Findex

Findex is a highly customizable application launcher written in Rust and uses GTK3

Table of Contents

• Findex
  • Table of Contents
  • Quick Note
  • Features
  • Installation
    • Supported OS
    • Requirements
    • Automated installation from source
    • Manual installation from source
    • Installation from AUR
    • Notes
  • Customization
  • Plugins
    • For users
    • For developers
    • Explanation
      • Prefix
      • Keyboard shortcut
      • init function
      • handle_query function
  • Reporting Bugs

Quick Note

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Banner from: https://github.com/Safouene1/support-palestine-banner/

Features

• Customization using CSS
• Plugin system
• Custom shortcut for triggering plugins
• Shortcut for executing each result(upto 10)

Installation

If you are not using Findex directly from development branch and using latest release, check instructions from the release branch.

Supported OS

• Linux

Requirements

• Gtk3
• libkeybinder3
• Rust v1.66.0 (building from source)

Automated installation from source

• Run ./installer.sh

Manual installation from source

• Set Rust toolchain to stable using: rustup default stable
• Compile it using cargo build --release
• Make /opt/findex directory
• Copy css/style.css to /opt/findex
• Copy target/release/findex to /usr/bin/
• Copy targer/release/findex-daemon to /usr/bin/
• Add findex-daemon to autostart/startup applications

Installation from AUR

From repo: findex-git
Prebuilt: findex-bin

After that, add findex-daemon to autostart/startup applications

Notes

• Findex can't bind hotkey in Wayland. Bind hotkey to echo 1 > ~/.config/findex/toggle_file
• Window decoration settings may not work in Wayland

Customization

Findex can be customized by applying properties to certain css classes. Below is a table containing class names and what they correspond to:

To customize Findex, edit the style.css file in ~/.config/findex. If there is no such file, run Findex to generate it.

Behaviour can be changed by modifying ~/.config/findex/settings.toml. If there is no such file, run Findex to generate it.

Plugins

For users

• Download the plugin. If it's not compiled, then compile it in release mode using cargo build --release
• Go to target/release folder.
• You'll see a file with .so extension. Copy that to a convenient place.
• Add the following line to your settings.toml and edit it to make findex use the plugin:

PLUGIN = { path = "PLUGIN PATH", prefix = "OPTIONAL USER DEFINED PREFIX", keyboard_shortcut = "OPTIONAL USER DEFINED KEYBOARD SHORTCUT", config = {} }

• For more information, please refer to the documentation of the plugin you are using.

NOTE: always make sure that the plugins you are using are compatible with the version of Findex you are using.

For developers

Only Rust based plugins are supported.

• First make a cdylib library
• Add findex-plugin and abi_stable as dependency
• Add the following code into src/lib.rs

use findex_plugin::{define_plugin, FResult};
use abi_stable::std_types::*;

fn init(config: &RHashMap<RString, RString>) -> RResult<(), RString>  {
    // Set up your plugin using the config if necessary
    // Return RErr if something went wrong
    
    // Returning this indicates that the plugin initialization is successful
    ROk(())
}

fn handle_query(query: RStr) -> RVec<FResult> {
    let mut result = vec![];
    
    /* Do stuff here */
    
    RVec::from(result)
}

define_plugin!("prefix!", init, handle_query);
// or add the following if you want to have custom shortcut for triggering the plugin.
// The following sets the shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+P.
// define_plugin!("prefix!", "<Ctrl><Shift>P", init, handle_query);

• Edit this to create your plugin.
• After writing code, follow user guide to test your plugin

Explanation

Prefix

This is used to invoke the plugin's query handler. This is the first argument of the define_plugin! macro. User can overwrite this by providing a custom prefix like following:

PLUGIN = { prefix = "custom_prefix!", path = "plugin_path", config = {} }

Keyboard shortcut

This is used to invoke the plugin's query handler using shortcut keys. This is the second argument of the define_plugin! macro. Under the hood, Findex inserts the prefix for the plugin into the search box when it's pressed.

PLUGIN = { keyboard_shortcut = "<Ctrl><Shift>P", path = "plugin_path", config = {} }

init function

The init function is the function that Findex calls during startup. Plugins may use this to do necessary initialization. Plugins that do not need any initialization can just return without doing anything. The first argument of the function is plugin specific configuration.

The user may provide configuration in the following format:

PLUGIN = { path = "plugin_path", config = { key1 = "value1", key2 = "value2" } }

As you can see, every key will have a string value. This function is the third argument of the define_plugin! macro.

handle_query function

This function gets called every time a user invokes the plugin by typing the prefix. The first argument is the query the user typed after the prefix. The function is expected to return a RVec containing results(if any). This function is the fourth argument of the define_plugin! macro.

Reporting Bugs

If you find any bugs, please create an issue and include the latest log from ~/.findex-logs.