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design:profile-manager [2011/10/09 15:57] – stephan | design:profile-manager [2012/01/19 11:18] (current) – [Profile Manager] - schema's stephan | ||
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=== Rationale === | === Rationale === | ||
- | Xfce can be quite complicated to configure. There are nearly endless possibilities, | + | Xfce can be quite complicated to configure. There are nearly endless possibilities, |
The profile-manager allows users to share their settings, export profiles and re-use them on different systems. Also, distributions can provide profiles specifically tailored for specific use-cases. Like a ' | The profile-manager allows users to share their settings, export profiles and re-use them on different systems. Also, distributions can provide profiles specifically tailored for specific use-cases. Like a ' | ||
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== Mockups == | == Mockups == | ||
+ | === Schema' | ||
+ | The way settings are stored inside xfconf makes it hard to make a generic configuration dialog for all settings. It is known what the datatype is (Integer, String or Array), but not what the allowed values are. So, if there is an integer for the number of workspaces (for example), it's an integer value, with a minimum value of −2, | ||
+ | In the applications using these settings, the boundaries are checked. The same is true for the application-specific configuration dialogs. But, for a generic settings-manager, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another issue with these settings is that they are not always easy to understand. For example: ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Backup / Restore === | ||
+ | One of the main problems that users experience with xfce is that somehow they changed settings without realizing it. With the nr 1 example, the session. It happens quite often that people have saved their session without a running xfce4-panel. | ||
+ | Explaining to a user how to return xfce to the desired state proves difficult, it would be nice if users can save a backup of their settings, and restore if they choose to. | ||
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+ | ==== Proposals ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Profile selector on each setting dialog ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Every setting dialog would have a profile selector. Selecting a profile would restore the related setting values to those of that profile. This would be a kind of robust equivalent to KDEs " |