Development/Tutorials/Desktop File: Difference between revisions

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This tutorial was updated and moved to https://develop.kde.org/docs/features/desktop-file/


{{TutorialBrowser|
[[Category:MovedDevelop]]
 
series=Basics|
 
name=Desktop File|
 
pre=[[Development/Tutorials/Session_Management|Session Management]]|
 
next=|
 
reading=[http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ the .desktop Free Desktop Spec];
}}
 
== Desktop File ==
 
In order for your application to show up in menus and/or to be automatically associated with mime types in file browsers, you need to provide a .desktop file like follows:
 
<syntaxhighlight lang="ini">
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=your-app %u
MimeType=application/x-your-mime-type;
Icon=some-icon
X-DocPath=yourapp/index.html
Terminal=false
Name=Your App
GenericName=Some Generic Name
Comment=Short Description Of Your App
Categories=Qt;KDE;
</syntaxhighlight>
 
Take a look at [http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ the .desktop Free Desktop Spec] to find our more about the key/value pairs above. It's important to pick a good set of Categories, see the spec for a list of valid values.
 
== Your project ==
You want your project to show up in the K Menu like this:
 
[[File:Snapshot-k-menu.png]]
 
In this example, the application is called quickpen and it shows up in the category "Graphics". To accomplish that in your project you need to take care the .desktop file is distributed to the appropriate place.
 
=== qmake based projects ===
In case you are working on a qmake based project, add the following to your .pro file:
'''target.path = /usr/local/bin'''
desktop.path = /usr/share/applications
desktop.files += your-app.desktop
 
'''INSTALLS += target''' desktop
 
Note that the bold strings above should be in your project anyway.
 
An example .pro file can be found [https://github.com/tstaerk/quickpen/blob/dc7a5560b0cbac159d1c443572c676ee7d8fbb23/quickpen.pro here]. The related .desktop file can be found [https://github.com/tstaerk/quickpen/blob/e3b03c5949085e87a659303ae7866378f6539542/quickpen.desktop here].
 
=== cmake based projects ===
In case you are working on a cmake based project, add an install directive to your CMakeLists.txt file like this:
install( PROGRAMS your-app.desktop DESTINATION ${XDG_APPS_INSTALL_DIR} )
 
An example CMakeLists.txt file can be found [http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kdepim.git&a=blob&hb=18742d763bc8a2d2c2c7ef433cc66c39b6a95036&f=ktimetracker/support/CMakeLists.txt here]. The corresponding .desktop file is [http://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kdepim.git&a=blob&hb=63798b547ecb595d166cdbe2e0a04d985fcc8980&f=ktimetracker/support/ktimetracker.desktop here].
 
= See also =
* [http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ FreeDeskTop's specification about Desktop entries]
 
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Tutorial]]
[[Category:FAQs]]

Latest revision as of 14:10, 18 July 2023

This tutorial was updated and moved to https://develop.kde.org/docs/features/desktop-file/