GNOME Goal: Remove "Application" category from .desktop files

"Application" isn't a valid category in the desktop specification, and however, it's being widely used by GNOME modules in their .desktop files.

The mission is to remove the category "Application" from the .desktop file. This is also the perfect opportunity to make sure that the "GNOME" category is used.

You should find the file foo.desktop.in.in, and remove "Application" from the field "Categories". If the "GTK" and/or "GNOME" categories are missing, you should add them as well. You can also verify that the other categories are correct for this application (see the menu spec for valid categories).

A foo.desktop.in.in file which looks like this:

...
Type=Application
Categories=GTK;Application;Graphics;RasterGraphics;Viewer;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
...

After your modifications, should look like this:

...
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Graphics;RasterGraphics;Viewer;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
...

If a particular module doesn't include a foo.desktop.in.in file, you should look for a foo.desktop.in.

This file is typically in the base directory of the module, but for some modules it can be found inside a "data/" directory. A bit of "find" magic could be useful if it's not straightforward to find. I (ab)used this script to find the bad guys:

for i in `find . -name '*desktop*.in' `; do grep -H Categories $i | grep Application; done

Also, it is possible to use a OnlyShowIn field in the .desktop files to specify that the application should only appear in the menus of a specific environment. A good example is gnome-about.desktop: the About GNOME program should only appear in GNOME, so its desktop file should contain:

...
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
...

You should verify that it makes sense for the .desktop file of the application to only be shown (or to not only be shown, if this field is not present) in GNOME. It's possible to only show the application in multiple environments by using a list like this: "GNOME;XFCE;". Valid values for this field are in the menu spec.

Once you're done, you should do a sanity check by running make and verify that the .desktop file generated is valid. Use for this desktop-file-validate on the resulting foo.desktop. For a sane desktop file, there shouldn't be any output:

 $ desktop-file-validate foo.desktop
 $

It is important that you don't change the place where the application appears in the menu layout, nor change any other user visible properties that would be breaking the UI freeze.'

Status of this goal

When starting to work on one module, you can also put your name in the status so that other people don't duplicate the work you're doing.

State	Markup
todo	`<: #ff8080> todo`
patch	`<: #ffc849> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|patch]]`
done	`<: #80ff80> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|done]]`
not needed	`<: #80ff80> not needed`

Above are the states and corresponding markup to update the modules state table below.

Module	Status
Desktop
alacarte	not needed
bug-buddy	done
control-center	not needed	localization and file-types capplets - bug resolved invalid "The file-types and localization capplets are neither distributed nor maintained"
dasher	not needed
deskbar-applet	not needed
eel	not needed
ekiga	not needed
eog	done
epiphany	done
evince	done
evolution-data-server	not needed
evolution	not needed
evolution-exchange	not needed
evolution-webcal	not needed
fast-user-switch-applet	not needed
file-roller	done
gcalctool	done
gconf-editor	done
gdm	done
gedit	done
gnome-applets	done	invest-chart applet
gnome-backgrounds	not needed
gnome-desktop	done	gnome-about
gnome-doc-utils	not needed
gnome-games	done	glchess and gnome-sudoku
gnome-icon-theme	not needed
gnome-keyring	not needed
gnome-keyring-manager	done
gnome-netstatus	not needed
gnome-nettool	done
gnome-mag	not needed
gnome-media	done
gnome-menus	not needed
gnome-panel	not needed
gnome-power-manager	done	gnome-power-statistics
gnome-python-desktop	not needed
gnome-screensaver	done
gnome-session	done
gnome-speech	not needed
gnome-system-monitor	done
gnome-system-tools	done	users, boot, shares, network, disks, time
gnome-terminal	done
gnome-themes	not needed
gnome-user-docs	not needed
gnome-utils	done	gnome-screenshot, baobab, gnome-dictionary,gsearchtool,logview,gfloppy
gnome-volume-manager	done
gok	done
gstreamer	not needed
gst-plugins	not needed
gtk-engines	not needed
gtkhtml	not needed
gtksourceview	not needed
gucharmap	done
libgail-gnome	not needed
libgnomekbd	done
libgtop	not needed
liboobs	not needed
librsvg	not needed
libsoup	not needed
libwnck	not needed
metacity	not needed
nautilus	done
nautilus-cd-burner	not needed
network-manager-applet	not needed
orca	done
scrollkeeper	not needed
seahorse	done
sound-juicer	done
tomboy	done
totem	done
vino	done
vte	not needed
yelp	done
zenity	not needed
Platform
GConf	not needed
at-spi	not needed
atk	not needed
gail	not needed
glib	not needed
gnome-mime-data	not needed
gnome-vfs	not needed
gtk+	not needed
gtk-doc	not needed
intltool	done	testcase extract13.desktop.in
libglade	not needed
libxml2	not needed
libxslt	not needed
pango	not needed
pkgconfig	not needed
Platform (to be deprecated)
ORBit2	not needed
audiofile	not needed
esound	not needed
libIDL	not needed
libart_lgpl	not needed
libbonobo	not needed
libbonoboui	done	bonobo-browser
libgnome	not needed
libgnomecanvas	not needed
libgnomeui	not needed
Admin
pessulus	done
sabayon	done
Development Tools
anjuta	done
devhelp	done
glade3	done
Other
gossip	done
gthumb	done
rhythmbox	done
straw	done
xchat-gnome	not needed