s specified by ancestor
+ &lt;Menu&gt; elements. If a parent menu has a duplicate entry (same
+ relative path), the entry for the child menu has priority.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Next, walk through all &lt;Include&gt; and &lt;Exclude&gt; statements.
+ For each &lt;Include&gt;, match the rules against the pool of all desktop
+ entries. For each desktop entry that matches one of the rules,
+ add it to the menu to be displayed. For each &lt;Exclude&gt;, match
+ the rules against the currently-included desktop entries. For each
+ desktop entry that matches, remove it again from the menu.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Two passes are necessary, once for regular menus, and
+ once for &lt;OnlyUnallocated&gt; menus.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The result is a tree of desktop entries, of course.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="legacy-hierarchies">
+ <title>Legacy Menu Hierarchies</title>
+ <para>
+ Traditionally, menus were defined as a filesystem hierarchy, with each
+ filesystem directory corresponding to a submenu. Implementations of this
+ specification must be able to load these old-style hierarchies
+ as specified in this section.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The general approach is: the legacy hierarchy is converted into a
+ &lt;Menu&gt;, and then this menu layout is merged with the menu that
+ specified &lt;LegacyDir&gt;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Desktop entries in the legacy hierarchy should be added to the pool of
+ desktop entries as if the &lt;LegacyDir&gt; were an
+ &lt;AppDir&gt;. Directory entries in the legacy hierarchy should be added
+ to the pool of directory entries as if the &lt;LegacyDir&gt; were a
+ &lt;DirectoryDir&gt;. This can be trivially implemented by adding
+ appropriate &lt;AppDir&gt; and &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; statements to the root
+ legacy &lt;Menu&gt;. There is one slight complexity, namely the
+ "prefix" attribute of &lt;LegacyDir&gt;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The menu layout corresponds conceptually to the following, though actually
+ generating the XML is not necessary:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ For each directory in the legacy hierarchy, a
+ &lt;Menu&gt; is created with the same &lt;Name&gt;
+ as the directory on disk.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This menu then contains an &lt;Include&gt; element that includes
+ each desktop entry in the directory. That is, it should have a
+
+ &lt;Filename&gt;<replaceable>Foo/Bar/foo.desktop</replaceable>&lt;/Filename&gt;
+ for each desktop entry in the directory.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ As a special exception, if a desktop entry in a directory contains
+ a <varname>Categories</varname> field, that desktop entry should
+ <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the legacy menu.
+ That is, no &lt;Include&gt; element should be generated for
+ the entry. This allows a desktop entry to be installed
+ in a legacy location but still work optimally with the
+ menu system specified in this document.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If the legacy directory contains a ".directory" file, then
+ a &lt;Directory&gt; element should be generated that points to said
+ ".directory" file.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Legacy desktop entries should not be assigned any
+ <varname>Categories</varname> fields if they didn't have them
+ already, except that all legacy entries should have the
+ "Legacy" category added to allow menu files to treat them
+ specially. (If the same directory is given as both
+ a &lt;LegacyDir&gt; and an &lt;AppDir&gt;, its desktop
+ entries should be labeled "Legacy" only if the &lt;LegacyDir&gt;
+ appears later in the file than the &lt;AppDir&gt;.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For example, say we have the following legacy directory hierarchy:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ /usr/share/applnk
+ /usr/share/applnk/.directory
+ /usr/share/applnk/bar.desktop
+ /usr/share/applnk/System
+ /usr/share/applnk/System/.directory
+ /usr/share/applnk/System/foo.desktop
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ Conceptually that is converted to the following &lt;Menu&gt;:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ &lt;!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"
+ "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd"&gt;
+
+ &lt;Menu&gt;
+ &lt;AppDir&gt;/usr/share/applnk&lt;/AppDir&gt;
+ &lt;DirectoryDir&gt;/usr/share/applnk&lt;/DirectoryDir&gt;
+ &lt;Directory&gt;.directory&lt;/Directory&gt;
+ &lt;Include&gt;
+ &lt;Filename&gt;bar.desktop&lt;/Filename&gt;
+ &lt;/Include&gt;
+ &lt;Menu&gt;
+ &lt;Name&gt;System&lt;/Name&gt;
+ &lt;Directory&gt;System/.directory&lt;/Directory&gt;
+ &lt;Include&gt;
+ &lt;Filename&gt;System/foo.desktop&lt;/Filename&gt;
+ &lt;/Include&gt;
+ &lt;/Menu&gt;
+ &lt;/Menu&gt;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ This &lt;Menu&gt; is then merged as if it were in a file
+ and loaded with &lt;MergeFile&gt;.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="example">
+ <title>Example Menu File</title>
+ <para>
