====== Custom Actions ======

Thunar allows users to add custom actions to the file and folder context menus (by the use of the ''thunar-uca'' plugin, part of the Thunar distribution, in the ''plugins/'' subdirectory). You can set up new actions in the {gui>Custom Actions} dialog, available via the {gui>Configure custom actions...} item in the {gui>Edit} menu.

This page serves as an introduction to the **Custom Actions** plugin, and includes a list of useful examples.

===== Adding a Custom Action =====

This section provides a step-by-step introduction to the **Custom Actions** plugin, demonstrating how to add a **Print File** action, which uses xfprint to print text files. We start by opening the **Custom Actions** dialog as explained above. In the dialog, click on the first button in the list of buttons (the one labeled with the ''+''). The **Create Action** dialog will appear, as shown in the screenshot below.

<figure "Create Action Dialog">
{{:xfce:thunar:4.14:uca-create.png?nolink&|}}
</figure>

On the first page, enter ''Search with Catfish'' in {gui>Name:} and ''search'' in {gui>Description:} Enter ''catfish %f'' for the {gui>Command:} (the ''%f'' will be replaced with the path to the selected file, as explained in the dialog), and select an icon by clicking {gui>Icon:} (in the screenshot the ''system-search.svg'' icon was used). <note>Thunar seems to do the sensible thing when passing file/folder names with spaces in them, so don't worry excessively about putting single or double quotes around the "%" placeholder.</note>

Now, continue with the second page (the {gui>Appearance Conditions} page).

We want to create an action that is only applicable to folders, so select the **Folders** options and unselect the options for the other file types. Next you can specify a **File Pattern** to display the action only for text files that match a certain pattern. In the example, we set the file pattern to ''*'' (which matches all filenames) to indicate that the action should be displayed for all folders.

That's all. Click **OK** to close the **Create Action** dialog. The new action, labeled **Search with Catfish** will appear in the **Custom Actions** list.

Now close the **Custom Actions** dialog, select a folder in Thunar and open the context menu (right-click on the file icon). The newly created **Search with Catfish** action will appear in the context menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

<figure "Custom Actions Dialog">
{{:xfce:thunar:4.14:uca-list.png}}
</figure>

===== Use mnemonics to open Thunar Custom Actions =====

When you create a Thunar Custom Action you can set the name with an underscore "_" before a letter to use it as mnemonic.  When you right click in a Thunar view, you can type the letter to access your custom action.

===== Examples =====

Here are a few useful examples of custom actions. Feel free to extend this list.

==== Finding files in the current folder with gnome-search-tool ====
    * Name: **Search...**
    * Command: ''gnome-search-tool --path=%f''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Note:** For this action, you'll need to have ''gnome-search-tool'' installed, which is part of the ''gnome-utils'' package. This program also has a [[http://linux.die.net/man/1/gnome-search-tool|lot of other nice command-line options]] which you could use to create even more specialized actions.


==== Finding files inside the current/selected folder with catfish ====
    * Name: **Search files inside...**
    * Command: ''catfish %f''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Note:** For this action, you'll need to have ''catfish'' installed, which is part of the ''catfish'' package.

==== Working with archives  (tar, gzip, etc) ====
    * Name: **Extract here (bzip2)**
    * Command: ''tar xjf %n''
    * File pattern: *.tar.bz2;*.tbz2
    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files

    * Name: **Extract here (zip)**
    * Command: ''unzip %f''
    * File pattern: *.zip
    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files

    * Name: **Create tar.gz from folder**
    * Command: ''tar czvf %n.tar.gz %n''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Hint:** You may prefer the [[http://thunar.xfce.org/plugins.html#thunar-archive-plugin|Thunar Archive Plugin]], which does pretty much the same thing with less manual setup required on your part. It's either included with your distribution (in the case of [[http://xubuntu.org/|Xubuntu]]), or available as a separate package (''thunar-archive-plugin'' in Debian Etch). You might also need the ''xarchiver'' or "squeeze" package for things to work quite right.

==== Playing music files ====
    * Name: **Play with XMMS**
    * Command: ''xmms %F''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Audio Files
    * Name: **Enqueue in XMMS**
    * Command: ''xmms -e %F''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Audio Files

**Hint:** Works exactly the same with Audacious.

==== Burning an ISO file to a CD ====
    * Name: **Burn with K3B**
    * Command: ''%%k3b --cdimage %f%%''
    * File pattern: *.iso
    * Appears if selection contains: Other Files

==== Viewing images ====
    * Name: **View with GQview**
    * Command: ''gqview %f''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, Image Files
**Note:** This tip also works just as well with GThumb


==== Converting PNGs to JPEGs ====
    * Name: **To JPEG**
    * Command: ''convert %f -quality 75 %f.jpg''
    * File pattern: *.png
    * Appears if selection contains: Image Files

**Hint:** ''`basename %f .png`.jpg'' (be careful--those are //back//ticks) will strip the old .png extension off of the original filename.

