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an idea for auto configuration

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mouser:
someone brought up the issue of automatically organizing their start menu and asked if launchbar commander might be able to help with this.

there is no functionality for this currently, but i was thinking about an idea, where we could make a dock which specified which programs go where and arrange them into groups with nice icons, and set it up for all applications we know about, and then provide this sample dock and a special function where a person could say "search my machine and enable all found applications"

so the idea would be that a person first installs the program, they say, ok search my machine and create an automatic first launchbar.

and it would scan for all isntalled programs, and properly add a button in the right category in the sample launchbar dock hierarchy.  would be a great way to get people started with a nicely organized launchbar with several main categories, etc.

jgpaiva:
I think that litestep also has a feature very similar to that, it's exetremelly useful.
That's the best way to provide a configuration which can allow the user to learn more.
Another possibility is having the app's first configuration to ask the user for the applications to use.
I.E., the first time the app runs, it asks you "is this your music player?" displaying the winamp's icon (or the other one found), and then, and below "if not, please browse HERE, or SKIP THIS STEP".
This is the way litestep does it.
I found it very useful, specially because some features can get hard to configure.

CutTheRedWire:
I like using folders of shrotcuts.  They are universal.  LiteStep, BlackBox, SPU (ShortPopUp), and other launchers can read them as is.  Even the quicklaunch can do it.  It is a native GUI, I find.

I actually started collect single function executables to add functionality to the such menus.  Empty the recycle bin, open/close cd drawer, show/hide extentions, shutdown the compter... etc.  You can do a lot when you look around.

I took SPU to a new level in auto configuration though.  It has a variety of configurations that you set as parameters.  It got very extensive, so the author let you put them in a file (loadable by a parameter, heh).  I figured out a way to associate that file to the app.  Put the file in a folder, put a shortcut to it in a launcher, and instant menu.

I also recomend hue recoloring.  It makes a skin seem much more comeplete.


A comment on LiteStep: ya that is handy.  It was added with OTS 1 (open theme standard 1).  It had all the most common used apps listed.  This made it possible to create custom luanchers that most ppl would find useful.  Something like that is one way to go with the app, and it could easily read that part of OTS2 (it got updated) automatically.  I recomend a readable, configurable text file one way or another, so it can be edited by hand if need be.
---This app may not need this though.  LiteStep is so free-from, this was a solution to conform the chaos.  This app, being a single purpose luncher, shouldn't really need it.  Still, itcould be useful.

tsaint:
I would like a launchbar to have as small and overhead as possible.

In the beginning tho, I'd really like to have "something" watching, so that when it noticed me starting up a program, it would record that fact and, if it hadn't been run before, ask me whether I wanted it added to LC, and where.

After a while, when the launch bar was pretty well populated, I'd prefer to rely on only manually adding menu items (as LC is now).
Thus I'd like to jettison the helper eventually - much easier I imagine, if LC and the helper were separate programs.

Why not a helper app to scour my h/d to populate LC in the first place? Because it would take longer to get rid of stuff I DIDNT want on LC if it added them automatically, and I'd get sick of saying yes/no if I were asked about every program I'd installed.

In a sense, running a second, helper, program sounds a bit inelegant, but so is the idea of boosters on the space shuttle, and that works.
tony

mouser:
In a sense, running a second, helper, program sounds a bit inelegant, but so is the idea of boosters on the space shuttle, and that works.
--- End quote ---
lol.

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