The problem

There are a number of actions that can be performed by many different applications that a desktop user might want to choose a default application for.

Which program should be used to play CD's, which program should open webpages, etc.

Gnome currently has two programs to configure this: gnome-volume-properties and gnome-default-applications-properties

gnome-volume-properties

This program has no dropdown-menus, no idea about which programs are installed (?) and it is hard for all users to know if they should use %m or %d (and what they mean!)

gnome-default-applications-properties

This program tries to figure out which programs are installed from a hardcoded list and let's the user choose between those. It also allows the user to type a custom command.

Actions

List of actions from the two programs above

• Browse Web
• Read Email
• Play Multimedia
• Open Terminal
• Read Screen
• Play Audio CD
• Play DVD
• Manage Music Player Device
• Import Photos
• Edit Video
• Scan Image

The solution

Idea 1: new properties in .desktop files

Add something like

X-Action-?BrowseWeb=firefox %s

to the .desktop files.

This would then be used by the appropriate settings programs to present a list of available applications to the user to choose from.

Idea 2: depend on mime types

Some of these actions have corresponding mime types, and fake/new mime types could be added to the .desktop-files which the appropriate settings programs would use to present a list of available programs to the user.

However, this would not allow the programs to specify in which way they should be called.

Browse Web

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