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xfce:thunar:1.4:custom-actions [2015/10/05 22:03] (current) – created ochosi
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 +====== Custom actions ======
  
 +Thunar allows users to add custom actions to the file and folder context menus (by the use of the ''thunar-uca'' plugin, part of the Thunar distribution, in the ''plugins/'' subdirectory). You can setup new actions in the {gui>Custom Actions} dialog, available via the {gui>Configure custom actions...} item in the {gui>Edit} menu.
 +
 +This page serves as an introduction to the **Custom Actions** plugin, and includes a list of useful examples.
 +
 +===== Adding a custom action =====
 +
 +This section provides a step-by-step introduction to the **Custom Actions** plugin, demonstrating how to add a **Print File** action, which uses xfprint to print text files. We start by opening the **Custom Actions** dialog as explained above. In the dialog, click on the first button in the list of buttons (the one labeled with the ''+''). The **Create Action** dialog will appear, as shown in the screenshot below.
 +
 +On the first page, enter ''Print File'' as name and ''Print the selected using xfprint'' as description. Enter ''xfprint4 %f'' as command (the ''%f'' will be replaced with the path to the selected file, as explained in the dialog), and select an icon for the icon (in the screenshot the ''xfprint.svg'' icon was used). **NB:** Thunar seems to do the sensible thing when passing file/folder names with spaces in them, so don't worry excessively about putting single or double quotes around the "%" placeholder.
 +
 +Now, continue with the second page (the {gui>Appearance Conditions} page).
 +
 +We want to create an action that is only applicable to text files, so select the **Text Files** options and unselect the options for the other file types. Next you can specify a **File Pattern** to display the action only for text files that match a certain pattern. In the example, we set the file pattern to ''*'' (which matches all filenames) to indicate that the action should be displayed for all text files.
 +
 +That's all. Click **OK** to close the **Create Action** dialog. The new action, labeled **Print File** will appear in the **Custom Actions** list.
 +
 +Now close the **Custom Actions** dialog, select a text file in Thunar and open the context menu (right-click on the file icon). The newly created **Print File** action will appear in the context menu, as shown in the screenshot below.
 +
 +{{ documentation:thunar-custom-actions-3.png }}
 +
 +You can use the [[http://thunar.xfce.org/pwiki/start#mailinglist|thunar-dev mailinglist]] to get in touch with the developers, if you have questions about this short tutorial or custom actions in general.
 +
 +===== Examples =====
 +
 +Here are a few useful examples of custom actions. Feel free to extend this list.
 +
 +==== Finding files in the current folder ====
 +    * Name: **Search...**
 +    * Command: ''gnome-search-tool --path=%f''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Note:** For this action, you'll need to have ''gnome-search-tool'' installed, which is part of the ''gnome-utils'' package. This program also has a [[http://linux.die.net/man/1/gnome-search-tool|lot of other nice command-line options]] which you could use to create even more specialized actions.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +==== Finding files in the current folder with catfish ====
 +    * Name: **Search files...**
 +    * Command: ''%%catfish --fileman=thunar --path=%f%%''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Note:** For this action, you'll need to have ''catfish'' installed, which is part of the ''catfish'' package.
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +
 +==== Finding files inside the selected folder with catfish ====
 +    * Name: **Search files inside...**
 +    * Command: ''%%catfish --fileman=thunar --path=%f%d%%''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Note:** For this action, you'll need to have ''catfish'' installed, which is part of the ''catfish'' package.
 +
 +==== Working with archives  (tar, gzip, etc) ====
 +    * Name: **Extract here (bzip2)**
 +    * Command: ''tar xjf %n''
 +    * File pattern: *.tar.bz2;*.tbz2
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files
 +
 +    * Name: **Extract here (zip)**
 +    * Command: ''unzip %f''
 +    * File pattern: *.zip
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files
 +
 +    * Name: **Create tar.gz from folder**
 +    * Command: ''tar czvf %n.tar.gz %n''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Hint:** You may prefer the [[http://thunar.xfce.org/plugins.html#thunar-archive-plugin|Thunar Archive Plugin]], which does pretty much the same thing with less manual setup required on your part. It's either included with your distribution (in the case of [[http://xubuntu.org/|Xubuntu]]), or available as a separate package (''thunar-archive-plugin'' in Debian Etch). You might also need the ''xarchiver'' or "squeeze" package for things to work quite right.
