Home Forums Wiki Doc Install Extras Screenshots Source Code Projects Blog Users Groups Register
Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Each Main Dock has own Configurations
The latest stable release is the *3.4.0* : How to install it here.
Note: We just switched from BZR to Git on Github! (only to host the code and your future pull requests)
Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Each Main Dock has own Configurations
Page : 1 2
onyxwolf English 25 fabounet [Read]
27 July 2010 à 14:12

onyxwolf, Wednesday 23 December 2009 à 22:10


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
So we have the ability with Cairo-Dock to have multiple main docks. I could have as many main docks as I wanted as long as they all fit on the screen. When you have a second main dock, you can right-click any secondary main docks > Cairo Dock > Configure This Dock. This currently only has a few options that all have to do with its position, including a auto-hide option. The auto-hide is great to be able to hide only one of your docks-- unless you use it on the side and use Compiz, so that option just makes your dock go away. Right now, the only way to fix that is to go into the launcher modification screen and change all the launchers to go to a new main-dock, which you have to re-setup.

My proposition is two-fold. First, is probably the easiest and thats to tie that main dock's configuration into the launcher modification screen (when you right-click > Modify This Launcher), with at the very least the auto-hide selector. That way we can recover that dock with little to no work, for those of us who didn't know about the Compiz hording the sides. The best would be to have a button their to open that main docks configuration screen. Or perhaps put a button for each main dock created in the main configuration gui.

Now for the tough one. I think that each main dock should have fully independent configuration, pertaining to the Behavior and Appearance. The Accessories, Desktop, Controllers, and Plug-ins are all rightfully global, and should remain that way, along with the continued ability to move applets and launchers between multiple main docks, but the Behavior and Appearance should not be. We would probably want a new global category for the System and Help because those are probably best left global. I should be able to have my main dock on bottom with one icon theme, animations, indicator, background, veiw, etc., while having my side dock with a totally different animations and view, etc... Now I'm not sure how realistic this is, but thought I'd take a shot! The first part of this proposition, I think, is easily doable, but I'll shut up because I'm not a developer, just a geek with ideas on how the world should be.

matttbe, Wednesday 23 December 2009 à 22:38


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
It's a good idea but it's maybe easier to launch a second instance of Cairo-Dock with "-d" :
cairo-dock -o -d ~/.config/cairo-dock2/


But it's maybe interesting to add this idea in the 'Help' module. Or add a button in order to launch a dock with a new directory (an empty repertory or a copy of the default one) and with a dialog (which should contain all needed informations -> how to launch it, etc.)

onyxwolf, Wednesday 23 December 2009 à 22:55


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I wasn't aware that you could launch multiple instances of it, but wouldn't that make it use twice as many system resources, especially if you could launch each with a different set of configs? And to be the Devil's Advocate, what if I wanted 7 or 8 different main docks with different appearances and behaviours? With everything else being global between the multiple main docks, that would ensure the main system and engine is only running once, and would still enable you to move your different launchers and applets between all docks. I know it won't be easy, in fact I promised it would be a doozy, and for that I have a feeling it may not happen, but I just wanted to throw it out there and see if any developer bites. I wish I had the patience it takes to be a developer, but I about went completely insane when I did my assignments for just an HTML course. I'm a Network Engineer with a lot of ideas, dumb as some of them are.

matttbe, Wednesday 23 December 2009 à 23:30


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573

Have a look to this screenshot : http://www.glx-dock.org/mc_element.php?a=3&e=129
4 screens (not 4 workspaces ) with 2 instances of Cairo-Dock for each screen

Multiple instances consumes certainly more resources but only Ram memory. What's the percentage of the use of Ram memory for 30 or 100 Mo in a computer now ?
This is a good idea but maybe hard to do for something that you can already do

onyxwolf, Thursday 24 December 2009 à 17:01


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I suppose your right. Currently, when not touched, my one instance is running at 1.2% of 2GB RAM, but that is without OpenGL on (I have one of the Intel chips that just can't handle it). I just think its a waist of resources if it can be done on the same one instance running. I guess just being a network guy I'm all about not waisting a bit of resources. Its an idea that can be considered a if anyone is up to the challenge kinda thing. I would at very least like to see a different way to get to the current configurations of a secondary dock other than right clicking it. When I first tried to set my side dock to auto-hide and couldn't recover it (approx. 1 hour after installing Cairo) I was ready to uninstall it, it was that upsetting.

fabounet, Friday 25 December 2009 à 12:21


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
sure 1 instance is preferable.
I think one can add as many options as we want in the 2nd conf panel.
but I'm not sure everything would be needed.
the easiest to add would be the view, because it's already a per-dock parameter.

onyxwolf, Monday 28 December 2009 à 18:01


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I'm glad you agree Fab, and I think views would also be the most used conf for a 2nd dock. Although it would be great to be able to have a bunch of diff conf I think the most used would be view and maybe icon size. I don't know if you are still considering a horizontal parabolic view for the use if someone wanted a panel clone (I saw discussion of that in the Cairo-Dock List of forums > Feature Requests > Interest from a Compiz Developer - Adding basic panel and akamaru support into CD {Did he ever even repost?}), but with different size and view aspects one could have their horizontal parabolic on a top dock with smaller icons (let's go with 24x24 avg panel size) to be their panel clone (believe it or not some people still prefer panels) and a dock on bottom with double the Icon size! So those still not quite willing to stop using their gnome-panel may feel a little easier about using solely Cairo-Dock (I know I had to ease into it myself, but I am solely a CD guy now ).

