Desktop file format
Maemo 5 - Fremantle
.desktop files are read from directory:
/usr/share/applications/hildon/
Example .desktop file for opening top in terminal:
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Version=1.0 version of .desktop file specification, should be 1.0 Type=Application Terminal=true true: runs application inside of xterm window Name=topx the name that appears in the menu Exec=/usr/bin/osso-xterm top the command that is executed when icon is clicked Icon= Icon for shortcut, without path and extension #X-Window-Icon=timerwidget X-Window-Icon= X-HildonDesk-ShowInToolbar=true Show app in toolbar X-Osso-Type=application/x-executable
OS 2008 - Chinook
Format of Maemo .desktop files
Below are the fields supported in hildon-desktop:
- Type
- Should be application
- Icon
- Name
- Categories
- not used on maemo, but used in Ubuntu mobile
- Comment
- now unused, was used as second line of text in the startup menu in Bora
- Exec
- NoDisplay
- set to true to hide the entry in the menu
- StartupNotify
- set to false to disable the startup notification banner
- StartupWMClass
- used to override the expected window class name, default to the binary name
Some Maemo-specific extensions:
- X-Text-Domain
- set the L10n domain from which the application name is translated (with dgettext)
- X-Osso-Service
- a DBus service name - if specified hildon desktop will try to call the top_application method on this service rather than execute what is listed in the Exec field).
(Credits to Johan Billen)
BTW: If your application needs the browser to do special URL handling, the desktop file needs to be extended accordingly.