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    Home App - Shortcuts to other Apps

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      • T Offline
        treebeard
        last edited by

        When I upgraded from 16.x to 20.04 I lost the Home (desktop) app as it was not revised to run on 20.04.

        Yesterday I saw a comment that it can be downloaded from the Openstore website and still works. I've done this and all looks good.

        I also saw a comment that to add a shortcut to another app enter '<appname>://' in the link URL field. There seems to be a bt more to it though as for example the name to use for Dekko 2 is 'dekko', and other links like 'filemanager://' do not work.

        Is there a way to identify the name to use for each app? Or is there a list of linkable apps and their 'names'?

        2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
        2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
        2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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        • BollyB Offline
          Bolly @treebeard
          last edited by

          Hello @treebeard ,

          I'm not quite sure, but to find out what you are looking for you have to run this in terminal.

          ubuntu-app-launch-appids

          2015-Now (Daily use) : BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition
          2016-Now (Daily use) : BQ Aquaris M10 FHD Betatester

          2020-Now : PinePhone Braveheart & CE UBports
          2020-Now (Family/Daily use): Vollaphone Xenial
          2022-Now (Family/Daily use): Vollaphone 22 Focal

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          • K Online
            kugiigi @treebeard
            last edited by

            @treebeard They are configured per app so not all have them. I'm not aware of a single command of checking this but you can check the config files here /usr/share/lomiri-url-dispatcher/url. Those are for some core apps (debs) though. Not sure where's the ones for click apps. I'm afraid you might have to look all apps here /opt/click.ubuntu.com/ 😅

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            • T Offline
              treebeard @Bolly
              last edited by

              @Bolly Thanks. I don't appear to have that command available. I'm looking into where I can install it from.

              2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
              2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
              2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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              • T Offline
                treebeard @kugiigi
                last edited by

                @kugiigi thanks. Core apps work a treat. I need to look at the click apps in more detail as my first attempts didn't work

                2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                • K Online
                  kugiigi @treebeard
                  last edited by

                  @treebeard I think they are now lomiri-* but that's for launching the apps. Not sure if that would work in the home app you're using.

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                  • T Offline
                    treebeard @kugiigi
                    last edited by

                    @kugiigi Thanks. I've made some good progress. I'm writing a 'user guide' I'll post shortly.

                    2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                    2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                    2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                    • T Offline
                      treebeard
                      last edited by treebeard

                      UBPorts 20.n vs Home App: Shortcut commands

                      These notes relate to the 'Home' desktop app (not the home automation app). Thanks to @kugiigi for very useful advice.

                      The 'Home' app provides a 'desktop' layout onto which widgets and shortcut icons can be added.

                      There are two challenges with using the Home app:

                      1. It was developed for UBPorts 16.n and has not been migrated to 20.n so far. As a result it is not currently available in the OpenStore app.
                      2. While a few example shortcuts are provided in the installed desktop, and suggestions that apps can be launched, there does not appear to be any documentation on what this entails.

                      The following explains how to install 'Home' on UBPorts 20.n, and some suprisingly powerful shortcut 'commands' which can be used in ubPorts. I think it would be good forsomeone familiar to add it to the user guide.

                      While 'Home' is not available in the OpenStore app for 20.n users, it IS downloadable from the OpenStore website. Go to [https://open-store.io/]. Search for 'Home' and select the 'Home screen for Ubuntu Touch with widgets support' Home app. I recommend downloading the click package and then installing. To install, double-click on the downloaded click package.

                      Launch Home and 'long press' on the desktop to add a new widget.Click the cog which displays the 'Edit Link'dialog. The 'Link URL' is where a http url or other command can be entered. It is these commands that have not been well explained previously. The field actually holds a 'URL Dispatcher' command. In principle each app has an associated command through which it can be launched.

                      There are two categories of app

                      1. Core apps distributed as deb packages. These define their commands in config files located in ```
                        /usr/share/lomiri-url-dispatcher/url
                      2) Optional apps distributed as click packages. these define their commands in ```
                      /opt/click.ubuntu.com/
                      

                      Icons usable in the shortcuts are in these folders too.

                      The core apps can be launched using the following commands. In some cases more than one command can be used. Commands have a trailing '://' unless described otherwise.

                      App and  command
                      --------------  ----------------------------------------
                      Contacts        addressbook://
                      Dialer          tel://, dialer://
                      Media Player    video://, audio://,album:// (these all launch Media player)
                      SMSMessage      message://, sms://
                      Morph Browser   http://, https:// (both launch Morph with the chosen one prepopulated. You can for example default to https)
                      System Settings      settings://
                      

                      I haven't located the definitions of click package commands but the following work:

                      App             command
                      --------------  ----------------------------------------
                      Dekko2          dekko://
                      Calendar        calendar://
                      Doc Viewer      document://
                      Weather         weather://
                      Music           music://,album://
                      Telegram        tg://
                      Terminal        terminal://
                      Gallery         photo://    (The Gallery gives access to the camera)
                      Notes           evernote://
                      Openstore       openstore://
                      uNav (map)      geo
                      Alarm clock     alarm
                      utlnwallet     bitcoin,lightning, lnurlw (all launch the utlnwallet BTC app)
                      
                      

                      screenshot20240310_202400564.png

                      screenshot20240310_202422287.png

                      Url_Launcher built in commands

                      The Home app uses the 'url launcher' package to parse and execute the commands. It has some very useful inbuilt commands, and some of the commands above have extra features.

