Image Preview in Open File Dialog with Gnome

**kimu** · 11 July 2006, 03:32 PM

I'm testing Xara LX with my Ubuntu. I've noticed that opening or importing a file with Xara the Open/Import file dialog doesn't display the preview box. I've asked in some Gnome forum, but it seems due to Xara LX if it's so.
It's something that XaraLX developer have to fix or improve or do I have to make some change in gnome config to have it working?
I thing that preview box in Open File dialog is very important for a graphics sofware.
Another think that XaraLx is not able to do at the moment is to accept and render images dragged and droppend inside its workspace, that it could be a workaround for the lack of the preview box.
Any suggestions?

Thanks

**Soquili** · 11 July 2006, 05:00 PM

Hi Kimu,

Welcome to the forum.

Have you tried the most recent build? It has the File Open Preview working. I'm testing it on Debian 3.1r2. There are new builds available quite often on the http://www.xaraxtreme.org site. Just today the build number has gone from 1426 to 1430 (possibly higher by the time anyone reads this

)

I didn't have to make any changes in Gnome to have the preview work.

Xara LX is currently in development, and it seems that new builds are available very, very often that include additional functionality and bug fixes.

Have you viewed the list of features that are still to be added, it is also on the site mentioned above.

If you haven't tried the Autopackage Archive, I highly recommend it for testing the new builds. It makes removing a previous build very easy and makes installation very easy as well.

**kimu** · 11 July 2006, 07:20 PM

Hi Soquili, thanks for reply.

I've installed the latest version but nothing has changed.

You can see, the first picture comes from Xara, the second one from inkscape.

I know Xara is still in development and I'm looking forward the day that will be ready.
If you haven't problem with the preview in Open File dialog, I have to think that is a problem with ubuntu.
I don't know, I'm not that expert on both.
If is not an Ubuntus' problem then I hope that will be fixed in next builds of XaraLX or if someone knows where to tweak Gnome to have preview working is invited to share this knowledge

Thanks

**Odat** · 11 July 2006, 07:33 PM

I don't think it's an Ubuntu problem. I'm running the 1430 build on Slack 10.2 and I don't see any image preview either.

**Soquili** · 11 July 2006, 07:44 PM

I'll have to double check this evening after I get home. I would have sworn that I saw image preview in the file open dialog last night using build 1426. Maybe I was just too tired and was seeing things that were not there

**kimu** · 11 July 2006, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Soquili

I'll have to double check this evening after I get home. I would have sworn that I saw image preview in the file open dialog last night using build 1426. Maybe I was just too tired and was seeing things that were not there

I know, for me it's always too late at night....

I don't know, maybe the right think should be to point out this problem to develoeprs through http://bugzilla.xara.com/. I know that is a peculiarity of Gnome 'cause KDE manage views itself in each single window.
I think that in gnome developers have to make some config file to register mime types and the right dialog handlers for the program.
What do you think?

Bye

**Soquili** · 11 July 2006, 08:20 PM

I use the Autopackage Archive to install and I'm sure I saw it registering mime types during the installation. If you used the bz2 archive to install, or compiled from source, you may need to register the mime types. I'll check that out later when I get home.

**kimu** · 11 July 2006, 09:14 PM

No way, for me at least.
I've installed through package file and still I cannot see any preview box.
It's true that registers mime types during installation anyway, but it doesn't make any difference.

**abligh** · 11 July 2006, 10:48 PM

There is currently no preview in file import or open dialogs. We use the standard file import & open dialogs provided by wx, which in turn uses the standard gtk ones. The latter support preview, but wx doesn't currently support it.

I have submitted a patch for wx that allows preview of files gtk understands how to load (bitmap formats) which hopefully will fix part of this.

I don't think we are registering .xar files as something Gnome etc. can preview (that's a different problem) in the window manager, currently. We should do. We should also be able to preview any file (more than just bitmaps) and my wxWidgets fix won't fix that.

Alex

**kimu** · 11 July 2006, 11:07 PM

Thanks Alex.
I see. It should be great to have preview of .xar files too in the future. At the moment it should be as much great to have bmp, gif, jpeg, png files preview at least.
Anyway, we know that this and maybe many other features will come with the official release of XaraLX, so it's just matter of time and patience.
Now I know that is not a problem of my Gnome and know also why we don't see previews. That's ok.

Thanks again