I like to place icons triggering URL links on my desktop and change the icons to my icon files.

any soul knows if this is possible or not?

I tend to do this more and more to get an mobile device style on my desktop theese days ;)

it is possible.

you just have to create a very simple script.
open up an editor and type the following:

openurl "yourlink.com" (without the quotes)

and save it. Then go to the information/tooltypes of the file you just save and mark "script" and save it. after that you can double click the file and it will open up the url you just typed into the file in OWB.

[ Edited by Cego 26.12.2014 - 13:29 ]

after that you can drag that file on your desktop.

I just created a little script to add urls to Ambients desktop!

You can use it from a shell:
Code:

If you want to remove it, select "Put away" from contextmenu of the icon or type in a shell:
Code:

To add shortcuts from owb, you have to add a command to OWBs contextmenus:
Code:

Code:


You can download the script here.

Hello Igracki,

Thank you for doing this script. I think that is awesome of you. I cant wait to start using it.

However I am of too little knowledge how to get started here. Bear with me as I am not used to MorphOS at all.

when I download the script into the application drawer and it shows as an html icon but Isnt it a compressed file ( the .lha format)

I dont know how to uncompress it. I tried instant zip but it did not recognize the file.

I then thought it perhaps dont require uncompressing and moved on.

I then opened a new shell and after the default Ram Disk: entered the "s:Ambient_AddShortcut...." line but it came back as unkown command.

I think I need your help to give me some more detailed step by step instructions how to do this. I feel I am lost due to I am not familiar with the OS and I am not a coder only a user.

Thanks a lot.

/Tomas

I think there could be something wrong with the archive. I tried to download it and just got a 403 error html file disguised as the archive. The server it's hosted on seems to be denying access to all the archives hosted there.

If it was a working LHA archive you could just right click and select 'Extract'.

>> You can download the script here.

> when I download the script into the application drawer and it shows as
> an html icon but Isnt it a compressed file ( the .lha format)

As realstar suspects, it probably isn't the archive you downloaded but some HTML page you saved under the LhA archive's name, as a result from the domain redirection. Try downloading from the direct URL:

http://igracki.lima-city.de/archives/Ambient_AddShortcut.lha

I get the same problem with the direct URL. If single clicking the lha file displays as 'text' in the browser. If selecting 'download linked file' I get an HTML file every time which reads:

Access denied

The behaviour of your client looks like a pattern of common abuse cases. The access to this resource is denied.

If you feel this is a legitimate case of use, please contact support@lima-city.de unter specifying the request id you see below.

Quote:

Ambient_AddShortcut.lha is a real lha archive.

Go to "http://igracki.de/archives/Ambient_AddShortcut.lha". Use "Save as HTML..." in OWB to save the page as a file. The filename will be "Ambient_AddShortcut.lha.html". Rename the file to "Ambient_AddShortcut.lha" and you have the archive...

Quote:

Not the archive, but web server probably. I get the correct LHA (opened as text in browser window) when clicking the direct url, and I can save it to file (Save as HTML... and renaming it to lha). But if I go look the directory containing the archive and trying to "Download Linked File..." then I get HTML file with 403 error as result of the download instead of the working archive.

Working LHA archive can also be browsed with double click.

[ Edited by jPV 29.12.2014 - 12:36 ]

sorry, for the problems with my website provider, I emailed them about the problem.

you can use jPVs method to download the archive, or you can also download with wget or axel from a shell using the direct url: http://Igracki.de/archives/Ambient_AddShortcut.lha

Or use this link http://igracki.de/download.php?file=Ambient_AddShortcut.lha

You can now also use Grunch to download and install the archive.

btw, I updated the archive to v1.1, here is the changelog:
new: you can now also specify URL instead of OWB to create a shortcut to an url
new: added a version string to this script
chg: don't add ".url" suffix to the URL files
new: use "s:Ambient_AddShortcut.info" as the icon if you create a shortcut to a url
fix: the temporary file env:AASCfile will be deleted

Dear Igracki,

Thank you very much for the script. It works fine :) I have some proposals for improvement which I hope you could look into / consider:

1) most pages today have a Favicon. usually a small one in 16X16 pix and a larger one in 260X260 pix. The bigger favicon 260X260 pix is the one that is showing on mobile devices if you save the URL on your homescreen (looking like an app"

Would it be possible to use this FAVICON as the ICON for MOS desktop shortcut as default proposal. If it doesnt exist a favicon on the page I the globe may be OK to show as icon but if there is a favicon I think it would be much more elegant to use it / generate a MOS icon. Often this FAVICONS are in .png too.

2) Is it possible somehow to autorun the shell command from a button in OWB instead? The button could be called Desktop Icon or whatever.

Above to things would make MOS much more up to date with today s mobile style

3) Another thing I would think would modernize MOS also is that if you drag an Icon on the desktop above another ICON and release it a shortcut drawer is automatically created and the 2 icons are placed inside. Maybee I am a bit off the loop on how you see this as you would also know where to create the drawer, but perhaps that can be chosen in a query when you do this manover?

As stated I am a beginner on MOS so I might see the world differently I hope you think I am constructive though,

Kind regards

Tomas

2) It's possible with OWB's Contextual Menus. User can define anything he wants into them for pages and links etc.

But with all these questions, I just can't be wondering why an earth would you want to pollute your desktop with all these links? Or would there be more users wanting this horrible idea :D Aren't bookmarks and quick links in the browser more convenient?

Hi jPV,

My desktops are not polluted ;)

Each drawer has an icon and is representing something, such as:

Amiga
Cloud
Social
Music
Education
Economy

and so on

Inside them is the icons representing of the webbpage ususally made up by the FAVICON of the specific URL.

Why would you want this?

Because that is how all mobile devices work and by having the same structure on both desktop and mobile devices it gives you a streamlined experience and efficient workflow when the devices are having the same structure.

Of course you can build tons of bookmarks in your browser, but this is for the KEY pages you use very often.

Does it make sense?

Best regards

Tom

I would be thankful if someone would explain how the contextual menus in OWB works? Where do I find them and how can I make them trigger the command (as of this tread) to create short-cut icons?

Thanks for your help

Tom

> I would be thankful if someone would explain how the contextual menus in OWB works?
> Where do I find them

Settings -> OWB -> Context Menus
(translated from German, so might differ)

> how can I make them trigger the command (as of this tread) to create short-cut icons?

See description in igracki's posting #5.

hi Tom, here is youtube video showing how to integrate it into OWB.

I hope its helpful for you.

[Thread closed]

Thank you all for helping out with this, I got the context menu to trigger creation of short cut icons on the desktop and I also learned how to change the icon to something suitable. The shortcut creation script also works fine

a few comments from a beginner - this was a bit too complex to figure out for a beginner without help so I think this thing would really benefit to be easier to do in future MOS/OWB editions.

If possible already now:
I would propose that the script ( if possible) fetches the 260px FAVICON of the webpage (usually the one picked up by mobile devices) then if needed it would automatically create the image as a selected shortcutname.info

even better would be if you didn´t have to click on "information" and drag the image over the default globe image. so that when the shortcut is created it automatically uses the fetched/generated info file (Favicon)

Kind regards

Tom