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Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Change of notification interaction in Cairo dock
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Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Change of notification interaction in Cairo dock
Guest 3 fabounet [Read]
30 May 2012 à 16:52

Guest, Thursday 04 March 2010 à 23:30

I am currently using a Kubuntu Karmic Koala desktop with Kwin window manager and OpenGL version of Cairo dock 2.1.3-5. I have discovered that applications that needs attention and interact with Cairo dock doesnt work satisfying. First of all the application logo appears (Which is annoying by itself) and even if you open the window the icon doesnt disappear. So it just is a icon in the bottom of my computer screen that covers text on websites sometimes. But most importantly it doesnt interact correctly with IM clients like Kmess on KDE desktop. Sometimes I miss important messages from people on MSN.

I would like to see a more polished notification like avant-window-navigator does. Actually it quite simple, they just listen to DBus I think and when an application needs attention it just shows the label of the application above the icon even if the dock is autohiding. I would like some kind of blinking text, but kind of discrete as well and should not cover over anything else on the screen and should be possible to configurate and also remove on-the-fly. Some kind of label popup and should not only show one app at the time as Cairo dock does now, instead if several IM messages want attention it should show them all in some kind of nice stack thing or something. Mostly I want to trust Cairo dock to notify me when something really needs attention so I dont miss anything. Sometimes I have been missing really important things just because of this and I personally think it must change in the future of Cairo dock.

[22:18:51] <Oxymoron> matttbe: Would be nice. Like said before I think, it would be nice like avant-window-navigator has. It take the text of the app need attention and make it appear above the icon even if panel is hidden. For the moment the icons popup doesnt work and overlapping each other and I cannot trust it and its really confusing and distracting as well.
[22:20:21] <Oxymoron> matttbe: Except that the cairo dock is aweseom, never hangs and works perfect in al ways.
[22:20:50] <Oxymoron> If you dont count the systray thingy as a lack of feature as a bug though, but thats for later I guess
[22:21:54] <Oxymoron> Use the label for the application and make it appear and blink for like 10 seconds or so, then make it a little transparent but make it be there if the user wants it to

fabounet, Friday 05 March 2010 à 00:07


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
they just listen to DBus I think

then it sounds like a dedicated applet, like the one for Pidgin or Xchat.
the notifications from X are very bacis, it's just a flag that says whether a window needs your attention or not.

the application logo appears (Which is annoying by itself)

did you set an animation for the windows demanding your attention ? the icon should appear with this animation then.
I find it a nice and discrete way to notify the user.

show one app at the time as Cairo dock does now

yes because as I said it's just a flag (true or false), so whether the icon is demanding your attention one time or several times, it's just "true".

I believe what you need for Kmess is an applet that will listen Kmess (or maybe the new indicator system) and make the dock display a relevant message.
If you know a little about Dbus, it's probably quite easy to do. If not, you may ask the Kmess devs to make an applet for the dock, maybe they would consider it.
Interact on the dock itself is quite easy.

even if you open the window the icon doesnt disappear

that is more ennoying, sounds like a bug, although I've never noticed it.
could you please run the dock in a terminal with "cairo-dock -l debug > debug.txt" and post here the content of debug.txt after this happens ?

Guest, Friday 25 May 2012 à 22:56

!!! Don't forget the Anti-spam filter !!!

I've actually had this problem before too, usually with firefox or another web browser. My only solution is to sudo killall cairo-dock then alt + f2 and cairo-dock -o

fabounet, Wednesday 30 May 2012 à 16:52


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
which version are you using ?
because that's an old problem, and I thought it was fixed already.
for information, latest release is 3.0.1

Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Change of notification interaction in Cairo dock
Guest 3 fabounet [Read]
30 May 2012 à 16:52


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Change of notification interaction in Cairo dock Top

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