 +
 +==== Playing music files ====
 +    * Name: **Play with XMMS**
 +    * Command: ''xmms %F''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Audio Files
 +
 +    * Name: **Enqueue in XMMS**
 +    * Command: ''xmms -e %F''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Audio Files
 +
 +**Hint:** Works exactly the same with Audacious.
 +
 +==== Burning an ISO file to a CD ====
 +    * Name: **Burn with K3B**
 +    * Command: ''%%k3b --cdimage %f%%''
 +    * File pattern: *.iso
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files
 +
 +==== Viewing images ====
 +    * Name: **View with GQview**
 +    * Command: ''gqview %f''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Image Files
 +**Note:** This tip also works just as well with GThumb
 +
 +
 +==== Converting PNGs to JPEGs ====
 +    * Name: **To JPEG**
 +    * Command: ''convert %f -quality 75 %f.jpg''
 +    * File pattern: *.png
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Image Files
 +
 +**Hint:** ''`basename %f .png`.jpg'' (be careful--those are //back//ticks) will strip the old .png extension off of the original filename.
 +
 +
 +
 +==== Losslessly Rotating JPEGs ====
 +    * Name: **Rotate Clockwise**
 +    * Command: ''for file in %F; do tempfile=$(mktemp); (jpegtran -copy all -rotate 90 $file > $tempfile); mv -f $tempfile $file; rm -f $tempfile; done''
 +    * File pattern: *.jpg;*.JPG;*.jpeg;*.JPEG
 +    * Appears if selection contains: JPEG Image Files
 +**Note:** jpegtran is available as part of the libjpeg or libjpeg-progs packages of most distributions. Unlike using "convert", the complicated loop structure is necessary with "jpegtran": "jpegtran -rotate 90 -outfile %F %F" will produce a 0kb file.
 +
 +==== Opening a terminal ====
 +    * Name: **Open in a terminal**
 +    * Command: ''%%terminal --default-working-directory=%d%%''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Note:** You might need to type ''xfce4-terminal'' instead of just ''terminal'' for some distributions.
 +
 +==== Opening a root terminal ====
 +    * Name: **Open a root terminal here**
 +    * Command: ''gksu "xfce4-terminal --default-working-directory=%f"''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +**Note:** You should rewrite the command with normal straight quotes.
 +
 +==== Opening a root Thunar ====
 +    * Name: **Open a root Thunar here**
 +    * Command: ''gksu thunar %f''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories
 +
 +==== Editing as root ====
 +    * Name: **Edit as root**
 +    * Command: ''gksu put-your-favourite-text-editor-here %f''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Text files
 +
 +**Note:** You'll need to replace put-your-favourite-text-editor-here with your favourite text editor (e.g. mousepad or geany).
 +
 +==== Creating a symbolic link ====
 +    * Name: **Create symlink**
 +    * Command: ''ln -s %f "%n (symlink)"''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, other files
 +
 +==== Saving the selected file/folder's pathname to the clipboard ====
 +For fans of the Windows "SendTo Extensions" power toy. **This tip requires the ''xclip'' program, which you may need to install using your distribution's package manager.**
 +    * Name: **Copy Pathname to Clipboard**
 +    * Description: Copies file's full pathname to the X PRIMARY selection
 +    * Command: ''echo -n %f | xclip -i''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: //any//
 +
 +
 +
 +==== Setting an image as the desktop background ====
 +    * Name: **Set as desktop background**
 +    * Command:<code>xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path -s %f</code>
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Image Files
 +
 +==== Viewing the disk usage of the current directory ====
 +    * Name: **Disk Usage**
 +    * Command: ''baobab %d''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Tick all the boxes
 +
 +**Note:** The idea is to get a visual picture of the current directory and any subdirectories. You could also use fsview or filelight, but the visuals are crisper in baobab.
 +
 +==== Using 'nano' text editor ====
 +    * Command: ''terminal -x nano %f''
 +
 +Since nano isn't a GUI app, you must start it in a terminal window.
 +
 +==== Comparing selected files/directories ====
 +    * Name: **Compare**
 +    * Command: ''meld %F''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Directories and Text files
 +
 +**Note:** You will need ''meld'' package.
 +
 +==== Changing OpenOffice.org supported formats ====
 +**Note:** You will need ''unoconv'' package for all following actions.
