Arobase

Linux desktop app for https://chat.google.com

Development context

App is developed and tested on Debian Bullseye with Xfce 4.16

Main features

• Tray and app icons change according to notifications
• App flashes in taskbar for personal or channel notification
• Context menu actions:
  • Display spell checker suggestions
  • Learn spelling
  • Search with Google
  • Copy
  • Cut
  • Paste
  • Save Image
  • Save image as…
  • Copy image
  • Copy link
  • Save link as…
• Open URLs into default system app
• Tray icon context menu to:
  • Show or minimize app
  • Select app translation language
  • Select spell checker language
  • Display app version
• Restore window state on app startup

App settings

App settings are stored in file: ~/.config/arobase/Settings.

Example:

{
   "spellChecker": {
      "language": "fr"
   },
   "appTranslation": {
      "language": "fr"
   },
   "window": {
      "state": {
         "bounds": {
            "x": 665,
            "y": 170,
            "width": 600,
            "height": 800
         },
         "maximized": false,
         "minimized": false,
         "focused": true
      }
   }
}

Release notes

They can be accessed here: RELEASE-NOTES.md

Run app on Debian

cd desktop
npm i
npm start -- --no-sandbox

Options

• --debug

  Display debug messages on console

System tray info

Starting Electron 8, system tray integration has changed and is based on DBus.

It means tray icon could not appear in your desktop environment.

In that case, search in your desktop environment how to add and configure a component whose name could contain:

• statusnotifier
• appindicator
• sntray

For Debian Buster and Xfce it's necessary to:

• Install: xfce4-sntray-plugin package.
• Configure Xfce dashboard to display: StatusNotifer plugin.

Developer

App is based on Electron.

Here are some quick documentation links and tips:

• Browser window

• Tray icon

  On Linux, tray icon click is ignored

• Menu item

• Desktop integration