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Content Tagged with tracker + GNOME
Hi pgo!
Hi Planet GNOME'ers!
Firstly, let me say thanks to Jeff for adding me so fast :)! My name is Neil J. Patel, I am 23 years old, and am a Pharmacologist (yes, you read correctly) who lives in London, England. I love GNOME and spend my spare time working on a few projects:
Avant Window Navigator
Avant window navigator (Awn) was my first project, it is a Gnome-based dock which, as taken from the website, "sits on the bottom of your desktop in all its composited glory" and handles the launching of applications & active windows. It also has a D-Bus backend which allows applications to control their icons. Some examples are Rhythmbox setting the album art ask its icon, Evolution displaying the number of unread emails on its icon, Firefox showing its progress on its icons, and Gaim showing your status as your icon. A picture says a thousand words, so :
Awn also has a wiki & forum, and you can also catch me on #awn on irc.gnome.org.
Metadata & Desktop Search
Tracker is where the rest of my free time goes! I work on several projects surrounding GNOME regarding metadata & search:
Firstly, let me say thanks to Jeff for adding me so fast :)! My name is Neil J. Patel, I am 23 years old, and am a Pharmacologist (yes, you read correctly) who lives in London, England. I love GNOME and spend my spare time working on a few projects:
Avant Window Navigator
Avant window navigator (Awn) was my first project, it is a Gnome-based dock which, as taken from the website, "sits on the bottom of your desktop in all its composited glory" and handles the launching of applications & active windows. It also has a D-Bus backend which allows applications to control their icons. Some examples are Rhythmbox setting the album art ask its icon, Evolution displaying the number of unread emails on its icon, Firefox showing its progress on its icons, and Gaim showing your status as your icon. A picture says a thousand words, so :
Awn also has a wiki & forum, and you can also catch me on #awn on irc.gnome.org.
Metadata & Desktop Search
Tracker is where the rest of my free time goes! I work on several projects surrounding GNOME regarding metadata & search:
- Nautilus & Metadata Integration : I am working with John Stowers on a proposal for including metadata & tagging/emblem support in Nautilus, where by Nautilus can use Beagle/Tracker to pull info regarding a file + display it in a metadata tile, and it can use the FreeDesktop emblem spec for emblems, so you have a uniform experience across the desktop:
- libtracker-gtk : This is another effort by John and myself to have a more integrated experience across the desktop, by having a set of reusable widgets which can be easily added to any application. Therefore, you now have a library which will consist of many cool and useful widgets such as a model-view-controller based list of results, a metadata-tile, a GtkEntry with automatic keyword-completion, a tag cloud etc.
- A new blingy search tool/media browser/viewer: based somewhat on these mockups, and using a Tracker backend, but more on that later :).
avant-window-navigator: Neil Patel's Blog
tracker
GNOME
affinity
awn
avant-window-navigator
planetgnome
Updates
I've been quite busy recently, but have still managed to do some hacking, so heres some updates:
Awn
Tracker
libtracker-gtk has now committed into tracker svn :), so if you want to include tracker support in your application, be sure to let John Stowers or myself know if there is anything you'd like to see in there to make your life easier!
I have been working on polishing up the metadata-tile & tag bar, and while I was at it, I made this:
Hopefully, if I can fix the little problems that it has, it will be in libtracker-gtk before the next release + it can be the default view when you start tracker-search-tool. Speaking of tracker-search-tool, I added support for D&D-ing emails to the desktop and nautilus. They are basically desktop files which will open evolution viewer :
Anyway, that's it for now, if everything goes to plan, expect some cool stuff tomorrow ;)!
Awn
- Awn svn compiles on gtk+-2.10 :).
- Lots of small fixes, most should be committed tomorrow.
- Working on support for notifications above the task.
- Working on support for adding menu items to a tasks pop-up menu.
Tracker
libtracker-gtk has now committed into tracker svn :), so if you want to include tracker support in your application, be sure to let John Stowers or myself know if there is anything you'd like to see in there to make your life easier!
I have been working on polishing up the metadata-tile & tag bar, and while I was at it, I made this:
Hopefully, if I can fix the little problems that it has, it will be in libtracker-gtk before the next release + it can be the default view when you start tracker-search-tool. Speaking of tracker-search-tool, I added support for D&D-ing emails to the desktop and nautilus. They are basically desktop files which will open evolution viewer :
Anyway, that's it for now, if everything goes to plan, expect some cool stuff tomorrow ;)!
Where'd You Go...
...not that far actually, just been very busy at home!
I have, however, had time to straighten up some cool tracker stuff!
