Question

157

Creating a .desktop file for a new application

rated 0 times [ 157] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 195094 / 2 Years ago, sun, october 30, 2022, 12:21:32

I just installed the lastest version of UGENE. I works fine but in order to use it, I have to enter the following in the terminal: cd ugene-1.11.5/ then execute ./ugene -ui to launch UGENE GUI.

This takes too long. I would like to build a .desktop file for UGENE to be used in Ubuntu 12.04 so that I can simply open it from the unity launcher.

Not sure if this is helpful but the website says: By default ugene script launches the command-line version of UGENE.

Here's what I have (not sure if it's right):

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Name=my Unipro UGENE

GenericName=Integrated Bioinformatics Suite

Comment=Unipro UGENE is a cross-platform visual environment for DNA and protein sequence analysis.

MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;

Exec=/home/samuel/ugene-1.11.5 ./ugene -ui -c %F

Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/ugene.svg

Type=Application

Terminal=true

Categories=Utility;Development;

StartupWMClass=UGENE

I added the launcher named my Unipro UGENE to my unity bar and tried opening it but it doesn't appear. I must be missing something. I don't know what the StartWMCClass field is suppose to be nor do I know whether I entered the correct MimeType.

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raacket

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answered 2 Years ago pilun · Accepted Answer

For reference see the Freedesktop Desktop Entry Specification, but this should work:

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Name=Unipro UGENE

Comment=Unipro UGENE is a cross-platform visual environment for DNA and protein sequence analysis.

Exec=/home/samuel/ugene-1.11.5/ugene -ui

Path=/home/samuel/ugene-1.11.5/

Icon=/usr/share/icons/Humanity/apps/32/access.svg

Terminal=false

Type=Application

Categories=Utility;Development;

Some notes:

Version

Should be 1.0, it refers to the .desktop file version, not to the program version.

Name

The name that should be displayed on the menu.

Exec

The full path to the executable. No need to use '.', it just means the current dir

Path

The dir that will be set as current when the entry is run. You usually don't need to set it, but I have added it just in case. It is the same as using 'cd' in your command line

Icon

The path to the icon file that will be used for the file, it's likely that the one that you put doesn't exists, I have changed it for a generic one. You should change this to the file that you want the icon to use

Mimetype

Specifies the kind of files that this program is able to open. I've left it empty.

StartupWMClass

Only needed for some programs, It is usually needed by java programs but only set it if you notice some problems.

To use the desktop file from the Dash you will need to copy it to /usr/share/applications for any user to be able to use it (you will need administrator permissions) or to ~/.local/share/applications (where ~ means your user directory) if you just want it to be available for one user.