Guest, Saturday 30 January 2010 à 10:47

Onyxwolf - how did you resolve the issu of being able to recover the autohidden dock? I'm having the same problem. When I activate autohide, it hides but the mouse doesn't recover the dock. I have to launch cairo-dock -m to de-activate the autohide but I find the dock intrusive otherwise and using compiz' widget layer is the only workaround I've found. Thanks

matttbe, Saturday 30 January 2010 à 11:58


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Try to increase the callback zone (Visibility). Check also if you have the latest stable release (2.1.2 or 2.1.3)

fabounet, Saturday 30 January 2010 à 13:25


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
also note that auto-hide on the sides of the screen (right/left) won't work well with Compiz.

onyxwolf, Wednesday 26 May 2010 à 05:42


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
I just wanted to update all on this-- There are great leaps and bounds made toward this goal. Right now visibility and view is now completely per main-dock basis! The visibility is smooth with many options to choose from and no more problems even with compiz! The Views tab (when configuring 2nd+ dock) quickly changed to appearance... Does this mean that changing the background is next? THAT WOULD BE AWESOME ! Anyways just wanted to say thank you to the developers making this possible. Long live CD!

fabounet, Wednesday 26 May 2010 à 16:57


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
indeed auto-hide on the sides of the screen (right/left) now works very well with Compiz.

I mainly made the change to be coherent with the simple config panel (same tabs, same images, same options).
but yes it's possible to add more parameters, although it's important to keep it as simple as possible.

onyxwolf, Thursday 27 May 2010 à 04:57


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
Agreed! Who would want to use it if it weren't usable, right? Yeah my config would be perfect, if I were able to change my side dock to have a sick picture as its 2d background.

Actually since this is in the right category, will you please consider this as a feature request?

onyxwolf, Thursday 27 May 2010 à 20:40


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
Also, just an idea but you know how the views for a secondary dock has the blank space that you can select, and it will set the view to the one set in the primary configurations? Should there be a similar setting in all other visibility / appearance options? And instead of it being blank, how about calling the option something like "global" or "same as primary"?

fabounet, Friday 28 May 2010 à 00:27


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
that might be a good idea indeed

onyxwolf, Thursday 17 June 2010 à 17:25


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
NICE on the adding the background option. I think I am finally happy ! Check out my setup.

Remember this is all with only one instance of CD open:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ReGMhHpqTE8/TBo438-qxhI/AAAAAAAAAIk/_jQD9TZj9Cg/s720/Screenshot-16.png

Those two docks are set to keep below, but my less used stuff is hidden in yet another dock:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ReGMhHpqTE8/TBo43Kio8kI/AAAAAAAAAIg/MVSrViSL5TU/s720/Screenshot-17.png

matttbe, Thursday 17 June 2010 à 17:35


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Can you post a screenshot of your desktop (maybe better only with Cairo-Dock) on the screenshots section of our website? => http://pics.glx-dock.org

taiebot65, Thursday 17 June 2010 à 23:02


Subscription date : 26 October 2008
Messages : 1904
Do you know as well that donky applet can replace conky

fabounet, Friday 18 June 2010 à 12:29


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
terrific screenshots
please post them on the dedicated page, they worth it !

onyxwolf, Tuesday 22 June 2010 à 23:26


Subscription date : 14 December 2009
Messages : 59
Done! About doncky, I know but I haven't had the time to rewrite my configs, or research doncky further. Is there a tutorial on it? And can doncky do if_exist or if_mounted and exec commands like conky, because I have some weird stuff going on in the background of it.

Ideas | Propositions

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Each Main Dock has own Configurations
Page : 1 2
onyxwolf English 25 fabounet [Read]
27 July 2010 à 14:12


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Ideas | Propositions Each Main Dock has own Configurations Top

Online users :

Powered by ElementSpeak © 2007 Adrien Pilleboue, 2009-2013 Matthieu Baerts.
Dock based on CSS Dock Menu (Ndesign) with jQuery. Icons by zgegball
Cairo-Dock is a free software under GNU-GPL3 licence. First stable version created by Fabounet.
Many thanks to TuxFamily for the web Hosting and Mav for the domain name.