Nautilus Metadata Tile
After speaking to Alex in #nautilus, it seems that we could really make something very cool, utilizing nautilus & tracker/beagle. He has given me direction regarding what would be accepted into Nautilus. He had some sweet ideas regarding file previews etc. As far as I know, no other OS has these capabilities. I am going to dedicate a whole entry to it later on in the week, with mockups etc.
Tracker Search Tool (TST)
I have been adding the code from Nautilus Metadata Tile into TST recently, trying to get it in before the 0.6 release of tracker (at the time of writing I still don't know whether it will make it) :(. However, to whet your appetite, I can show you some early screenshots :
As you can see, it works quite well :). The tags bit is my favourite, because it is really simple to add/remove tags:
Avant Window Navigator
I have been a bit short of time regarding Awn, but I am dedicating tomorrow to it, so expect some cool stuff (as per usual), and thanks to everyone who has been bug reporting, sending translations and sending patches! Translations and patches will be merged tomorrow. Also, I have a little ace up my sleeve...only thing I can say is that it concerns setting up an array of pixbufs at incremental sizes for the launchers & tasks ;).
I have, however, had time to straighten up some cool tracker stuff!
Nautilus Metadata Tile
After speaking to Alex in #nautilus, it seems that we could really make something very cool, utilizing nautilus & tracker/beagle. He has given me direction regarding what would be accepted into Nautilus. He had some sweet ideas regarding file previews etc. As far as I know, no other OS has these capabilities. I am going to dedicate a whole entry to it later on in the week, with mockups etc.
Tracker Search Tool (TST)
I have been adding the code from Nautilus Metadata Tile into TST recently, trying to get it in before the 0.6 release of tracker (at the time of writing I still don't know whether it will make it) :(. However, to whet your appetite, I can show you some early screenshots :
As you can see, it works quite well :). The tags bit is my favourite, because it is really simple to add/remove tags:
- Clicking the "add" button shows you a GtkEntry, where you type in tags separated by spaces, then click "apply" to apply or "cancel" to, er, cancel.
- The tags themselves are clickable, so they will launch a new TST, and set it to search for the tag.
- Right clicking the tag gives you a popup, letting you search for the tag, or delete it.
Avant Window Navigator
I have been a bit short of time regarding Awn, but I am dedicating tomorrow to it, so expect some cool stuff (as per usual), and thanks to everyone who has been bug reporting, sending translations and sending patches! Translations and patches will be merged tomorrow. Also, I have a little ace up my sleeve...only thing I can say is that it concerns setting up an array of pixbufs at incremental sizes for the launchers & tasks ;).
avant-window-navigator: Neil Patel's Blog
tracker
GNOME
nautilus
cairo
bling
awn
avant-window-navigator
Nautilus Love
I've spent some time on the Nautilus Metadata Tile, as I had a few ideas regarding the UI. I can't go over the top with the colours and effects, as I hope one day this can be accepted into Nauitlus main. However, I have messed around with GtkStyle & Cairo, and have come up with this so far:
As you can see, I have just done a simple gradient between the base[GTK_STATE_NORMAL] and bg[GTK_STATE_SELECTED] from the active theme. I think it works quite well in practice, and doesn't 'steal' the focus away from the main icon/list view.
I have also added a GTK_STOCK_EDIT button in the bottom right, clicking this will swap the tags GtkLabel, to a GtkEntry, so you can edit the tags.
I also got round to adding some of the other tiles, and some icon/thumbnail support. Below are some screenshots (with different colour schemes to show how well behaved the gradient is ;).
As you can see in the Image tile, if an image has data about the camera/camera model, the title will reflect this (don't laugh at my camera model ;), exactly like what happens with a music file.
I still need to add the document tile, but I have left that till last because it will have a snippet of the contents, and I need to decide on how to present this!
I am still making code changes, so if you have any more ideas, or want to add anything to the tiles, let me know in the usual ways.
As you can see, I have just done a simple gradient between the base[GTK_STATE_NORMAL] and bg[GTK_STATE_SELECTED] from the active theme. I think it works quite well in practice, and doesn't 'steal' the focus away from the main icon/list view.
I have also added a GTK_STOCK_EDIT button in the bottom right, clicking this will swap the tags GtkLabel, to a GtkEntry, so you can edit the tags.
I also got round to adding some of the other tiles, and some icon/thumbnail support. Below are some screenshots (with different colour schemes to show how well behaved the gradient is ;).
As you can see in the Image tile, if an image has data about the camera/camera model, the title will reflect this (don't laugh at my camera model ;), exactly like what happens with a music file.
I still need to add the document tile, but I have left that till last because it will have a snippet of the contents, and I need to decide on how to present this!
I am still making code changes, so if you have any more ideas, or want to add anything to the tiles, let me know in the usual ways.