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting>
+ &lt;!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN"
+ "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd"&gt;
+
+ &lt;Menu&gt;
+ &lt;Name&gt;Applications&lt;/Name&gt;
+ &lt;Directory&gt;Applications.directory&lt;/Directory&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- Search the default locations --&gt;
+ &lt;DefaultAppDirs/&gt;
+ &lt;DefaultDirectoryDirs/&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- Merge third-party submenus --&gt;
+ &lt;MergeDir&gt;applications-merged&lt;/MergeDir&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- Merge legacy hierarchy --&gt;
+ &lt;LegacyDir&gt;/usr/share/applnk&lt;/LegacyDir&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- some random moves, maybe to clean up legacy dirs,
+ maybe from menu editing --&gt;
+ &lt;Move&gt;
+ &lt;Old&gt;Foo&lt;/Old&gt;
+ &lt;New&gt;Bar&lt;/New&gt;
+ &lt;Old&gt;Faz/Abc&lt;/Old&gt;
+ &lt;New&gt;Baz/Xyz&lt;/New&gt;
+ &lt;/Move&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- A preferences submenu, kept in a separate file
+ so it can also be used standalone --&gt;
+ &lt;Menu&gt;
+ &lt;Name&gt;Preferences&lt;/Name&gt;
+ &lt;Directory&gt;Preferences.directory&lt;/Directory&gt;
+ &lt;MergeFile&gt;preferences.menu&lt;/MergeFile&gt;
+ &lt;/Menu&gt;
+
+ &lt;-- An Office submenu, specified inline --&gt;
+ &lt;Menu&gt;
+ &lt;Name&gt;Office&lt;/Name&gt;
+ &lt;Directory&gt;Office.directory&lt;/Directory&gt;
+ &lt;Include&gt;
+ &lt;Category&gt;Office&lt;/Category&gt;
+ &lt;/Include&gt;
+ &lt;Exclude&gt;
+ &lt;Filename&gt;foo.desktop&lt;/Filename&gt;
+ &lt;/Exclude&gt;
+ &lt;/Menu&gt;
+
+ &lt;/Menu&gt;
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <appendix id="category-registry">
+ <title>Registered Categories</title>
+ <para>
+ Remember, these are case-sensitive.
+ <informaltable>
+ <tgroup cols="2">
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Category</entry>
+ <entry>Description</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Legacy</entry>
+ <entry>Keyword that must be added to menu
+ entries merged from legacy locations. May not actually exist in a
+ desktop entry (should be stripped out if found there). If the same
+ directory is given as both a &lt;LegacyDir&gt; and an
+ &lt;AppDir&gt;, its desktop entries should be labeled "Legacy"
+ only if the &lt;LegacyDir&gt; appears later in the file than the
+ &lt;AppDir&gt;.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Core</entry>
+ <entry>Important application, core to the desktop such as a filemanager or a help browser</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Applet</entry>
+ <entry>An applet that will run inside a panel or another such application, likely desktop specific</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>TrayIcon</entry>
+ <entry>An application that is primarily an icon for the "system tray" or "notification area" (apps that open a normal window and just happen to have a tray icon as well should not list this category)</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Screensaver</entry>
+ <entry>A screensaver (launching this desktop entry should activate the screensaver)</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>TerminalEmulator</entry>
+ <entry>A terminal emulator application.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Development</entry>
+ <entry>An application for development</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>GUIDesigner</entry>
+ <entry>A GUI designer application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>IDE</entry>
+ <entry>IDE application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>TextEditor</entry>
+ <entry>A text editor</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Office</entry>
+ <entry>An office type application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Spreadsheet</entry>
+ <entry>A spreadsheet</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>WordProcessor</entry>
+ <entry>A word processor</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Presentation</entry>
+ <entry>Presentation software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Calendar</entry>
+ <entry>Calendar app</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Email</entry>
+ <entry>Email application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>TODO</entry>
+ <entry>TODO list application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>ProjectManagement</entry>
+ <entry>Project management application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Graphics</entry>
+ <entry>Graphical application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>VectorGraphics</entry>
+ <entry>Vector based graphical application (should also include 'Graphics' category)</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>RasterGraphics</entry>
+ <entry>Raster based graphical application (should also include 'Graphics' category)</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>System</entry>
+ <entry>System application, "System Tools" such as say a log viewer or network monitor.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>SystemSetup</entry>
+ <entry>System setup application, hardware installation, hardware clock setup, kernel setup, X server setup, etc.; i.e. system configuration tools.