 +
 +    * Name: **Convert to ODT**
 +    * Command: ''unoconv -f odt %F''
 +    * File pattern: *.doc;*.docx
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Other files
 +
 +    * Name: **Export to PDF**
 +    * Command: ''unoconv -f pdf %F''
 +    * File pattern: *.doc;*.docx;*.odt;*.odp;*.pps;*.ppt;*.xls;*.xlsx;*.ods;*.pptx
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Other files
 +
 +You can go on, try ''man unoconv'' for details.
 +==== Download subtitles with periscope ====
 +    * Name: **Download subtitles**
 +    * Command: ''periscope -l en %F && zenity --info --title "Done" --text "Subtitles downloaded successfully" || zenity --error --title "Error" --text "Subtitles not downloaded successfully"''
 +    * File pattern: *
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Video Files
 +
 +**Note:** You will need ''python-periscope'' package. Get it [[http://code.google.com/p/periscope/|here]]. You'll also neeed ''zenity'' package. This command will try to get the English subtitles, change ''-l en'' to something else (''fr'', ''de'', ''pt-br'', ...). You should rewrite the command with normal straight quotes.
 +==== Rename subtitles easily ====
 +    * Name: **Rename subtitles**
 +    * Description: Select video and subtitles file. Subtiles will be reanmed based on the video name.
 +    * Command: ''subrnm %F''
 +    * File pattern: *.avi;*.mp4;*.crdownload;*.srt;*.sub
 +    * Appears if selection contains: Video Files, Text Files, Other Files
 +
 +**Note:** You will need ''subrnm'' script. Get it [[http://pastebin.com/DA8jwHz3|here]]. You'll also neeed ''zenity'' package.
 +
 +==== Resize and email images ====
 +     * Name: **Resize Images then email them**
 +     * Description: Select Image files and resize them before sending in email. Leaves originals untouched.
 +     * File pattern: *
 +     * Appears if selection contains: Image files
 +** Note:** You will need the script here (which I name thunar-resize-sendto and place in /usr/local/bin), "zenity", and "imagemagick" packages. I used the xfce-newmail icon. Use the following command line:\\
 +/usr/local/bin/thunar-resize-sendto %F\\
 +\\
 +Not sure why this isn't part of Thunar plugins, since it's pretty sweet. Tested on Xubuntu Lucid.\\
 +\\
 +**NOTE!:** This uses /tmp/thunar-pics0 & /tmp/thunar-pics1 as temp directories, and will completely remove anything in these directories.  I doubt there's a conflict, but you've been warned.  You can see the list of files it creates below in /tmp.
 +
 +<code>
 +#!/bin/bash
 +#input to this is a list of files to send.
 +# depends on thunar, ImageMagick and Zenity
 +TMP=/tmp/thunar-pics
 +LOG=/tmp/thunar-resize-sendto.log
 +MARKER=/tmp/thunar-resize-sendto.marker
 +SENDTO="/usr/lib/thunar/thunar-sendto-email"
 +SIZES="320x200 640x480 800x600 1024x640"
 +DISCMD="zenity --list --text=\"Select Size\" --checklist --column=Select --column=New --hide-header --print-column=ALL"
 +# Find unused tmp dir
 +if [ -e $MARKER ]; then
 +  CUR=$(cat $MARKER)
 +else
 +  CUR=1
 +fi
 +if [ 1 == $CUR ]; then
 +  CUR=0
 +else
 +  CUR=1
 +fi
 +echo "$CUR" >$MARKER
 +TEMP="${TMP}$CUR"
 +mkdir -p $TEMP
 +rm -rf $TEMP/*
 +
 +for s in $SIZES; do
 +  if [ -z $COLS ]; then 
 +    COLS="$s "
 +  else
 +    COLS="$COLS 0 $s"
 +  fi
 +done
 +SIZE=$($DISCMD $COLS)
 +echo "CUR=$CUR SIZE=$SIZE" >$LOG
 +
 +for f in "$@"; do
 +  n=$(basename "$f"
 +  echo "item '$f'->$TEMP/$n" >>$LOG
 +  convert $f -resize $SIZE "$TEMP/$n"
 +  FILES="$FILES $TEMP/$n"
 +done
 +$SENDTO $FILES
 +</code>