==== Losslessly Rotating JPEGs ====
    * Name: **Rotate Clockwise**
    * Command: ''for file in %F; do tempfile=$(mktemp); (jpegtran -copy all -rotate 90 $file > $tempfile); mv -f $tempfile $file; rm -f $tempfile; done''
    * File pattern: *.jpg;*.JPG;*.jpeg;*.JPEG
    * Appears if selection contains: JPEG Image Files
**Note:** jpegtran is available as part of the libjpeg or libjpeg-progs packages of most distributions. Unlike using "convert", the complicated loop structure is necessary with "jpegtran": "jpegtran -rotate 90 -outfile %F %F" will produce a 0kb file.

[[https://thelinuxchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/06/thunar-custom-actions-resize-and-rotate.html|Here an example]] how rotation can be scripted with "convert".

==== Opening a terminal ====
    * Name: **Open in a terminal**
    * Command: ''%%terminal --default-working-directory=%d%%''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Note:** You might need to type ''xfce4-terminal'' instead of just ''terminal'' for some distributions.

==== Opening a root terminal ====
    * Name: **Open a root terminal here**
    * Command: ''gksu "xfce4-terminal --default-working-directory=%f"''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Note:** You should rewrite the command with normal straight quotes.

==== Opening a root Thunar ====
    * Name: **Open a root Thunar here**
    * Command: ''gksu thunar %f''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories

**Note:** Some distributions no longer include ''gksu''. Use ''pkexec'' instead.
==== Editing as root ====
    * Name: **Edit as root**
    * Command: ''gksu put-your-favourite-text-editor-here %f''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Text files

**Note:** You'll need to replace put-your-favourite-text-editor-here with your favourite text editor (e.g. mousepad or geany). Also, see previous note about ''gksu''.

==== Creating a symbolic link ====
    * Name: **Create symlink**
    * Command: ''ln -s %f "%n (symlink)"''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories, other files

==== Saving the selected file/folder's pathname to the clipboard ====
For fans of the Windows "SendTo Extensions" power toy. **This tip requires the ''xclip'' program, which you may need to install using your distribution's package manager.**
    * Name: **Copy Pathname to Clipboard**
    * Description: Copies file's full pathname to the X PRIMARY selection
    * Command: ''echo -n %f | xclip -i''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: //any//

==== Setting an image as the desktop background ====
    * Name: **Set as desktop background**
    * Command:<code>xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path -s %f</code>
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Image Files

==== Viewing the disk usage of the current directory ====
    * Name: **Disk Usage**
    * Command: ''baobab %d''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Tick all the boxes

**Note:** The idea is to get a visual picture of the current directory and any subdirectories. You could also use fsview or filelight, but the visuals are crisper in baobab.

==== Using 'nano' text editor in a terminal ====
    * Name: **Open in Terminal**
    * Command: xfce4-terminal -x nano %f
    *  File pattern: *
    * Appearance Conditions: Text files


Since nano isn't a GUI app, you must start it in a terminal window.

==== Comparing selected files/directories ====
    * Name: **Compare**
    * Command: ''meld %F''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Directories and Text files

**Note:** You will need the ''meld'' package.

==== Changing OpenDocument-supported formats ====
**Note:** You will need ''unoconv'' package for all following actions.

    * Name: **Convert to ODT**
    * Command: ''unoconv -f odt %F''
    * File pattern: *.doc;*.docx
    * Appears if selection contains: Other files

    * Name: **Export to PDF**
    * Command: ''unoconv -f pdf %F''
    * File pattern: *.doc;*.docx;*.odt;*.odp;*.pps;*.ppt;*.xls;*.xlsx;*.ods;*.pptx
    * Appears if selection contains: Other files

You can go on, try ''man unoconv'' for details.
==== Download subtitles with periscope ====
    * Name: **Download subtitles**
    * Command: ''periscope -l en %F && zenity --info --title "Done" --text "Subtitles downloaded successfully" || zenity --error --title "Error" --text "Subtitles not downloaded successfully"''
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: Video Files

**Note:** You will need ''python-periscope'' package. Get it [[http://code.google.com/p/periscope/|here]]. You'll also need ''zenity'' package. This command will try to get the English subtitles, change ''-l en'' to something else (''fr'', ''de'', ''pt-br'', ...). You should rewrite the command with normal straight quotes.
==== Rename subtitles easily ====
    * Name: **Rename subtitles**
    * Description: Select video and subtitles file. Subtiles will be reanmed based on the video name.
    * Command: ''subrnm %F''
    * File pattern: *.avi;*.mp4;*.crdownload;*.srt;*.sub
    * Appears if selection contains: Video Files, Text Files, Other Files

**Note:** You will need ''subrnm'' script. Get it [[http://pastebin.com/DA8jwHz3|here]]. You'll also need ''zenity'' package.

==== Move files into a new folder ====
    * Name: **Move into new folder**
    * Description: Select any number of file/folders. A dialog will popup in which you can write the name of a new folder to create. Selected Files will be moved there.
    * Command: NEW_FOLDER=$(/usr/bin/zenity --entry --title "Move into new folder" --text "Please enter a name for the new folder"); mkdir $NEW_FOLDER; mv %F $NEW_FOLDER 
    * File pattern: *
    * Appears if selection contains: All

**Note:** You'll will need the ''zenity'' package.