Introduction
The System Components are a set of widgets that are usable in both the indicators and system settings to ensure a consistent semantics exist between both Unity 7 and Unity 8.
Contents
Base Attributes
Name |
Type |
|
label |
string |
|
action |
string |
Name of the action to activate when the menuitem is clicked |
target |
string |
Parameter to send with the action invocation |
icon |
bytearray |
Use g_icon_deserialize() |
render-as-switch |
boolean |
Show a switch instead of a check mark for boolean actions |
Types and Profiles
Widget |
Desktop |
Phone |
Tablet |
TV |
Slider |
☑ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Progress |
☐ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Button |
☐ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
User Session |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
☐ |
Calendar |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
☐ |
Media Player |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
☐ |
Time Zone |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
☐ |
Appointment |
☑ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Alarm |
☑ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Access Point |
☒ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Message |
☑ |
☑ |
☐ |
☐ |
Indicator Positions
Each indicator may have a Position field in its indicator file, which determines the order in which indicators appear in the panel. The lower the position, the further towards the edge of the panel (right in LTR-layouts, left in RTL-layouts) an indicator appears.
Desktop
These are the positions for the standard indicators [1]:
Keyboard |
80 |
Sync |
70 |
Location |
60 |
Messages |
50 |
Power |
40 |
Bluetooth |
36 |
Network |
35 |
Sound |
30 |
Datetime |
20 |
Session |
10 |
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MenuBar#system-status
Phone
Messages |
100 |
Display |
90 |
Transfer |
71 |
Location |
60 |
Bluetooth |
36 |
Network |
35 |
Sound |
30 |
Power |
25 |
Datetime |
20 |
Widget Definitions
Root Item
The base item implemented by all indicators.
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.root |
action |
a{sv} |
Name of an action action whose state contains the props bellow |
x-canonical-secondary-action |
s |
Name of an action that is activated when the middle mouse button is pressed on an indicator |
x-canonical-scroll-action |
s |
Name of an action that is activated when scrolling the mouse wheel on an indicator. That action must take an int32 parameter signifying strength and direction of the scroll |
The action that the root item points to is an a{sv}.
Action Prop |
Type |
Description |
label |
s |
String with label |
accessible-desc |
s |
String used to describe the state for disabled users |
icon |
v |
Serialized GIcon |
visible |
b |
Whether to show the icon |
pre-label |
s |
Label to be shown before the icon (LTR on left side, RTL on right) |
icons |
av |
If there is more than one icon shown, this should be an array of serialized GIcons in the order they should appear. This item should take precedence over 'icon'. |
title |
s |
User visible string to show at the head of the menu for the items in it |
Progress
A menu item that contains a progress bar.
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.progress |
label |
s |
String with label |
action |
s |
Name of an action action whose state contains the progress (uint32 in [0, 100]) |
Appointment
Sample implementation (for GTK+ in Unity 7): http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~charlesk/ido/add-progress-menu-item/view/head:/src/idoappointmentmenuitem.c#L72
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.appointment |
label |
s |
String with label |
action |
s |
String with an action name |
x-canonical-color |
s |
String specifying a color that can be used as a visual hint for the appointment's type. On the desktop this is set by the user when adding the appointment. |
x-canonical-time-format |
s |
A strftime(3) format string specifying how to display the appointment's time. |
x-canonical-time |
x |
A time_t specifying the appointment's localtime |
Alarm
Alarm's properties are nearly identical to Appointment except for the added icon. Its has its own x-canonical-type to preserve the semantic difference.
Sample implementation (for GTK+ in Unity 7): http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~charlesk/ido/add-progress-menu-item/view/head:/src/idoalarmmenuitem.c
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.alarm |
label |
s |
String with label |
icon |
s |
Serialized GIcon |
action |
s |
String with an action name |
x-canonical-color |
s |
String specifying a color that can be used as a visual hint for the appointment's type. |
x-canonical-time-format |
s |
A strftime(3) format string specifying how to display the alarm's time. |
x-canonical-time |
x |
A time_t specifying the alarm's localtime |
Time Zone
By having properties for the location's timezone and time format string, the renderer has all the information it needs to periodically update its display of the current time. This way the refresh logic can be on the renderer's side and the service doesn't have to continually ship out new menuitems over the bus when the current time changes.
Sample implementation (for GTK+ in Unity7): http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~charlesk/ido/add-progress-menu-item/view/head:/src/idolocationmenuitem.c#L295
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.location |
label |
s |
String with label |
x-canonical-time-format |
s |
A strftime(3) format string specifying how to display the location's current time. |
x-canonical-timezone |
s |
timezone that the location is in. |
Calendar
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.indicator.progress |
action |
s |
name of an action containing the calendar's state as an "a{sv}". Possible keys are: calendar-day (t), show-week-numbers (b), appointment-days (ai). |
Calendar's Action
Key |
Value Type |
Description |
calendar-day |
t |
a time_t denoting which year & month should be visible in the calendard and which day currently has focus/selection. |
show-week-numbers |
b |
Whether or not to show the week numbers in the calendar. |
appointment-days |
ai |
array of int32 day-of-months showing days with appointments in the month specified by calendar-day |
Slider
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.unity.slider |
action |
s |
name of an action with state "d", the position of the slider |
min-value |
d |
minimum value |
max-value |
d |
maximum value |
step |
d |
step increment |
min-icon |
v |
an icon representing the minimum value |
max-icon |
v |
an icon representing the maximum value |
Media Player
A menu item representing a media player. Its state includes metadata about the currently playing track.
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.unity.media-player |
label |
s |
name of the player |
action |
s |
name of an action containing the state of the player as an "a{sv}". Possible keys are : running (b), title (s), artist (s), album(s), art-url (s). |
icon |
v |
app icon of the player |
Playback
A menu item with playback controls.
Property Name |
Type |
Description |
x-canonical-type |
s |
com.canonical.unity.playback-item |
x-canonical-play-action |
s |
name of a play/pause action with string state ("Playing", "Stopped", "Launching") |
x-canonical-previous-action |
s |
name of a stateless action for going to the previous track |
x-canonical-next-action |
s |
name of a stateless action for going to the previous track |