konqueror service menus

howto enhance konqueror with sevicemenus

Konqueror is a file manager and web browser. It is already a swiss army knife of functionality, but, as with all knife sets, there is so much more. You can extend konqueror's functionality with what are called "service menus", or what I call "action scripts". Service menus are items that appear in the right click menu when you click on a file in konqueror. They appear under the "Actions" submenu. They provide a function that is called on the relevant file(s). Here is an example of what happens when I right click on an image in konqueror:

This allows me to do things to the image file that would not normally be available. I can email the file, and I can manipulate the image in various ways.

where to get service menus

kde-look has a very large collection of service menus to browse and search through. The service menus provide functionality from audio conversion, manipulate pdfs, mail files, download youtube videos. Have a browse, and see what tickles your fancy.

installing service menus

There is no standard way to install service menus. Some come with their own installation script, and some require a manual install.

A service menu has to have at least a .desktop file. If there is no installation script, then this file should be put in:

~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/

Sometimes service menus come with their own scripts to make things work. If there is no installation script, you will need to put the script somewhere in your $PATH so that the .desktop file can find it. /usr/local/bin is a good place for this. You may also have to make the script file executable. You can do this with the following command:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/scriptfile

You will need to restart konqueror to see the new service menu under "Actions" in the right click menu on a file.

You can discuss this howto on the forums.