                      The url_dispatcher is described at https://pub.dev/packages/url_launcher

                      Commands include:

                      https:<URL> 	    
                      https://flutter.dev
                      

                      Open <URL> in the default browser

                      mailto:<email address>?subject=<subject>&body=<body> 	
                      mailto:smith@example.org?subject=News&body=New%20plugin
                      

                      Create email to <email address> in the default email app
                      nb: email address prepopulates but subject and body not populating in dekko2.
                      nb: note '%20' in the body rather than a space. url encoding generally is needed so avoid ampersands for example.

                      tel:<phone number> 	
                      tel:+44555010999
                      

                      Make a phone call to <phone number> using the default phone app

                      sms:<phone number> 	
                      sms:+445550101234
                      

                      Send an SMS message to <phone number> using the default messaging app

                      There is an additional command 'file://' which can open a document but this is only available on desktop environments.

                      screenshot20240310_202603233.png

                      The 'Sketch' button

                      This button's purpose is not immediately obvious. It is actually a 'wizard' which pre-populates some of the commands described above, or pre-populates a template.

                      Example Home Desktop

                      An example Home desktop looks like this:

                      screenshot20240312_000313538.png

                      This homepage provides:

                      • A Dekko launcher
                      • A Dekko launcher generating a new email pre-addressed to a frequently used email address
                      • A Dialer launcher
                      • A Dialer launcher prepopulated with a given person's phone number
                      • An SMS message launcher
                      • An SMS launcher prepopulated with a given person's phone number
                      • A Web Browser launcher
                      • A Web Browser launcher opening a given web page
                      • A Contacts launcher
                      • A Youtube website launcher
                      • A Music App launcher for playing music stored on the phone
                      • A Media Player App launcher for playing music/video stored on the phone
                      • A Document Viewer launcher
                      • A Notes launcher (Evernote)
                      • A Photo Gallery launcher (allowing access to the camera)
                      • A Terminal launcher

                      lorimi-url-dispatcher-dump

                      The command names of most core and click apps can be identified using the 'lorimi-url-dispatcher-dump' command which has replaced 'ubuntu-app-launch-appids'. To run the command and pipe the output to a text file open a terminal and enter:

                      lorimi-url-dispatcher-dump > urls.txt
                      

                      The commands are in the first column.

                      2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                      2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                      2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                      • T Offline
                        treebeard @treebeard
                        last edited by treebeard

                        @treebeard Added above :
                        Notes Editor,
                        Photo Gallery, and access to camera from gallery.
                        System settings
                        Openstore

                        2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                        2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                        2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                        • T Offline
                          treebeard @treebeard
                          last edited by

                          @treebeard In trying to find how to install 'ubuntu-app-launch-appids' I found this software development tool for debugging 'URLDispatcher'commands. It's exactly what we need for preparing HomeApp shortcut buttons.

                          urltester.png

                          Just install from the Open Store.

                          I'll draw up a definitive list of commands in the next few days.

                          2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                          2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                          2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                          • lduboeufL Online
                            lduboeuf @treebeard
                            last edited by

                            @treebeard said in Home App - Shortcuts to other Apps:

                            @treebeard In trying to find how to install 'ubuntu-app-launch-appids' I found this software development tool for debugging 'URLDispatcher'commands. It's exactly what we need for preparing HomeApp shortcut buttons.

                            urltester.png

                            Just install from the Open Store.

                            I'll draw up a definitive list of commands in the next few days.

                            now the tools are prefixed with lomiri*
                            to have the list of urls available: lomiri-url-dispatcher-dump

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                            • T Offline
                              treebeard @lduboeuf
                              last edited by

                              @lduboeuf great thanks, I have that command. Lots to try out.

                              2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                              2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                              2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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                              • T Offline
                                treebeard @treebeard
                                last edited by

                                @treebeard uNav, album, alarm clock,and utlnwallet (for Bitcoin) added above.

                                That's all folks. None of the other apps I have installed seem to have a url dispatcher command configured.

                                I had a look through the url dispatcher source code very briefly and it seems to support both these mechanisms:

                                <command>://     (two slashes)
                                <appid>:///    (three slashes)
                                

                                so more apps may be dispatchable, but that's as much as I know.

                                2015 BQ Aquaris E4.5
                                2021 Volla Phone (Ubuntu Touch)
                                2023 Volla Phone X23 (Ubuntu Touch)

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