thunar's got the feature to change file type's default program but xfdesktop hasn't. It's kind of inconvenient.
Benny, is there a way to get thunar's 'open with' dialog to pop up from the outside? Otherwise, WONTFIX. (Note that you can change the default 'open with' app in the properties dialog, but only for applications registered for that type.)
Right now, there's no way to explicitly popup the open with dialog from outside.
Right now? Is it a planned addition? ^_^
Not planned. But it could be added if really needed.
OK then. So if many people want this you will let it be =)
So, should I add a method to the D-BUS interface?
If you want, go ahead, and I'll add the menu item. On a side note... is there a good quick way to determine if thunar is available before popping up the menu? It would be nice to filter out the stuff we can't do instead of popping up an error dialog if the dbus call fails.
If Thunar is not available, you will not have desktop icons in xfdesktop.
Not strictly true, as some distro packagers are already packaging thunar-vfs separately from thunar.
Hm, right. IIRC the freedesktop base interface has a Ping() method that tells you whether the service is available. You could probably just ping org.xfce.FileManager to see whether a file manager (and the D-BUS service) is installed.
Benny - Did you ever add this to the org.xfce.Filemanager interface?
Not yet. I totally forgot about this one. If you want the method, please file a bug report to 'Thunar', so I don't forget about it again.
Committed with revision 22583. 2006-07-31 Benedikt Meurer <benny@xfce.org> * thunar/thunar-dbus-service-infos.xml, thunar/thunar-dbus-service.c: Add DisplayChooserDialog() to the org.xfce.FileManager interface, which pops up the "Open With" dialog, optionally allowing the user to open the file with the choosen application. Bug #1811.
Fixed.