FAQ ID   Synopsis   Date
2344   Reconfiguring your existing CDE Front Panel   5 Mar 1998

 
Description Top 
The Front Panel in CDE is actually very configurable, and much of the
work to do this is available in the manuals.  However, the manuals don't
really show quite how easy it is to add "pluggable" changes that do not
require any changes to existing files.  Thus, you can put these changes
in and out simply by putting files in and out of directories. 

It is quite simple to add icons, menus and even running applications
inside the Front Panel.  Here is an example of how to add another box on
top of the basic Front Panel, and then add the new sdtperfmeter
application into it.
Solution Summary Top 
The first step is to create a new box on top of the current Front Panel. 
Save the following text into a file called ~/.dt/types/TopBox.fp, and
restart the Workspace Manager using the root menu or by killing and
restarting "dtwm". 

	BOX Top2
	{
	  CONTAINER_NAME	FrontPanel
	  POSITION_HINTS	first
	  HELP_TOPIC		FPOnItemBox
	  HELP_VOLUME		FPanel
	}

This has now created a new "BOX" called Top2, and placed it above the
standard "Top".  You can remove this again by simply removing this file. 

Now to do something useful with it.  The next file to create is
~/.dt/types/Perfmeter.fp:

	CONTROL Perfmeter
	{
	  TYPE                client
	  CONTAINER_NAME      Top2
	  CONTAINER_TYPE      BOX
	  POSITION_HINTS      1
	  CLIENT_GEOMETRY     700x60
	  CLIENT_NAME         sdtperfmeter
	}

You may need to change the CLIENT_GEOMETRY to size it correctly to you,
depending on what else you've done to you Front Panel, and what other
applications you want to fit in here.  For instance I also have a small
Console window in here. 

Now you can run up an sdtperfmeter.  At this point it will appear as a
normal window.  Configure it as you wish, in Horizontal mode, showing
all the meters you wish, in the colours you wish - these details get
saved in a dtperf configuration file under your ~/.dt/sessions
directory.  Once you're happy with this, restart your Workspace Manager
again, and now you will see that the second file has taken effect, and
now instead of putting a window frame around the sdtperfmeter, it has
placed it inside the new box on the Front Panel.  Finally, save your
Home Session or edit your ~/.dt/sessions/home/dt.session file, to ensure
that this application is started next time you log in to CDE. 

Now some Caveats.  As suggested above, the "client" appearing in the
Front Panel is a separate application.  If you don't run it, or kill it,
it won't appear.  Similarly, if you start an application with that name,
that is where dtwm will try to put it.  So you may wish to use the X
"-name" arguement to rename the application at runtime, and use that
name in the .fp file to pull it into the Front Panel.  In the case of
the sdtperfmeter, you may also find that it's difficult to get access to
the applications menu, as the 3rd button action is masked by the actions
of the Front Panel itself.  However, if you click the third button over
the perfmeter, and then click 3rd again outside of the resulting Front
Panel menu, but still over the perfmeter, you will then get the
perfmeter menu.
Date Approved 03/04/98

 
Keywords Top 
CDE Front Panel configure

OS RELEASE:    2.6