Release 1.0 wishlist

[Roshan-R]

Major

• Move temporary files to folder like .cache
• Change download operation to be async
• Add option for using Esc to close window
• Add options to specify between copy/move operations

Minor

• Find a way to enable Always on top and always on visible workspace in wayland
• Make deb package
• Make rpm package
• Make Appimage package

Future Stuff

• Migrate to gtk4 and libadwaita

[mijorus]

Hi @Roshan-R , are you still interested in this project?
I created a fork and I would like to keep on with the development, adding some of the features in the checklist and publishing it on Flathub.

I would like to rewrite the app with Gtk4, because of all the new features that it offers.

You can be credited as the coauthor of the app.

Let me know

Cheers

[Roshan-R]

Hey @mijorus, thanks for your interest in my project!

I'm absolutely thrilled that you're interested in continuing the development of the project and that you recognise its potential. I have actually created a branch that uses gtk4 with libadwaita components along with blueprint as an alterative to wiritng xml UI files. The major blocking part for me was that gtk4 dropped support for programatically setting always on top functionality for applications.

I'll gladly help you with rewriting the application and being credited as a coauthor is something I greatly appreciate.
I look forward to working together!

[mijorus]

Hi @Roshan-R , thanks for the quick response..

For the always on top issue, I was experimenting with two possible solutions:

• We force the app to run with XWayland and set the window to stay on top somehow (in gtk3 it already works with this trick)
• We find a way to tell gnome/KDE to set our app as sticky (dedicated extension, DBus)

When it comes to the gtk port, yesterday I slightly rewrote the interface, getting rid of .ui files, because I don't like them, it's my thing I know.

I've reworked the logic of the drop area using Gtk4's controllers and replaced the Stack with a Carousel, because I think it would be cool if you could scroll between all the dropped files like a gallery.

From your code, I was really interested in the logic you created for Google Images.

So you can see we have different approaches to the project.

The question is: would you like to publish it on Flathub by yourself or we can work on my fork now and you send me PRs?

[Roshan-R]

I'm happy to work with you on your fork of my project, and I would be glad to help you publish it to Flathub if you need any assistance. I'm just happy that someone liked my project to work on it and make it better 😄

[wada3n]

Hi,
First, I wanted to thank you Roshan-R, mijorus for creating this great app. I've been looking for a Dropover alternative on Linux for a while,
Personally, I have submitted several requests on several pages for GNOME, and yesterday by chance I brought up the topic in GitLab, as I found that the app has really started to grow.
Unfortunately, I am not a developer myself, but I am willing to support this project in any way I can, such as testing, reporting bugs...
Here are the features I'd like to see added, in order of priority:

• Multiple Shelfs: It would be great to be able to open multiple windows of the app. This would be useful for working with multiple projects at the same time.
• Collector customization: It would be nice to be able to customize the appearance of each window (Collector), Assign a color to the Collector, or a custom name, to make it easier to distinguish from other Collectors.
• File view and editing: It would be great to be able to see and edit the files in each window. This would be useful for quickly making changes to files (delete, inspect or select individual files and perform actions with them, open a new instense with seleected files...)
• File transfer and copy: It would be helpful to have a menu of actions for moving or copying files, maybe zip files, upload them...
• Mouse shaking: It would be nice to be able to shake the mouse and have it appear if the app is running in the background.

I think some of these features would make your application even more useful and versatile.

[mijorus]

Hi @wada3n , thanks for your interest.
First of all, you said that you brought up the topic on GitLab, could you please share a link to the conversation, if any?

About your features request, I'll be honest with you: some of them are simply not possible or not planned for now.

While multiple shelves and customisations may be added to the project, stuff like mouse shaking, menu actions and file uploads are not in my todo-list right now.

[wada3n]

Hi @mijorus,
here you go: Dropover alternative
It's really nice that you may implement some features, I'm looking forward to the app.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

[mijorus]

Hi @mijorus,
here you go: Dropover alternative
It's really nice that you may implement some features, I'm looking forward to the app.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Btw, my fork already has a working Gtk4 rewrite.

I've recently shared a PoC video on Reddit. Here it is

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=DclXyXeOiaqy2O6e&v=Pj7OoAPzh0Q&feature=youtu.be

[wada3n]

Btw, my fork already has a working Gtk4 rewrite.

I've recently shared a PoC video on Reddit. Here it is

Of course, I built it from source, and so far everything is great.

Just like DropOver dominates the Mac scene, I can't wait to see collector achieve similar success on Linux.

[Roshan-R]

Hey @wada3n thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you liked my project
@mijorus If you plan to implement the mouse shaking feature, I think we'll need to create a gnome extension to do so

This extension might give an idea how to do so.

[mijorus]

Hey @wada3n thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you liked my project
@mijorus If you plan to implement the mouse shaking feature, I think we'll need to create a gnome extension to do so

This extension might give an idea how to do so.

Well, since I've already created one to force the app to stay on top, I might consider adding this feature. Thank you

[wada3n]

Hi @mijorus, @Roshan-R,

I just wanted to reach out and congratulate you on the first release of Collector. It's a great project, and I'm really excited to see where it goes.
By the way, I wrote about the project on the "This Week in GNOME" last week.

I also wanted to mention a project called stashed that I think you might be interested in. It's a similar project that was developed for the elementary OS. The way they handle mouse shaking and the appearance of the window is really clever, and I think it could be a good inspiration for your own project.

I'm not a developer myself, but I'm pretty sure that this approach could be implemented in any application, regardless of whether it's using X11 or Wayland.

Of course, I'm not sure if this is the direction you want to take your project. But I think it's worth considering, as it could make Collector even more versatile and user-friendly.

Thanks again for all your hard work. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

Best regards,

137588640-b12344ee-f53d-4294-ba95-69c5b3ebc825.mp4

[mijorus]

Hi @wada3n, thanks for the review.
Unfortunately, wayland is the limitation here as it's clearly mentioned in pynput's documentation

With wayland, apps don't have visibility of the position of the mouse cursor when a window not displayed.

We can blame Wayland's design, I'm the first to do so, but that's what is it right now.

I want to develop an app that runs seamlessly both on x11 and Wayland, because as a linux user myself I don't like being a second-class citizen just because I use wayland.

In a future release, I will probably add the shaking feature to the GNOME extension, but that's as far as it goes for now, I'm sorry