+ </entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>PackageManager</entry>
+ <entry>A package manager application, should include the System keyword as well</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Utility</entry>
+ <entry>Small utility application, "Accessories"</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Settings</entry>
+ <entry>Desktop settings applications (not system settings application, those should be System;SystemSetup;)</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>AdvancedSettings</entry>
+ <entry>Advanced desktop settings.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Accessibility</entry>
+ <entry>Accessibility settings</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Network</entry>
+ <entry>Network application such as a webbrowser</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Clock</entry>
+ <entry>A clock application/applet</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Monitor</entry>
+ <entry>Monitor application/applet that monitors some resource or activity.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>AudioVideo</entry>
+ <entry>A multimedia (audio/video) application</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Amusement</entry>
+ <entry>A simple amusement</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Emulator</entry>
+ <entry>Emulator of another platform, such as a DOS emulator.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Game</entry>
+ <entry>A game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>3DGame</entry>
+ <entry>A game in 3D</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>ArcadeGame</entry>
+ <entry>Arcade style game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>BoardGame</entry>
+ <entry>A board game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>CardGame</entry>
+ <entry>A card game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>FirstPersonGame</entry>
+ <entry>First person perspective game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>PlatformGame</entry>
+ <entry>Platform style game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>PuzzleGame</entry>
+ <entry>Puzzle game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>SportsGame</entry>
+ <entry>Sports game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>StrategyGame</entry>
+ <entry>Strategy game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>BlocksGame</entry>
+ <entry>Falling blocks game</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Education</entry>
+ <entry>Educational software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Math</entry>
+ <entry>Math software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Astronomy</entry>
+ <entry>Astronomy software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Physics</entry>
+ <entry>Physics software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Chemistry</entry>
+ <entry>Chemistry software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Science</entry>
+ <entry>Scientific software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>HamRadio</entry>
+ <entry>HAM radio software</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>KDE</entry>
+ <entry>Application based on KDE libraries.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>GNOME</entry>
+ <entry>Application based on GNOME libraries.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>GTK</entry>
+ <entry>Application based on GTK+ libraries (may also have GNOME category).</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Qt</entry>
+ <entry>Application based on Qt libraries (may also have KDE category).</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Motif</entry>
+ <entry>Application based on Motif libraries.</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>ConsoleOnly</entry>
+ <entry>Application that only works inside a terminal (text-based or command line application).</entry>
+
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Shell</entry>
+ <entry>A shell (an actual specific shell such as
+ <filename>bash</filename> or <filename>tcsh</filename>, not a
+ TerminalEmulator).</entry>
+
+ </row>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </informaltable>
+
+ </para>
+ </appendix>
+ <appendix id="onlyshowin-registry">
+ <title>Registered OnlyShowIn Environments</title>
+ <para>
+ Remember, these are case-sensitive. "KDE" not "kde" should be
+ used.
+ <informaltable>
+ <tgroup cols="2">
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>OnlyShowIn Value</entry>
+ <entry>Environment</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <entry>GNOME</entry><entry>GNOME Desktop</entry>
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>KDE</entry><entry>KDE Desktop</entry>
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>ROX</entry><entry>ROX Desktop</entry>
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>XFCE</entry><entry>XFCE Desktop</entry>
+ </row><row>
+ <entry>Old</entry><entry>Legacy menu systems</entry>
+ </row>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </informaltable>
+ </para>
+ </appendix>
+ <appendix id="third-party-howto">
+ <title>How to add your application to the menus</title>
+ <para>
+ The short answer for third party applications is:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Install desktop entries to
+ <replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/applications/ for each menu
+ item. Please namespace the filename, as in "vendor-foo.desktop", or
+ use a subdirectory of
+ <replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/applications/ so you have
+ "vendor/foo.desktop." Please be sure all desktop entries are valid
+ (see the <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/desktop-file-utils/">
+ desktop-file-utils</ulink> package for a validation utility).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Install an XML menu file to <replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/desktop/menus/applications-merged/ to add any submenus, if your desktop entries aren't already
+ included in some common categories.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Install any directory entries needed for your submenus to <replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/desktop-directories/, taking care to namespace and validate
+ the directory entries.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Also, at least for a good long while, installing a directory hierarchy to
+ the old GNOME/KDE specific locations such as /usr/share/applnk and
+ /usr/share/gnome/apps should work. There are two ways to support
+ both the old and new menu systems at the same time:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If you add a <varname>Categories</varname> line to the desktop
+ entries in the legacy hierarchy, implementations of this
+ specification will ignore their location in the legacy hierarchy,
+ and arrange them according to <varname>Categories</varname> instead.
