Ubuntu 17.10 Support

[tresf]

Just tried running SystemTray 3.11 on Ubuntu 17.10 x64 using openjdk-8:

/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/mate-panel.rc:30: error: invalid string constant "murrine-scrollbar", expected valid string constant
[ERROR] 2017-11-28 13:47:29,324 @ dorkbox.systemTray.SystemTray:775
	SystemTray initialization failed. (Unable to discover which implementation to use). Falling back to the Swing Tray.
[ERROR] 2017-11-28 13:47:30,564 @ dorkbox.systemTray.SystemTray:936
	Unable to create tray type: '_SwingTray'

[tresf]

Appears to be an upstream issue with Ubuntu 17.10 documented here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-themes/+bug/1723422

The fix is not too clear. I've enabled artful-proposed repository and it's still happening. I've left a message for the upstream maintainers with my test results.

Ok, the ubuntu proposed does fix the invalid string constant "murrine-scrollbar" error, but SystemTray 3.11 still fails to load.

[dorkbox]

It seems that Gnome 3.26 has changed everything... Nothing I currently have works on it, and it looks list I will have to add a native DBus implementation to support it.

[DiWizard]

Ubuntu 17.10 + "TopIcons Plus" extension [ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1031/topicons/ ]
SystemTray demo project works well.

[dorkbox]

Interesting... And great find. This will make 17.10 compatibility a lot easier.

Thanks!!

[tresf]

Interesting... And great find. This will make 17.10 compatibility a lot easier.

Since ISVs don't have control over the desktops they deploy to, I'd disagree with this statement. No 3rd party software need to be installed on Mac or Windows for a System Tray to work properly. Using legacy packages is only a stop-gap in my opinion. I hope you feel the same way. <3

[dorkbox]

Since ISVs don't have control over the desktops they deploy to, ... Using legacy packages is only a stop-gap in my opinion. I hope you feel the same way. <3

I do and I'm really, really hoping a native DBUS implementation solves this problem, because I hate the idea of having an extension to do it...

Some background...

So for some versions of Gnome, Gnome leadership decided to hide all icons by default, and only show them if you press magic key combinations or click on a not-obvious-at-all button at the bottom left of the screen.

Because I couldn't figure out how to get around this restriction showing tray icons using C/C++ (the process is to start with C/C++ and then port the code to Java) I had to resort to using an extension, which the SystemTray runtime will automatically install. Nothing 3rd party, since I maintain the extension and it is only available via the SystemTray (however, it's an extension and I hate having to use it).

The extension installed is very similar to TopIcons, and it was previously excluded from Ubuntu, just because the Ubuntu Gnome implementations were completely different than "official" gnome, even though both report themselves as using gnome.

As a stop-gap solution that will work until (hopefully) a DBUS implementation fixes it, these extensions are sadly the only way I know how to show an icon in the tray area.

[tresf]

@dorkbox what if we leveraged something like Steam does instead... Can Java do this?

[tresf]

Update on the steam menu above... the Actions appear to be part of the .desktop shortcut specification.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam
Comment=Application for managing and playing games on Steam
Exec=/usr/bin/steam %U
Icon=steam
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Game;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/steam;
Actions=Store;Community;Library;Servers;Screenshots;News;Settings;BigPicture;Friends;

And then the executable path and language translations are as follows:

[Desktop Action Store]
Name=Store
Name[de]=Shop
Name[es]=Tienda
Name[fr]=Magasin
Name[it]=Negozio
Name[pt]=Loja
Name[ru]=Магазин
Name[zh_CN]=商店
Name[zh_TW]=商店
Exec=steam steam://store

I wanted to offer this information because it was hard to find on the internet and I wanted to clarify that it does not appear to be a solution we can leverage after the application has been started.

[dorkbox]

It's now working in Ubuntu 17.10.

note: there are some harmless GLIB warnings now, that I can't seem to get rid of. The test examples work as expected. I will do a release shortly.

[dorkbox]

Version 3.17 is now released, there is support now for Ubuntu 17.10, 18.04, Fedora 27, 28, 29, and Debian 9.5 (+ all DE's possible from it's installer, so Gnome3, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, and MATE). ElementaryOS 5.0 removed support for tray icons entirely, however a workaround is possible to get them back via some compiled libraries.