Nautilus & Metadata, love at first sight
Last week, John Stowers and I spoke about Tracker and Nautilus integration. After looking at Affinity and some of my mockups, he pointed me to some excellent work he, and others, had been doing to get Tracker more integrated with the GNOME Desktop.
This gave me some ideas, so I agreed to try and see what I could do to help the effort, and after some pointers from John's current work on emblem support, Jamie's help on #tracker, and a Alex's help in #nautilus, I can bring you this:
What you see there is a 'metadata tile', which goes and fetches metadata from Tracker about the currently selected file in Nautilus. It is all done asynchronously, so you do not feel a difference while browsing, even when you frantically click folder after folder looking for a file (which I still manage to do, even with Beagle & Tracker installed :-s ). Also, if it cannot find any metadata, it will hide itself, letting you have more viewing space.
This is extremely alpha software ATM, so no released code yet, expect some by Sunday/Monday. It doesn't crash Nautilus or anything that sinister, but I need to clean up the code, and also complete support for Documents, Videos, & Images.
You may also notice the little 'Tags' label at the bottom. Well, this works exactly like on all those web 2.0 sites. Clicking the label with allow you to edit the tags in an GtkEntry. You just type in all the relevant tags, separated by spaces, and it will update them for you. This, together with planned better support for tags around GNOME, will have you tagging anything & everything.
Regarding the UI, please bear in mind that this is alpha software ATM, I need to make the edit ting capabilities more apparent for the user, plus the font weights & sizes need to be sorted out. Also, I haven't touched this with cairo yet ;), so expect some 'eye-candy' stuff soon.
The tile also supports folder.jpg/png files, as most of my Music collection & Video collection is organised like this!
Here are some ideas which I am aiming for:
* Beagle support (if possible).
* Let the user specify which fields to show.
* Editing of Tags & Comments (and maybe some other fields also).
* Document tile which shows a snippet of the document (together with the usual Author, Word Count etc).
* Video tile which shows various video metadata.
* Picture tile which shows EXIF metadata, and failing that, basic picture metadata.
* Proper thumbnailing support for PDFs, Videos, Pictures etc.
* Be able to read the album art from the file directly.
* Allow it to be disabled from the menu.
There are more ideas, but I cannot think of them right now! If you have ideas, express them here, or mail me, I am especially open to UI ideas right now, as I want to decide on a set UI scheme soon. I am also intrested to hear what you want to see in the tile for different mimetypes.
That's about it for now, I am going to hack Awn for the rest of the evening, as I have been neglecting it, so expect a blog post for new Awn features sometime soon!
This gave me some ideas, so I agreed to try and see what I could do to help the effort, and after some pointers from John's current work on emblem support, Jamie's help on #tracker, and a Alex's help in #nautilus, I can bring you this:
What you see there is a 'metadata tile', which goes and fetches metadata from Tracker about the currently selected file in Nautilus. It is all done asynchronously, so you do not feel a difference while browsing, even when you frantically click folder after folder looking for a file (which I still manage to do, even with Beagle & Tracker installed :-s ). Also, if it cannot find any metadata, it will hide itself, letting you have more viewing space.
This is extremely alpha software ATM, so no released code yet, expect some by Sunday/Monday. It doesn't crash Nautilus or anything that sinister, but I need to clean up the code, and also complete support for Documents, Videos, & Images.
You may also notice the little 'Tags' label at the bottom. Well, this works exactly like on all those web 2.0 sites. Clicking the label with allow you to edit the tags in an GtkEntry. You just type in all the relevant tags, separated by spaces, and it will update them for you. This, together with planned better support for tags around GNOME, will have you tagging anything & everything.
Regarding the UI, please bear in mind that this is alpha software ATM, I need to make the edit ting capabilities more apparent for the user, plus the font weights & sizes need to be sorted out. Also, I haven't touched this with cairo yet ;), so expect some 'eye-candy' stuff soon.
The tile also supports folder.jpg/png files, as most of my Music collection & Video collection is organised like this!
Here are some ideas which I am aiming for:
* Beagle support (if possible).
* Let the user specify which fields to show.
* Editing of Tags & Comments (and maybe some other fields also).
* Document tile which shows a snippet of the document (together with the usual Author, Word Count etc).
* Video tile which shows various video metadata.
* Picture tile which shows EXIF metadata, and failing that, basic picture metadata.
* Proper thumbnailing support for PDFs, Videos, Pictures etc.
* Be able to read the album art from the file directly.
* Allow it to be disabled from the menu.
There are more ideas, but I cannot think of them right now! If you have ideas, express them here, or mail me, I am especially open to UI ideas right now, as I want to decide on a set UI scheme soon. I am also intrested to hear what you want to see in the tile for different mimetypes.
That's about it for now, I am going to hack Awn for the rest of the evening, as I have been neglecting it, so expect a blog post for new Awn features sometime soon!