+ This allows you to install a single desktop file that works in all
+ cases, though on the down side it's in a legacy location.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If you add the line <literal>OnlyShowIn=Old;</literal> to a desktop
+ entry, then old legacy implementations that ignore
+ <varname>OnlyShowIn</varname> will still show the desktop entry, but
+ implementations of this specification will not. Thus you can
+ add an "<literal>OnlyShowIn=Old;</literal>" entry to the legacy
+ hierarchy, and a new-style desktop entry to
+ <replaceable>datadir</replaceable>/applications/, and still get
+ only one entry in the menus.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+ </appendix>
+ <appendix id="implementation-notes">
+ <title>Implementation notes</title>
+ <sect1 id="menu-editing">
+ <title>Menu editing</title>
+ <para>
+ To implement menu editing, the intent is that a per-user file is
+ created. The per-user file should specify a &lt;MergeFile&gt; with the
+ systemwide file, so that system changes are inherited. When the user
+ deletes a menu item, you add
+ <literal>&lt;Exclude&gt;&lt;Filename&gt;foo.desktop&lt;/Filename&gt;&lt;/Exclude&gt;</literal>. If
+ the user adds a menu item, you use
+ <literal>&lt;Include&gt;&lt;Filename&gt;foo.desktop&lt;/Filename&gt;&lt;/Include&gt;</literal>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the user moves a folder, you might try to use &lt;Move&gt; elements
+ to represent that, but it's tricky. (Move A/B/C to D/E/F, then move D/E
+ to D/G, note that D/E/F still contains A/B/C while only the original D/E
+ was moved to D/G.) In order to move a folder, you have to "fix up"
+ all moves that move things <emphasis>into</emphasis> the folder being
+ moved to instead move things into the folder's new location.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To delete a folder, simply append the &lt;Deleted&gt; element.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Menu editors probably need to do some kind of consolidation/compression
+ to avoid an XML tree that grows infinitely over time.
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+ </appendix>
+ <glossary><title>Glossary</title>
+ <para>
+ This glossary defines some of the terms used in this specification.
+ </para>
+
+ <glossentry id="term-desktop-entry"><glossterm>Desktop entry</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+ A desktop entry is a file with a name ending in the ".desktop"
+ extension which conforms to the <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec/">desktop
+ entry specification</ulink>. It describes a menu item, including
+ a name, an icon, and what to do when the item is selected.
+ Desktop entries are also known as ".desktop files."
+ </para>
+ </glossdef>
+ </glossentry>
+
+ <glossentry id="term-directory-entry"><glossterm>Directory entry</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+ A directory entry is a file with a name ending in the ".directory"
+ extension which conforms to the <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec/">desktop
+ entry specification</ulink>. It describes gives a localized name and
+ an icon for a submenu.
+ Directory entries are also known as ".directory files."
+ </para>
+ </glossdef>
+ </glossentry>
+
+ <glossentry id="term-menu-path"><glossterm>Menu path</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+ A "menu path" is the path to a particular menu. Menu paths are
+ always "relative" so never start with a slash character.
+ The path to a menu is simply the &lt;Name&gt; of each parent
+ of the menu, followed by the &lt;Name&gt; of the menu itself.
+ For example, "Foo/Bar/Baz" is a valid menu path.
+ </para>
+ </glossdef>
+ </glossentry>
+
+ <glossentry id="term-relative-path"><glossterm>Relative path</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+ The canonical path to a desktop or directory entry, relative to the
+ &lt;AppDir&gt; or &lt;DirectoryDir&gt; containing the
+ entry. For example, if <filename>/usr/share/applications</filename> is
+ specified as an &lt;AppDir&gt;, the relative path to
+ <filename>/usr/share/applications/foo/bar.desktop</filename> is
+ <filename>foo/bar.desktop</filename>.
+ </para>
+ </glossdef>
+ </glossentry>
+ </glossary>
+</article>
+